Courtesy of Advanced Aquarist Online

Acrylic lends itself quite well to the hobby so its no wonder why so many people find this a valuable material for DIY and commercial applications. It is readily available, reasonably inexpensive, easy to cut and fabricate, and is inert meaning it doesn’t leech off any negative substances or reacts with the saltwater in our systems. There is a lot you can do with acrylic from a simple box to complex components like protein skimmers and media reactors. The best part is, it is not as difficult to work with as you may think. Here are some quick tips and tutorials on working with acrylic. I hope you find something useful and take the plunge and give it a shot.

Before you get started, I highly recommend reading over Suzy Applegarth’s article Do It Yourself: Working with Acrylic from Advanced Aquarist Online. Her article gives you a great overview of working with acrylic giving you some basic pointers on cutting, drilling, gluing and bracing to get you started on your first (of many) projects. Jon Garner also has a great post on Reefkeeping Magazine Online called “Tips On Working with Acrylic” that extends this topic. Marc Levenson (aka Melev) is considered one of the top resources in DIY acrylic work in the hobby, make sure to check out his site at Melevsreef.com.

Most often you can easily fin acrylic locally. Don’t rely on picking acrylic up from big box stores like Home Depot or Lowes. The selection is lackluster and you will be better served from going to a local plastic/acrylic fabrication shop. Your local shop can get the exact thickness and color you need and quite often will cut your pieces to your specifications for free or at a nominal cost. You can’t beat getting a great deal as well as professional cuts making your life easier. Plus most shops have a scrap bin where you can get odds-and-ends for a fraction of the cost. I was able to find enough pieces of of acrylic to build a 10g refugium for under $10 during a Saturday sale. Granted you may not be able to find super large pieces but most stores have quite a selection of smaller pieces (around 12″x12″) fine enough for smaller and starter projects.

The secret to getting a strong bond when gluing pieces is smooth and straight edges. Invest in a quality saw blade for plastic only and set yourself up a simple jig to make straight cuts. A straight piece of wood or metal and a couple of clamps goes a long way. Once cut, make sure to work your edges smooth by using a router bit (if you have a router and table) or a simple edge scraper which can just be a rigid piece of metal with a flat edge. Many DIYers use the back side of a hacksaw blade or a thick utility knife razor sandwiched between two pieces of wood to prevent chattering. Marc has a great list of tools he uses, many may be out of your range and skill set but there are some great tools that are a must have in even the smallest project.

The best bet is to just start out with a simple project, maybe a box to stick in a drawer to hold your test kits or other odds-and-ends, and give it a shot. It really isn’t too hard to do and once you have one project and tested it to hold water, the world is wide open for your next, more adventurous DIY acrylic project.

So I realize reading endless posts on forums and trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B in static pictures is hard, so I have compiled a few videos below to help you visualize just how simple it can be.

How To Cut Plastic Sheet – Watch more funny videos here