DIY top-down looking glass for viewing your tank from the surface

redfishsc · 03/05/2010, 01:11 PM

I'm not exactly sure what these are called, but I made 8 of these yesterday for a local coral farm, who has vats that can only be seen from the top. These guys cut down on the glare and give you a very clean image.

Great for looking at clams and I'm sure this can be adapted for use on cameras for top-down camera shots.

Not counting the time for glue drying, I have about an hour in making 9 of these.

These were made from scrap 4" PVC and Lexan. Ideally I would have used 8" PVC and true acrylic, but I just worked with what I had laying around.

For the glue I just used clear PVC glue, and this holds the PVC to the lexan just fine for this purpose. You could use any of the Weld-on clear acrylic glues, and for that matter you could use large clear acrylic tubing for the body if you want something that looks really nice.

Anyhow, here is a step by step.

0) Before step 1, WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. If you don't, you get what you deserve

1) Cut the tubes into 2" slices. A miter saw is perfect, leaves a square, clean cut.

2) Cut the acrylic into squares that are a little bit bigger than the outer diameter of the PVC. I cut these squares about 4 5/8" across. Notice the nice T5HO light in the reflection. Our shop "made the switch from halides to T5s" and we're growing SPS on our lumber rack.

3) Apply a thick coat of PVC glue to the PVC. Wipe off any runs/drips.

4) Place the PVC onto the acrylic square. Work it a little bit, twisting it. This helps "melt" the PVC. It won't melt into the Lexan but will still bond strongly. No need to keep pressure on it for long. Just stick it on, twist it a little, and set it aside.

5) After curing for a couple hours, you can actually just use it like this--- you don't really have to trim the square part up.

But if you want to trim the acrylic (and have the tooling to do it), cut the corners off. I used a band saw. Rough cut only, nothing fancy.

6) Trim the excess acrylic off using a "flush-trim" router bit. I intentionally used an old one we had b/c our other router bits are used for fine woodworking and I didn't want to get the evil-eye from the supervisor for using his bits on acrylic. Probably wouldn't matter either way.

The finished product:

Tomorrow I'll try to get some shots of these in use. My tank has a huge canopy on it, so I can't really use them at home or get good pics of them in action.

Have fun making them!

leeman72 · 03/05/2010, 01:39 PM

Cool...will have to give it a try!

redfishsc · 03/05/2010, 01:45 PM

Welcome to ReefCentral, fellow North Carolinian!

Do I know you from Carolina Fish Talk?

redfishsc · 03/06/2010, 10:08 PM

Here they are being used at a coral prop facility.

I also used them to take some top-down photos below. My camera is a cheezy 4.0mp with a 3X zoom, but the pics are some of the cleanest pics I've ever taken.

PUCKER UP!!!

milkman55 · 03/06/2010, 10:49 PM

Neat idea! I just got a top down box for my camera and didn't think about one just for viewing.

I was thinking I would use slip couplings for 6 or 8 inch pipe if you could not find short pieces of the PVC pipe?

kcsalt · 03/06/2010, 10:55 PM

Look down boxes are very neat. Great idea using the PVC and looks easy to make.

chernandez · 03/07/2010, 01:07 AM

nice diy cheap and easy

redfishsc · 03/07/2010, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman55

Neat idea! I just got a top down box for my camera and didn't think about one just for viewing.

I was thinking I would use slip couplings for 6 or 8 inch pipe if you could not find short pieces of the PVC pipe?

That would work great!

redfishsc · 03/07/2010, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman55

Neat idea! I just got a top down box for my camera and didn't think about one just for viewing.

I was thinking I would use slip couplings for 6 or 8 inch pipe if you could not find short pieces of the PVC pipe?

I was at Lowe's today and priced the couplings. No 8" to be found, but they had 6" slip couplings for $10 each. Actual inner diameter was a little over 6.5".

But you can get a 10 foot stick of 6" pipe for $30, which would make (easily) 30-40 viewers.

The only hard part there would be cutting them clean and square without spending eons of time. I'm thinking maybe cut the pipe into 2' lengths on the tablesaw (with some help from a jig to keep it straight), and from there the 2' pieces would be a breeze to cut into 3" wide slices.

EdG1942 · 03/07/2010, 03:27 PM

Terrific idea and cheezy camera or not, the pix are great.

redfishsc · 03/07/2010, 03:50 PM

Thanks, from another fellow North Carolinian.

Do I know you from Carolina Fish Talk, lol?

ebruce01 · 03/07/2010, 03:59 PM

redfishsc nice little trick. That coral facility that you have in your pic is that something someone can visit?

Pylon · 03/07/2010, 04:13 PM

I'm a few hours away from Wake forest, but I'm deffinatly looking for something close that I can go and purchase from.
I'm up in the mountains by Boone.

redfishsc · 03/07/2010, 05:59 PM

They are not a public facility although they occasionally do have an open house you can go to and buy frags. Nice place. That's how these pics were taken. I'm a customer.

Here is their website, you can email them and ask when the next open house is.

http://www.reeffarm.com/

In the Raleigh area, for nice corals, I highly recommend both The Fish Room (on Capital Blvd next to Best Buy at I540) and also Down Under in Garner (follow 70 down into Garner). Both are great places.

Although I must say I generally buy most of my coral from fellow reefers. Raleigh has a VERY nice reef-keeper base around here and anytime I want something in particular all I generally need to do is ask around, lol, especially on Carolina Fish Talk.

rareform · 03/07/2010, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redfishsc

I was at Lowe's today and priced the couplings. No 8" to be found, but they had 6" slip couplings for $10 each. Actual inner diameter was a little over 6.5".

But you can get a 10 foot stick of 6" pipe for $30, which would make (easily) 30-40 viewers.

The only hard part there would be cutting them clean and square without spending eons of time. I'm thinking maybe cut the pipe into 2' lengths on the tablesaw (with some help from a jig to keep it straight), and from there the 2' pieces would be a breeze to cut into 3" wide slices.

I use my chop saw to cut ABS and PVC all the time and you can cut it square also you can use a wood blade.

redfishsc · 03/07/2010, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rareform

I use my chop saw to cut ABS and PVC all the time and you can cut it square also you can use a wood blade.

You mean like this (from the first post):

The problem I'm talking about is trying to cut larger diameter stuff. That's a 12" saw in the pic and there's no way it will cut (in one clean pass) the 6" pipe. I'd have to rotate it, but maybe that will work...... we'll see tomorrow. I actually have some 8" PVC to cut that was given to me.

Pylon · 03/08/2010, 10:51 AM

Thanks for the info, it seams everything is about three hours from where I am

redfishsc · 03/08/2010, 12:14 PM

Be sure to post pics of your work!

Adam_T · 03/08/2010, 12:57 PM

Sup redfish! These look great!

redfishsc · 03/08/2010, 01:41 PM

Thanks man!

I'm making a couple of 8" versions with some pipe Corey gave me. I only have a little, and it's a BEAR to cut right. It's too big to cut in one pass with any miter saw we have. I cut it on the tablesaw, and it's coming out square, but it's pretty aggravating.

Adam_T · 03/08/2010, 02:22 PM

Haha, I might get one of these from you eventually. Maybe when you make a pass into Rock Hill sometime we can get up.

tangtang clown · 03/08/2010, 03:59 PM

Very nice. Buddy of mine has a frag tank setup in his garage and it is amazing how much better you can see with one of those.

ebruce01 · 03/09/2010, 06:20 PM

redfishsc, thanks for the info. I have never been to the place up on 540. I dont know how long it has been there but I have been over seas for about a year and a half. Glad you told me though I am coming home for a 5 week vacation in about 10 days. I will definitely check them out. I will be getting some things together to get a tank started when I come home for good. I will check out the Carolina Fish Talk as well. Thanks again.

redfishsc · 03/09/2010, 07:14 PM

yeah, the Fish Room is a great store. I've gotten to know the guys that run it fairly well, and they really know their stuff. Good selection of quality reef supplies, you dont' find them selling snake oil garbage.

Phyxius · 03/09/2010, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redfishsc

yeah, the Fish Room is a great store. I've gotten to know the guys that run it fairly well, and they really know their stuff. Good selection of quality reef supplies, you dont' find them selling snake oil garbage.

Same here and they have gotten me some nice stuff also when I asked. Been going there since they opened.

I like the DIY viewers!!!

03/05/2010, 01:11 PM	#1
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	DIY top-down looking glass for viewing your tank from the surface I'm not exactly sure what these are called, but I made 8 of these yesterday for a local coral farm, who has vats that can only be seen from the top. These guys cut down on the glare and give you a very clean image. Great for looking at clams and I'm sure this can be adapted for use on cameras for top-down camera shots. Not counting the time for glue drying, I have about an hour in making 9 of these. These were made from scrap 4" PVC and Lexan. Ideally I would have used 8" PVC and true acrylic, but I just worked with what I had laying around. For the glue I just used clear PVC glue, and this holds the PVC to the lexan just fine for this purpose. You could use any of the Weld-on clear acrylic glues, and for that matter you could use large clear acrylic tubing for the body if you want something that looks really nice. Anyhow, here is a step by step. 0) Before step 1, WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. If you don't, you get what you deserve 1) Cut the tubes into 2" slices. A miter saw is perfect, leaves a square, clean cut. 2) Cut the acrylic into squares that are a little bit bigger than the outer diameter of the PVC. I cut these squares about 4 5/8" across. Notice the nice T5HO light in the reflection. Our shop "made the switch from halides to T5s" and we're growing SPS on our lumber rack. 3) Apply a thick coat of PVC glue to the PVC. Wipe off any runs/drips. 4) Place the PVC onto the acrylic square. Work it a little bit, twisting it. This helps "melt" the PVC. It won't melt into the Lexan but will still bond strongly. No need to keep pressure on it for long. Just stick it on, twist it a little, and set it aside. 5) After curing for a couple hours, you can actually just use it like this--- you don't really have to trim the square part up. But if you want to trim the acrylic (and have the tooling to do it), cut the corners off. I used a band saw. Rough cut only, nothing fancy. 6) Trim the excess acrylic off using a "flush-trim" router bit. I intentionally used an old one we had b/c our other router bits are used for fine woodworking and I didn't want to get the evil-eye from the supervisor for using his bits on acrylic. Probably wouldn't matter either way. The finished product: Tomorrow I'll try to get some shots of these in use. My tank has a huge canopy on it, so I can't really use them at home or get good pics of them in action. Have fun making them! __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/05/2010, 01:45 PM	#3
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	Welcome to ReefCentral, fellow North Carolinian! Do I know you from Carolina Fish Talk? __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/06/2010, 10:08 PM	#4
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	Here they are being used at a coral prop facility. I also used them to take some top-down photos below. My camera is a cheezy 4.0mp with a 3X zoom, but the pics are some of the cleanest pics I've ever taken. PUCKER UP!!! __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/07/2010, 01:07 AM	#7
chernandez Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Peoria Posts: 877	nice diy cheap and easy __________________ Chris Current Tank Info: ADA 90-P

03/07/2010, 03:27 PM	#10
EdG1942 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Wake Forest, North Carolina Posts: 1	Great idea Terrific idea and cheezy camera or not, the pix are great.

03/05/2010, 01:39 PM	#2
leeman72 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North Carolina Posts: 2	Cool...will have to give it a try!

03/06/2010, 10:49 PM	#5
milkman55 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Parkville, MO Posts: 832	Neat idea! I just got a top down box for my camera and didn't think about one just for viewing. I was thinking I would use slip couplings for 6 or 8 inch pipe if you could not find short pieces of the PVC pipe?

03/06/2010, 10:55 PM	#6
kcsalt Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Shawnee, Ks Posts: 52	Look down boxes are very neat. Great idea using the PVC and looks easy to make.

03/07/2010, 03:50 PM	#11
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	Thanks, from another fellow North Carolinian. Do I know you from Carolina Fish Talk, lol? __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/07/2010, 03:59 PM	#12
ebruce01 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Raleigh NC Posts: 96	redfishsc nice little trick. That coral facility that you have in your pic is that something someone can visit? __________________ Tank: 40Breeder

03/07/2010, 04:13 PM	#13
Pylon Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: West Jefferson, NC Posts: 493	I'm a few hours away from Wake forest, but I'm deffinatly looking for something close that I can go and purchase from. I'm up in the mountains by Boone.

03/07/2010, 05:59 PM	#14
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	They are not a public facility although they occasionally do have an open house you can go to and buy frags. Nice place. That's how these pics were taken. I'm a customer. Here is their website, you can email them and ask when the next open house is. http://www.reeffarm.com/ In the Raleigh area, for nice corals, I highly recommend both The Fish Room (on Capital Blvd next to Best Buy at I540) and also Down Under in Garner (follow 70 down into Garner). Both are great places. Although I must say I generally buy most of my coral from fellow reefers. Raleigh has a VERY nice reef-keeper base around here and anytime I want something in particular all I generally need to do is ask around, lol, especially on Carolina Fish Talk. __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/08/2010, 10:51 AM	#17
Pylon Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: West Jefferson, NC Posts: 493	Thanks for the info, it seams everything is about three hours from where I am

03/08/2010, 12:14 PM	#18
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	Be sure to post pics of your work! __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/08/2010, 12:57 PM	#19
Adam_T Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 171	Sup redfish! These look great!

03/08/2010, 01:41 PM	#20
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	Thanks man! I'm making a couple of 8" versions with some pipe Corey gave me. I only have a little, and it's a BEAR to cut right. It's too big to cut in one pass with any miter saw we have. I cut it on the tablesaw, and it's coming out square, but it's pretty aggravating. __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.

03/08/2010, 02:22 PM	#21
Adam_T Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 171	Haha, I might get one of these from you eventually. Maybe when you make a pass into Rock Hill sometime we can get up.

03/08/2010, 03:59 PM	#22
tangtang clown Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: The DUB, NC Posts: 2,711	Very nice. Buddy of mine has a frag tank setup in his garage and it is amazing how much better you can see with one of those. __________________ Mind over chatter.

03/09/2010, 06:20 PM	#23
ebruce01 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Raleigh NC Posts: 96	redfishsc, thanks for the info. I have never been to the place up on 540. I dont know how long it has been there but I have been over seas for about a year and a half. Glad you told me though I am coming home for a 5 week vacation in about 10 days. I will definitely check them out. I will be getting some things together to get a tank started when I come home for good. I will check out the Carolina Fish Talk as well. Thanks again. __________________ Tank: 40Breeder

03/09/2010, 07:14 PM	#24
redfishsc Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 3,696	yeah, the Fish Room is a great store. I've gotten to know the guys that run it fairly well, and they really know their stuff. Good selection of quality reef supplies, you dont' find them selling snake oil garbage. __________________ "The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers.