So after joining the club my tank quickly became over crowded with all the new corals, so I built this 20 gallon all in one as an upgrade. I took an old 20 long I had in the closet and ripped off the top rim and sanded the glass for safety. I got some acrylic and cut it down to size. I cut a half in return hole, and cut slits for skimming and draining. Painted the whole thing black and siliconed it in place. I water tested and found a leak. So i drained and patched the leaking area. The second water test was clear. I then put in a cobalt maxi jet 1200 and realized my skimmer slits didn't allow enough flow. I removed every other tooth and them had adequate flow. I used some light defuser grid to make a media basket. And tranfered some of the ceramic media from my pico tank to seed the new rock. I built a shelf from some reclaimed bricks from a friends fireplace deconstruction and some 8 inch planks held together with pocket hole screws. My wife stained and sealed them. I found some cloth baskets for storage/ hiding test kits and other aquarium stuff. I used a mix of carib sea life rock and dead rock from Aaron. I also put in an inch of caribsea aragonite sand. Starting dosing with microbacter Evaporation is much higher from this tank, so I got a thin piece of plexy as a lid. This severely reduced the evaporation. I drilled a few series of holes to allow for ventilation as well as collection points for condensation. Once the tank has finished its fishless cycle I'll move my AI Prime HD from my pico tank over with my corals.
Awesome DIY! It's like your own IM Fusion tank! One question and one suggestion. Does removing the top rim compromise tank integrity at all? I have no idea but didn't know if the glass thickness and silicone were strong enough. I would either add another piece of black acrylic in the overflow chamber or paint that part of the tank black. It would look professional with that addition!
I question if it will stay together without the top rim as well they seem to keep it from spreading although might be fine with a 20 gallon
I did some reading before removing the top rim and I couldn't find any negative experiences from people. I also took some calipers and measure a week after it was filled and it hadn't bulged at all. I do plan to keep an eye on it though. I plan to wrap the back at some point, probably gonna use some car window tint. That way i can use a flashlight and look in there if needed.
How is this tank going for you? this reminds me of when I built a frag tank out of a broke 40 gallon breeder. Although you made this a beautiful AIO setup when all I needed to do was drill a few holes for bulkheads. can't wait to see it full of corals.
Tank is going great. Had a bad algae outbreak for a little bit, but that's expected with only a few month old tank. Trimmed the lights back and a few water changes seems to have knocked it down for now. All the first corals have really started to grow and after this weekends frag fest it is really starting to get some stock. Here is a quick update picture.