Tank setup update

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:03 pm

Thats a

smiley backed up on both sides with a

for additional load bearing.

Mark in Vancouver · Post by **Mark in Vancouver** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:35 pm

This is a first for LOL, I think. Someone actually casing out the load bearing weight potential for their tanks. Amazing.

I continue to be in awe of this set up. Well done!

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:33 pm

Thanks Mark and Tinman. I'm glad that I asked my brother about this since he said that what I had could hold, but might not. He said that the main beam across the house was the weakest point and could collapse. My wife would not have been happy if the living room and the kitchen collapsed and I would not have been happy if my loaches were in the crawl space. Not shown in the picture is another jack post that I also added to support the old beam near where the aquarium will be.

Mark in Vancouver · Post by **Mark in Vancouver** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:58 am

Keith, you're certifiable, but in a great way for loaches. They shall inherit the earth...

Do drop by tomorrow evening for the book party, please.

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:12 am

Mark- Thanks for the heads-up on the book party. Somehow I had missed the sticky notice on that. I will be there. I'm still waiting on my copy.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:32 am

footprint of 9ft x 2.5 or 22.5 sq ft. That is really nice. Is there a plan for the aquascaping yet?

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:52 pm

I hope to get lots of driftwood and rocks all in the center and have a circular flow around it all. Somewhat like your tank. I've got about three months before the tank will be ready so I will be on the look out for any wood that I can find.

crazy loaches · Post by **crazy loaches** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:33 pm

Sweet

This will be one big tank (330 gallons?)! Looking forward to some more specs...

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 5:15 pm

Thanks Tristan. Most people say 300 gallons for 8 ft x 30" x 24" and 330-340 gallons for 9 ft x 30" x 24". These are not really very good approximations. This tank will have 3/4 inch glass on the sides and bottom and the dimensions are exterior dimensions. Taking this into account shows that the actual volume of this 9 foot tank is 298.9 gallons when filled to the top. It is 292.4 gallons when filled 1/2 inch from the top.

I have also made a change in my plans for the stand. The previous design is certainly strong enough to support the weight, but I started thinking about the wood flex and whether that would be ok for the glass or whether it would stress it too much. The previous tank stand design had a sag or deflection of .076 inches in the center of each half. I don't know any solid details on glass flex, but several web sites including http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... _complete/
give a pretty good idea of how much glass can flex. Basically the answer is, not much. Ranges for safe flexing are .2 mm to 1 mm (and this of course depends on the length). The above .076 inches is 1.9 mm. This deflection is not counting the 3/4 inch plywood that will be glued on top. So it is possible that it would be ok, but I want to be very, very sure.

I could just use 2 x 6's on the top and all would be fine (the deflection is about 1/10 what it is with 2 x 4's). The problem with this is that I am not tall enough (5 ft 9"). Let me explain. I would like to be able to reach my arm over the side of the tank. With an tank stand interior usable height requirement of 24 inches so that my canister filters fit, using 2 x 6's does not allow me to reach over the side of the tank comfortably. Thus, I am willing to be a bit inefficient with wood just to make it easier to maintain later. If I use solid 2 x 4's on the top (20 instead of 8 ) the deflection drops to .026 inches or .66 mm. This is probably ok, but I computed how much room I need on one side of the stand for a reservoir and decided to cut the span on each side by 6 inches. This leaves 42 inch openings on each side and a small 10 inch wide opening in the center (which I can put shelves in for small items). The deflection in this case is .009 inches or .23 mm. So this is the current plan (despite my sister-in-law's advice of: Just use 2x6's and get a stool). The diagram is below.

I bought the wood yesterday, and I got a lot of comments from people as I loaded thirty-eight, ten foot 2x4's into my Prius. Comments like: "Are you going to put all of that in there?" and "You should make a commercial, Prius as a pick-up truck".

NancyD · Post by **NancyD** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 7:44 pm

My husband drives a prius too so lots of laughter here, Keith (wish I still had my Subaru wagon). I don't think we're up to wood flex math nor do we have 9 ft wall space but I'm loving your thread.

crazy loaches · Post by **crazy loaches** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:33 pm

Please tell me you took a picture of the prius with all that lumber...

That is a feat in and of itself!

Yeah, tank 'names' are based on the volume they occupy it seems, not so much the internal volume of water. My 240 I have figured is around 210g actually (well not counting the sumps of course). Even with 66g sump, I calculated out I have about 260g, not including what decor takes up. Sooo... I wonder what an average depth of 3" of sand holds for water, I'll say 50%, so that brings my total 245g and I say 5g total due to driftwood so in the very end it seems my 240 is indeed 240 gallons

Only suggestion I'd have made is already too late... with all that lumber and you wanting it low profile I'd have built a frame out of steel if you had access to a welder and cut off saw or other means of cutting.

Mark in Vancouver · Post by **Mark in Vancouver** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:32 am

Yes please... We want more photos!

Only a few of us ever get a chance to build these large tanks - and fewer still who do it from scratch. You cannot over-document such a process.

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:52 pm

Tristan- I did consider a steel tank. I have done a bit of welding, but I think wood is easier to work with.

NancyD- Glad that you like the Prius. To get 9 ft of space we had to get rid of a sofa and a piano.

Yes I did take pictures of the car loaded. Just 34 ten foot 2x4's (not 38 as I said earlier).

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:45 pm

That stand design is a solid as I've ever seen.

Do you have a plan for the filtration yet? I know you use RO water, so that must make it challenging. Do you use mix tap water with the RO or do you mix in the minerals yourself?

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:21 pm

I mix minerals with the R.O. water. I will have a reservoir under one side of the tank that holds 60-70 gallons of RO water for daily 10% water changes (60-70 gallons gives me the option of doing a bit more than 10%). The plan for filtration is basically Emma's method of using large canister filters. I am having holes drilled for input and output of the canister filters and holes drilled for sump overflows in case I decide to do that later. The plan is to use my current Rena III, my current Eheim 3E and get two Eheim pro III 2080's. Then add Tunze (or Tunze like) pumps to get some good current. This is also Emma's method.

Please point out any mistakes that I may be making.

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