CL 93 acrylic tank cabinet rebuild/refinish

Although I plan to do a stacked tank config out of welded steel. In the interim I went ahead and rebuilt and refinished the flimsy CL cabinet I got as a package with the CL acrylic tank you have seen me post about.

The all pine wood cabinet was a perimeter design with only a few boards that originally sold with the 93 acrylic tank 12 years ago. How the acrylic tank withstood cracking all those years is a mystery to me, you can even see the imprint on the bottom tank panel from the perimeter boards. When I got the stand all the nails were working themselves loose and the perimeter boards were leaning out and the corners separating, only the weight of the tank with water was apparently keening the cabinet stiff.

I decided to spare everyone the rebuild and refinish details like I have previously posted and just tell you that I re-glued and nailed the cabinet back together and added both a 3/8" construction grade plywood floor to stiffen the bottom and a 3/4" furniture grade plywood birch hardwood top.

Luckily whoever originally finished this cabinet only used latex stain and no polyurethane, so the sander made very quick work of stripping (no stripper chemicals needed). I decided to use a lighter stain coat this time and tomorrow I will be putting on the high-gloss polyurethane coat.

The poor tank will finally have a very strong full bottom base support cabinet for it 1000 pounds of wight. Below before and after photos before the Poly-coat tomorrow.

Ozymandias said:

looks vary nice i like the red stain. though i would have liked to see a the rebuild and actual condition of the stand before

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As in my privious post a rebuilds which I display a rebuild for me just involves taking apart all the sides "IF" already loose, inserting Elmer's carpenter glue on all the contact points and reassembling with 2" brad nails.

Then simply installing a floor over the bottom perimeter, recessed 1/2" so that now the bottom appears to be floating and you don't have to see the low grade plywood layer on the bottom. Then a 3/4" birch furniture grade hardwood top.

The added 3/4" hardwood full top besides providing full support for the tank and great looks, like a drum lid provides a substantial amount of support preventing the spreading apart of the cabinet sides over time a real flaw with perimeter wood designs which caused this cabinet to come apart in the first place. The 3/8" plywood low-grade pine perimeter floor I added does that same thing. The added top and bottom together with the re-glued construction, use of Brad 2" finisher nails make the stan so strong now it could probubly hold 4X the designed weight. This with the added refinishing using boat marine grade stain and polyurethane will make this cabinet last indefinitely.

My last 4x8' sheet of Birch ($35) rebuilt 2 major projects and is worth it in both looks, strength, dimensional integrity (perfectly strait) and pre-sanded super-fine ready foe staining. I would have used my last remnant piece but I was short by 14" and could not find a matching thickness in 23/32".

The whole "rebuild" in this case was pretty strait forward just as described and so simpel a cave-man could do it LOL. That hard part which requires a bit of practice is laying on the stain with a 4" brush as I hate using rags

Well the light early this morning was at a low angle it to the photo's left so I have allot of glare and no Polaroid filter for this 13 year old camera Fuji Finepix 700, but the tank is clear just not at this angle to the direct sunlight. I have been making room in my bedroom all night getting rid of a dresser and tearing out closet shelves and hangers for modular shelving, also shelving the garage. As soon as Im done it will be slipping in and getting filled. I decided since the Sunsun 302 has been cycling for 2 weeks now and the SuperCart 404 for 4 weeks I had better take advantage of there cycling ability so my feeder Goldie has a good chance.

I figure all the added space organization will soften the blow to my wife when she see a 6th aquarium when when returns on the 9th LOL.

Ozymandias said:

looks varry nice i like the red stain. though i would have liked to see a the rebuild and actual condition of the stand before

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With my previous reference to your question above I'm afraid I was wrong that you could refer to my previous DIY cabinet refinishing post from last year as they have been deleted. But I did archive them and if needed can re-post the refinish of my 244 tank, stand and canopy if your interested.

Will here is my $70 acrylic tank & cabinet I refurbished and refinished. I must say that although acrylic is wonderfully light weight and strong, and although it does transmit light better (not tinted), glass is still far better when it comes to high resolution and clarity. I mean no matter how clear acrylic looks you can still see it with the clearest of water whereas glass although darker in tint looks almost invisible when tank water is truly clean, bar any scratches for either glass or acrylic.

I guess you have to know something about optics but this is why they still use glass in must high resolution rifle-scopes and telescopes, glass just has better resolution and transparency. Like most things you really cant compare what is man-made to what has been created for our benefit LOL:grinno:.

Henceforth I will call this my 100 Acrylic long tank since the volume dimensions fall withing the 100 gallon category. Overall I am very pleased that the Lord gave me a chance to experience acrylic at a fraction of the price of new which runs about $700-$900 with cabinet. However now having seen it and experienced it, I will stick with glass in the future as it is more beautiful.