# My DIY 150g Tank Project



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Hello all. Been a while since I've been around here, but I thought I'd post my build on this site. I picked up a 150g glass aquarium last week for 150 bucks!! You may be saying to yourself "there must be something wrong with it". I'm telling you this thing is a beauty for being 5 years old. The owner said it was designed to withstand California earthquake's so I suppose that may mean something to someone. No scratches that I've noticed so far. No leaks to speak of. No I have the opportunity to build a stand and canopy for it. The tank will be fresh water and will house a variety of species. Gotta keep my beautiful clown loaches and my wife wants a shoal of tiger barbs. Then, I might add a couple oscars or discus. If I find out they can be kept together I might get both. Substrate will be made up of pebble gravel I already have and then I'm going to get some river rocks and sand from the rivers nearby. It will be planted so I'm going to have to develope my own DIY CO2 system. More to come on that. 
Bear with me on this build. I'm going to try and put up as many pictures as I can. I am in the military so time is going to be limited to mostly weekends. I'm hopeing to be totally setup by the new year. My financial goal is to keep this build under $1000. I'm already in $150 so $850 to go. I already have a list of most of the wood for the framing of the stand. 
If I left anything out I'll add to it later I'm sure. Any tips and advice you guys can leave I'll definately put to good use. Thanks for viewing and check back later this week and maybe I'll have some progress made.

The tank 72"L x 18"W x 24"H I think









Here's a quick sketch just to get an idea of what I might need. If you have suggestions please let me know.


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Stacking cinder block is a timesaving way to build a stand. The blocks are cheap enough to be abandoned if you move and the stand shell concealing them would be flat and lightweight. If you are in a real hurry, you can stack the block and throw fabric over them to make a presentable stand.


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Interesting idea Mcdaphnia. However, I'm planning on a furniture quality show piece. I have a few years experience with woodworking and I really want to make something of quality. I respect your suggestions.


----------



## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

score 8)


----------



## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

opcorn:

I LOVE these threads!
Great find on that tank.. other than the Python whats inside?
I see in you plans you have the vertical uprights attached to the inside of the horizontal top and bottom spans, they should be between them so the top horizontal sits on top of the uprights. Also I see lines drawn as if you are using 3 pieces for the top horizontal span, better to use one piece for the entire length end to end.
If I am way off base, sorry, but here is a pic of mine framed up in case my thoughts aren't clear.


----------



## moto_master (Jun 23, 2006)

Oscars are usually pretty aggressive. I've gotten mine to live peacefully with African cichlids, but many Oscars won't tolerate other tank mates. Also, Oscars will rip out all of your plants. They are great pets, but they have their issues. Awesome find on the tank! Very interested in seeing how your project goes. opcorn:


----------



## imusuallyuseless (Dec 28, 2005)

Oscars aren't THAT aggressive, however I wouldn't suggest housing them w/discus. Discus are usually quite expensive and sensitive fish to poor water quality and oscars are notorious for the ammount of waste they produce :lol:


----------



## rancherlee (Sep 15, 2008)

that stand is more than strong enough. Personally I would maybe build it shorter so you can work on the tank and be able to reach everywhere in the tank while standing flat footed on the ground. when built the stand for my 125 gallon (72x18x21") I measure the height of my arm pits  and subtracted the height of the tank to get the height of the stand to build. I ended up with enough room to fit a 55 gallon tank if I go to a sump later on and I used 2x8's for the top rails so I could have a 50" span in the front to be able to "slide" a 55 gallon tank in easy later on. my bottoms are 2x4 and I have 8 vertical 2x4s in my stand for supporting the tank weight. If your tank is 72x18x24 is a 135 gallon and if its 72x18x28-29" its a 150gallon.


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Hey everybody. I appreciate all the feedback on my build. Actually, I've just finished framing the stand. I wasn't able to get any photos of the build since my camera was MIA for the day. I will, however, have pictures up on tuesday so you may all see my creation. I should also have the top and bottom sheets of plywood attached to the frame by that time. I will also have to calculate out all the money I've spent so far for any one who cares to know. I can tell you now that it's already somewhere around $450US! Some call it a hobby. I call it a lifestyle! Feel free to put that in a signature! So until Tuesday my fellow ensuthiasts....g'day!


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Here are the pictures of my frame for my stand that I promised. Feel free to leave me feedback on my construction skills. I know it's not the best, but I'm pretty sure it'll do! Should get the top and bottom plywood pieces nailed down tomorrow and make another run to Home Depot for some birch or oak boards to create the front mortise and tenon frame and doors. Then I just need some trim and molding to set off the look and give it all a good stain finish. If all goes well I should be completed by the weekend. opcorn: :fish:


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Here are the pictures of my frame for my stand that I promised. Feel free to leave me feedback on my construction skills. I know it's not the best, but I'm pretty sure it'll do! Should get the top and bottom plywood pieces nailed down tomorrow and make another run to Home Depot for some birch or oak boards to create the front mortise and tenon frame and doors. Then I just need some trim and molding to set off the look and give it all a good stain finish. If all goes well I should be completed by the weekend. opcorn: :fish:


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Sorry for the double post. Maybe a moderator can delete one of them for me?? Please!!!


----------



## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

Any reason for the doubled up 2x4 on the bottom frame? You probably don't need it, and it will make it more difficult when you go to skin the frame with plywood. A shelf-like extension on the bottom of the stand can look good skinned and trimmed out, and can add stability, but generally isn't needed. Just wondering. If you used the word "tenon", I think you're probably better at this wood working thing than I am, so I'll try not to overstep my boundaries :lol:


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Hey mithesaint. Thanks for the comment. I doubled up the bottom frame to give it that added stability. Another user on here called it the "Pedestal" effect. Sounded reasonably effective so I went with it. Plus, when I put on the top rails (probably 1"x 6" boards) I think the doubled up bottom frame will balance out the look with the top. Will find out this weekend when I hopefully will be able to make that run to Home Depot. 
I did take a couple years of shop class back in high school, but that's the extent of my carpentry skills. I did learn a thing or two about cabinetry construction, but it's been about six years since I've built anything. Thanks. :fish: :dancing:


----------



## Morpheus (Nov 12, 2008)

I'm not quite sure how you are going to finish this off. Is the plan to clad the frame structure with something? Or are the 2x4's going to be exposed? I only ask because you said something about adding top rails to offset the doubled up 2x4's, but are you adding anything to the bottom rails to cover them up?

By the way, you built the **** out of that thing! No worries at all about it being able to support your tank.

If you have any questions, shoot me a PM (I'm a project engineer for a millwork company.)


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Morpheus. I plan on wrapping the whole thing in 1/2" plywood. not too sure how I'm going to do the bottom yet. Thinking on just adding a 1" x 4" board to the bottom and finishing it off with some kind of molding on top of that. Make sense? I'm just kind of making this up as I go along. No real concrete planning ahead of time. Just looking at different designs out there and picking out what I think works for me. I appreciate the offer too by the way. I'm sure something will come up. Just working on the plumbing situation now. Not sure if I want to go with a DIY sump or just a couple canister filters.


----------



## hidenseek (Nov 13, 2005)

Sorry for not updating this thread in a while. It's been really cold and it started snowing this week. Just got about six inches today! More to come this weekend so probably won't get a chance to run to Home Depot and get the rest of my supplies. However, I have started working on my external overflow and my sump design. Basically, going to incorporate a skimmer box and 2-3 1/2" tubes and test it out on my 40g tank. Probably jump up to 2" tubes on the 150g tank once it's on the stand. I have a Quiet1One 2200 with about a 600gph capacity, which will give me about 350pgh at a 4 ft head. That will work for my 40g, but will def have to upgrade to something larger for the 150g. 
The external overflow is going to be made from 1/8" acrylic sheets. I'm going to use the plastic tube method that's talked about in the Library. Using a 20g long tank for the sump. Just bought a sterilite three drawer tower to house all the bio media, which will consist of pot scrubbers and the blue filter pads from the pet store. Should have this plumbed out by the weekend's end. Hopefully. No promises now. 
I did stop by the pet store yesterday to get some supplies and just so happened to get a few new friends for my 40g.

Some little YoYo loaches!


----------

