Epiphyte
Member
I've got a "45p" Iwagumi (it's a Superfish tank, don't tell the diehards!) setup on a stand I built for myself. I tend to build my own aquarium cabinets these days as I was so unimpressed with the ADA stand I have and thought I could do a better job for 1/10th of the price. This has largely been the case, apart from the paint finish, which I'll admit is lovely on the ADA and far beyond anything I could do with my own hands and a paintbrush.
Made from 18mm ply, my home brew cabinet is so over the top in strength, but when it's holding 50-60kg of water, rocks, glass and Celestial Pearl Danios in my living room I'm more than happy for it to be overkill. I'm very happy with the stand as it is, it's strong, looks neat and tidy, but as I like to complicate almost everything I do with my DIY I've decided to turn it from a plywood box to something a little more interesting, complete with lights, magnets and 3d printing!
Here is the stand today, pre-modding:
The goal here is to build a fully enclosed stand, with everything hidden out of the way apart from the filter. I would actually love to box the filter in too and hard plumb it with pipes and connectors, but despite my love of pointless engineering, this would just cause me issues with my weekly maintenance. With this in mind, the only thing that'll be on show in the cabinet will be stuff I actually need to access, or that looks cool. In addition, there will be motion detected lighting to make it easier to work on, plus it'll look neat when you open the door. I'm also going to add a DIY light screen on the tank too, more on that later.
I've got a load of smaller offcuts of 18mm ply hanging around after building this stand which I'm going to design and build an internal structure to house everything. I could easily make this whole thing with 9mm ply, maybe even 6mm, but with the current price of wood I'm going to use what I've got lying around. I've gone for an L shaped design to hide things away as stated, yet it provides an elevated platform for the Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo to sit on. Not everything will be hidden, the things I want to have on show are:
Dosing pump is a D+D pump, I use them in all my tanks and they do a fine job. The motion detector is the one that comes with the amazon cheapy chinese LED strips. I'm using the standard LED light controller that everyone does on my Twinstar 450S light.
The additional 3 pin socket will be a simple extension lead leading to the front of the cabinet structure. This is because the extension lead will be tucked away and for water changes it'll be nice to have an easy access plug. Additionally the light screen will have a switch to turn it on and off too.
Lots more to come!
Made from 18mm ply, my home brew cabinet is so over the top in strength, but when it's holding 50-60kg of water, rocks, glass and Celestial Pearl Danios in my living room I'm more than happy for it to be overkill. I'm very happy with the stand as it is, it's strong, looks neat and tidy, but as I like to complicate almost everything I do with my DIY I've decided to turn it from a plywood box to something a little more interesting, complete with lights, magnets and 3d printing!
Here is the stand today, pre-modding:
The goal here is to build a fully enclosed stand, with everything hidden out of the way apart from the filter. I would actually love to box the filter in too and hard plumb it with pipes and connectors, but despite my love of pointless engineering, this would just cause me issues with my weekly maintenance. With this in mind, the only thing that'll be on show in the cabinet will be stuff I actually need to access, or that looks cool. In addition, there will be motion detected lighting to make it easier to work on, plus it'll look neat when you open the door. I'm also going to add a DIY light screen on the tank too, more on that later.
I've got a load of smaller offcuts of 18mm ply hanging around after building this stand which I'm going to design and build an internal structure to house everything. I could easily make this whole thing with 9mm ply, maybe even 6mm, but with the current price of wood I'm going to use what I've got lying around. I've gone for an L shaped design to hide things away as stated, yet it provides an elevated platform for the Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo to sit on. Not everything will be hidden, the things I want to have on show are:
- Ferts bottle
- Dosing Pump
- Motion Detector
- Light Controller
- Extra 3 pin socket
- Light screen switch
Dosing pump is a D+D pump, I use them in all my tanks and they do a fine job. The motion detector is the one that comes with the amazon cheapy chinese LED strips. I'm using the standard LED light controller that everyone does on my Twinstar 450S light.
The additional 3 pin socket will be a simple extension lead leading to the front of the cabinet structure. This is because the extension lead will be tucked away and for water changes it'll be nice to have an easy access plug. Additionally the light screen will have a switch to turn it on and off too.
Lots more to come!
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