The koa aquarium cabinet was built in close collaboration with my woodworking mentor, Acharya Kumarnathaswami, a master craftsman who designed this piece. This aquarium cabinet was made for a custom 115-gallon tall aquarium that would weigh well over 1000lb when filled. The piece is built from formosa koa which is an extremely dense, hard, and unbelievably beautiful wood. It is a wood that requires much patience and special care to work with due to its wild grain that tears out easily, and its hardness that is brutal on hand tools. In addition to its beauty, the formosa koa used in this project was grown on the property and used in another piece of special furniture, thereby making this wood well worth the effort to use.

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The cabinet is also reinforced by ply-panels with patina copper veneer on them, with a large bronze medallion mounted onto the front which was made by a skilled craftswoman from Colorado. There are two doors on the back to allow easy access to the equipment and plumbing inside the cabinet. The details on this piece are subtle such as the scalloped edges, meticulous grain selection, and inset stretchers. The wood was polished up to 4000 grit and finished with several coats of hand-rubbed polymerized tung oil, followed by a layer of dark brown carnauba wax.