Figured I should post up a journal for my new 150g shallow aquarium. I know it's not as big as many of the tanks on here but I think it's a pretty unique setup focusing on quality over size. Almost everything about this build is custom DIY so it's taken me a long time to put it together. I have a bunch of threads in the DIY forum but I thought it would be nice to compile everything in one place.
Custom 150g shallow riparium journal
- Thread starter the_deeb
- Start date
The Stand
More details in this thread: My knock down flat packable aquarium stand
The stand is bigger than the entryway to my apartment so I designed it to be easily disassembleable and flat-packable like IKEA furniture. Given that the tank is going to be the centerpiece of the apartment I also wanted to it be a nice looking furniture quality stand.
I decided to make the doors in the style of shoji screens to make the stand not seem so "heavy" looking.
Completed with dark brown paint on the outside and waterproof white appliance epoxy on the inside
More details in this thread: My knock down flat packable aquarium stand
The stand is bigger than the entryway to my apartment so I designed it to be easily disassembleable and flat-packable like IKEA furniture. Given that the tank is going to be the centerpiece of the apartment I also wanted to it be a nice looking furniture quality stand.
I decided to make the doors in the style of shoji screens to make the stand not seem so "heavy" looking.
Completed with dark brown paint on the outside and waterproof white appliance epoxy on the inside
The Tank
Full build thread here: My DIY 150g all glass aquarium
Dimensions are 60" X 32" X 17"
3" eurobrace
Coast-coast overflow
Built using RTV108 and 3/8" glass
Clamps removed after 24hrs of curing time
Excess silicone trimmed off
New clean interior bead applied
Full build thread here: My DIY 150g all glass aquarium
Dimensions are 60" X 32" X 17"
3" eurobrace
Coast-coast overflow
Built using RTV108 and 3/8" glass
Clamps removed after 24hrs of curing time
Excess silicone trimmed off
New clean interior bead applied
The Filtration
I'm going with a really simple sump design.
40g breeder as a sump
Semi-coast-to-coast overflow with triple "Bean Animal" style drains with 1" bulkheads and plumbing. It's an awesome design that's silent and pretty much fail safe.
Note that the emergency JG tubing on the open channel is missing in these pics. I designed it so I could easily swap the threaded caps between the different drains so I can switch which channel I want to use as the siphon and which one I want as the open channel. I've already switched them around once so this has been handy.
PVC ball valve on the siphon channel to fine tune the flow. Works much better than a ball valve. I didn't bother with valves on the other 2 channels since I didn't see why I would need them
Overflow works beautifully
Sump setup
I think the majority of sump designs are overly and unnecessarily complicated so I went with a really simple setup.
1. 40g breeder tank, no baffles
2. 200 micron 7" x 16" filter sock suspended over the outflow with a hook and a bit of rope.
3. Two 4" blocks of 10ppi poret foam spaced with a little compartment in the middle as a grow out area for fish
4. Laguna Max-Flo 2000 return pump - nice and quiet and really energy efficient
So far this has been working really well but I might add an extra 50 micron polishing pad to really get the water sparkling.
On the left hand side you can see I built a little shelf to hold a Ranco ETC temperature controller wired to a powerstrip that controls two 200W heaters. I think this is the safest and most reliable way to set up heaters - this way I've got a reliable thermostat rather than relying on the cheap thermostats on the heaters which are prone to failure.
I'm going with a really simple sump design.
40g breeder as a sump
Semi-coast-to-coast overflow with triple "Bean Animal" style drains with 1" bulkheads and plumbing. It's an awesome design that's silent and pretty much fail safe.
Note that the emergency JG tubing on the open channel is missing in these pics. I designed it so I could easily swap the threaded caps between the different drains so I can switch which channel I want to use as the siphon and which one I want as the open channel. I've already switched them around once so this has been handy.
PVC ball valve on the siphon channel to fine tune the flow. Works much better than a ball valve. I didn't bother with valves on the other 2 channels since I didn't see why I would need them
Overflow works beautifully
Sump setup
I think the majority of sump designs are overly and unnecessarily complicated so I went with a really simple setup.
1. 40g breeder tank, no baffles
2. 200 micron 7" x 16" filter sock suspended over the outflow with a hook and a bit of rope.
3. Two 4" blocks of 10ppi poret foam spaced with a little compartment in the middle as a grow out area for fish
4. Laguna Max-Flo 2000 return pump - nice and quiet and really energy efficient
So far this has been working really well but I might add an extra 50 micron polishing pad to really get the water sparkling.
On the left hand side you can see I built a little shelf to hold a Ranco ETC temperature controller wired to a powerstrip that controls two 200W heaters. I think this is the safest and most reliable way to set up heaters - this way I've got a reliable thermostat rather than relying on the cheap thermostats on the heaters which are prone to failure.
Hey there, First all nice setup, it is custom and unique design I loved your stand though its Awesome...
I've got a question here.
Since you mentioned siphon do you have to start the siphoning to make the tank to drain work ? say like may be a power outage.
I've got a question here.
Since you mentioned siphon do you have to start the siphoning to make the tank to drain work ? say like may be a power outage.
