A month or so ago my little brother mentions to me that he heard aquariums could be made out of plywood. My mind immediately started racing at the possibilities. A year ago I moved halfway across the country and had to give up my 60 gallon feshwater aquarium and have since been reduced to a 20 gallon that was generously donated to me but it's just too small.
Now coming from a serious DIY family this build my own aquarium thing lead me to a very exciting tho exhaustive internet search, the information is seemingly limitless, and to some pretty big dreams. Unfortunately, the price of materials and my loving wife have shrunk my fish fantasy down to a more reasonable number of gallons. Even tho I have patiently tried to explain to her that money is made to be spent and a bigger tank means bigger fish. By the way I like big fish.
Undaunted by all the moral support I got out my trusty measuring tape and started measuring every wall in the house, deciding what furniture could be rearranged and what has to be thrown out to make room for my fish dream to become a reality. A pad of graph paper became my diary. I drew squares, rectangles, corner units, tall tanks, short tanks, long tanks, estimating material costs, and glass thickness. Those years of drafting class in high school paying off.
My wife said I was haunted. She was right I could think of nothing else.
A couple of weeks ago I felt ready to take the plunge. Spent a day shoveling my trailer out of the 6 foot snow bank, I live in Canada by the way, and headed to the Home Depot with my trusty Mastercard and a list of what I figured I'd need to get me started.
I have begun construction on a 6 sided, 90 inch long, 30 inch wide, 30 inch tall aquarium shaped like a bay window. It will have glass on 5 sides, plywood on the bottom and along the back. I estimate around 270 gallons when it's all said and done.
So far the build has been alot of fun, I've always enjoyed working with wood. Tip to the wise, don't let PL premium dry on your hands nothing takes it off. Aside from the mountain of sanding left to do I completed the frame yesterday afternoon and I wanted to show it off to the people I've drawn the most inspiration from. You.
I've spent about $125.00 up to this point. Not alot considering the enjoyment this project is providing me.
Attached Thumbnails
Since progress on my project is punctuated by paychecks I had a few days to plane and sand before I could get back at the tank so I started thinking about what I wanted to construct for a stand. I want to say that I've always felt that any DIY project should, if possible, use recycled materials in some aspect. This keeps costs down and of course helps our environment. Even the sawdust and wood shavings from this project will be used as mulch in the garden. When we bought this house last summer there was a huge dog pen in the back yard which I had taken down salvaging as much of the wood as I could, after all pressure treated 4x4's are an expensive commodity.
What I decided to do was laminate 4 of these 4x4's together making a beam and to cut it down to two 30 inch posts and in effect make a two legged stand giving the impression that the aquarium will sit on two pillars. I placed them four feet apart on the work bench and using 2x4's began boxing them in at either end staggering the boards to give me a matching staircase effect for strength and to add width and length. I ran a little short on reclaimed 2x4's so I had to make a trip to the hardware store for a few more boards but all in all this was a pretty cost effective piece of work. A tube of PL, screws and a half dozen 2x4's this stand has cost me about $25.00. I still need some plywood to add a top and bottom to it.
Today is payday so I'm off in a bit to the Home Depot for the sheets plywood to finish the job so hopefully in a few days I'll be able to show off the completed woodwork on the tank and stand.
Now coming from a serious DIY family this build my own aquarium thing lead me to a very exciting tho exhaustive internet search, the information is seemingly limitless, and to some pretty big dreams. Unfortunately, the price of materials and my loving wife have shrunk my fish fantasy down to a more reasonable number of gallons. Even tho I have patiently tried to explain to her that money is made to be spent and a bigger tank means bigger fish. By the way I like big fish.
Undaunted by all the moral support I got out my trusty measuring tape and started measuring every wall in the house, deciding what furniture could be rearranged and what has to be thrown out to make room for my fish dream to become a reality. A pad of graph paper became my diary. I drew squares, rectangles, corner units, tall tanks, short tanks, long tanks, estimating material costs, and glass thickness. Those years of drafting class in high school paying off.
My wife said I was haunted. She was right I could think of nothing else.
A couple of weeks ago I felt ready to take the plunge. Spent a day shoveling my trailer out of the 6 foot snow bank, I live in Canada by the way, and headed to the Home Depot with my trusty Mastercard and a list of what I figured I'd need to get me started.
I have begun construction on a 6 sided, 90 inch long, 30 inch wide, 30 inch tall aquarium shaped like a bay window. It will have glass on 5 sides, plywood on the bottom and along the back. I estimate around 270 gallons when it's all said and done.
So far the build has been alot of fun, I've always enjoyed working with wood. Tip to the wise, don't let PL premium dry on your hands nothing takes it off. Aside from the mountain of sanding left to do I completed the frame yesterday afternoon and I wanted to show it off to the people I've drawn the most inspiration from. You.
I've spent about $125.00 up to this point. Not alot considering the enjoyment this project is providing me.
Attached Thumbnails
Since progress on my project is punctuated by paychecks I had a few days to plane and sand before I could get back at the tank so I started thinking about what I wanted to construct for a stand. I want to say that I've always felt that any DIY project should, if possible, use recycled materials in some aspect. This keeps costs down and of course helps our environment. Even the sawdust and wood shavings from this project will be used as mulch in the garden. When we bought this house last summer there was a huge dog pen in the back yard which I had taken down salvaging as much of the wood as I could, after all pressure treated 4x4's are an expensive commodity.
What I decided to do was laminate 4 of these 4x4's together making a beam and to cut it down to two 30 inch posts and in effect make a two legged stand giving the impression that the aquarium will sit on two pillars. I placed them four feet apart on the work bench and using 2x4's began boxing them in at either end staggering the boards to give me a matching staircase effect for strength and to add width and length. I ran a little short on reclaimed 2x4's so I had to make a trip to the hardware store for a few more boards but all in all this was a pretty cost effective piece of work. A tube of PL, screws and a half dozen 2x4's this stand has cost me about $25.00. I still need some plywood to add a top and bottom to it.
Today is payday so I'm off in a bit to the Home Depot for the sheets plywood to finish the job so hopefully in a few days I'll be able to show off the completed woodwork on the tank and stand.
nice to see Canadians in action 
I think there is a reason why plywood builds are not very popular in canada product availibility but you can get anything of the net and then wait forever and maybe not get you product 
then you can go somewhere where they will try to sell you some junk that is 200.00 a gallon.
