15G AIO

[bandit]

Are you going to solvent bond the acrylic with meth cloride or just silicon everythin? looks good

[bizfromqc]

Don't know yet, maybe a mix of both or just sillicone the whole thing.
Weld-on for acrylic to acrylic and sillicone for glass and acrylic... don't know yet.

Any suggestions?

[bizfromqc]

No luck finding weld-on for the baffles. I know for sure they have some at SABIC and Canus but their business hours just don't work with my schedule.

I've experimented with Acetone and scraps pieces of acrylic and the bond is crazy strong, cant break it with my bare hands (or I'm too weak LOL). It is a bit of a PITA but I think it'll work for my application. I'll probably use this method to get the acrylic pieces together and just to be safe, do up a thick bead of sillicone everywhere for mechanical support. Also sillicone the entire thing to the tank afterwards.

I've also dropped the "notches" design for the overflow and went with a one large straight "U" shape so basically just one large notch about 6" wide and 1" tall. Also drilled the hole for the bulkhead.

I also had to rethink the size of the chambers since I will be putting a skimmer in there. Got my hands on a CPR SR3 skimmer (thanks Martin  ) and it will require about 9 inches of the back wall to operate properly. This will reduce the size of the other chambers but I hope the addition of the skimmer will outweigh the disadvantages of reduced size of the mechanical/biological/return area.

Thoughts and tips welcomed  

Pictures coming soon.

[bizfromqc]

Not a whole lot of comments on the thread, I'll assume all is good and keep with the original plan.

So I got around to gluing the sump part of the AIO. Decided to use Amazing Goop to get the acrylic pieces together. I read good reviews on the stuff and seems like a good amount of people have used it with great success.

You'll notice the first chamber is wider than the other ones and that is to accomodate the CPR SR3 skimmer.

I'll sillicone the whole back section to the tank when its completely dry, I'll give it a couple of days.

Gluing the acrylic (don't mind the shot glasses  )



Gluing all done, white part is protective film.



Painted the front section black using Krylon Fusion, gave it a good 3 coats with about 3 hours in between them.





That's it for now.

[JetJumper]

Looking good!

I tried acetone before for acrylic and I found it would create micro cracks in the plastic around the area it was used on so I wouldn't trust it for building a tank, but for something like this were the pressure is pretty well equal on both sides it would be fine (But you didn't use it anyways so...back on topic )

Can't wait for more

[pm]

Love the shot glass pic!!

It gives me an idea for a biology class drinking game... as the mouse passes the shot glass in the maze, you need to take a drink...

 

[bizfromqc]

We have water!

It's been a little while since I updated this thread. Since last time, I got around to silicone the whole back area in the tank. Did it in two sessions. Silicone job isn't the prettiest but I knew this going in with the tight spaces involved. I ended up attaching a piece of flexible tubing to the tube of silicone to reach the hard to reach areas. Like I said, not the prettiest but it works and I used a TON of silicone, 2 tubes just for this small job.

Waited a couple of days for everything to cure and did a water test this morning, everything looks good, overflow works, flow seems pretty good, the whole thing seems to be on track

I'm no expert on flow but there seems to be a bunch right now with just the return pump (MJ1200) but it will probably change once I start adding rocks in there. I plan on using a Koralia Nano (245gph) if necessary to avoid any dead spots.

Enough chat, here are the pictures (and a bonus video  )

The Skimmer chamber / Overflow area (1st chamber)



The mechanical/biological sections (2nd and 3rd chamber)



The Return section and loc-line on the display side (4th chamber and Display)





Full Tank Shot



Video of the whole thing.

[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/25RHqck9mh8[/embed]

Comments, questions and/or suggestions are welcome.

[daworldisblack]

Looking good! Can't wait to see it all done up!

[DrReefer]

Very nice setup ! Congrats on the DIY

[ben_jamin]

looks great man  i can see this tank being very successful good luck!

[bizfromqc]

Thanks for the words of encouragement 

It's a long process and things seems to take twice as long when you're eager to get finished but I hear "nice and slow is the way to go" 

Next steps
- Build a media rack
- Come up with a DIY for a submersible/hang-on-back light for the "refugium" section
- Plan/Set out how I'm going to "make" water for this tank

Eric

[bt]

Looking great!

With the adjustable nozzles, I doubt you'll have too much of an issue with dead spots.

Are you planning on having sand, or going bare bottom?

[bizfromqc]

Looking great!

With the adjustable nozzles, I doubt you'll have too much of an issue with dead spots.

Are you planning on having sand, or going bare bottom?

Thanks!

It would be great not to have to use a PH in the display area but I'm not opposed to if it's necessary in the end. Most definitely going to use sand, nothing too deep but enough not to limit my choice of critters.

I've been reading a lot on "water" lately and I'm now considering getting a RO/DI unit... or not. I've read numerous accounts of people doing fine without one AND people claiming you HAVE to use one....

[bt]

Using RO/DI water is ideal.

...but RO/DI being "necessary" really depends on your tap water.  I know the TDS (Total dissolved solids) out of my tap water is pretty low (32 ppm last I tested it), so I could have gotten away with tap water (after treating for chloramines).  I still got a RO/DI unit though, as many people who've gone without and switched reported better colours from their coral after doing so.  And to avoid seasonal fluctuations in the water quality, as well as the potential for long-term build up of undesirable dissolved solids.

But for someone like JetJumper, given the tap water where he is, not using RO/DI would be like cutting your break lines before going on a driving tour of the world's 10 most dangerous roads - as in, a disaster in waiting.

[DrReefer]

Any updates on this build Biz ?!

[bizfromqc]

Any updates on this build Biz ?!

Unfortunately no updates from last time. I put the whole thing on hold until the end of the summer just because I don't have the time I'd need to do it properly. It's definitely a fall project and I'll post some pics as soon as i get "re"-started on it :-)

[DrReefer]

Great !! cant wait to read more