thechoozen

Tikki Aquarium

Category

Case Fabrication

Status

Ready for Battle

Deets

We start this project with the idea of a cool looking aquarium, but then we couldn´t stop…
So we quickly decided to modify our plans and instead of just building a aquarium from a Plexitube we will integrate a small multimedia PC in it so that it can be used to watch movies, browse the web etc.

So at first we startet to build the Aquarium part itself, therefore we used a large Plexiglas Tube and a 50×50 cm sheet of uv active green plexiglas, we cut out a circle in the size of the tube and glued it under the tube. The we drill a small hole in the side of the tube. Inside the hole we glued a small tube (8mm outside) where the needed air will be routed through, and all fishies will get enough air to live….

Then we prepared the next steps…we buyed some wood and styropor for the upper + lower parts of the aquarium.
After that we started to build the Head Part, it will cover the complete upper part of the aquarium so that nothing can fall into the water. Beside that it will also contain a LED Module which should bring some light into the water. (the Color is adjustable, it can switch between 7 different colors, hold each color, and fade between each color)
For the Base of the head we used some layers of styropor which we glued together, then we cut a big circle out of it.
After that we make an extra ring in the same size and attached it to the styropor circle so that we get a mole on the lower side of the head where the Plexiglastube could slide in so that everything closes perfect.

After that we prepared some paperclay. With that we attached the first details on the surface of the styropor (eyes part of the nose, ears etc), then we laminate a small sheet of Carbon with some epoxy on the top of the head so that it will be much more solid than the styropor alone.
After everything dried out, we begin to sand everything (especially the detailwork on the front part) and put the first layers of paint on it.

Then we startet to build the part which will be placed under the aquarium. Wwe want to integrate a Shuttle XPC Mainboard, AMD 3400+, 1 GB Gskill DDR 400, 1 750GB HDD, 1 DVD +/- Combo drive, and a old Ati X700. The CPU and Chipset will get watercooled so we also need to integrate a small Water reservoir, a pump and a small radiator.

So we decided that we will build a small tray where all the Hardware could be mounted on. The tray will be moveable so that the complete Hardware could easily slided out of the case for installation, fixes etc.

We then started to build the tray out of some aluminium rods we made 2 layers, the upper layer is only fixed on one side so that it can be clapped away together with the mainboard when installing the HDD or something else on the lower layer. Then we cut out 2 sheets of uv green acrylic and placed them on both layers to mount everything else on it.

After that we build the PCI-Bracket, therefore we cut a piece of plexiglas in shape of a flame and integrate all holes and cutouts which are needed for the mainboard and graphic card. After everything was sanded and polished we attached the pci bracket to the upper layer of the Hardware tray.
The Northbridge cooler also got some thin acrylic flames which we mount like a lasercuts on and behind the 40mm fan.
On the lower tray we want to mount the HDD. For that we bend some thin aluminium stripes around the disk and connected them with rivets to the rest of the lower tray.
With the radiator we do nearly the same, but it is mounted on the side of the mainboard.

The water reservoir was build out of 2 Thermaltake reservoirs, they both were damaged when I buyed them on ebay….but we replaced the acrylic parts of them for 2 custom builded and now everything is fine again.
With changing the acrylic we are also able to made a custom mount for the complete reservoir so that we could place it right behind the mainboard.

Then after we finished the Mainboard tray, we started to build the lower part where the hardware should be integrated in, therefore we cut 2 circles out of wood and connected them via 4 wood rods with each other. That gives us a very solid base construction where the weight of the aquarium could easily be placed on.

Around the round base we then stapled some sort of bendable wood so that it looks like a tube of wood….

Then we startet to build small details out of the bendable wood (because it´s easier to bend and attach on our tube) to finish the outside of the case. After all details was nailed on, it was the right time for some bondo action.
After the bondo dried out we sanded everything and startet the airbrushing process. (Check the Airbrush Video on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RJ4cRZFigk)

Inside of the wooden tube, some excerpts from drawers were used to let the hardware move in and out. Under the top of the tube we mounted the DVD Combo drive, therefore we made a wooden/plexi cage where the Drive can be placed in. The bottom of the cage is made of the same green acrylic we used for the flames and all other details and is also shaped like a flame to match the style of the rest.

Then we build a couple of small details like custom power switches, custom rounded cables etc., we also placed the ccfls inside the lower part so that we can change between green and uv.
After all those small details were done we build 2 covers to hide the last visible cables cables on the left and right side of the hardware tray.

After everything was done we started to bring some live inside the Aquarium. We filled in some sand, stones and our prepared water which is already fine to bring in some fishes. After a short and quick voting process over at the bit-tech.net forum we decided to settle in a crazy bunch of Piranhas.