My 800Gallon Plywood Reef

[marinelife]

I just wanted to post here about my new tank I have been working on.

The inside size of the tank will be 28-28.5" front to back, 96" long, and 75" high with the water level at 70"
The outside size of the tank will be 34" front to back, 100" long, and 78" high. Just enough to fit in the front door and the spot already missing wood in our wood floor. The tank will sit in the same place as my current 375 and on concrete. I will be using fiberglass and exopy on the inside of the tank. The front panel will be 1.5" thick and give you a good view of most of the tank.
The tank is made out of
7 48"x96"x3/4" sheets of A Grade Burch Plywood
7 48"x96"x3/4" sheets of A/C Grade Fir Plywood
All sheets are glued and screwed together to get 1.5" Thick walls

The tank:


The Panel:



Some of the inside:




I still have to install a few supports for the bottom corners, Mount some bracket holders for the Tunze Streams that I will be using, Install a overflow in the end, Coat it, test in, install it.

At this point sealing will be:
Layer 1 Fiberglass with WEST Epoxy
Layer 2 Fiberglass with MAS epoxy
Layer 3 WEST Epoxy
Layer 4 MAS Epoxy
Layer 5 Sweetwater Dark Blue
Layer 6 Sweetwater Dark Blue

There maybe another half layer of Fiberglass between 2 and 3 depending on what I have left.

I have talked to a few People that have done work in major aquariums and have the name and a place to order the silicone for the panel.

Once it is sealed I will water test it in my garage for about a month.

I will be using 2 6100s Streams from the start with hopes to add two or more later. I will also have a closed loop that will pull water from the top and return it at the bottom in all four corners. I will also have a small return pump coming from the sump what will house my CA Reactor, Live Rock, and Macro Algae.

I will be running 2 6500k 400HMs and 2 12000k 400MHs. I am not caring about how far down the light goes as I am hoping to get some low light corals for the bottom.

I hope to have this Completed and installed by the middle on November.

[Lucid]

Wow! that is going to be one cool tank. ;) How much weight you think the tank alone (no water) will be?

Might need to re upload the pics to your site, all are being cutoff for me. Or maybe it's just me lol?

[marinelife]

Not sure on the weight, it is heavy now I know that. The panel alone took 4 people to move. I have the tank on wheels right now to move it around my garage.

I see the site changed to size so if it does not work for you let me know and I can resize them.

[Ninong]

Have you considered using two 1000w metal halides in lieu of the four 400w ones? Your operating costs wouldn't be all that different and you would get much better penetration.

Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind, how much did you pay for that 1.5" thick acrylic panel?

[Ninong]

The 5,500-gal reef tank at the Waikiki Aquarium is 5.5' tall (16.5' long x 9' wide at one end and 7' wide at the other).

The lighting is 3 x 1000 W 6500 metal halide from Sunmaster that are NOT yellow, but blue-white, plus 4 x 400 W Radium 20K lamps, plus natural sunlight via skylights. -- J. Charles Delbeek on Reefs.org, Aug. 24, 2002.

[marinelife]

I thought about it but have not revisited the idea lately. I will look into it some more.

I paid around $1200, way lower than others wanted for the same sheet, plus they cut some of it off for me. It did come with a sorta deep scratch but it is in a place that does matter and after talking with several people it will not hurt anything.
It was a special order which every place I talked to said it could get a scratch and I had to take it anyway.
I purchased it from a local coral farmer and he help me get a deal on it. I will also be getting my rock from him.

Started working on the frame for the panel.
After much thought I went ahead and made it better than I had originally planned. I still have more to do to it but you can get the idea of how it is going to be.





My fiberglass materials arrived today.

[TimH07]

Not sure on the weight, it is heavy now I know that. The panel alone took 4 people to move. I have the tank on wheels right now to move it around my garage.

I see the site changed to size so if it does not work for you let me know and I can resize them.

with those inside dimensions


191 520 cubic inch = 829.09 gallon [US, liquid]

A US gallon of fresh water at 4 degrees C weighs 8.34 pounds

6,914.61 lbs of water weight, with a SG of 1.026 after you mix = 7094 lbs



ps my daughter has that very same giant lego box

[Ninong]

Seven thousand pounds of water may sound like a lot but it's still just two pounds per square inch -- less than 300 pounds per square foot -- which should be no problem for his concrete slab, unless it's a very thin concrete slab. Even after adding for sand and live rock, his total weight will probably be no more than three pounds per square inch (432 lbs/sq ft). Anyone who has put as much thought into the design of his tank as marinelife has has almost certainly given serious thought to the weight of the system.

One of the biggest problems with larger tanks is dealing with evaporation and heat and making sure the heat and humidity are handled properly. I'm sure marinelife has already made plans for handling this problem, too.

[Ninong]

That sounds like a really good deal on the 1.5" thick acrylic panel.

[Ratpack]

WOW!!! Cannot wait to see this thing come to life!!

[Ninong]

I thought about it but have not revisited the idea lately. I will look into it some more.

I am willing to bet that you won't be satisfied with the 400w halides over a 70" water column. I know people with 36" tall tanks who are running 1000w halides and virtually everyone I know of who has a 48" tall reef tank eventually switched to 1000 watts.

Two of the 1000w lamps would be much better than four 400w lamps and they would cover your full tank with ease. However, if you want to go whole hog, three of them would be really great because you could mix Kelvin ratings.

[marinelife]

Sorry for no responce, I have not recieved messages that a post was made.

The floor will not be a problem, I have had another intake added to the AC/Heating and will be running a Dehumidifier just incase. I also may have a vent/fan installed above the tank if needed.

I have found a few ballast for the 1000w but no ratings on them so I am still looked to see what the amp rating is. I may switch but not sure at this point.

[Reefland]

Sorry for no responce, I have not recieved messages that a post was made.

Please make sure your registered e-mail address is up to date and you are allowing e-mails from Reefland.com.

[Ninong]

Please make sure your registered e-mail address is up to date and you are allowing e-mails from Reefland.com.

Scott,

I checked both of those before I sent you the PM. He has his profile set to allow instant email notification and his email address appears to be up-to-date unless he just changed it. At least it's the same email address he currently has on his website.

P.S. -- I guess if it's the email address that's out of date, then he won't receive notification of these replies and he wouldn't receive notification of a PM if we were to send him one. Oh, well...

[marinelife]

I received one notice about these two posts. I have the correct email listed, I could try another one.

As for the tank, the rain has slowed down the build, I do not want to work on the tank with the humidity going on outside.

[Ninong]

You may find this recent Reef Central thread interesting. It is a very detailed (lots of pics) thread about the construction of two tanks: a 1500-gal (120"L x 48"W x 60"H) reef tank and a 900-gal fish-only tank.

He uses 1000w metal halides for his primary lighting. I have no opinion on his choice of metal halide lamps because I am not familiar with them. He also uses fluorescent actinics as supplementation. I don't think this would work in a tank with a 70" water column. I think a mix of three 1000w halides would be better. The two outer lamps would be bluer than the middle lamp.

P.S. -- I know some people who are using T5 HO actinics as supplementation on 36" tall tanks but I'm not sure how far they would penetrate over a 70" water column. I have a feeling that any actinic fluorescents wouldn't reach down more than 48" at the most.

[marinelife]

Sorry for the long await for my reply, been without power since sunday.

At this point I will see how the 400s work out and go from there if I need to upgrade. I have some ideas for low light corals at the bottom.

[Ninong]

Sorry for the long await for my reply, been without power since sunday.

Was that caused by Ike? Once you get your tank up, you're going to have to invest in a generator. You can get a nice, relatively quiet 3900w Honda. It's a lot quieter than most other generators. It would run your tank and all of your house lights and appliances but maybe not any central A/C.

My brother-in-law had a 7000w Generac for Katrina but it didn't last long. It went out about a month ago so he got a new 5500w unit, which he used following Gustav. He just ordered an 11,000w (13,750 surge watts) unit that will run on nat. gas, LP gas or gasoline. That should run his whole house, including both central A/C units, with ease. It ran $2889 with free shipping.

You're probably in danger of losing power during winter storms where you live. Down here we lose power every time a hurricane comes within a couple hundred miles. My power was out for eight days following Gustav (Sept. 1-8).

[marinelife]

Yeah Ike came here we had 70mph winds, My current tanks did not have any issues but my roof did. I used an inverter and after a day I rented a generator. I will be looking into buy one soon so I do not have to rent one. Most of my neighbors now have some so I could share with this if I needed too.
I think they are worth it even if you never use it..

[BigFish54]

Ok, your tank is awesome, but how do you plan on doing maintaience on the bottom with a tank that tall and itonly being like 2 feet deep..........before you put in rock, just curious, but once again awesome tank, I am sure you have already thought all these things out.