where is new tank?

Been a little hectic lately. Haven't actually finished the tank. I have cut the panels and cleaned up the edges but haven't glued them up. Got busy with work and travel that cut into all my available time...

It is on short list of things to do.

done with R+D time to build beta tank

Tomorrow I'm going to start cutting material for a new tank. This one will have the baffles and flow dividers glued in. With them glued in the whole package will be more streamlined.
The alpha R+D tank served it's purpose over the last few weeks. I'll post pictures of the build process. I should have the panels cut and routed tomorrow, and can start glue-up this weekend.

supply diffuser r+d...

Today I fabricated the first of a set of test diffusers for the supply side of the tank. The first diffuser I put in worked great and immediately established laminar flow across the tank. I'm going to quickly move to getting the correct pump and plumbing on the tank for my target flowrate before settling on the final design. I'll also wait for the plants to grow some more to fill the tank up and obstruct the flow. Waiting should provide the best test conditions.

thinking about messing around with flow

I've started experimenting with the flow setup so I get laminar flow across the entire tank. I'm aiming for a nominal flowrate of 0.5in/sec.

To aid in the experiment I planted ~100 stems across the tank so I can see how the water is moving. I'm giving them a little while to grow and establish a foothold.

I'm going to make 10 or so little acrylic panels that will be drilled and slotted in various ways. They'll act as supply/return baffles and will be removable. This will give me flexibility to experiment until I find the baffle combination I like the most.

some plants from these 20L's

Plants will be coming from these tanks. It won't be a true African tank in plant terms - I'll have a mix of anubias, some crypts, etc... in there so it looks cool.

80g tank pics

I havent made any progress since washing and filling the new tank with the flourite black. So I decided to post pictures of the last tank I made. It's 4'x2'x17". It is sitting out in front of my house after I had wetsanded and micromeshed the seams and cutouts. The seams on this tank turned out perfect. One TINY bubble in 32' of seams using 1/2" acrylic. The new tank didn't turn out as well. I expected it to be easier since it was lighter, but I spent a great deal of time with this 80g getting the glue-up work surface flat and used lots of shims under the tank. The new tank has some bubbles but that's OK. I am happy with the new tank's appearance given the time invested. This tank mattered more visually so I spent a great deal of time (and beer) sanding and polishing.

dimensions + flourite black

Overall dimensions of the tank are 49.75" long, 6" deep, and 8" tall. I didn't have any luck taking good pictures tonight so you'll have to wait.
I filled up the tank with Flourite Black substrate. I wanted black substrate against the black background to make the plants and fish really pop. I've used flourite for a long time and 'm liking this stuff a little better because of the grain size. It beats crushing bags of flourite down with a hammer.
Next up will be getting the filtration ready then I can do water and plants.