# My 240g project...and a few quetions.



## raekit (Sep 28, 2009)

Hey all, new here to Cichlid forums....

Thanks so much for all your help, I have been closely following many of your builds and using many of your ideas. I just recently picked up an acrylic 240g (8x2x2) tank off of craigslist for a steal of a deal and have just started building a stand for this.

I had a work bench that was exactly 8x2x2 so I thought I would use the existing top and retrofit the rest of the bench to how I wanted it.










Here is the top off and ready to be braced by additional 2x4's, then I started in on building the rest of the base.



















Once I got the legs attached to the top and bottom, I used additional 2x4's to strengthen the legs at each post to increase rigidity.


















Then I added a plywood base to the inside and finished paneling the outside with a hardwood veneer.

















Next steps...finish the black background to my tank, wood trim, doors, and dark stain for the wood...then filtration.

Question: Do most people build hoods for acrylic tanks? And if so, do I need to cover the openings in the top of the tank? Or do I need to seal the inside of the hood with a polyurethane?

Thanks for the help.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Aatching acrylic canopies for acrylic tanks make sense.

Unless you have jumpers, you don't need to put hatches on the holes.

If you have wood, seal it, ventilate it, and use light reflectors inside to reflect heat and light into the tank insted of damaging the canopy .


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## raekit (Sep 28, 2009)

Thanks so much, I plan on building the canopy out of wood similar to the base, so I will plan on sealing it and keeping it open in the back for ventilation. What do you use for light reflectors?


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## JamesVietor (Oct 7, 2011)

iv seen everything from tin foil. to mirrors, and even aluminum vent. tubing. all these i would think would be suitable or maybe an existing fixture?


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

You could hang (4) 4' shop lights in there! There was a member on here that did that with his 8' tank but I can't remember his name, sorry. Nice stand build too, what tools did you use to cut the paneling?


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## raekit (Sep 28, 2009)

Yah I want to look into the shop lights, I haven't done big lighting yet, I have two little lights on it, one on each side.

I used a small skillsaw on the paneling. I will post some recent pics soon.


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## raekit (Sep 28, 2009)

Some new pics with my troph's inside:



















Older Shots with Fronts:


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

raekit said:


> Yah I want to look into the shop lights, I haven't done big lighting yet, I have two little lights on it, one on each side.
> 
> I used a small skillsaw on the paneling. I will post some recent pics soon.


I have abandoned using the shop lights.

Plastic incandescent closet fixtures on octagon boxes can be wired in, and then power compact (twisty) bulbs or LED's can be screwed into them. I like that they are more light for the wattage, and that it's easy to play around with the size and color of the bulbs, compared to the limited possibilities with shop light bulbs. You can also wire (for example) four fixtures on one cord and four on another, then put them on two separate timers to create a dawn/midday/ evening effect with the over lap as midday. *And they don't rust or get in the way like the shop lights.*


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## raekit (Sep 28, 2009)

Thanks so much for the advice. Put some pics on here if you don't already i would love to see what you did.


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