Bambo Tank Theme DIY

Laura and Jim will be hosting the May meeting this Saturday the 12th and it will be the usual of food, drinks, raffle and fun.
 
Doors will be open at 6:00 pm for social talk and the meeting will start at 7:00.  Parking gets a little tight and the city says you can't park on 4th but there is a parking lot a block away.   Meeting is usually held in the backyard so feel free to bring your favorite lawn chair, weather permitting of course.

If you need address/directions, contact a club member.

Best if you park at Mini Mall (where the spaghetti establishment use to be)
 
You will get to see his new frag tank set up in the making.
 
Hope to see you there!

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[Kylem]

I recently wanted to move my tank out away from the wall to get better acess to the plumbing.  I wanted to redo my closed loop system.  
After much deciding and discussion with my wife we moved the tank out a way from the wall and build a little room around it about  6 ft tall.
My brother suggested using bambo because he had seen one.  We looked up pictures on the internet...not much out there on bamboo themes.  I didn't like what I saw but it gave me some ideas.

We decided to give the living rm a tropical theme.  So the remodel starts.

I built a new base frame out of 2x4 and 4x4 posts.  On the day that I moved my tank I had everything out into a pond liner I picked up at Home Depot.  I used an old skimmer and power heads and heaters to maintain the pond while I worked on the tank.  The most work of the project was moving everthing thing in and back again.

I  had my brother and brother in law come to move the tank...heavy part since my back was still on the mend.  I had all the work done so it didn't take them long to help me move it.

Then  I replumbed the closed loop to the basement and remade up the tank adapters with 100% silicone this time.   No more leaks!
Well I had two leaks and had to go back and fix it by replacing a cracked  tank adapter.

So after this first initial post I will post some pictures of before and after.
Then I will proceed with pictures and explanations throught the project.

[Kylem]

Here is before and after

[Kylem]

This is a picture of the pond tank while I did some work about moving the tank and replumbing it.

[Kylem]

So here we moved the tank and framed the room.  After the plumbing of course.

[Kylem]

So here are some pic from the back side of the tank.

[Kylem]

Ok so now for the bamboo.
First we have to put the corner pieces in.  Bamboo is tough to work with because it is round and not solid well at least this type is not.  I had to make a vee jig on my fence of my table saw to cut the bamboo...works pretty good...you cant cut them in half of quarters if you like.  In this case I cut a quarter of the the bambo 2" stock for the corner fronts to cover the frame.  And then half rounds to go across the top of the base platform.
The ends must be coped with a coping saw because the bamboo is round.
You can use nails if you want but it will show and that fact that it may split the bamboo when you nail it.  So I used clear silicone caulk. and clamped them on.  Works pretty good even for twisted stuff.

[Kylem]

Ok one more thing on the last pics....I drilled small holes to fish tie wire through...the stuff used to tie rebar and drilled holes throught the 2x4 and wrapped the wire in 3 places.  Works great and don't have to glue it.
Works the same way for the fence material except I spaced the fence wire guides out so when I cut a fence section off I could bend the wire ends over to keep it from coming a part.  The wire is heavy and require some lineman pliers to cut and bend it.  The fence come in 6x15 ft sections in reed and 6x6 in 3/4 pole.

Some hind sight here... before you start it may be a good idea to paint the 2x4 face side first a dark color or black at least because you can see some of the 2x4 behind the fence material.

[Kylem]

Ok for the front and sides on the ends I used 3/4 pole bambo fence 1 to 1 /1/4 " bambo poles for trim ends and border.  All fastened using tie wire.
The door way is much different will get to that in a little while.

[Kylem]

The doorway for the third crash now....Having problems upload with out crashing the server.  

The doorway I cased in 2" bamboo.  Half round all the way up on each side and coped the top piece in place to fit.

The door was made of two 1 1/2" rounds for the sides and 1" rounds tapered and dowled into the side pieces.
I dry fit the door to make sure it fit and made some adjustments and when it fit I glued it together using carpenters wood glue.

The  front side I used 3/4" rounds fence material and drilled holes for the fence wire to go throught to the back of the door and wrapped the wire. The middle parts of the door i wired to the cross pieces to make it lay flat.
The back side of the door I used the reed fence material and cut to snug fit in place without gluing it.   Gives it a cross hatch look when I places them perpendicular to the 3/4 rounds.

I used 3 " door hinges with long screws to reach the 2x4 on the back side of the casing.

[Kylem]

The front canopy section of the tank I used 1 1/4" rounds cut to fit like the bottom and used 1" rounds for the cross pieces and wire ties them to the wood.  The the hood doors I used 3/4 " pole glued to the reed and glued a piece of 3/16" mirrored acrylic on the inside to reflect light and heat back to the tank and give it a shaded look on the front.  The sides I left unshaded to allow for air flow across the lamps.  The door I tied loose tie wire on so I could flip the covers up and back out of the way.

So a little bit of deck sealer should be all to finish it.

Now I have access from the back and the front of the tank.

[luvnsalt]

Kyle!
That is way awesome! I love the look and how fun! Very imaginative. You really need to host a party now so we can come see it for real.
 

[Les]

Kyle, that looks great. And to think I spent alot of work on my cabinet, that bamboo looks like 10 times the amount of work as a normal cabinet.

[Kylem]

Thanks
Yes Bamboo is very labor intensive but it was fun! :lol:

[Rico]

Kyle,

That is awesome!  And a great idea for a theme to go with a reef tank.  Your tank is looking verynice too.  It was good to see you at the January meeting.  Let us know if you want to host a meeting, I think we can get several car pools together to see your setup.

Thanks for sharing
Rick

[Ed]

I agree with Rick.   That looks Cool!   And I bet it does not hold heat inside like a solid canopy would.    I hope you host a meeting very soon.