help with large aquarium, very large.

[DiGUM]

hey everyone~

i'm new here, thanks for listening.

i'm looking for resources on monster tanks. a good friend of mine and i are going to be putting a 14'x8'x3' tank in his glass shop. i was looking to see if anyone knew of any online or other resources of where i can check out past experiences with it. my main concerns are the overflows and circulation of the bottom of the tank. i already know i'll be swimming to clean the damn thing. woo-hoo! i know there are going to be many questions that i'll be coming up with being such a huge tank.

thanks,
DiGUM

 

[wombat1]

Why do you need to swim in it?? Is it 3' deep, or 8'??? Even at 8', you can find extension brushes to clean it. I calculated around 2400 gallons roughly!! Have fun!!

 

[platapus]

http://www.mr4000.com

Talk to this guy!

He has a 4000 gallon reef in hos basement.

 

[SPC]

Talk to this guy!

He has a 4000 gallon reef in hos basement.

And I heard that he recently took it down, humidity problem .
Steve

 

[platapus]

I did not know that......that sux!

 

[L.Foley]

The real question you should be asking is where are you going to find someone to make a sheet of glass 14'long for the front panel, assuming you are going to use glass.
With and 8' depth and 14' lenth the tank would almost have to be concrete due to bracing problems. An acrylic tank would have a mid panel seam, and would cost a fortune, and I don't think that tank can be made safely, or at all for that matter, out of glass.
Have you priced this tank yet?

Leland Foley

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
It is only 3' tall, so it is not that bad. I assume it is for showing off the glazer's skill, so acrylic is out, although it would be cheaper than glass panel.

 

[DiGUM]

i did price a tank through a company of an acrylic make. it was $72,000. crazy. this guy works in the glass business and is talking to his 'people' about doing it. it's only in the planning stages now so if adjustments need to made, we will. and the plan is for it to be 8 ft tall.

thanks again~
DiGUM

 

[wombat1]

and the plan is for it to be 8 ft tall.

8O How thick will the glass be??? The panel will weigh a ton!! What did you plan on keeping in there??

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
For a 8' tall acrylic tank, the price you quoted is a bargain. For a glass tank, you will need to talk to people who works with public aquarium. If you insist on using glass, it will be (guess) at least 3 inch thick, and all you see is greenish stuffs. Get the starphire if you can afford it, but it will be at least 2X the price of the acrylic once you have it installed.

 

[M.E.Milz]

My suggestion would be to build a steel frame out of 2" square tubular steel. Add the glass panels to the inside of the steel frame, like I have seen people do when building those large plywood tanks. If you place the uprights and cross-members every 4' (like a big cage), you can probably reduce the thickness of the glass considerably. In other words, you want the majority of the load to be carried by the steel frame, not the glass. By the way, steel is a lot cheaper than glass.

One concern though, you have to investigate what problmes would be encountered because of varying expansion rates for sttel and glass (and whatever material you used for the bottom). Of course, if the tank is built AND maintained at the same, constant temp, then this might not be an issue.

Another option is to silicone vertical glass braces to the inside surface of the side panels every 4' or so. The braces would be at a right-angle to the side panels, and would act as stiffeners.