Brian's 520 gal. Plywood Build + Fish Room

[Brian Crook]

Any reason you used epoxy resin instead of a poly resin?

Is there anything construction wise you would have done differently?

I don't really know anything about poly resin so I don't want to mislead you, but I think poly resin is more toxic and possibly challenging to work with. Probably best to check out some boat-building forums for more info and comparisons. Anyways, the epoxy resin is awesome.

Knowing what I know now, I would have considered building vertical supports on the rear wall directly onto the wall inside the tank, and then epoxying right over and around them. Take a look at my two steel rear supports and imagine something similar but inside the tank. The key word here is consider, because I really like how the steel supports turned out and they work great. Bottom line, absolutely I would recommend some sort of vertical support for such a long run of plywood.

There are no complaints or regrets that I can think of. Cheers

 

[maxxII]

Tank looks great and the equipment room looks surgically clean.

Very well done all around Brian.

How is the new baby?

 

[dave.m]

Would external 2x4s work edge-on as external braces?

Dave.M

 

[Brian Crook]

Tank looks great and the equipment room looks surgically clean.

Very well done all around Brian.

How is the new baby?

Thanks, and the baby is doing great. Life is more tiring now, but that's to be expected. She is often mesmerized by the aquarium.

Would external 2x4s work edge-on as external braces?

Dave.M

Oh yeah absolutely. I imagine 2x4s on edge would be very effective. A consideration with 2x4s would just be their bulk, and to some extent their appearance could be a little tricky to improve.

 

[dave.m]

More cowbell... er... epoxy resin.

Dave.M

 

[Synden]

Crazy attention to detail! Very inspiring. Looking forward to seeing this badboy grow out

 

[muttley000]

Stopped by today specifically hoping for a update on this thread and I was not disappointed! The whole system looks great, thank you for posting the detailed info you have!

 

[JBarnes]

Is there a floor drain in the room in the event of a catastrophic failure? Your build looks amazing. Thankyou for sharing it with us. Jerry.

 

[Brian Crook]

Thanks a lot everyone

JBarnes, there is a floor drain in the room (large 4" ABS penetration through the concrete floor, located under the sink area).

However, it appears that there is no "U" bend in the pipe under the concrete, so leaving the hole open at floor level results in a slightly foul odor in the room. It is currently plumbed to my with sink with a "Y" connection and small "U" bend, and the main line is capped. Therefore it would not support in the event of catastrophe. The next nearest open hole drains are quite a ways away.

For the time being its a risk I'm willing to take, but I do mull it over every now and again and think of my options. Any thoughts?

Edit: I should also mention that I purchased the Active Liquid Detection system from Neptune Systems and have the sensors setup all around the tanks. Once I set them up, the idea is that they will email/text msg me if water is detected. Hopefully this could be noticed prior to a major catastrophe.

 

[dave.m]

Since you already have the water sensors on the floor, you could have them go back to your Neptune controller which, when notified by the sensors, could then activate a motor that pulled a lever that would pull the plug up out of the 4" drain as needed.

Dave.M

 

[McPuff]

Since you already have the water sensors on the floor, you could have them go back to your Neptune controller which, when notified by the sensors, could then activate a motor that pulled a lever that would pull the plug up out of the 4" drain as needed.

Dave.M

That's a cool idea! And reminds me... I've got to hook up my ALD module soon as well.

 

[Land_shark067]

This is an amazing build and amazing job documenting so we could fallow your build!!! in your fish room i see a couple HVAC grilles. do you exhaust the room or are they part of your central system? how much evaporation do you get? is the room getting to humid?

Thanks again and Please keep posting livestock and growth updates!!

 

[Brian Crook]

This is an amazing build and amazing job documenting so we could fallow your build!!! in your fish room i see a couple HVAC grilles. do you exhaust the room or are they part of your central system? how much evaporation do you get? is the room getting to humid?

Thanks again and Please keep posting livestock and growth updates!!

The large grille directly over the tank is a Panasonic Whisper Quiet ventilation fan which vents directly out of the house. It is connected to an adjustable humidistat and will turn on if the humidity in the room increases.

The other smaller vent is from my house and will likely remain closed all the time.

Presently I am keeping the door open in the room, mostly just for convenience, and the vent fan never turns on. Any humidity from the tank is just sucked up by the dehumidifier that I run in my basement.

In the long term I'd like to keep the door to the room closed most of the time to be a little more energy efficient. However I'd still like to install a grille in the bottom of the door to allow cool basement air to be sucked into the fish room and pulled upwards towards the vent fan.

 

[kaxt]

Are you sure there isn't a p trap in your floor drain? We have floor drains in the labs where I work. Because the drains are rarely used, sometime all the water in the P evaporates and the labs get stinky. We just pour a little water down the drain, and the smell goes away. It might be worth trying, unless you are sure that the trap was never installed.

 

[Brian Crook]

Are you sure there isn't a p trap in your floor drain? We have floor drains in the labs where I work. Because the drains are rarely used, sometime all the water in the P evaporates and the labs get stinky. We just pour a little water down the drain, and the smell goes away. It might be worth trying, unless you are sure that the trap was never installed.

Interesting... That might be worth me checking out.

Prior to setting up this aquarium, this drain had never been used while I've owned this house. It was just capped with the intention of being available for a second kitchen in the basement.

The floor drain in my laundry room definitely has a p trap in it, but I assumed that this other one was never intended to be an open floor drain and was probably intended to be directly plumbed to kitchen fixtures with their own p traps.. Either way, I might have to investigate this further.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[TheFishGuy31]

You can get an endoscope that connects to a laptop from Amazon for about $20. Easy way to find out if there's a trap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[scar79]

You can get an endoscope that connects to a laptop from Amazon for about $20. Easy way to find out if there's a trap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow, I always though of endoscopes as expensive standalone devices. I have a winbook tablet with full USB port, so I just picked up one of these because why not.

 

[Brian Crook]

I know I've been lacking for updates here but I'll put together another one soon with some new photos.

After much deliberation I have just placed an order for three of the new EverGrow IT5060's to incorporate with my existing three Kessil A360WE's to complete my display lighting. I would like to blend these with my Kessil's to reduce the spotlighting and better fill the rather large footprint of this tank, and I am pleased that they are now made with higher end diodes (Cree, etc).

I have also spent a significant amount of time on the laundry/utility room (former home of my previous aquarium) and fixing the big hole in the wall that was left behind.

Anyways, more to come in the near future!

 

[bwhit1406]

Been following your progress, truly amazing build. I love the living space you have created. Keep up the good work!

 

[Brian Crook]

So I've got plenty of updates to share, but I'm just waiting for my final lights to arrive (scheduled to arrive this Tuesday). I have also ordered my first shipment of coral "frags" (ever), rather than full on colonies from LFS's, and they will be arriving on Wednesday.

Plenty of photos soon enough!