Tell me what you think New Tank

[Katspaw]

Hello everyone,
I am somewhat new to this board, in that I don't really post here very often. I love DIY projects and earlier this year I decided I wanted a bigger tank. My 90 gallon is just too small lately.

Anywho, I Checked prices and between shipping and handling, and the cost to build the tank, I figured I can do that and save a lot of money too. First I design tha tank of my dreams. It is a flat back with a hexagon front, the tank size is 72" x 24" on the sides and 36" in the middle. so it comes to 255 gallon tank. Now I have almost finished building most of the tank and I would like to share with everyone and get your views on my new tank. It has taken me several months to get to this point, between work, children, and other things.

I have built the stand, not yet skinned and I will be building the canopy also. I have started on the plumbing, it has an ampmaster 3000 return, I have a 65 gallon refugium and a 50 gallon sump, with a 20 gallon auto top off, there will be three closed loops systems in the canopy. The lighting is 4-250 watt 65ook isawski bulbs, 4-96 watt pc compact 03 actinics and 4-vho actinics within the canopy I am putting 6 fans in the canopy for heating issues and of course I have a chiller, won titanium heater, and Geo dual chamber calcium reactor. I would love to know what you think!

Tracey

 

[braincoral39]

Great looking tank, got any plans on how to build your own tank. Good work,

 

[Katspaw]

Braincoral, yes I have great plans as to DIY tanks, mine is plywood and glass.

All the glass is in as of Friday and it will take a full week for the silicone to cure so I will be filling it on the ninth, My Birthday is that weekend so what a great present.

Email me and I will send them to you.

FMX2MD,

I plan on having one of the reef meetings at my place in the next couple of months. I want to get it cycled and stocked before opening the door for all my reef buddies to come in and see it.

So figure the January meeting to be at my place

Of course you are welcome to stop in at my shop anytime to see it in person. Just email me for directions. Oh the ampmaster is bolted to the cross beam in the back of the stand, I will be putting another self beam on the front bracket once I get the sump in place.

I have to work around the equipment and need to know exactly where they will be starting and stopping.

Tracey

 

[StirCrazy]

hey nice looking tank, I would also be interested in seeing the planes for that but one question, did you use glass or plexi? from the picture it looks like the front is seamless.

Steve

 

[faztaz]

Wow Im really impressed. I can only imagine what it will be like when the whole thing is setup. You have to promise that I can come over and take a look at it. One question is the ampmaster resting on anything or are you suspending it off of PVC?
_________________
og kush plant

 

[Katspaw]

It's glass and the reason for the seamlessness is that the front panels were not in place

the angle glass had to have a mitered cut. The glass cutter made them beveled, so they had to be redone. I got them back on Thursday and the tank is now finished. I started to put the paneling on the front of the stand, The sides will be left open for now because I will have window seats on either side of the stand. Added storage. And I can't do that then the 50 gallon sump is in place. All a matter of time.

Tracey

 

[StirCrazy]

Katspaw
Do you have your plans on paper/file that you would be willing to share? I wanted to build a simular type of tank but I like the looks of yours sofar.

Steve

 

[wuelfman]

do you think the cardboard sump will hold much water ????

hehe

 

[MATTT]

Katspaw.

Did you do any calculation of pressure fromt the water when you build the tank ? How do you know your tank is going to hold ? Do you think the plywood frame is going to work with salt water ? Would the salt destroy the wood in a few years ? How thick a glass do you use and who cut it for you ? Do you have any center braces ? It is a nice tank, but how much did it save you ?

Mattt.

 

[Anonymous]

looks awesome! I may be viewing it wrong, but shouldn't the ampmaster be at a height lower than the level of the sumps water surface?

 

[Katspaw]

Oh yes I did calculations and I spoke to a number of people who have built their own plywood and glass tanks in the past. I didn't do this over night. I started the idea in April of the year, and talked and researched and then talked some more. With the pressure of the water depends on the depth od the tank. From Simplified reefing I found that the glass thickness for say a 15" to 22" tank you need 3/8" glass for a 24" to 30" tank you need 1/2" glass and 30" to 36" you need 5/8" glass. You must use tempered glass. All of the wood has been coated in fiberglass and food grade epoxy. Two coats of epoxy.

I added the fiblerglass to give strength to the wood and to prevent any rocks that may fall from puncturing the epoxy coating. There is a customer I have that does special glasses, His company is the ones that cut it for me, glass cost 550.00, To have Mitch over at indo america make this tank would have cost over 2500.00 plus you have the shipping, so figure another what 500 to NJ. Then of course I have read that on some occassions the customer is totally @#$% about the way the tank looked when they received it. So instead of going thru the headache and expense of having them or anyone else make it, I did it myself. I was going to post info on how I did it tonight, but getting all that info together and pictures is going to take some time. I have another picture of the tank that I took today but it came out very blurry. My fault I forgot to take the camera off close-up.

I have figured that this tank to make is costing me around $1000.00 this includes the stand and the canopy, for the tank alone it was 700.00. With the money I saved by doing it myself, I was able to buy new refugium 85 gallons, new lights 4-250 watt MH, chiller, yada, yada ,yada. you get the point. Here's the blurry picture .

Tracey

 

[cgbexec]

Tracey,

It looks beautiful! I hope you enjoy it for many years to come. I can not tell from the pictures, but is the back wall of the tank glass or plywood? In the future I am going to build a 4-500gal. tank. I am very handy, especially with fiberglass. Did you use epoxy resin or standard vinylester/polyester resin? My wife and I are looking for a lot to build a new home and my intentions are to build a tank into my office wall. I would connect the tank to a Mangrove pond located outside my master bath shower window. The outer shower wall would basically be all glass and you would look out on a tropical mangrove estuary. This would act like a refugium. Just an Idea. Sorry for rambling on.