This article came at the expense of a disaster. I bought a 6x2x2 tank. It cracked. 

Not to throw the towel, I took it apart, had panels cut in half, new panels made, and here is my tutorial on how to build your own fish/shrimp/planted tank. First, build a stand for the tank.

Get your glass panels ready. To figure out what sizes you need, remember that the bottom supports the sides. Your bottom panel has to be the exact width and length as you planned tank. A 100x50x40 tank with 10mm thick glass needs a 100x50cm bottom panel.

The front and back are the same width as the bottom, but the glass’ thickness shorter than the projected height. For the example, front and rear panels would be 100x39cm.

The sides sit on the bottom, and between the front and rear panels. Subtract the thickness from the height once, and for the width twice, here the sides would be 48x39cm. If you are reusing old aquarium panels, scrape them clean with a razor blade, then wipe off any silicone residue with acetone. Let dry.

Tools needed:

A good razor blade or sharp utility knife, tape, either electrical, masking or both, a caulking gun, twice the silicone tubes you think you’ll need, optional are suction cup handles to move the glass around, I did this build alone, it helped for the big panels.

Get your work area ready, cover the floor, table, bench you’re working on. Have moist rags and/or gloves at your disposal. Make sure your work surface is flat, clean of debris and level. Put your panels within easy reach.

You have limited time to work with silicone, it starts to skin, to dry its surface fairly quickly, so you have to be organised. The longer the seam, the faster you need to work.

Apply the first bead of silicone on the bottom panel where the rear panel will sit. How thick depends on how experienced you are, and how thick your panels are. In my case, I did a bead of around 10mm, because my glass is 10mm thick. Do not worry about putting too much. Too much is better than not enough.

Put the rear panel in place, making sure it sits right on the edge of the bottom panel, flush on both sides. Have someone or something hold the panel up for a moment.

Apply a bead of silicone on one side of both the bottom and the rear panel, and while keeping the rear panel slightly tilted back, put one of the side panels in place on the bottom panel. Then bring up the rear panel and push it against the side panel, making sure they’re square and flush with each other. They will now hold each other with the silicone. Put a piece of tape or two across the corner as extra support.

Repeat the operation on the other side, this time lay the side panel a few mm off to the front and slide it in place against the rear panel. Make sure they’re square and flush, and tape them.

Apply silicone on the front top edge of the bottom panel and the edges of both side panels. Bring your front panel at an angle, sit the bottom first, make it flush to bottom panel, then press it against the sides. Square, flush, tape.

Let the tank cure for about 24 hours. Watch your berried shrimp in the meantime.

Once the silicone is dry, remove the excess with a sharp blade. Trim the inside carefully, just to remove the excess and not to dig and cut between the panels. There is no real need to use acetone there, it is mainly used because new silicone doesn’t stick well to old silicone. So unless you went crazy on the amount of silicone you put on the first part and it went everywhere, you can leave the little bits around the corners.

Tape the edges of the tank leaving the corners exposed. About 5-10mm is good, some prefer to leave a wider gap around the bottom.

Apply silicone to the corners, starting around the bottom, then go up in the corners. You don’t need much there, a good bead size would be around 80% of the gap you left with the tape.

Smooth out the silicone with your finger to give it a nice concave shape. 

Remove the tape while the silicone is still wet. Take care of not putting silicone everywhere and not to destroy your awesome corners as you remove it.

Let the tank cure once more, for three to seven days this time. Why not watch your fish play in the bubbles?

After the curing is done, do a test fill. If possible do it outside. If not, I suggest doing it slowly, adding a few cm at a time and constantly monitoring the seams for any signs of leakage.

The test fill is also a good moment to see if you need to brace your tank. As you fill your tank, measure the distance between the front and back on both sides and compare the results with the measure in the center. If your panels are bowing by the same or more than their thickness, I’d recommend a brace. In this case, the bowing is only 1-1.5mm while the tank is ¾ filled. I do not need bracing.

If everything is in order, scape, plant, fill, cycle, stock and enjoy your new DIY tank.

Side note: if you are building a small tank, the cure period between the assembly and the reseal may be skipped by working fast enough to smooth the silicone as you go.

On bigger tanks, like my 6ft, by the time I fit the panel, the silicone is already drying where I started to lay the bead, making it impossible to create a clean seam.

My tank's specs: 6X2X1 (1830x610x310mm) 10mm thick glass. Filtration: Sponge + double overflow to sump (to be built).

Stand: DIY 70x35 timber, 1830x610x800.
 

What was used was:

• Aquarium safe silicone or superglue
• Ceramic rings (choose an inert one and one that has a nice hole size for the specific shrimp you are making it for) I chose Mr Aqua M size. It is inert and quite porous for extra surface area (never a bad thing). You may want to look at getting the L size if you are making for large adult shrimp.
• Stick like a shish kebab stick to clear any obstructions that the silicone may have caused on the inside of the rings.

They look quite nice I reckon, with moss on them will look even better!

For around $15 you can easily make 10+ pyramids, go crazy and make them as big/small as you want, giant levelled pyramids or single logs, up to you!

in this hobby we like to save where possible, so making these are a great way to save!

Note: It is recommended that you use protective goggles and gloves, as frayed mesh wires can get pretty sharp.

Here is what you will need to make the filter guard:

• Stainless Steel Mesh sheet hole size #30 (can be purchased at the mesh company online, I got the A3 size sheet which is enough for a lot of guards!)
• Tin snips
• Heat Shrink (depending on the size of your tube get the heat shrink at least 5mm bigger, can be purchased eBay)
• Heat source (Lighter, hair dryer, heat gun, etc)
• A tube of the size required
• Pencil, marker
• Ruler
• Cable ties
• Craft knife

Steps

Prepare cable ties as you will need both hands free

Cut mesh sheet to size depending on how long you want the guard and how thin the tube is (I cut mine 10cmx10cm) and wrap tightly around the tube, secure tightly with cable ties

Cut another piece of mesh depending on the width of the mesh wrapped around tube (mine was 18mm), cut a square piece (18x18mm), place on end of mesh and bend corners over

Cut a bit of heat shrink (mine was 2cm) and place over the mesh making sure the piece of mesh covering the end stays in place, leave about 0.5cm above.

Using the heat source you are using (I just used a lighter) and heat the heat shrink until it shrinks tightly around the mesh (make sure you don't heat the same place for too long as it will melt! Just quickly run the flame over the shrink) and then quickly push the end down on a flat surface for a minute.

The outcome should be something like this (you can use the craft knife to make the opening bigger if you wish)

Now for the other end, repeat the steps above but shove the tube in instead. Leave for a minute or so.

Remove the tube and cut the cable ties, cut a thin bit of heat shrink to place in middle of guard for extra support, heat it until tight. And there you have it, your DIY filter guard.

For a fraction of the cost you can make all the filter guards needed, can be HOB, canister, overflow pipe, etc. for your 20 shrimp tanks!

It's a combination of LED lights, and painted cardboard.

Start with cardboard sheets, I purchased it from art supply shops or they can also be found in most $2 shops in the art supply section.

You can choose white cardboard, but I chose sky blue, to simulate the sky.

The cardboard, is trimmed to the sized of the tank. Join several pieces together if needed.

It's then as simple as painting, or rather blotting white paint onto the blue cardboard.

I used white watercolour blotted onto the cardboard for the cloud effect. I find watercolour gave the best cloud like effects.

You'll notice it's not perfect, and it doesn't have to be perfect. That's the beauty of it.

The next is the lighting.

It's just a simple LED strip of light placed at the back of the tank.

It's your preference in the type of LEDs you get, and how many strips you use. I used 5050 LEDs, and double strips for that extra brightness.

Now, it's just a matter of placing your cardboard at the back of the tank like so...

Notice, the LED lights are in between the board and tank.

Here's what it looks like with different coloured effects.

Please excuse my DIY surface skimmer in these next shots. Yes, it ruins the look, but be assured, it's only temporary while the tank is cycling.

After a bush fire...

Tropical waters ...

A simple white sheet of cardboard is also very effective.

Here is an example of a plain white background with the LED lights, on a small section of the tank. I need to show you a better pic of the full tank with a white background and lights.

If you find the cardboard too thin and does not sit up straight, you can always glue it to a thick piece of board.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Told you it was simple. But then again the simple things are always the best.

It can be materials, price, function, does it catch shrimp successfully?

I've used had many shrimp nets, and the best ones, that actually catch shrimp easily, are the ones whose net stays open and forms a little cup that does not scare the shrimp into swimming the other way when you try to catch them. Because it is not obstructed and looks like an escape route, the shrimp just seem to swim right in.

Unlike soft, floppy nets, that look like a barrier. These nets don't have enough stiffness to keep the net open.

The solution?

A cable tie cut into the appropriate length to keep the net open.

Carefully place it into the net like so ...

There you have it.

A $2 net that will now catch shrimp like the $30 one I have.

Jayc.

So With these simple drawings you can understand the most basic way of plumbing up a system.

The way i have drawn it is what works best for me and it is the way i have plumbed up all 64

tanks in my various systems now. You can modify any of the fittings and pipe to suit the size of your system but the lay out is tried and proven and works perfect.

So i will start with the Over Flow (water going from tanks to sump). In the picture below you will see on the notes that i use 40mm pipe everywhere except the upstands (pipe going to bulkheads) this is to allow for the larger volume of water that passes though this pipe as its draining from every tank.

The pipe that runs up the outside beside the tank with an end cap needs to have a hole drilled in the top (5mm). This pipe's purpose is as a noise reduction, if you dont have this you will get more noise in the pipes from the water.

The next is the return. (water going from the sump into the tanks)

For the return plumbing the pipe size is all the same, as a rule i always use the same size return pipe as the upstands used on overflow pipes.

the only important thing to remember about this part of the plumbing is to make sure your corners use 2x 45 elbows to make the corner turn. If you use a 90 elbow it restricts the flow a little and makes the pump work harder than it needs to.

You will notice there are 2 ball valves, one on each row of outlets before the pipe going into the individual tanks. This is to control the flow of water to each rack so it flows evenly as the first row of tanks will get more pressure from the pump than the top row, so you can reduce the pressure at the bottom to get the same pressure at the top :)

Its always good to put a UV inline also as a bit of back up against any bacterial problems or algae blooms :)

Feel free to ask the questions on this thread so everyone can benefit from the sharing of info ;)

The Summer months can be particularly harsh and fatal for your shrimps. The temperatures reaching up to the 40 degrees mark depending on where you reside can spell impending doom for your shrimp. During these hot days you can see shrimp keepers around the world posting threads such as "Help shrimp dying!" and "why are my shrimp not active and pale"? The higher temperatures are an invitation for nasty bacteria and diseases, another factor is the shortage of oxygen in the water on those hot summer days.

This article will show how to make a simple, cheap but effective way to help with the hot temperatures during summer, of course this is in no way meant to take the place of a chiller as chillers are always the best way to maintain a stable temperature during summer but this DIY fan should be used only as a means to lower the temperature 2-4 degrees ambient temperature, especially for those of us who reside in areas where the temperature does not get that extreme and can not afford a chiller as yet. Also an excellent cooling solution for Nano tanks! However for larger tanks I can not stress enough that when you can afford a chiller please do get one.

So lets get started, firstly I will explain what parts are needed.

1. Wire Nuts x 2

2. Laptop Portable Fans x2

3. 240v to DC 5v 2A switching power supply

4. Wire Snips

Now that we have the parts let's get to the DIY part

1. Snip off the USB parts from both of the fans, snip the jack off the power supply and expose wires with the wires snips

2. The fans will have 2 red wires and 2 black wires each (1 red and black wire for the blue LED's and the other for the fan motor), just join all red to red wires and black to black wires as they will all need to be joined to the power supply.

3. Now join the exposed positive wire on the power supply to the red wires on the fans and negative wires on the power supply to the black wires of the fans.

(You can tell which is positive and negative by reading the back of power supply).

4. Screw wire nuts onto the exposed joined wires

We are done! Now to test! (Note if it does not work then unscrew the wire taps and reverse the positive and negative wires)

On my tests the original temperature of the water was 26 deg on my 40l tank, after approximately 40 minutes it had gone down to 23 deg and was at 22 deg after an hour 15 minutes.

All parts purchased in this DIY was from eBay

Portable Fans - $3 each, $6 for two.

Power Supply - $3.10

Wire Nuts (50 pcs) - $1.50

Wire Snips - Free (had them already)

Making a grand total of $10.60 for an excellent cooling solution!

This is a very easy and cheap DIY, the result is a fan that will lower the temperature of the water by 2-4 degrees.

This is a step by step guide to building an air system for anywhere from 10 tanks to 500 tanks or more, the only difference will be the supply pump. This system that I have runs 20 tanks with ease & there is plenty of air to spare for more tanks.

First of all you will need a few things:

1. Air supply pump, I'm using a Resun LP40

2. Heavy duty 13mm irrigation hose, I used 10m for this job

3. 13mm T pieces

4. 13mm L or corner pieces

5. 4mm silicone airline, I used about 15m

6. 4mm threaded taps

7. 4mm irrigation tool

I used heavy duty irrigation hose because it has a thicker wall & it will hold the pressure better & it has a tighter fit on the fittings

Now I'm going to run the hose under the shelf above the tanks that it will be supplying, this way if there is a power failure then there's no chance of any water siphoning back down into the pump.

First step is to measure the length & width of the shelves so you can cut the hose to the right length, then join the pieces together using the L pieces to form a loop. Make a loop for every shelf you have to supply air to. The reason I'm making loops is it balances the air pressure throughout the whole system.

Once the loops are made, you have to decide where the supply is going to join the loop. When you know where the join will be you have cut out a small section so you can put a T piece in, I have chosen to put it down one end, the same end the pump will be.

Next I secured the loop to the under side of the shelf with a multi purpose retaining device, aka Gaffa tape.

Then I started at the other end of the system, I placed the pump where it will stay & started to cut lengths of hose to join it to the rest of the system, first I ran it to the upright of the tank stand then used an L piece & started to run it up to the loops.

I then run a piece of hose up to the first shelf & used a T piece, I also secured the hose to the upright with Gaffa tape. The top shelf was the end of the system so I used a L piece there

Once the whole system is joined together I started to punch holes in the hose with the 4mm irrigation tool & screwed in the 4mm taps, then from the taps I ran 4mm silicone airline to the air stones, sponge filters & the water aging drums, then I adjusted all the taps to have the correct airflow to each item. I also have two lines running full open all the time, this is to relieve back pressure on the pump. Another way to do this would be to have a small reservior made from 100mm PVC pipe, about 300mm long, between the system & the pump.

When you have finished the system & you want to add another tank or air stone, all you have to do is punch another hole, screw in a tap, run the airline & adjust the tap to the correct flow.

Hope everyone enjoys this & has just as much fun as I did building it.