If you want to make a DIY cement fish tank at home, you can easily make it following these simple steps.

How to Make a Cement Fish Tank at Home? You can make a cement fish tank at home with a cement-water mix and build the design and structure of your choice. It depends on you whether to make a whole-cemented tank or a cement-acrylic tank. After making the cement aquarium, cure it for several weeks to ensure the health of fish and plants.

The fish-keeping hobby is the best way to spend time, and also it has very beneficial effects on human health. They improve the health and wealth of humans, and as they come up as a lucky charm.

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1 How to Make a Cement Fish Tank at Home?

How to Make a Cement Fish Tank at Home?

A fish tank is the most beautiful and natural aqua-space to add up in your home. Also, the fish are the most common and desirable pet of this time, and everybody wants to keep fish tanks in their home, office, or any other place.

Steps to make a cement fish tank

A cement fish tank is a more practical and cost-effective way to introduce aquatic life to your home when you have no access to a glass or acrylic tank. It is easy to construct on your own fish tank without the need for any labor and experience.

Tools required:

Cement
water
two square buckets
an acrylic sheet
wire mesh

Designing and planning

The first step is to plan and make a design in your mind or draw a rough sketch on paper to idealize what style and structure of the tank you want to make. Determine the length, width, height, and area of the aquarium before starting the construction.

Prepare the mixture

Take an appropriate amount of cement in a bucket and add water to it to make an oatmeal-like consistency. Remember to prepare enough mixture at once, as making it again can cause consistency-difference between two of these cement-water mixes.

Completely-cemented fish tank

The easiest way of making a cement fish tank is to use plastic buckets as stencil or support. Take two square buckets of different sizes, such as one should be the exact size of the tank you want to make, and the other should be 8-10 inches smaller.

Apply oil or any petroleum jelly on the inner surface of the larger bucket. Also, apply the oil or jelly on the outer surface of the smaller bucket. Pour in the cement-water mixture in the larger bucket and make sure to spread it on all sides.

Now place the smaller ones in the center of the larger one in which mixture is present. Press in the smaller bucket and add some weight to it, such as stones. It will make the walls or structure of the tank.

Add chicken wire mesh in the mixture and push it into the mix; it will provide support and toughness to the aquarium. The thickness of the wall should be 4-6 inches to maintain stability. After drying, separate both buckets from the tank, and it is ready to cure.

Cement-acrylic fish tank

For introducing acrylic sheet, It is better to make three walls of the tank with cement and place an acrylic sheet on the front side. You can not use buckets for this, and you have to build walls yourself using any support. It looks more beautiful as you can see all the creatures swimming inside and monitor their health.

For this, build the bottom and three sides of the tank with the cement-water mixture, and on the front side of the tank, add it only at the boundaries and place it in the acrylic sheet. Add wire mesh also to strengthen it and let dry. When the first layer dries, add another layer of mixture and let it dry completely.

Curing of fish tank

Curing is necessary as if you do not cure the tank after making it can cause harm. After drying the tank completely, add water to it, leave for a week, then drain the water and refill again. Leave it for two weeks, then drain and fill water and repeat the process for 1-3 months.

The lime in cement increases the alkalinity of water, which is toxic to the fish. This process helps decrease the pH to 6.5 and make it safe for the fish. For curing, you can also use vinegar to reduce the pH of water.

Sealing of cement tank

It is not compulsory to seal a cement fish tank as you can make it safe without sealing also. Sealing is a protective process, but you have to very careful in selecting the material.

Usually, people seal it with paint as it makes the fish tank appear more neat and clean, but sometimes it can be harmful. So better avoid using it and make your aquarium safe with proper curing. This is a must otherwise, an aquarium air pump can be too loud.

Waterproofing the tank

Make your tank waterproof by applying a waterproofing membrane of your choice to prevent any damage to fish.

Several brands in the market offer a reliable and safe waterproofing membrane such as hydraflex. Apply it with a roller, trowel or spray it on all the surfaces and let it dry. You can also make a wooden fish tank stand at home.

When to introduce fish to a cement fish tank?

You can not directly enter fish and plants into the tank wait for 72 hours after filling the water to begin the water cycle.

First, add small fish and plants, and then add large and sensitive ones. Any change in water chemistry or temperature has a drastic impact on the health of animals.

To make the maintenance easy, add a tap or drainage source at the bottom for the water change. It is not always possible to empty it and change the water so add a drainage hole to reduce the effort.

You can also add a filter, air pump, and lights to it as per your budget as they will improve the water quality and chemistry and help fish maintain their health. It also prevents Popeye disease in fish.

Why is cement tank harmful to fish?

A cement tank is not always the best choice because it is harmful to the fish if you do not cure or treat it. If you add water to the tank without giving it time to dry completely, it can leach harmful substances such as calcium in the water that can kill your fish.

Lime in cement is toxic to fish as it dissolves rapidly in water and changes the pH of water. It can increase the pH of water up to 11-13, which causes severe burns to the fish and kill them. Proper curing of cement aquarium is necessary unless you may kill the animals in the tank.

When you paint the tank to give it a more clean look without knowing the quality of paint, you can harm the animals inside. Use good quality paint and let it dry completely to ensure fish health.

The time required to make cement fish tank

On average, it takes 1-3 days to make a cement tank, but it takes 1-3 months to treat and cure it. You can not add fish and plants without treating and curing them, or you may cause damage to fish health.

Also, the time varies with the season as in summers, the cement dries quickly due to scorching heat and sunlight, and in the winter season, it takes comparatively more time to dry completely.

Benefits of cement fish tank

Cost-effective

Cement or concrete aquarium do not cost much as you can make them on your own without any expensive equipment and material. The main requirement is cement, which is very cheap and anybody can afford it.

Easy to construct

It is too easy to make that you do not need any experience and detailed knowledge regarding its construction. You can make it in your home by yourself with the help of little guidance.

Make your design and size

It is not easy to find an aquarium of your choice in terms of design and size but making it yourself can fulfill your desire. You can make it according to the size and shape you want without any difficulty.

Easy to discard

Sometimes you want to give up on your fish and remove the whole tank setup as you can not take care of them due to your busy schedule. In this case, this cement aquarium is easy to discard and deconstruct as it is less costly, so you do not regret the waste of money on it.

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