# 45 Gallon Partial DIY



## Sameer

As you guys know,
I found a 45 Gallon tank with an iron stand outside. The stand was rusting, and the tank had the most amazing mineral deposits. CLR and some sanding took care of that. However I wanted to make a DIY cabinet and hood. Since the money was tight, I opted to add paneling to the iron stand. This project took me a day and cost me about 40$.

Materials used:
1X 8by4 plywood 15$ Canadian, got it cut at Home depot.
Glue 4$
1X L wood to hide joints. 11$ (see pics)

So instead of buying a 300$ hood and stand, by a cheap iron stand and add paneling to it!!
Pics attached below, a work in progress!









The glue I used, very important! I initially planned to use a glue gun









The materials, 1/8 or 3mm thick wood - supposed to be used for paneling but with drywall support, however the stands metal beams are good enough support.









Attaching the front panel









The aquarium with 2 shoplights T8 and T5









The sides go on









View from the front, there is some messy glue but that will be covered later









Some more









Almost done!









With the L joint wood

Now for the hood.
The hood is super low-tech and simple. and quite fragile, however it rests on top of the shop lights









































That little cup holds Flourite, just a water test I guess









The DIY Driftwood, found it near stream, hopefully not too contaminated.

And the finished product

































ANY COMMENTS/CRITIQUE WELCOME!


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## Katalyst

Looks great Sameer! Nice job! I am going to suggest one thing. Soak the driftwood in boiling water for a few days. You can put it in a bucket & just rotate the ends or a rubber maid and cover it with boiling water. That should kill any of the nasties if there are any left living.  What are you planning to fill it with fishwise? Looking forward to seeing more photo's of the finished project.


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## Sameer

Thanks. Yea the drift wood sorta huge. Right now I cant find anything to boil it in, I did boil water and pour over it but I know I have to boil it for many hours. Ill find a way hopefully. This will be mostly a planted tank. The first plants that are going to go in are the dwarf hair grass, Pogostemon helferi and HC. Depending on which ones are available at Manegrie. Ive waited over a year to grow these plants and finally Im getting close to. Im also very surprised on how good the hood and stand looks.


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## Tabatha

You did a great job Sameer, it looks fantastic!


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## I_dude

*Diy*

Awesome mate.
Thats one of the aspects of this hobby that really fun - finding creative ways to make an good looking tank without having to mortgage your house and sell your kids to do it.

I look forward to more pics of the tank as you progress.


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## pat3612

Wow that looks really great good luck on your planted tank. Pat


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## Mr Fishies

You are _*very *_brave using No More Nails over your carpet!

I tip my hat to you for the courageous use of construction adhesive and your resourceful "clamping systems". A nice and I'm sure affordable DIY job.


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## kweenshaker

When I read paneling, I thought of my old family cottage and thought "ew"...but then I saw the pics and wow - I'm blown away!! Looks better than many stands in stores and you did it for such a small amount of money! Kudos on your creativity!


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## Ciddian

looks fantastic! Thats a great DYI!


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## Sameer

Thanks for the great reply guys. Something happend today. I was moving our 25 G tank that still had water, plants and fishes in it with our 45 g. While doing this, we emptied out the 25 G in buckets. Guess what, right when we were about to fill the 25 G, the bucket broke from two places and all the fish water gushed on the carpet in my room. As soon as it heppend I dashed for my bed and took out all my university texts, bank statements and tons of paper and printer paper. For about an hour we(my brother) put tons of newspapers and stepped on them so the papers would suck the water. After we ran out of news papars, we took out all the fans we had in the house and from our balcony and started them up. Right now theres the main "papa" fan thats bringing air from the outside and two medium sized fans throwing air at the carpet. With that aside, our 45 moved nicely and we put in the 3 Flourites($16 ea) in the tank and filled up the water. Tomorrow, we'r gonna buy two more T8 tube lights and a diatom from I guess HD or somewhere. My bro did some research so he'l detail me on it. Its DIY too. I shall get some better pics soon.

For now, heres the 80% empty tank pic when moving. 








Its for sale for $150


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## Ciddian

Omg sorry for the spill!!!! D:


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## Sameer

Ugly pics, but due to little time this was all I could get. I will hopefully post more info on pricing, plants and everything soon.


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## Sameer

hey guys again. Right now I have sort of a problem and I need your advice. I have 2 T8 fixtures and 4 T8s(4100K) giving me k thats lower than 6500k. I have t12s that are 6500K but I havent seen them being mensioned anywhere on this forum or any other forum. Obviously there old so no one uses them, I will be going to walmart soon to see if there are T8s that are 6500K. That will be fine for the tank right? Im getting 3.1 Watts per gallon and the height is 12 inches(from light to substrate). I believe at walmart they have 2 T8s 6500K for $15. I know most of you are hard core at this hobby as Ive seen people buying T5HO for $200 and $85 per bulb and I dont have that much money to spend. And at the moment, I have HC, dwarf hair grass, star and some stem plants. Stems are going great, but HC was turning yellow and the star seems to be dying. HC is turning yellow because not enough iron? Well Im dosing Plant Gro and have DIY CO2.


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## Calmer

What length are the fixtures? 3 or 4 foot? There is nothing wrong with T12's except they are less efficient than the T8's.


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## Sameer

48". I still havent had a look but from what I recall Walmart has two 48" Flourescent tubes that are 6500K for $13. I might go with that, have to make a visit tomorrow.


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## Calmer

I bought 4 foot fluorescent bulbs at Home Depot on March 5, 2008 regular price. (I still have the receipt  )
2 - T8 32 w daylighters for $4.49 each and 2 - T8 Plant and Aquarium for $7.98 each. 
Daylighters are 6,500 K 
A good description about fluorescent bulbs is here:
http://nemesis.lonestar.org/reference/electricity/fluorescent/lamps.html


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## Sameer

Thanks Calmer, theres a HD and Canadian Tire near by, Im leaving in a bit. Ill post of what happens next. Theres another problem, theres a film on the surface of the water, it wont leave. Ive searched around but havent found a to making it permantly leave.


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## Tabatha

One word: Skimmer

We couldn't live without it! Scum gone in 2 seconds, very cheap addition to the tank.


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## Sameer

Im looking at mops.ca (http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart...rs.html?L+scstore+wrpj2120ff848e84+1213205275) and the prices are in $100s. Im going to visit Petsmart since its close by and see if they even have any.

I do have a 0.5 micron Diatom filter carterage hooked to a power head but I didnt see that do much.


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## Tabatha

You're looking at saltwater, not fresh, ours is a extra for the Fluval. Let me look for you, we got ours at BA's...

Here you go: http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCat...ce_skimmer?&query=skimmer&queryType=0&offset=


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## Sameer

Oh great, thanks for correcting me. Yes please if you can look.


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## Tabatha

I included the link on my previous post, sorry.


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## Sameer

Oops, thats ok. I got worried when I saw the prices in the $100s. Thank you for your help. I have to change the lighting and I guess get a skimmer very soon. My HC is turning yellow and Pogo. H somewhat dieing. I just hope after getting the 6500K lighing theyl be fine. Im stopped dosing the recommended amount of fert(Plant Gro) because I think it might be an over dose, since there isnt adequate lighting.


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## Calmer

If you are using an Aquaclear power filter then see if this is to your liking.
http://www.petsandponds.com/securestore/c6270p16746913.2.html
They also have it here in Pickering at PJ's Petcentre.
Or Big Al's http://www.bigalsonline.ca/StoreCat...Aquaclear+Surface+Skimmer&queryType=0&offset=


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## Sameer

Well, I bought the skimmer used it and returned it. The film still comes and I want to fix it permenantly rather than use the skimmer and hide it. Im not sure whats the cause to the film, Im blaming the play sand. It also looks messy since the flourite is mixing with it. I might take all the play sand out. I also brought in the filter from my already developed 25 gallon tank and using it in this one. I also brought in gravel form my 25 so to excel the good bacteria growth. As for the plants, not much. The star is growing new stars of off every branch, the grass is growing quiet well, the HC finally has healthy green leaves(it turned yellow and lost few leaves, Im assuming they were grown submerged). I did have a blue-green algae break out. Thats been taken care of.

The land scaping is really boring, I did get play sand river as my first feature and I was suppose to make a second level as my second. That attempt failed and I ended up putting in a big rock.

I also bought 2 amano shrimps and 5 ghost. The ghost arent doing to well,  3 died already Im assuming the ph spikes at night since I have two DIY co2s. I thought the ghost were more hardy than amano. Moving on, when everything does settle I really want to get amano, cherry and red nose shrimps together with a school of Kryptopterus bicirrhis (glass catfish) and neons. The glass fish does seem hard to keep.


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## ameekplec.

If you're looking to get your plants to spread out more and quicker, plant them with space between plants. Ideally plant plants or small bunches (in the case of things like HC and hairgrass among others) about 1 inch apart, so that after about a month of growth, they will have filled into those spaces.


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## Sameer

Yea, I somewhat tried but I just cant. Taking HC bit by bit and planting takes for ever, and I know I cant do that much. I didnt split the HC into finer groups since they keep on uprooting. Same goes for the hair grass, there wasent much to begin with either. But hopefully everything will go well, my biggest fear is algae. Right now its 3 Watts 6500 k per gallon, 2 DIY CO2 and I dose the recommended amount of excel every other day.


EDIT: I did a few pieces of HC, you just cant see in the pic. Some uprooted and are stuck on the filter nozzle, gotta do a water change tomorrow.


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## ameekplec.

how did you plant it, and how did it arrive to you? I know it's too late now, but if it came from a lfs and was on the floss stuff, try making columns of it to bury into the substrate.

Good luck getting everything to spread!


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## Sameer

Thanks, got it from Menegarie. Itl take a while to spread, Ill wait.


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## XbrandonX

Nice hardscape, can't wait to see it grow in! nice job.


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## Sameer

Well we changed the scape a bit. Also at the moment we have 2 amano, 2 ghost and 15 cherry($1 each ). I want to get one more type of shrimp, red nose. I have to research if they can live in the conditions of my tank but another prob is that they are expensive and Ive seen them only at BA.


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## Sameer

Update pic

Starting to grow in and fill all the spaces!!!


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## Calmer

It's starting to look nice. What type of media do you have in the aquaclear filter? Also how do you like the aquaclear surface skimmer?


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## twoheadedfish

filling in nicely!


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## Riceburner

Calmer said:


> ... the aquaclear surface skimmer?


just noticed that...I wanted to do something similar by using some hosing to move the intake to the other end of the tank like my canister filter.


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## Sameer

Calmer said:


> It's starting to look nice. What type of media do you have in the aquaclear filter? Also how do you like the aquaclear surface skimmer?


If its truly a need, then yes, otherwise I dont like the skimmer. I cant belive they designed it this way! The SERRATED tubing slows down water flow, and you can always see the difference in the water output.

I have the regular stuff in my aquaclear, foam block, charcoal, and bio media stones


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## Chris S

Did you say you add DIY co2?


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## Mr Fishies

Sameer said:


> If its truly a need, then yes, otherwise I dont like the skimmer. I cant belive they designed it this way! The SERRATED tubing slows down water flow, and you can always see the difference in the water output.
> 
> I have the regular stuff in my aquaclear, foam block, charcoal, and bio media stones


Grr...I'm glad it's not just me this sort of thing bugs - I've seen that ribbed/corrugated/accordion hose on a few new filters lately.

I'm no hydrodynamics expert, but I can't believe that companies who claim good product engineering and advertise flow rates on the box would purposely use a hose that compromises flow rates with turbulence and provides all kinds of nooks and crannies for crud to accumulate. It's like a car with brakes that always drag...


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## Sameer

yes I have 3 yeast co2 2L bottles, 2 bells and one goes under the filter foam, I am looking around for ladders, hopefully someone will have a cheap 2nd hand one!


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## Calmer

I am glad the bell is for the Co2 as I thought it was for the fish to ring when they got hungry.  Can you imagine, that bell would be ringing nonstop.


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## ameekplec.

Mr Fishies said:


> Grr...I'm glad it's not just me this sort of thing bugs - I've seen that ribbed/corrugated/accordion hose on a few new filters lately.
> 
> I'm no hydrodynamics expert, but I can't believe that companies who claim good product engineering and advertise flow rates on the box would purposely use a hose that compromises flow rates with turbulence and provides all kinds of nooks and crannies for crud to accumulate. It's like a car with brakes that always drag...


I think they use it as a trade off for tube flexibility, and it is probably cheaper for manufacturing and shipping.

But yes, every time I see that tubing I cringe inside when I imagine the cleaning job. The tubing on the eheims isn't ribbed, and it collects enough crap as it is.


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## Sameer

Here are recent pics of my tank, I think there might be one of sep 2. Problems? I have the toughtest algae and I think another deadly one. I think I have staghorn, Ill research and post another algae topic soon. For now here are the pics.









































































Ill post more info soon.


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## Mr Fishies

If when you say algae, you're talking about the stuff growing throughout your plants in your first pic, I think it's actually Utricularia graminifolia. When it's left floating and un-rooted that's what it looks like


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## Shattered

Wow, very nice tank. Amazing scaping I wish mine looked that way.


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## brapbrapboom

did you just plant straight thhose HC Cuba?(i believe thats ur carpeting plant lol)
are you using co2?


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## tom g

*tank*

u did an amazing job with that find . the tank looks supurb and the stand looks great . awsome job. 
tom


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## Sameer

Thank you everyone for the kind replies. Its been years since Ive updated  I will try my best to post pics of my tank on how it looked like through out the months it went through. I will also post more recent pics.

So all the pics you see till before this post, dont exist anymore. I redid the entire tank. Algae took over and an invasive plant. For almost a year I battled them, then gave up. They both preferred excellent tank conditions and grew so fast they out compete-ted everything.

I shall post pics soon.


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## JNSN

This has motivated me to DIY a stand for myself, which is a huge compliment to your thread. Only $40!


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## Sameer

ehehhe wow thanks. This thread brings me memories. My 1st attempt at high tech.


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