I love the "Lesson Learned" topic in the General Aquaria Discussion Forum, so I thought it would be fun to start a thread over here where we could share some of our not so pleasant experiences we've had with DIY aquarium projects.
So if you have a lesson learned, whether it's about that bad silicone smell or the door width not being large enough to get that big tank in your house. Please share.
I'll start. One thing I'm stickler for is accuracy when building aquarium projects. A bad measurement can derail a tank, stand, or hood project. So I got a few tips that I've learned the hard way.
1) Don't trust getting plywood cut at Home Depot or other big box stores. Their cuts are usually never dead nuts accurate. Sometimes they'll be 1" out of square on a 4' cross cut. So now I usually have them cut the plywood just enough so that it will fit in my car. I'll have them cut at least 1" over of what I need, then at home, I'll make exact cuts I need, either with a saw or router. That way I can get some precision.
2) Bad carpenter squares are another thing to look out for. I unknowingly had a problem with an unsquare square and was scratching my head every time things didn't line up correctly. The cheapest Squares are sometimes nowhere near 90 degrees. One way to tell is take to 2 of them, and butt them together on a flat surface. If they don't perfectly line up, then one or both of them is off. Even the more expensive ones can be a little off and a good Square doesn't last forever. Over time if they get banged around, so they'll eventually need to be replaced. So it's good practice to check the calibration on all your Squares before you start a project.
3) Ever wonder why a DIY aquarium stand or tank may seem out of square, not flat, or wobble, well here's another potential reason why: dimensional lumber usually isn't straight and have inconsistent widths. Last year, I bought around 20 - 2x4's at Home Depot for a DIY aquarium stand, and measured them with my dial calipers and found out that they could be anywhere from 3.4" to 3.6" in width. Some pieces had different widths from end to end also. One could be near 3.50" on one end, then gradually go up to 3.6" on the other. For my stand, I was making a butcher block type top, but due to the unevenness of the 2x4's, I ended up using my router to trim off the extra wood to make it flat/level. These days I try to avoid using dimensional lumber for any project that needs accuracy. I prefer to use plywood instead, where I'll laminate plywood together to get the thickness I need.
That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of or run into more stuff since I have a never ending list of DIY projects.
So if you have a lesson learned, whether it's about that bad silicone smell or the door width not being large enough to get that big tank in your house. Please share.
I'll start. One thing I'm stickler for is accuracy when building aquarium projects. A bad measurement can derail a tank, stand, or hood project. So I got a few tips that I've learned the hard way.
1) Don't trust getting plywood cut at Home Depot or other big box stores. Their cuts are usually never dead nuts accurate. Sometimes they'll be 1" out of square on a 4' cross cut. So now I usually have them cut the plywood just enough so that it will fit in my car. I'll have them cut at least 1" over of what I need, then at home, I'll make exact cuts I need, either with a saw or router. That way I can get some precision.
2) Bad carpenter squares are another thing to look out for. I unknowingly had a problem with an unsquare square and was scratching my head every time things didn't line up correctly. The cheapest Squares are sometimes nowhere near 90 degrees. One way to tell is take to 2 of them, and butt them together on a flat surface. If they don't perfectly line up, then one or both of them is off. Even the more expensive ones can be a little off and a good Square doesn't last forever. Over time if they get banged around, so they'll eventually need to be replaced. So it's good practice to check the calibration on all your Squares before you start a project.
3) Ever wonder why a DIY aquarium stand or tank may seem out of square, not flat, or wobble, well here's another potential reason why: dimensional lumber usually isn't straight and have inconsistent widths. Last year, I bought around 20 - 2x4's at Home Depot for a DIY aquarium stand, and measured them with my dial calipers and found out that they could be anywhere from 3.4" to 3.6" in width. Some pieces had different widths from end to end also. One could be near 3.50" on one end, then gradually go up to 3.6" on the other. For my stand, I was making a butcher block type top, but due to the unevenness of the 2x4's, I ended up using my router to trim off the extra wood to make it flat/level. These days I try to avoid using dimensional lumber for any project that needs accuracy. I prefer to use plywood instead, where I'll laminate plywood together to get the thickness I need.
That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of or run into more stuff since I have a never ending list of DIY projects.
