# 150 gal stand/sump/canopy build



## ntayler (Nov 27, 2014)

Since I spent so much time making my own stand and sump, I figured I'd share with you all. I am in NO way a carpenter, I have never built any furniture or tank stands in the past, and I have never built or used a sump in the past. I have limited tools, all I really used was an $80 chop/miter saw, power drill/driver, and I bought a cheap $30 jigsaw. I wanted to build my own stand for a couple reasons, the first being that I wanted to fit a big enough sump underneath. The second was that the materials and construction quality of commercially available stands looked pretty sketchy to me, and were still expensive.

Let me disclaimer this whole thing by saying that I by no means saved any money by making all this myself, and I certainly did not save any time...This has been my obsession over the course of a couple months, much to the dismay of the old ball and chain. But I ended up (so far) with a product that I think I will be happy with. Nothing came out perfectly, there are things I would do differently, and there have been many pitfalls along the way

The Tank: Aqueon 150gal (72x18x30), dual overflows, 2 predrilled holes in each overflow that accept 1" bulkheads...standard 55gal in front to be used for sump:


Stand: I wanted to build the stand tall enough to accommodate the 55gal sump as well as plumbing underneath. Frame is kiln dried 2x4s, cost a bit more than regular 2x4s but I wanted to minimize warping (about $35 for frame wood):


Base is framed for exactly where 55gal will rest...over-engineered I think:
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah310/sac39051/150%20gal%20fish%20tank%20build/IMG_1662_zpsqmtw6ehm.jpg[/IMG]

3/4" oak ply on top and bottom, 1/4" oak mdf skin, oak baseboard trim (about $300 for enough materials for stand and future canopy...more expensive than I had first hoped):


Stained and sealed w/ 3 coats of polyurethane (stain came out much more orange/red than I had hoped...oops):


Door panles (made w/ the oak skin cut-outs sandwiched between 1x2 frame and oak trim frame):


Finished stand weighs about 300lbs and empty tank another 300lbs or so...hence the blankets underneath for easy movement while I designed the plumbing:


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## ntayler (Nov 27, 2014)

The plumbing took much longer than I thought it would. I only mad a couple mistakes that were not costly so I am good with that considering this is the first time I've worked with PVC primer/cement.

I'll start with the drainage. Not many pics sorry. I decided to go with the herbie method. In each overflow box this means 1 drain at full siphon and 1 as an emergency drain. The return runs over the back of the tank, get to that later. The tank was pre drilled with holes for only 1" bulkheads, so I plumed all the drainage with 1.5" pvc that reduces only at the bulkhead. Supposedly, bc of some scientific principal, this allows for much greater gravitational pull than the only 1" chokepoint. I can honestly say with it running right now, I am getting much more flow than the 600gph (suggested as max for gravitational flow for 1" train) out of each full siphon drain.

The emergency standpipe sits about 1" lower than the over flow wiers within the box and the full siphon stand pipe sits about 6-8 inches below that. When I started it up last night, I could run it completely silently with the water level about 1/4" below the emergency drain, which means that nothing was trickling down it. Which I am completely fine with except that nothing was getting skimmed off the surface. So I fine tuned it a bit and I have a slight trickle down each e-drain which is not very loud at all:


Here is the setup below the tank. Eggcrate box thingy to go over the pump intake. Will be placing bio media on top of that


All 4 drains under the tank have a union right after the bulkhead. The emergency drains (outside ones) don't have any valves attached...don't see the need and gate valves this size are ridiculously expensive (like $35 each). Full siphon main drain has the gate valve after the union.

I stuck a couple lengths of PVC and dry fit them into the drain outlets so that they extend below the water surface within the filter sock (I can easily remove them once a week to change the socks). This makes everything completely silent:


Drains are flowing into dual 7x16", 100 micron filter socks that are held in place with a couple filter sock holders from BRS (expensive for what they are, kind of flimsy, but work so far...also I got lazy and did not want to fabricate my own).

The pump is a Fluval SP6, 3400gph at no head...I estimate I'm getting about 1800-2000gph out of mine with head loss. I put a 5 gallon bucket of pond matrix in 8 cheap mesh bags that are piled around the pump intake. The pump return is 1" diameter up until the back edge of tank where it is teed to 3/4" each way and culminates in dual 3/4" lock lines. After the pump is a true union ball valve (I don't really see the need, but everyone has them so I am a sheep!). After that is teed off to a 3/4" gate valve that I was gong to use to feed a refugium for plant filtration...I ran out of room in the sump for a fuge so it may eventually feed a UV sterilizer. I was planning on bleeding off some of the pump return too it the pump was too powerful...it is not and now I want a bigger pump.


Heres the return up the back, everything is held solid with pipe clamps. I painted the returns black with Krylon fusion so they look a look better. Oh and the back of the tank is painted with plasti dip incase I need to remove it later. 


Wish I would have taken a few pics after I put the substrate in bc you couldn't even see the back of the tank it was so muddy. Reason being is I went with Caribsea peace river gravel because of its perfect size. In order to avoid $100 in shipping I ordered 8, 20lb bags from petco bc shipping is $6.99 flat. They only had the "instant aquarium" **** which supposedly has a bunch of beneficial bacteria in it to jump start cycling, jury is out on that one. I was going to just rinse it, but after spending 30 min with the first bag and still not getting it clear, I just dumped the other 4 bags in, mud and all (which the directions say to do). I only received 5 of my 8 bags btw, so I will prob add another bag or 2 when they come and return the remainder to petco.

Anywho tank looked like a pile of poo water, but was filtered crystal clear within 2 hours...so far very impressed with filter socks:




So far for decor I have ordered a fake piece of driftwood from Universal Rocks 
https://www.universalrocks.com/aquarium ... mr-004.htm

And a couple of the marineland 3' bamboo fake plants. I could use some suggestions for remainder of decor/hiding places. Want to get a few clown loaches and a few med sized american cichlids fyi.

Thats all for now! Need to build the canopy to match the stand...need to figure out how to place/mount my lights (2x 36" current USA satellite plus pro). Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far!


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## Rare7 (Dec 31, 2014)

kUDOS for taking the project by hand and adding a few twisted to your aquarium. Everything looks great!


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## Loume (Dec 27, 2014)

Yeah, it's more rewarding in the end for DIY, even if you didn't save anything, and there are things you would do differently, good for you for taking the plunge! Looking really nice, and keep us updated with your further progress. Good job, and thanks for sharing!

If you return some of the substrate to petco, be sure to print up a return form from the online site first, you will need that. Sounds like the muck cleared up exceptionally fast. Will you be cycling now with ammonia?

I know pics can be deceiving, but it looks like your substrate grain size might be a little larger than what I've got. Do you think the I.A. version is true to the 1 to 2mm size? If I can figure out how, I'll post a pic what of what I've got a little later.


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## Loume (Dec 27, 2014)

trying a pic


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## ntayler (Nov 27, 2014)

yeah that substrate looks the same, looks a lot darker until you get it under light, I am pleased wight the color and small grain size


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## Loume (Dec 27, 2014)

:thumb:


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Very nice job on the stand, filtration and tank set up!!!

I have also found it difficult to get the stain the correct color when I did my 125G stand. It also came out a bit too orange.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice! I too have suffered the dreaded 'orange/red' stain. Turned out better after poly.


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

GTZ said:


> Very nice! I too have suffered the dreaded 'orange/red' stain. Turned out better after poly.


Not sure I've ever seen it mentioned here - but always, always, always test your stain and finish on pieces of scrap from the project. Different woods "take" stains differently.

Says the guy with 10 different stains in his basement storage.

Seriously, much better to find out on scrap than on the actual stand/canopy.


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## pelphrey (Apr 9, 2014)

Read through this thread earlier today. Great build. I just recently built my own stand, not nearly as nice as the stand you built. It was rewarding and built a ton of confidence. Looking forward to following along and watching this tank! If you have any youtube videos post the link to your channel.


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## boomer92 (Apr 17, 2013)

Enjoying the thread, good stuff, keep it updated!


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