Building an All-in-one aquairum

[yungreefer2410]

Hello everyone,

I am here again after a long while away. Anyway I have decided to do something I have wanted to do since I was in 8th grade back in 2008, and that is to design and build my own AIO (all-in-one) tank. So before I start on any actual construction, I thought I would come here and see if any of you had any inputs you would like to see incorporated into an AIO. Right now I only have a few constraints, the length will be 20-30" and the size of the aquarium will be no larger than 35-40 gallons. Suggest/ask/challenge away!

 

[StirCrayzy]

Good to see you back around. I'll tag along to see what becomes of this.

I'm assuming you'll run a fuge area & media chamber setup built behind a false wall?
Or are you going to hang extra chambers off the back?

Rimless, or starting with a framed production tank?

 

[yungreefer2410]

I will actually build the tank itself, and yes I was planning on a fuge area and media area built behind a false wall

 

[DaveK]

Other than you want to do this, is there any special reason to build an all-in-one tank?

The big problem I'm seeing is that if your talking a 35-40 gal tank size, you'll be down to about a 20 to35 gal tank by the time you construct everything. You'll also have a system that can't be upgraded or changed about with out a major tear down.

When you buy an all-in-one such as a Red Sea Max all the design and engineering stuff has already been worked out, and they have made all the mistakes. This way you get a working design. When you do it yourself, you get a chance to make all the design mistakes and correct them. This can cause a lot of trouble in an all in one, since it's got to be torn down to fix many problems.

I suggest that you'd do a lot better building a tank, with and overflow and sump. That way you'll be about to modify the sump without tearing down the tank. True, you'll still need to drain the sump to work on it, but your tank will run a few days with out it, using only circulation pumps.

If you still want to do an all in one, planning is critical. I would restrict the filtration to the basics. Some sort of mechanical filtration, perhaps a sponge, then a skimmer, making you have a large enough area for it, then a media chamber, and lastly a return section.

Do not make the return section too small.You don't want the return pump draining that section and running dry. Make sure the skimmer section is large enough for a skimmer and a couple of optional skimmer replacements. You don't want to end up too small if you need to replace a skimmer and the original model is not available.

Leave out a refugium section. There really isn't enough room to build that into an all in one with out loosing a lot of water volume. Also, IMHO a small refugium causes more problems than it solves, and doesn't contribute much to the system as far as water quality goes.

Good Luck with your project.

 

[yungreefer2410]

Yeah Dave you bring up great points. I misspoke earlier I am not planning on a refuge because I too believe they are too small in that sense to be effective. I only have space for a small tank and I would like to figure out all the design mistakes much like red sea has done. The first models will be constructed out of cardboard and google sketchup. The filtration will be basic, a mechanical section flowing into a skimmer section flowing into a return section.

 

[DaveK]

This brings up another question. What material are you going to use to build this when your ready for actual construction?

While we are on the subject, if your using acrylic, don't use silicone to cement it together. Silicone doesn't stick well to acrylic.

 

[yungreefer2410]

it will be made out of glass.

Pretend this is a tank from an actual company such as red sea or nuvo. What features would you like to see beyond internal filtration?

 

[DaveK]

Here are a few to consider.

LED lighting
ATO system
If possible, put the heater into the filtration system area
Use low iron glass (Starfire) on the front and maybe the sides.
Use black or heavily tinted glass for the piece between the display area and filter area.