G
Guest
Well, this weekend me and Blaze threw together another reservoir so I thought we would throw toghether a little tutorial. If you dont have the tools to do this just make all your measurements before hand and go to lowes, they will cut your boards to size for a small fee.
Meow first you will need to get your materials:
2x8" or 2x10" or 2x12" depending on how deep you want the res
3/8" osb
2 1/2" screws and 1 1/4screws
stapler
black plastic
pond liner
Meow our reseviors are 2x4' and are 8" high but you can make yours any size you want. Just figure out the volume of water you want and divide it by 7.5(gallons per cubic foot) Then just make the box hold that much volume.
ok, so on to the pictures:
Put the ouside frame together using the 2x8"s and the 2 1/2" screws. Just line up the ends so they are flush, it doesnt need to be square at this point.
Meow take the piece of osb and lay it on top, attach it with the 1 1/4 inch screws.(this piece will become the bottom) It is easiest to line up one corner at a time then proceede to screw the sides in after all the corners are attached.
Meow for the hardest part; the pond liner. We stapled the liner to one of the long sides and then cut the liner with about 2' extra on the sides that were not stapled. The key here is to have more than enough! You dont want to have the liner tight anywhere. If it is tight it will pull on the liner and could possibly rip where its stapled. Only staple to the outside of the box. Keep the staples about halfway down the side of the res.
Heres is a pic of ours with the liner:
Meow you need a top. for the resevior. We made ours out of 3/8 osb and wrapped it in 3 mil yard plastic.
Pre-wrap:
Post-wrap
As you can see the end is cut off to make a flap. This is for easy access to the res and pump. The slot in the center is for our ebb/flow table that sits on top. Its a slot because the trays can roll forward and back to make accessing the girls easier. But for other systems a couple holes would work just as well.
Screw the top of the table down with 4 of the 1 1/4 screws. Duct tape the flap to the top of the res.
Finally, I add a 90 degree fitting to my pumps so that they suck from the bottom of the res. Adding the 90 allows much the pump to work at much lower water levels.
Meow just add water and you have a low profile, high volume resevior!
Our res is 8" tall and holds about 30 gallons of water when filled to 6". With the tray on top the table is about 13 or 14" off the ground to the table top.
Meow first you will need to get your materials:
2x8" or 2x10" or 2x12" depending on how deep you want the res
3/8" osb
2 1/2" screws and 1 1/4screws
stapler
black plastic
pond liner
Meow our reseviors are 2x4' and are 8" high but you can make yours any size you want. Just figure out the volume of water you want and divide it by 7.5(gallons per cubic foot) Then just make the box hold that much volume.
ok, so on to the pictures:
Put the ouside frame together using the 2x8"s and the 2 1/2" screws. Just line up the ends so they are flush, it doesnt need to be square at this point.
Meow take the piece of osb and lay it on top, attach it with the 1 1/4 inch screws.(this piece will become the bottom) It is easiest to line up one corner at a time then proceede to screw the sides in after all the corners are attached.
Meow for the hardest part; the pond liner. We stapled the liner to one of the long sides and then cut the liner with about 2' extra on the sides that were not stapled. The key here is to have more than enough! You dont want to have the liner tight anywhere. If it is tight it will pull on the liner and could possibly rip where its stapled. Only staple to the outside of the box. Keep the staples about halfway down the side of the res.
Heres is a pic of ours with the liner:
Meow you need a top. for the resevior. We made ours out of 3/8 osb and wrapped it in 3 mil yard plastic.
Pre-wrap:
Post-wrap
As you can see the end is cut off to make a flap. This is for easy access to the res and pump. The slot in the center is for our ebb/flow table that sits on top. Its a slot because the trays can roll forward and back to make accessing the girls easier. But for other systems a couple holes would work just as well.
Screw the top of the table down with 4 of the 1 1/4 screws. Duct tape the flap to the top of the res.
Finally, I add a 90 degree fitting to my pumps so that they suck from the bottom of the res. Adding the 90 allows much the pump to work at much lower water levels.
Meow just add water and you have a low profile, high volume resevior!
Our res is 8" tall and holds about 30 gallons of water when filled to 6". With the tray on top the table is about 13 or 14" off the ground to the table top.
and roll my tables around in comfort.
