Finally finished! I am a professional cabinet/furniture builder, but this took WAY longer than I expected. Primarily because it started out to just be a plywood box to winter my CA cichlids in.....turned in to an awesome display tank along the way.
The bottom, back, right side and half left side are 2" foam filled (R10). The blue stain you see is water base because epoxy will not adhere to any other stain. The only fiberglass I used is on the vertical-strip built filter in the back left corner. More on filter in a minute. All visible wood (except stained blue plywood) is solid, reclaimed Red Oak.
Approx. inside dimensions are; 47" L X 34" W X 32" H. Calculates to 221 gallons completely full. My designed water line is 1" below full.
Massive Silver Maple root ball was a great find. It took quite a bit of chainsaw work to get it just right. I would prefer to not have the rocks quite so much on it, but until it is better waterlogged, necessary.
This is a 2" deep water test. I will show final pics later.
The filter is approx 20g in size and had several criteria in the design; I wanted a bottom level intake, wanted a strong output to create current, wanted the first level filter medium to be accessible from the top for simple cleaning and I wanted pump space available for future wet/dry add on. The sketchup should show my concept. What you can't see in any picture is that the bottom of the filter is 3/4" above the tank bottom, which creates a great diffuser intake. The pvc cap you see in the photo is a secondary intake; in the case of fry or some other reason to not want intake at the bottom, I move that cap onto the vertical intake, install a diffuser on the front and I have a surface intake.
The bottom, back, right side and half left side are 2" foam filled (R10). The blue stain you see is water base because epoxy will not adhere to any other stain. The only fiberglass I used is on the vertical-strip built filter in the back left corner. More on filter in a minute. All visible wood (except stained blue plywood) is solid, reclaimed Red Oak.
Approx. inside dimensions are; 47" L X 34" W X 32" H. Calculates to 221 gallons completely full. My designed water line is 1" below full.
Massive Silver Maple root ball was a great find. It took quite a bit of chainsaw work to get it just right. I would prefer to not have the rocks quite so much on it, but until it is better waterlogged, necessary.
This is a 2" deep water test. I will show final pics later.
The filter is approx 20g in size and had several criteria in the design; I wanted a bottom level intake, wanted a strong output to create current, wanted the first level filter medium to be accessible from the top for simple cleaning and I wanted pump space available for future wet/dry add on. The sketchup should show my concept. What you can't see in any picture is that the bottom of the filter is 3/4" above the tank bottom, which creates a great diffuser intake. The pvc cap you see in the photo is a secondary intake; in the case of fry or some other reason to not want intake at the bottom, I move that cap onto the vertical intake, install a diffuser on the front and I have a surface intake.
