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The boss wants the overflow of tropical fish to be kept in the back shed...
After looking at prebuilt kitchen cabinets and aquarium stands, along with Rack-it and similar products, it was time to bite the bullet and custon diy the carcases using 16mm melamine.
Experiance with commercial cam construction while ok for most things struggles with the fact a liter of water weighs 1 kg and there can be a lot of water, not a fan of pocket holes as I seem to break a lot of drill bits, I blame the low quality jig naturaly than any lack of skill on my part... dado routing looked fidly and the boss is not allowing cabinet screws for visual reasons. (Boss is planing to sell aquarium and cabinet packages)
That leaves me with the choice between dowel joints and biscuit joints.
Preconcived ideas -
Dowels make a stronger joint as they are tighter fitting.
Buscuits rely too much on glue and the play in the joint can mean you end up with poor alignment.
After some reshearch -
Have to be more accurite with dowels. ( I did know that already, honest I did )
Buscuits allow for some adjustment while your glueing and clamping up and the glue expands the wooden biscuit taking up the slack.
So what to buy-
Dowel Jointer - Mafell is the gold standard while the Triton is affordable.
Pro-
Will work with the notched Mafell rail.
Nice repeatability of drilling holes that will line up.
Easy end and edge drilling.
Cons-
Price of Mafell rail if you can find a place willing to ship down under.
T-joins take some setting up.
8mm standard drill size, in 16mm board that is just 4mm meat each side.
But wait there is more, minimum drill hight is 9mm so 2mm one side and 6mm the other along with needing to be more carefull with alignment.
Fix is shim the top plate so you can get 8mm height.
So while your fixing things why not get a drill that would let you use 6mm dowel and you could drill shelf pins as well... Only Mafel make a 6mm drill and you guessed it they are expensive, in fact Triton have just 8, 10 and 12mm drills available and if you stuff up one your back to importing again.
There has to be an easier way!
Buscuit Joiner - Makita as from what is readily available it has the best reviews.
Will start with cons this time -
Same problem with setting up t-joins as the Triton.
10mm minimum height of blade.
Pro-
Included adaptor so you can work with 12mm stock.
Same simple set up for edge joints.
Almost every man and his dog sell them and blades.
More forgiving of senior moments with alignment.
Cuts 3 sizes of biscuits right out of the box.
Ok so a little reluctantly I now know what to buy, as a long time ago tradesman whenever posiable for repeat jobs use a jig!
OK so I would have to import it but it has the 32mm spacing for dowels.
6mm bit shouldn't be hard to find so I can do dowels and shelf pins!
T-joins are easier with the trade off that edges take more set up.
Well need a new bench so I can edge drill the boards.
I could make a jig to clamp corner joints and I could use dowels...
Getting a bit complicated again?
Will make t-joins easier.
Can set up for edge joins using stops, will work with dowels or biscuits.
Can drill shelf pins using drill guides.
Has t-slots both sides.
Plenty of matching bling!
Makes glue ups look easy ( well for an experianced person anyway )
Claims it would clamp a door ( maybe set up I would bring out something stronger after )
Won't make you a coffee though.
Still needs to be imported Carbatec only carry one piece here.
Main set up will be a row of these.
Betta Trio.
32 Litres.
Aquarium = 25d x 55w x 25h cm.
Comes in at around 45Kg and 8 will fit along the wall so 360kg.
I do have a 4ft x 50cm wide x 50cm high 6mm Glass with 10mm base for the other wall and with breeding tanks it is up to 120kg/lm.
Some good things to think about 
Couple of pics of what is closer to what I am hoping to do.
I would brace the top so I have something to drill into the benchtop as well as using 16mm back rather than 3mm and saving some work cladding.
Black Marquee benchtops for ease of fish breeding.
Was thinking pine for doors, floor and fake ceiling to keep it light and appease the feng shui brigade. Have found a cheap supply of T&G western red cedar and made better by having 5% off with ABN, will have a look tomorrow when I get supplies to fix my wardrobe. May also find something better than 16mm melamine at the flagship bunnies.
Shopping wish list includes a new mobile work bench with pine top made from galv rack-it, a couple of Triton routers so I can mount one in a sliding table, I should replace the table saw as it is a work of art and my grandfathers circular saw with something lighter.
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