New Custom Tank Build - Built-in Recurve Tank with Fish Room

[mFrame]

It's been a crazy year and a half with Covid and all the other radical changes, so It's been a while since I've posted.  The biggest change for us has been the determination to build a new house. In designing the floorplan and rooms my wife suggested I build a dedicated fish room and incorporate the tank in the wall.  She didn't have to ask twice.

In talking with Timfish I expressed that I wanted the tank to be more than just a "window" of fish, I wanted it to be more dynamic and engaging to people as they watched.  He pointed me to Aqua Vim's piano aquarium.

 

I really like the design as it is unique, made of glass, and gives the viewer a central location where they can stand and be nearly surrounded by the aquarium.  What I didn't like were the fixed sizes, dealing with shipping from overseas (cost and timing), and the need to incorporate their stand and cover into the design and style of our new home's walls.  

That lead to the discussion of doing a custom acrylic tank.  There are several advantages to this: we get exactly what we want, customized to the home and fish room; lower cost and virtually no shipping.  Disadvantages: acrylic scratches easily; requires some specific tooling and setup for forming the tank; requires custom projects for carpentry and lighting.

Budgets say even with the tooling that we can build a larger acrylic tank at about 1/3 of the cost.  For those savings, even if there are scratches later (which ultimately could be sanded out), I can replace the tank in several years more cheaply than buying glass to begin with.

A few basics to begin, starting with the living room/fish room layout and the rough design of the tank.

 

Aqua Vim's piano shape is nice, but didn't have as much of a dual curve as I wanted.  With some brainstorming we came up with what we are calling a Recurve design.  Dual half circles create a central viewing point that should allow you to be surrounded by the aquarium in nearly  a 180 degree radius. 

So with a basic plan in mind, we started construction and had the foundation poured in October 2020.  That proceeded to framing, electrical, a/c and all that follows.  We're on track to be completed and move around July 2021, so we've got to get moving on the tank construction so that my wife doesn't have to deal with a gaping hole in her living room wall!

 

 

 

[mFrame]

Tank Build

It was really rainy the day we finished constructing the oven.

The tank construction itself is a fascinating process.  Tim built an acrylic `oven` out of lumber, metal sheets, insulation, and a clothes dryer heater element.  The oven is basically a large wooden frame with insulated sides, top and bottom.  At one end the plywood is covered with sheet metal to both protect the wood and to trap and redirect the heat that is provided by the dryer heater element.  A fan provides circulation to move the heated air throughout the oven and around the form.  

The custom form for the acrylic is placed in the oven to the right of the element.  Wool blankets are placed over the form to provide a consistent smooth surface, we don't want nail or screwhead indentations in the finished acrylic.  The sheet acrylic is then placed on top of the form, and the doors and top of the oven are put on.  The heater element is turned on and then you wait until the internal temp hits about 300 degrees.

Even at that temp the acrylic doesn't become goopy, just droopy.  As it heats up it starts to sag, and if you're lucky it conforms to the form. If you have significant dips or other challenges you might have to add some force or weight to the top of the acrylic to push it down into place, but that obviously risks marring that side of the acrylic. In our case the temperature was enough to get the shape we were looking for. 

Once the shape is achieved the heater is turned off and the oven is allowed to cool while the acrylic hardens.  You don't want to rush this step as the acrylic has absorbed a lot of heat and needs to cool slowly.

As you can see here, we think it came out pretty nice.

[mFrame]

Cabinetry Build

The stand is made from a series of 2x4s with plywood pieces cut to match the top and bottom contour of the tank front.  The fishroom floor is approximately 2" lower than the living room floor so the stand has a dropdown `step` on the back portion to accommodate the floor transition.  2x4s are sturdy and cheap, and this design should allow for easy access from the back of the aquarium.

 

[mFrame]

Placeholder for Lighting/Electrical

[mFrame]

Placeholder for Fish Room design

[mFrame]

Placeholder for Water Management 

[victoly]

its alive!

[Timfish]

Looks like I'm committed now!   This is going to be a fun system to build and setup.

[mFrame]

Lots of progress specifically in terms of house construction, stand, and tank assembly.  We're on target for moving in on 8/15, so we really want to have the stand and tank in place and ready to stage the rock and equipment for adding water by the start of August.  The builder is being great about allowing us 'early' access to the house so that we're ready to go when we get the actual keys.

The stand is roughed out and has been put in place in the house so that we can start working on shimming/leveling and doing some marine epoxy to seal it.  Next we'll start planning the skin that faces the living room and begin looking at the canopy.

 

Tim continues to make great progress on the tank itself and I'm incredibly happy with how it's going.  The seams where the front connects to the sides will be masked on each side with the framework and trim.

[mFrame]

Made decent progress on the outer stand skin yesterday.  The bottom and top surfaces were painted with Rustoleum Appliance paint to protect against water.  We then installed some plastic mesh to the bottom to provide a little standoff for any trapped water to evaporate, and ended with a sheet of rubber attached to the stand front and sides that will redirect any water back into the fish room and drain.

We pre-drilled (2) 3" holes through the top of the stand.  These will be used for the internal overflows and return lines, there won't be any external overflow on the system.

After that we installed a trimmed down piece of 4' x 8' trim board as the skin's initial layer.

 

[Jimbo662]

18 minutes ago, mFrame said:

Made decent progress on the outer stand skin yesterday.  The bottom and top surfaces were painted with Rustoleum Appliance paint to protect against water.  We then installed some plastic mesh to the bottom to provide a littel standoff for any trapped water to evaporate, and ended with a sheet of rubber attached to the stand front and sides that will redirect any water back into the fish room and drain.

We pre-drilled (2) 3" holes through the top of the stand.  These will be used for the internal overflows and return lines, there won't be any external overflow on the system.

After that we installed a trimmed down piece of 4' x 8' trim board as the skin's initial layer.

 

That looks great!

 

[mFrame]

Past due for an update here.  With the move into the new house (and numerous items that weren't complete on move-in due to COVID supply chain issues), we've been busy finishing up other projects and doing workarounds.  The tank took a backseat since it was running and the fish were alive.

So to catch up, back in August and September Tim and Jason brought the tank over and we all wrangled it into place.  I was really happy with the shape and design, man this acrylic is THICK.  There are some seams we would have to account for/hide, but figured we'd just address those as they came up.

 

So then move day happened in a blur, and Tim and Jason were kind enough to handle the livestock transfer and initial layout for me.

You may notice the canopy on top.  This part was very cool and took a few weekends of me and Tim tinkering and customizing it.

As you can see it's super light which will help when accessing the front of the tank.

Mounted and hinges in place.

So much progress so fast, and then.... it sat.  I'd think about it in the off hours, order parts to pile up, and then think some more.

Finally about two weeks ago the tank began to shift back as a priority, we got tired of seeing the unfinished cabinet and so decided to focus on it.  Laura was a big motivator and help.

The prior month's debate had focused on how to handle the curved trim pieces, how to finish the edges to make it look built-in, and to determine just how much detail we wanted on the stand itself. Originally I had planned to make faux curved cabinet doors to match our kitchen cabinets. In the end that seemed like overkill and like it would actually distract from the aquarium.  Time will tell if we change our minds.

To address the curved molding, the easiest path was to go with a product by Trimster (https://www.trimster.com/flexible_moldings).  They had a base mold in stock that matched the rest of the floor mold in our house, so I selected it and three other moldings to serve as the canopy top and bottom trim, the cabinet base, and the transition from the tank to the base.

As you can see, the trim is VERY flexible, but VERY heavy. It's made from a polyurethane blend that has a sawdust infused in it to make it look and cut like wood. You can see just how flexible it is here:

With the trim in hand, we begin laying out lengths and trying to figure out what to adjust.

 

I also knew I'd have to adjust for the stand sticking out about 1/4" farther than the aquarium. This actually worked out to my favor as I was able to dado a channel in the trim so that some of its weight would rest on that ledge to support it.  Here's a detailed pic to help clarify.

 

 

All trim was attached with construction adhesive and staples, then small gaps were caulked. I used a thin strip of double stick tape to help hold in place while I stapled.

 

Once the trim was all attached I taped up the aquarium and got ready for painting.

 

Then lots of putty, sanding, and then paint. And here's the nearly finished product.  We still have to install weather strip at the top and fill the gaps on each side, I'm still trying to decide whether or not that will be custom cut wood/caulk, or foam backer to fill the gaps with caulk on top. We'll also most likely add some kind of decoration to the canopy and stand.  

Overall the paint and style match the rest of our cabinetry really well.  The white on gray really highlights the blue of the tank and its occupants.

 

 

[Timfish]

Awesome! (If I do say so myself )

[+dapettit]

Awesome tank. I hope to see it real life on day!

[Jimbo662]

Looking for an update...