Smitti started another one...

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Smittiferous

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Frankston South, Victoria
Picked this up from Gumtree

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1200x450x450 and came with a stand and a canister filter that from what Google tells me seems to be a fairly reasonable one (Otto PF450G).

Already stripped out the interior silicone for re-snotting. Going to replace the mouldings around the stand with some DAR pine that'll be firmly fixed to the stand (read: all the screws!) and will have a tower-style lid that rests atop that, with loads of tiered platforms and ledges with branches affixed for monkey business.


Ultimately will be home to a trio of oh-so-very tiny EWDs I picked up two weeks ago! Two of these will be re-homed on to friends when they get their collective arses into gear and get their permits in order.

Never done a semi-aquatic build before so if anyone has some words of wisdom, I'm all ears (eyes, rather)
 
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I love seeing how these things progress! Good luck!
 
The hype for another awesome DIY Thread! About time you showed up :lol:

Yeah, been crazy busy with work as before the boss disappeared off to Thailand he handed me some sets of plans and the company credit card, uttering the words "just make it happen".

I was hoping the exterior dimensions would match up with what's available from Bunnings for ease of construction but it appears that isn't the case. Will have to get creative with design as I hate ripping timber in multiple directions :S

Got some new ideas I want to try out though...
 
That's one of my plans... The aquarium has cross-braces, so to hide them and brace the actual tower structure at the bottom I'll be using some marine ply that will be the same rough dimensions as the braces, with some faux rocks made from grout, to make some of the platforms. Also going to make some of those fake vines like in the DIY thread, one of them I'll entwine a low-wattage heat cord I have sitting around, to make a sort of heated night time warm-ish spot to rest on.
 
I also scored some fake stacked-stone cladding, looks like it's made from compressed fibreglass. Once i determine how suitable it will be I may use it as a basis for a fake rock background.
 
Re-applied the silicone on the inside of the tank.











Looks balls.




Bought some silicone profile thingies (different sized radii/square profiles etc). Finger finish would have been better! Might cut it all out again and re-do it...
 
Scraped off the new stuff and did it again with a smaller profile. Still looks like ****, but less so. Snot can go f@$k itself.

And so the seven day curing period starts again.
 
After getting all the woodwork on the cabinet conversion done, turned my attention to this job. Started by stripping the mouldings from the stand and sanding back the glue, and adding screws in addition to the brads used by the manufacturer:

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Rant:

This makes me ******. "Professionally" made stand and this is how they fixed the shelf:

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Are they ****ing serious? I wondered why it was so wobbly. This is an absolute joke. I'm not a carpenter and have had zero formal training and can do a better job with my eyes shut. Learn to carpent! ****!

/rant
 
Hey Smitti, have you thought about doing a foam and pond sealer type background for all 3 sides of the aquarium? the big problem i had with my 6 ft aquarium that my Intergrade used to live in was massive heat loss through the glass, i ended up getting some Styrofoam sheets from the big bin out the back of the good guys plus some other foam packing and a couple of cans of expanda foam and made a 3 piece sandstone wall looking backing for 3 sides of the tank, I used blue tack to attach to the glass so if i wanted to i could make a couple of different 1s to either mix and match or just have a few different backgrounds, anyway it fixed my heat loss probs and looked good in the process. :) .................Ron
 
[MENTION=36030]ronhalling[/MENTION] Stay tuned, got big plans for this one. Hopefully I can pull off what I want to create. Yes there will be fake rock style backgrounds, but if all goes to plan not what people would expect :)
 
Turning our great Smitti! Damn, you could make a living outta this. Make enclosures, grab a cuppa sitting in front of your animals!
 
Turning our great Smitti! Damn, you could make a living outta this. Make enclosures, grab a cuppa sitting in front of your animals!

If I thought it would be viable, I certainly would... Main problem is I am never ever completely happy with anything I do for my own, it'd be doubly as bad if I were making them to sell!
 
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