DIY 15g cube and Stand
 

Here are some quick pics of my new 15g tank I built on Sunday, and the stand I made last night. Way overbuilt custom 1cm thick starphire glass, custom aluminum stand, aluminum 150W 20,000K hqi fixture on order, Mag 5 with SCWD for flow, will be all sps, zoos, ricordea, and a clam or two. I'll post more pictures next week when it's all setup :biggrin:

http://www.ecoarium.com/pics/15g_01.jpg

http://www.ecoarium.com/pics/15g_02.jpg

http://www.ecoarium.com/pics/15g_03.jpg

Evan.

That must be built to with stand Calgary hail stones.

Good job, will be nice to see when it's set up and running.

Doug

Wicked job. Very slick. What did it cost to build?

Yeah you should see it in real life the pics do it no justice. :cool:

Total cost of all materials for tank and stand was nearly $300 :eek:

Evan.

Do the people ar your office marvel at your handiness as well?

Or do they get you at all...?

:biggrin:

Allan - It's like having a bunch of kids at work right now. When's it going to be done...when's it going to be done....when...

They're mostly all designers so they get it.

Is that 15x15x15?

Why go with such a thickness of glass? Did you have leftovers from your pentagonal tank or something?

Tell us more about the stand, look interesting.

Tony - It's 16" X 16" X 16".

I went with super thick glass for two reasons.

Firstly asthetics, It looks amazing with the polished and beveled edges like a piece of crystal, plus with that thickness you don't need to run a bead of silicone on the inside so it looks super clean.

Second reason was for strength :rolleyes: It's in my office and I'd hate it if someone bumped it with something and it exploded everywhere :eek:

The stand is a 16 1/8" square of 3/4" MDF encircled in 1 1/2" L shaped 1/8" aluminum tucked underneath and inset into the MDF. The aluminum legs are from IKEA. Very structural/industrial looking stand and extremely strong.

Evan.

Very nice, but that works out to 17.73 US gallons. :razz:

Bob - Not if you're measuring inside dimensions :rolleyes:

Ooops, I stand corrected :redface:

nice.

where are you ordering your HQI from? costs? etc. PM me if you wish. thanks.

P.S. at 15 gallons i'd imagine it'll be full of corals in no time. i have some corals that wont even fit in there!

have fun fragging... i dont know how you guys do it... you nano enthusiasts :lol: :mrgreen:

I think we like to keep busy, and enjoy change. Things grow too big, so we frag. In addition small frags are not costly. Also a nano quickly looks impressive. In one of those bathtub sized tanks you have to wait months, or even years for things to grow enough to look impressive. In a nano it is just weeks or months. Last but not least, everything is just a fraction of the cost of big tanks. :mrgreen: :rolleyes:

Filled it up this morning :biggrin: .

I still need to setup the Mag 5 and SCWD tonight but it's all coming together nicely.

http://www.ecoarium.com/pics/15g_04.jpg

http://www.ecoarium.com/pics/15g_05.jpg

Looks great. No cycle time? :question:

Nope no cycle time.

That's the beauty of having two tanks :rolleyes: I had the rock in my sump at home curing and brought the water and coral frags from my 120g also.

Evan.

Now how cool is THAT?!?

:cool:

I want to work at your office...
:biggrin:

Isn't there a chance that the tank's temp is going to fluctuate being so close to the heat register?

Mitch

Nicely done. As far as cycle time, when I set up my 90 I used the carib sea live aragonite sand (same thing this time) and my tank was cycled in less than a week.

Doug

So what fixture is that? And what bulb did you end up getting?

Mitch - I'm not too worried about the heat as it's 12" away and it barely ever comes on. The last tank I had there never heated up in the least :biggrin: Thanks for the concern though. It would have been awful to come into work to a bowl of fish soup if something like that was overlooked.

Tony - The entire unit is a canadian made, from out east. The brand is AquaRay but is also sold under the Reef Tech label. The ballast is one of the nicest electronic ones I've seen. The entire casing is a heat sink and there is an externally accessible fuse, it's also a soft start which is nice. It also has a quick disconnect cable to the pendant which is an all aluminum construction with a hammertone reflector.

http://www.aquariumdepot.com in Toronto carries the ballasts under the Reef Tech name in 150W, 250W(dimmable to 175), and 400W versions.

I'm not sure what brand the bulb that came with the fixture is as I haven't pulled it out yet to check. I'm guessing it's also a Reef Tech bulb and either 10,000K or 14,000K.

More pick tomorrow with the SCWD on the tank :biggrin: :cool:

I couldn't find any info for the unit at that site. :neutral: :question: Must be buried somewhere! :biggrin:

Oh well, was more curious than anything. It looks interesting.

I just searched that crappy site for fifteen minutes, and could not find it either. :frown:

I'm not sure that they carry the pendant, only the ballasts maybe?
I'd call them and ask though.

I got the pendant & ballast directly from the distributor but I'll find out where you can get them and let you know.

Evan.