Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
The most ambitious DIY project has been my 125 gallon saltwater aquarium. My dad actually got it for his home about 4 or 5 years ago. He built the stand for it, got several of the supplies he would need (not everything), and he made the major modifications to the tank itself.
But he never finished it. He stopped working on it because of various reasons. So it sat empty in their living room for years.
Then sometime in 2024, I was cleaning my old 37 gallon saltwater tank when my fiancé looks over and asks if we could get a pufferfish for the tank. I told him I needed a bigger tank, like the one at my parents’ house.
He jokingly said, “You should ask your dad for the tank.” I laughed for a moment but decided to call my dad.
“So, what are your plans with the tank?” I asked, with a little laugh.
My dad sighed loudly through the phone. “I don’t know. Why?”
“I want it. I’ll buy it from you. How much would you be willing to charge for it?”
He was quiet for a bit. “Let me think about and I’ll let you know.”
A few months went by and I didn’t push him on it. He finally did give me an update. He’d let me take the tank if I painted his back porch, and if I managed to get the tank out of his house and to my house one start over.
When I painted the porch, I happened to pick the hottest day of the summer that year. It was stupid hot and there was no breeze at all. Worth it though!
Once I held up my end of the deal, my fiancé and I got his truck ready and picked up the tank and the stand.
Now, the stand has a 44 gallon sump tank in it. That my dad built the stand around. So there was no getting that thing out of the stand before we moved it to the truck. Moving that setup was one of the hardest and most stressful things to move because of how heavy and delicate it was. One wrong move and you could end up with a hairline crack that you don’t see until you add the water.
But we did it. We got it into our house.
I painted the unfinished trim and repainted the top, but then came the truly hard part. I had to setup the plumbing.
I was having surgery in August and we were already in mid-July. I told my dad I was going to have water in the tank before my surgery and he laughed. He said there was no way I could get it done. Obviously that meant I had to work harder at proving him wrong.
I had no idea what I was doing when it comes to plumbing an aquarium. I had my dad’s blueprints for how he had planned to do it, so I worked on that and used YouTube videos as my guide. It was stressful and difficult but I did it.
After getting the sump and main tank plumbed, it was time to get the sand and water put in. I called our local aquarium store, and got the 170 gallons of water set up for delivery. Then I raced back to my dad’s house to pick up the rock that had been curing in his basement for 3 years. These were large chucks of live rock that have all the good bacteria for the fish to thrive. And I wanted it.
It was hard to do. The rock was completely saturated with saltwater so the largest pieces that were at the bottom of the giant trash can were the heaviest ones to lift by myself. My fiancé and my dad were at work so I had no help with these.
I eventually got it all loaded into my car and I hurried back home to get there before the water showed up.
The next problem was that the rock was too heavy for me to lift over my head and down into the tank. I had to break the big pieces. So I took a hammer and a screwdriver and got to work. I managed to break one of the biggest pieces into 3 equal parts and added them to the tank.
Then I just waited for the water and sand delivery. Once that was added, everything went very smoothly…until water started pooling at the left corner of the tank. There was a leak. I was so upset. I didn’t know if the tank had cracked in transport, or if I cracked the glass with the rock, or if I had messed up the plumbing in some way.
The water guy told me to let it settle overnight and see if the water is still leaking. Sometimes it just needs to adjust when it’s a brand new tank setup.
It was still leaking the next day, though admittedly it wasn’t as much. So I tried to tighten everything and see if it helped. It didn’t.
So, I turned off the pump, empty some of the water so it fell below the overflow box, and unscrewed the pipes for the return. Then I took the overflow box off the back of the tank. I applied a little grease to the gaskets and then saw that I had put the overflow gaskets on incorrectly. I was so mad at myself because that’s exactly why it leaked. I reattached everything and bam! No more leak.
I added back all the water and let the sand settle into the crystal clear water I needed.
My surgery was a couple days later, but I’d done what I said I was going to do. Water in the tank before the surgery.
I couldn’t add a fish until a few months later, but here it is now!
I love this thing. It’s definitely the hardest DIY project I’ve ever taken on and it’s not done yet! I have some new parts I got a couple weeks ago that I have to add to the sump soon.
It’s going to be interesting that’s for sure!
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