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Making a tank...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by OneFishTwoFish, Mar 12, 2015.

  1. Mar 12, 2015 #1
    OneFishTwoFish Ames

    OneFishTwoFish

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    Has anyone here ever made their own tank? I am thinking about a fun summer project of making an all in one shallow tank and would just like to know what people thought and what the price difference is and whether using glass or acrylic is easier/better. Nothing super big, maybe something like 36" long by 20" wide and 10" tall... just rough estimates. Any advice would be great!
     
  2. Mar 12, 2015 #2
    xroads La Porte City, IA

    xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

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    that size is super simple with acrylic.

    I will be doing a demo making one in a few weeks. I will post when & let anyone interested come watch/help
     
  3. Mar 13, 2015 #3
    mpivit Dubuque

    mpivit Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    I've made one out of acrylic close to those dimensions. Not too hard, and was a lot of fun.
     
  4. Mar 13, 2015 #4
    OneFishTwoFish Ames

    OneFishTwoFish

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    Price wise, was it worth it? I love the look of shallows and currently have a 9 gallon shallow that I ordered on eBay but it was like $180... and anything bigger than that gets really expensive really fast... acrylic or glass cannot be that expensive...
     
  5. Mar 13, 2015 #5
    mpivit Dubuque

    mpivit Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    You need to check your plastic supplier for drops. If you had to buy a whole sheet it would be expensive.
    I built this for under $300. Light stand and everything. It took a while to collect the materials.
    I had a thread a while back with all the exact costs.
    You'll need a table saw, router and a jointer. If you dont have the jointer a router table would prob work. There are others on here that have built some great things out of acrylic.
    With that said, if you go acrylic plan on Bare Bottom to avoid scratches.[​IMG]
    Its 32x24x13
    Here it is loaded with corals
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Mar 13, 2015 #6
    mpivit Dubuque

    mpivit Well-Known ReefKeeper

    494
    Dubuque
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    My build thread started 11/30/13 if you want to take a look
     

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