Acrylic nano project
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: DIY
Forum Description: Do it Yourself
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=60245
Printed Date: July 18 2025 at 11:42pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Acrylic nano project
Posted By: rize2
Subject: Acrylic nano project
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 6:19pm
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I thought it would be fun to build a little aquarium, so I finally did it. I used 1/4 inch acrylic, and it is about 10 gallons, with a 1 gallon ATO inside. Unfortunately I didnt take any pictures while I was putting the acrylic together. Here's a picture, please note that this is my first time ever touching acrylic so the seams arent the best and I chipped some of the slots that allow the water to flow into the back.    Heres a picture showing underneath the shelf before I painted. The water is for the ATO is under the shelf  Now that I finished the aquarium, I've been try to figure out what to do for the rock scape. Due to the shape I'm thinking of doing a 3D background on both the back vertical piece of acrylic and the short one in the front. I found a way to do it on another forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1300282 Does anyone know how to do this rock/foam method? |
Replies:
Posted By: Elite-Aquatics
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 8:41pm
Looks pretty good  ------------- Premium aquarium filtration! |
Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 10:45pm
Well thank you!
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Elite-Aquatics wrote:Posted By: Ryanscott
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 1:20am
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seems pretty easy . he just zip tied rock to egg crate then filled it with foam. i havent done it but there is one thing i would do to improve it. i imagine that after all the rock had become live again the foam would stick out like a soar thumb . i would get coarse grained sand and sprinkle it in the cracks of the rocks and in other spots where you could see the foam to better conceal it . im going to get a little tank to try this. just curious , how much did you spend on the little tank and how does the auto top off work ? it looks awesome by the way and a built in auto top off is a really cool feature .
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Posted By: Ryanscott
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 1:24am
| lol just read farther on it and he did what i said i would change lol. it looks like a good idea. |
Posted By: BillyC
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 2:44am
| Wow that's impressive! Looking forward to see you fill it up. |
Posted By: SKYLAR89
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 9:05am
| Wow that looks sweet! |
Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 10:51am
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Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm pretty happy with it, but I hope to build myself some more and get better at working with the acrylic.
I spent around 60 for the acrylic from delvies. And about 20 more on the weld-on, applicator and the edge scraper. Heres a top down picture of the rear chambers  The left chamber is where I'll pour the fresh water. It is the size to fit a mini-jet 606 down there. as far as mounting the float switch in the other chamber I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to do that. The ATO float switch I have on my other tank is from autotopoff.com and is mounted on a piece of acrylic. I'm going to have to find a way to mount the switch right to the wall because space will be tight. I have the back chamber measured to fit a media basket with a tunze 9002 attached to it. With my main pump sitting under the tunze. My lighting plan is to go with a 6" MakersLED designer heatsink, 12 LEDs run by a DIM4 |
Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: November 17 2012 at 3:47pm
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So after doing more reading into the rock and foam method above, they use marco rocks. I have two questions about the rock: 1. I found a website, marcorocks.com. Is this the only place to get that rock? 2. In the thead they mention cooking the rock, and talk a little about curing it. I'm wondering what those do and how to do it. Thank you!
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Posted By: Ryanscott
Date Posted: November 17 2012 at 3:57pm
| Im sure you could use just dead rock and break it up with a hammer instead of the macrorocks. It would be alot cheaper IMO |
Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: November 17 2012 at 4:10pm
I'll probably end up doing that. Do you still cook/cure it before using dead rock? I always just bought live rock so i'm not experienced with dry rock at all. Jake
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Posted By: Ryanscott
Date Posted: November 17 2012 at 4:13pm
| I have always just rinsed it and put it in. I haven't had any problems with it. |
Posted By: BillyC
Date Posted: November 17 2012 at 4:23pm
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Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: November 20 2012 at 12:23pm
| Anybody have experience using foam and know what kind works best? |