Hi everybody Joey here again and welcome back.
show you how I built my nano aquarium
now what makes this build special is
I've decided to let you guys choose what
we do with it
it's a 15 gallon acrylic aquarium 24
inches long 12 inches wide 12 inches
tall
this is a pretty good-sized aquarium but
in comparison to what I'm used to it is
an animal aquarium to me now I won't be
setting this tank up right away because
this coming sunday i'm starting the
planted tank series and i know many of
you are really excited to see the planet
tank series especially myself because
it's the first planted tank I've done in
over 10 years
so if you're not subscribed to this
channel yet and that's something you
want to see as well make sure you do in
the meantime let me show you how I built
this nano aquarium that you guys will
remember the 375 gallon tank build what
you don't know is to build this tank i
bought for full sheets of three quarter
inch acrylic now that was an epic relic
to build this but there was a ton of
offcuts now I've said this a couple
times already but I've been building
other tanks with those off cuts or
what's considered scrap acrylic around
here though there's no such thing as
scrap so far i built the office aquarium
with it i built the planted aquarium
with it and now the last piece i built
the nano aquarium with you see the build
this I had an eight by 1-foot she left
meaning it was eight feet long and one
foot wide
there's not a whole lot you can do with
that however to maximize that sheet and
have no waste left i could build a 15
gallon aquarium i started by cutting the
acrylic up using my table saw with a
10-inch 82 carbide tipped blade i need
the front and back piece to start and
they were 24 x 12 each then the bottom
piece was also 24 x 12 now the side
panels actually go on the inside of the
front and back so we have to take into
account the thickness of material we're
using now because this acrylic panels
are sitting on top of the bottom piece
that means that they're going to take up
with three quarters of an inch on either
side a total of one and a half inches
now we subtract that one and a half
inches from the 12 inches and we're left
with ten and a half inches so the last
two pieces i cut were 12 x 10 and a half
then I moved on to edge prep now when it
comes to acrylic aquariums the edges or
everything
essentially you just want to remove
many saw marks or inconsistencies with
the edges you want them to be smooth and
as perfect as you can get them now you
can buy a lot of acrylic tools to scrape
the edges of acrylic however personally
I have always found the back of a
hacksaw blade to be the most efficient
way to do it with the edges now prepared
i peeled back at the protective paper by
about two inches you feel the paperback
so the acrylic cement doesn't melt it
and you can see what you're actually
doing when you submit it together
however you leave the restaurant to
protect the acrylic aquarium from
scratches when you're handling it to
cement this together i laid either the
front or the back panel down flat
it doesn't matter which one you start
with then I take the side panel and put
it on top of that now in the past video
I showed you my plywood forms that i
made that holds the acrylic panels up
straight and square then I put my clamps
in place now these don't squeeze the
acrylic together they're simply there
waiting for me to do so really they're
just hanging there on the acrylic now
we've gone over the different methods of
cementing acrylic but for three quarter
inch acrylic i use the pin method now
the pin method is exactly what it sounds
like you take some really thin pins and
you place it underneath the acrylic then
you inject some well Don for which is
acrylic cement and you allow it to sit
there for about 60 seconds during this
time the weld on for is going to soften
the acrylic up to the point that when
you pull the pins the acrylic fuses
together on a molecular level then you
apply pressure to the clamps until the
scene runs clear now you will squeeze
out a bit of this often acrylic but this
is a good thing you can always remove it
later
however it's a sign that you've made a
good scene you repeat this step for both
sides now usually I would tell you to
wait 24 hours when using the pin method
but for such a small tank it's really
easy to move around so you're not going
to be stressing the seams as much and
that's why you typically wait 24 hours
however with this lightweight 45 minutes
to an hour then repeat with the other
side now it gets a little bit more
tricky because you have to do two sides
at once get the other front or back
panel lay it down flat and flip what
you've already built up on top of it now
to prevent the top panel from bowing in
while you're cementing it or having the
sides kick-out get a piece of wood or
plywood cut to the size of the side
panels
place it in the middle this will be your
support system temporarily again repeat
the steps put in some pins every 12
inches inject the cement wait 60 seconds
pull the pins and apply pressure to the
clamps only this time because we're
doing to side it's the best of prop the
aquarium up on some wood blocks so you
can get your clamps in on either side
now we wait another hour
finally we move on to the bottom panel
now if everything else is square on the
tank the bottom panel is the easiest put
the bottom panel down on the blocks flip
the tank up onto it
place the pins in every 12 inches have
the clamps ready and then inject your
cement all the way around you want to
make sure you inject the cement around
the entire aquarium before you start
pulling those pins but you gotta move
fast because 60 seconds goes really fast
when you're trying to do the entire
perimeter of an aquarium then once again
pull the pins apply pressure to the
clamps and wait now this size aquarium
you can get done in a day
obviously there's waiting times in
between but after you get it done that
day you can fill it up with water the
next
now if you have a lot of woodworking
tools like table saws and routers my
suggestion is to take advantage of them
you see when it comes to acrylic you can
use most of the same tools you use on
wood as you can on acrylic so what that
means to me is that when i'm building
acrylic aquarium I tried to prevent
mistakes before they happen so a lot of
the times i won't build the aquarium to
its exact dimensions a lot of the times
the bottom panel will be slightly bigger
and the side panels will be slightly
longer meaning that there's a little
overhang everywhere which gives me a bit
of a safety buffer when putting the tank
together is simply ensures that the
seams line up perfectly and I make them
line up perfectly with my router later
on by roading off all of that access now
we have to move on to polishing if you
don't polish the edges of an acrylic
aquarium they will remain matted and you
can't see through them in my opinion it
looks horrible
so I get myself some novus to and Nova's
3 this is a fine and heavy scratch
removal they really only need notice too
because if you sand the edges of the
acrylic with some really fine sandpaper
first it does the same thing that those
three is gonna do the way this stuff
works is you get a buffing wheel on an
electric drill add a little bit of the
scratch removal to the surface and then
simply buff it out
you'll notice that within seconds the
scene becomes crystal clear the downside
to this stuff is that it makes a really
big mess or maybe I'm just messy but I
splatter it everywhere so not only do i
have to clean myself up afterwards I
have to clean the tank as well but if
you do splatter it just wipes right off
finally with all of the edges polish you
can go ahead and remove that protect
paper so now I need your help
what are we gonna do with this thing I
have two ideas 1i turn it into a nano
planted aquarium or two we transfer the
fry from the shell dwelling office
aquarium to this and potentially start a
whole new little colony inside this tank
so I'm gonna let you guys but you have
two ways to do it there's going to be a
pop-up that appears right now you can
either click planted tank shell dweller
tank or other if you have an idea for
something else click other and leave the
comment in the comment section below now
in the coming weeks the planted tank
series is going to be going on and i'll
consider all your votes for this tank in
the meantime until then I hope you guys
enjoyed today's video i also want to
thank for watching and I'll see you guys
next Sunday for the planted tank series