I got my first bottom-filtered tank in time for the Chinese New Year 2021. In retrospect, I have been playing with water for seven or eight years, and have opened seven or eight tanks one after another. “)
This time, except for the main tank, bottom filter, and the light tray, the bottom cabinet, piping and light stand are all DIY, mainly to match the minimalist style of this office renovation, the finished cabinets and related accessories on the market really don’t match the style, so I have to do it myself.
Fish tank list.
Main tank: side backpack overflow tank, size 120x60x35cm, 12mm thick
Bottom filter: three drawer wet/dry box + three compartments bottom filter tank. Size 90x45x90cm
Bottom cabinet: size 120x125x60cm, frame in 4040 aluminium profile, top in cement fibreboard
Light: magic point s, RGB tri-colour beads, 120cm
Light stand: 1515 black aluminium alloy profile
Tube: Taiwan Sanli
Heating rod: 300w Genstar heating rod x2
Water pump: Tronin inverter
Air pump: Tronin silent pump
Filter material: long bio-house + hollow quartz balls
Fluidised bed: K1+K2 packing
Note: All visible materials are blackened as far as possible
How it looks when the light is on
Details.
Two 20 upper pipes, one 40 overflow pipe, one 40 forced drain pipe, OCD, the same elevation of the opening holes, ball valve all installed into the cabinet, as far as possible to reduce the exposed pipes and fittings.
The layout of the cabinet can be seen in the B-site video inserted later in the article, which will show the detailed process of opening the tank.
In order to cut a perfect 45 degree chamfer for the splice, I bought an angle saw =. =.
The wire pendant was originally chrome plated brass, but I couldn’t find any black ones, so I had to find another way. It just so happened that for work reasons, I had the matching supplier apply a titanium nitride coating, in grey and black.
The wire rope was also replaced with a 1mm wire fishing line covered with black rubber.
The original plan was to splice it at a 45 degree angle, but the seller refused to do so (cement boards are not easy to buy, not locally, and overseas sellers refused to send less, so this time I had to add money and shipping costs to get someone to send me two large 2.4×1.2m boards, which were cut into six small 1.2×0.6m boards), but in the end it landed perfectly.
PS: Be careful with concrete boards, they can easily arch up if not fixed properly. This time, I ate the loss of the last tank, all the movable door panels were fixed with aluminium profiles as keel frame.
