20 Long AIO: Build day 3 The False Wall

Continuation of the 20 gallon long all in one build. Today I will be showing the creation and fitting of the false wall in the aquarium as well as some silicone work and spray painting.

Getting a quality, nice looking, silicone bead is tough to do in such small places. I recommend using a small bottle of silicone for this part of the build – or filling up a straw with silicone, then squeezing it into the small corners of the false wall chambers.

Here is a test fit after the corners of the false wall were completed. So far everything is fitting nicely and the footprint of the entire chamber is going to be very minimal. The white smudges are from the Super glue that was used to seat the false wall baffles before silicone was applied. This chamber to the right is were the refugium with live macros will be held, and the second chamber will have a media rack with chemipure, carbon, and phosphate sponge. The final chamber which is not complete in the picture all the way to the left will house the maxijet 600 return pump.

Drilled the hole for the return pump in the false wall. Depending on the thickness and grade of the acrylic, it can crack very easily. Make sure to use a good drill bit for this or you might be doing it again.

For me, it came out nice and easy. Another test fit:

Now its time to paint the pieces of the false wall. It is very important to use the right type of paint for the occasion. Since I used acrylic for the false wall, I had to get the Krylon Fusion paint made specifically for plastics. This paint IS reef safe and will not release any toxins into the water over time.

As you can see in the picture below, there are 2 cans of paint, one black and one white. The black is for the front side of the false wall (the part you will see) and the white is for the inside of the false wall in the refugium chamber. I used white in the refugium portion because white reflects light better and will make for a much brighter refugium, which in turn should make it more efficient for growing macro algaes and removing nitrate and phosphate.

Oh yea, this is totally going to grow some serious macro.

Everything looking good so far. I love how the footprint of this AIO is so small and that the full length of the tank is still available for rock and livestock.

Now comes the toughest part of the build so far. Figuring out how to attach the last chamber of the false wall, while still being structurally sound, was quite baffling. But, after some research and trial and error, I came up with this: The Silicone Hinge

The silicone hinge worked perfectly. After the silicone dries, its even possible to move the wall like a door when placed in the tank. Once this is siliconed to the tank, there will be no issues with structural stability.

And the finished product. The false wall has been glued in with copious amounts of reef safe silicone. Its not going anywhere

Hope you enjoyed this episode of the 20 gallon long all in one build. Next time we will be looking at finishing up the tank by painting up the back wall and placing her on the stand at the final resting place before water, rock, and livestock move to their new home.

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332 Responses to “20 Long AIO: Build day 3 The False Wall”

1. Johnny Chase says:

   May 17, 2011 at 12:36 am

   B+

   MORE GRAPHIC NUDITY NEXT TIME!
2. admin says:

   May 17, 2011 at 10:01 am

   I’ll see what I can do