Building Big Bertha: 800G
- Thread starter bbrantley
- Start date
Sorry, I'm delinquent! There is lots of progress, but I can't quite yet get the pics off my camera. Quick text update; pics to follow:
1. Structural reinforcement complete; I have my bedroom back downstairs!
2. Down to just painting and finish work in the fish room itself.
3. Bertha has arrived! Long, fun story about that one. Safely in the garage for now.
4. Stand has arrived! Super strong and coated.
5. Controller has arrived.
6. Several large water storage vessels acquired.
I have to travel next week, so there'll be little to report on, but here's what next up, in no particular order:
1. Finish plumbing sink in fishroom.
2. Install generator and rewire the breaker box.
3. Finish figuring out HVAC and order the equipment.
4. Install the stand and tank!
Ben
AquariumSpecialty
.Registered Member
Excellent! Can't wait to see the beast in its resting place.
Hey folks! I've been absolutely swamped with travel, work, and even overseeing The Bertha Project (I'm feeling like it's about time to start capitalizing it and maybe applying for a trademark...). I have been taking notes and pics along the way, so you really won't miss a thing. Promise. Here are some snapshots and brief details about what's been going on lately. I'd love your thoughts!
First, Bertha arrived! After a long, drawn-out battle between James at Envision and the freight handlers, we finally finagled a way to get the tank up to my house. We ended up hiring some piano movers who, I must admit, I would not hire to move my future piano. Here you can see the two rather large gentlemen after they backed down my driveway, got stuck, and decided to ask me if I "had anyone who could help unload it because it's bigger than we thought." No kidding.
I flatly refused, first because we paid them a small fortune to bring it up here, and second because I didn't have anyone around except me (and I have bad wrists, so I can't really lift heavy things for long), and third because I was concerned about liability. Anyway, they decided to start walking down my road to see if they could find some helpers. Imagine a 5-mile dirt road on the top of a ridge, at about 8,500 feet, with houses spaced every quarter-mile or so... in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.
Anyway, eventually they figured out a way to get the thing off the truck and into my garage. It was packed impeccably, so even these dolts couldn't have actually damaged it. (But they did seriously consider driving back down to the city and coming back another day. I did nothing to discourage them from this seemingly-reasonable idea!)
Here's a shot of the tank mostly unpacked, with just some leftover foam bits on top. We're going to re-use the (very nice) plywood as a smooth base atop the stand, so it's already been cut up and moved away.
I tried to include something for scale, but I realize now that I was shooting super-wide (maybe 18mm) and so scale is distorted anyway. Plus, that's a big drill.
I'll take pictures with some form of mermaid (or dogmaid) inside or near it soon enough. You can see the attached overflow hanging off here, as well as the two return bulkheads in the top.
And, yes, I have both climbed inside it and looked around as well as stood on the cross braces to verify James' assertion that "they are strong enough for you to jump on if you want." They do bow, and I have not jumped on them, but they seem fine for just sitting. (James, let me know if you've changed your mind... ha ha!)
Meanwhile, the stand guy delivered his handiwork:
It actually sat outside for about a week because, of course, the construction inside was running a little behind. However, this thing is super-coated with that truck bed liner stuff, so it is basically impervious to the elements. You can see some of the construction debris sitting against the garage in the background, and it also happens that the north fish room window is the one you can see on the corner of the house there. There will soon be some additional vents cut in that wall down near the one you can see (near the hose) for the air exchangers.
Meanwhile, work in the fish room itself has progressed quite a bit:
Here you can see the hospital-grade, moisture-resistant paint going on the walls. All of the structural reinforcements have long been completed and inspections have all passed, so the plywood subfloor is back in (and we have our master bedroom downstairs back, thank goodness!).
Here's another view towards the door. Bonzo is observing that we have not yet built the 3" ledge at the foot of the door to provide a complete bathtub floor:
It's also worth noting that Bonzo really enjoys helping the contractors. Chaco is completely different and he hates all the noise and big guys he doesn't know. Bonzo will be sad when the work/fun comes to an end, I'm sure.
Fast forward... the interior of the fish room is mostly finished! The rubber floor is installed, and the stand has been put in place:
You can see it is pretty much a perfect fit:
This one shows how the extensions cantilever out over the walls. I did not want the walls to bear aquarium load. The cantilever is roughly 5 inches:
So, that brings you reasonably up-to-date! There remain a handful of important building-related tasks to complete, including:
Then the project will likely slow until I can stop traveling and get some time to acquire the other pieces. I have to decide what to do with the old tanks (try to sell, convert to sumps, etc.) and then order a bunch more stuff. I have a pretty good system diagram on paper (more tactical than the one at the beginning of this thread) but I think I'm going to build it iteratively. My guess would be that we'll see real saltwater in the tank probably in the January timeframe! (Ha!)
Until next time...
First, Bertha arrived! After a long, drawn-out battle between James at Envision and the freight handlers, we finally finagled a way to get the tank up to my house. We ended up hiring some piano movers who, I must admit, I would not hire to move my future piano. Here you can see the two rather large gentlemen after they backed down my driveway, got stuck, and decided to ask me if I "had anyone who could help unload it because it's bigger than we thought." No kidding.
I flatly refused, first because we paid them a small fortune to bring it up here, and second because I didn't have anyone around except me (and I have bad wrists, so I can't really lift heavy things for long), and third because I was concerned about liability. Anyway, they decided to start walking down my road to see if they could find some helpers. Imagine a 5-mile dirt road on the top of a ridge, at about 8,500 feet, with houses spaced every quarter-mile or so... in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.
Anyway, eventually they figured out a way to get the thing off the truck and into my garage. It was packed impeccably, so even these dolts couldn't have actually damaged it. (But they did seriously consider driving back down to the city and coming back another day. I did nothing to discourage them from this seemingly-reasonable idea!)
Here's a shot of the tank mostly unpacked, with just some leftover foam bits on top. We're going to re-use the (very nice) plywood as a smooth base atop the stand, so it's already been cut up and moved away.
I tried to include something for scale, but I realize now that I was shooting super-wide (maybe 18mm) and so scale is distorted anyway. Plus, that's a big drill.
I'll take pictures with some form of mermaid (or dogmaid) inside or near it soon enough. You can see the attached overflow hanging off here, as well as the two return bulkheads in the top. And, yes, I have both climbed inside it and looked around as well as stood on the cross braces to verify James' assertion that "they are strong enough for you to jump on if you want." They do bow, and I have not jumped on them, but they seem fine for just sitting. (James, let me know if you've changed your mind... ha ha!)
Meanwhile, the stand guy delivered his handiwork:
It actually sat outside for about a week because, of course, the construction inside was running a little behind. However, this thing is super-coated with that truck bed liner stuff, so it is basically impervious to the elements. You can see some of the construction debris sitting against the garage in the background, and it also happens that the north fish room window is the one you can see on the corner of the house there. There will soon be some additional vents cut in that wall down near the one you can see (near the hose) for the air exchangers.
Meanwhile, work in the fish room itself has progressed quite a bit:
Here you can see the hospital-grade, moisture-resistant paint going on the walls. All of the structural reinforcements have long been completed and inspections have all passed, so the plywood subfloor is back in (and we have our master bedroom downstairs back, thank goodness!).
Here's another view towards the door. Bonzo is observing that we have not yet built the 3" ledge at the foot of the door to provide a complete bathtub floor:
It's also worth noting that Bonzo really enjoys helping the contractors. Chaco is completely different and he hates all the noise and big guys he doesn't know. Bonzo will be sad when the work/fun comes to an end, I'm sure.
Fast forward... the interior of the fish room is mostly finished! The rubber floor is installed, and the stand has been put in place:
You can see it is pretty much a perfect fit:
This one shows how the extensions cantilever out over the walls. I did not want the walls to bear aquarium load. The cantilever is roughly 5 inches:
So, that brings you reasonably up-to-date! There remain a handful of important building-related tasks to complete, including:
- Finishing out the electrical on both sides of the walls.
- Finishing out the plumbing and installing the utility sink.
- Selecting, ordering, and installing the air exchanger(s).
- Finishing the ceiling lighting.
- Some paint on the living room side.
- The stand has been over-gooped with the liner. We need to smooth it out on both the top and bottom. We also believe the stand has about one-quarter inch of twist, so we will probably shim it to keep the load distributed well on the floor.
- Once the tank is in place and we've filled it with water once (to test the loading and verify deflection is okay), we will seal the tank to the wall (for water, light, and noise control) and install decorative trim.
- The generator has not been installed and wired in. We are treating this as a separate project.
Then the project will likely slow until I can stop traveling and get some time to acquire the other pieces. I have to decide what to do with the old tanks (try to sell, convert to sumps, etc.) and then order a bunch more stuff. I have a pretty good system diagram on paper (more tactical than the one at the beginning of this thread) but I think I'm going to build it iteratively. My guess would be that we'll see real saltwater in the tank probably in the January timeframe! (Ha!)
Until next time...
AquariumSpecialty
.Registered Member
It's looking great! Very nice attention to detail. This will be a fantastic reef!
Reefski's
Active member
a question and concern.
what size and thickness is your stand tubing?
it looks like the top suface of all the tubing is not al level. different tubes are at different heights and the welding bead is higher than all. a slight imperfection in the levelness of the base can cause stress fractures over time. does that concern you?
what size and thickness is your stand tubing?
it looks like the top suface of all the tubing is not al level. different tubes are at different heights and the welding bead is higher than all. a slight imperfection in the levelness of the base can cause stress fractures over time. does that concern you?
JustOneMoreTank
New member
Looking really nice. I cannot wait to see the HVAC that you are planning. Also the trim work I am looking forward to. These are two things that I am lacking on my tank and also knowledge of how to do well.
Hey all,
Thanks for all the cool comments!
Looking awesome! What type of paint do you refer to as "Hospital Grade". I was just curious. I have never heard it called Hospital Grade before.
Thanks
The "hospital grade" is, I think, just a marketing term. I believe it is a two-part epoxy. The guy doing the building work has done a lot of work in the past for labs and hospitals, and he recommended this particular type of paint for its resistivity to chemicals and moisture.
what size and thickness is your stand tubing?
it looks like the top suface of all the tubing is not al level. different tubes are at different heights and the welding bead is higher than all. a slight imperfection in the levelness of the base can cause stress fractures over time. does that concern you?
I believe the size is 2-inch square tubes, and I can't remember the thickness. I remember looking it up on the deflection tables and concluding that it was way more than necessary. There is probably a 300% safety factor in there.
I am very concerned about the unevenness, yes, and we're working this week to address that. I'm not sure if you are referring to stress fractures in the aquarium or stress fractures in the steel, but I am much more concerned about the former. We are designing some shims to better load the floor where there is some slight inaccuracy, but the real work is on the top surface, where we need to apply additional material with approximately the same hardness as the Rhino liner in order to promote even load distribution. We're actually going to use the same glue used to put down floors because we like its consistency and set time.
The good news is, I don't think it has to be absolutely perfect. We'll get pretty close, and then a layer of plywood and a layer of foam will help redistribute any minor errors. We don't want to see more than a thin crack of light under our level on the top surface, however. If we have more than that then we will go back to the drawing board.
Ben
Thanks for all the cool comments!
Looking awesome! What type of paint do you refer to as "Hospital Grade". I was just curious. I have never heard it called Hospital Grade before.
Thanks
The "hospital grade" is, I think, just a marketing term. I believe it is a two-part epoxy. The guy doing the building work has done a lot of work in the past for labs and hospitals, and he recommended this particular type of paint for its resistivity to chemicals and moisture.
what size and thickness is your stand tubing?
it looks like the top suface of all the tubing is not al level. different tubes are at different heights and the welding bead is higher than all. a slight imperfection in the levelness of the base can cause stress fractures over time. does that concern you?
I believe the size is 2-inch square tubes, and I can't remember the thickness. I remember looking it up on the deflection tables and concluding that it was way more than necessary. There is probably a 300% safety factor in there.
I am very concerned about the unevenness, yes, and we're working this week to address that. I'm not sure if you are referring to stress fractures in the aquarium or stress fractures in the steel, but I am much more concerned about the former. We are designing some shims to better load the floor where there is some slight inaccuracy, but the real work is on the top surface, where we need to apply additional material with approximately the same hardness as the Rhino liner in order to promote even load distribution. We're actually going to use the same glue used to put down floors because we like its consistency and set time.
The good news is, I don't think it has to be absolutely perfect. We'll get pretty close, and then a layer of plywood and a layer of foam will help redistribute any minor errors. We don't want to see more than a thin crack of light under our level on the top surface, however. If we have more than that then we will go back to the drawing board.
Ben
Gotcha.
We changed our mind a bit this morning. We're going to goop substrate glue all over our plywood base, clamp a few forms onto the steel sections where there are gaps, and then place the wood atop it and immediately place the tank on top. This will weight the entire thing into the "proper" place, in theory, and then the glue will set up and harden into a supportive structure. We can then take the tank off the plywood and verify that it is completely flat (and solid).
Ben
We changed our mind a bit this morning. We're going to goop substrate glue all over our plywood base, clamp a few forms onto the steel sections where there are gaps, and then place the wood atop it and immediately place the tank on top. This will weight the entire thing into the "proper" place, in theory, and then the glue will set up and harden into a supportive structure. We can then take the tank off the plywood and verify that it is completely flat (and solid).
Ben
