Finally my 450 Tank Build!!

[BILLYO382]

Well let me start off by giving a liltte dialog. I know some of you may have seen two of my other builds I posted in on RC at one time or another. One was of my 270 Gallon Tall reef tank and the other was of my 300 Gallon build that I abroubtly stopped, reason being I sold it, lol. The reason I sold it was because I was able to acquire a bigger tank from Keeperz here on RC in Las Vegas, NV. So I made a good profit on the 300 Gallon and loaded up the truck a week or two later and drove 22hrs straight after I got off work with my girlfriend to Las Veags. Phew wont do that again, I was tired as heck to say the least. Anyhow I stayed in a nice hotel called the Silverton Casino and Lodge, which just so happen to have a Bass Pro shops connected to it, a casino, and not to mention a 237,000 Gallon False Reef tank, lol. Which is trully the reason I booked a night at this hotel; my girlfriend found that out as soon as she saw the tank, lol. Here's a few quick pictures below of the tank, and yes a live mermaid in the tank, lol :strooper: girlfriend was like lol, moving on. lol

Here's two huge jellyfish tanks they had over the bar to the left of the main display tank

Heres the bass proshops tank that was attached to the hotel. They had a stream around the tank that had live rainbow trout in it, awesome.

Heres a ceiling mural in Bass pro shops that speaks for itself.

 

[BILLYO382]

Anyhow back to the tank build, lol. The tank is 450 Gallons (96 long x 30 wide x 36 tall with 1" thick acrylic on the sides and 3/4 on top and bottom) Needs a buff job, but otherwise looks really good, not to mention the oh so convient dry chases to conseal and run the wires to the lights that will be on top of the tank. Heres a qucik photo of the tank in keeperz garage.

Let me also give you a quick background on my reefing or tank keeping experience in general with a couple pictures of some tanks i used to own but eventually sold to upgrade a few months later in each case; I have that upgrade bug bad, lol. Anyhow I started off with a 5 Gallon Freshwater guppy tank at my parents house when I was still in highscool a few years ago, then I upgraded to a ten gallon saltwater tank, then a 30 Gallon SWT, then a 55 Gallon Reef (my first successful tank), then a 110 Gallon Aggressive tank, then a 135 SWRT, then my 270 Gallon Reef tank, then the last tank a 300 Gallom, and now the 450. Inbetween I would switch the tanks to freshwater when I felt like trying red belly paranas and then large mouth bass and catfish, etc. But thats kinda a qucik overview of my experience with the hobby. Ill post a couple qucik picts of some of the setups of the past below.

10 Gallon, My first Saltwater Tank

30 Gallon, My second SWT

Converted 30 Gallon to a baby Parana tank

30 Gallon Converted to Planted tank

 

[BILLYO382]

55 Gallon Reef tank ( My first successful reef tank)

5 Gallon Nano I tried

 

[BILLYO382]

MY 110 Gallon Agressive fish only SWT

My 135 Freshwater Tank

Converted 135 to SW mini RT

My 270 Gallon Tall Reef Tank

270 Rear Office View

My 300 Gallon (Never Setup)

 

[BILLYO382]

Now that my background tank keeping stuff is out the way, back to what the 450 build is about, lol. Hope no one minded the long dialog to get to this, just thought it was realivent to my build experience, etc etc. lol.

I plan on building the stand myself and running a equipment list as follows.

2- PM Bullet 2 Skimmers with collectors
1- Mag 18 ( will run one Pm skimmer)
1- Mag 24 (will run one pm skimmer, extra flow will be diverted back to sump)
1- Reeflo Hammerhead Retun Pump
1-Dart w/ OM 4 way closed loop system (Probably not, changing to 4 tunze 6101's with 7095 controller)
1- PM R36 Refugium
1- PM 33 Gallon Sump
1- 500 Watt titatium Heater
3-Mini Phosban Chambers
1- Korallin Calcium Reactor 3002 PACKAGE 2 or Korallin Calcium Reactor 1502 Package 2
1- UV Light
1- ReefKeepr Contoller with ph & temp probe
1-5 Stage RO Unit
3-400watt halides 10k or 15k
2-72" 160 actnic vho's
450 lbs of Live rock (maybe marco rock)
150-200lbs of live sand


Ok now that my plans are out of the way for the tank heres some pictures of my 450 Stand Design and pictures of the progress thus far. Please note its completely built out of 2 x 4's.

 

[BILLYO382]

Heres a couple pictures of the tank and the stand and some of the equipment I have already. As of right now I still need to buy the 400 watt halides, calcium reator, phosban chambers, uv light, 4 tunze 6101 with controller, live rock, sand, heater, and not to mention I still have to buff the tank. :smokin: lot of work left to do and items to buy but hey its progress. Anyway on to the pictures below.

Equipment

Tank and stand shots. (Please note im just testing out one 250 halide with 2 160 vho's)

 

[BILLYO382]

The last photo above is where I stand today, I need to level the tank and then buff it, I hope that the bottom of the tank isnt under to much stress from not being level as it sits right now, its pretty thick and strong and Im not going to put any water into it or anything until I find someone to level the stand for me. I dont know who to contact for such a task here in the houston, tx area. If you guys know of anyone please shoot me a pm or somthing on who I could look up or try or even under what occupation to look under. Carpeter or contractor or somthing, idunno, but I need to get it leveled out asap, I could try to do it myself if you guys could give me a little guidance on what I would need to buy to level it with, steel shims or somthing, i have no clue, lol. thanks and let me know what you guys think of my build so far.

 

[bstoner]

Nice stand work, very cool tank. Its nice to see something besides the standard rectangle.

 

[smoovie]

Nice! Feel free to send me over that unused 300.

 

[BILLYO382]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14462369#post14462369 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smoovie
Nice! Feel free to send me over that unused 300.

Lol, sorry man i would if I could that was the last tank I was going to setup but sold it, all those tank pictures above are kinda like my dialog of all the tanks over the years that Ive setup and sold later. Thanks for the compliment though. lol

 

[AJT]

How unlevel is it? I think I would try to shave the bottom to level it? You built the stand, & its not level or is the floor unlevel?

If you have to use shims, remember you will be slightly twisting the stand & the weight will not be delivered evenly, unless you use really long & tapered shims. I'v shimmed a 200 gal, but your talking more than twice that weight.

If you shim, DO NOT USE WOOD SHIMS, after they get wet, & you know they will, they will decompose.

Your in conroe, right?


Good luck,
Andy
Clear Lake

 

[sly fox]

good stuff

 

[BILLYO382]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14462874#post14462874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AJT
How unlevel is it? About 1/8"-1/4" , its pretty bad. I think I would try to shave the bottom to level it? Whoa thats alot of work, and would be tooo big of a undertaking since I dont have the equipment to get it that precise over such a long big area. You built the stand, & its not level or is the floor unlevel? Yes I built the stand and the stand is level, its the floor, and it only in the back that there is a gap, the front of the tank needs to lift up to level out the back side of the tank if that makes any since.

If you have to use shims, remember you will be slightly twisting the stand & the weight will not be delivered evenly, unless you use really long & tapered shims. In order to use really long tappered shims i would have to get the angle of adjustment perfect and have piece of steel cut or wood, but I dont have any cutting tools to be that precise. I wish I knew a professional that could do it for me, just dont know where to start looking. I'v shimmed a 200 gal, but your talking more than twice that weight.

If you shim, DO NOT USE WOOD SHIMS, after they get wet, & you know they will, they will decompose. I'll keep that in mind thanks.

 

[bstoner]

Might just be your carpet, the padding tends to slant down or be non existent closer to the wall in most cases. Is removing the carpet in the spot the tank sits an option?

 

[BILLYO382]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14463528#post14463528 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bstoner
Might just be your carpet, the padding tends to slant down or be non existent closer to the wall in most cases. Is removing the carpet in the spot the tank sits an option?

Yes it is the carpet or ground not the stand, and no I dont want to tear up the carpet where the tank sits, etc. Oh boy my head is starting to hurt on this deal, lol. :mixed:

 

[Jhardain]

You could try metal from a shelf unit. Those flat long metal pieces for certian shelves.
You could paint it or put poly on it to keep it from rusting. If the whole front needs to come up they come in various lengths.

You could even use 1/4 inch wood sealed, then the water won't mater, or at least it would be as little issue as it is that the stand is made of wood.

 

[BILLYO382]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14464303#post14464303 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jhardain
You could try metal from a shelf unit. Those flat long metal pieces for certian shelves.
You could paint it or put poly on it to keep it from rusting. If the whole front needs to come up they come in various lengths.

You could even use 1/4 inch wood sealed, then the water won't mater, or at least it would be as little issue as it is that the stand is made of wood.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions, I think I have come up with a plan to tackle this leveling problem. I am going to rent one of those portable moving folklift things from lowes and then slide the tank onto that and then level the stand with some 1/4" shims from lowes. The method I would take on each part of the stand as far as raising one side and adjusting the other is as follows. Bare with me as I'll try to explain each picture with the red arrows indicating which way Im going to tilt the stand to level it out. I have also circled the gap on one side of the stand b/c it is exactly the same on the other side.

Im going to raise the left side of the stand up to level out the back angleed part that the floor is causing/slope of floor. Then lift the front of the stand up to level out the gap down the back of the tank that the slope on the floor is casuing. Hope the picture and close up view of the angled gap explain what i am trying to say, lol.

Close up of gap on left side, identical angled gap on the opposing right side of the tank.

Just a picture showing the same type of angled gap on the right side of the tank, which is the same gap down the back of the tank all the way across. Im only lifting the front of the tank on this side, this tank side itself will not be lifted b/c by lifting the left side or opposing side of the tank up it will adjust to the angled down slope of the floor leveling out this side, at least I hope so. LOL it should, this is just my first time tacking this type of problem.

All Ideas and suggestion realeted to your own personal experiences are welcome. thanks in advance

 

[AJT]

I am jealous, I have had my 200 for about 15 yrs & have been wanting to upgrade to a 500 since then. How does your wife feel about the size of the tank?

Last resort for leveling: Put a trim boarn around the perimeter of the tank put plywood on the top of the stand (making a "pool". Pour self leving cement in to provide a level place for the tank to sit on. Put foam on top of that.

I had a 200 crack when I used wood shims. Sounds like a shot gun. When I looked at the shims they were mush, & water never got near them from the crack.

I live down the road from you, clear lake. If you ever need help, let me know.

I'm Andy on MARSH

 

[BWIPlumbing]

beauty tank.. Well atleast we can say that you didn't just jump into this hobby.. lol very cool how you have kept all those pictures of your tanks.

 

[TIMMAH]

I'm sorry to hear about your headache, but I'm also hoping to learn from your trails. I have a freshly tiled floor that I tried to make as strong as possible by smashing all of the pieces all the way into the slab in the area where the tank is to be placed. what I didnt realize is that a slab floor has the tendency to sag in the middle while the concrete dries. . . well, long story short, I am dealing with about a 1/2" drop over the 18" depth of the tank. knowing about it in advance, I hope to avoid as much of the associated headache as this sort of project will allow.

thank you for posting pictures of your stand build , these will be very useful for me when the time comes.

I plan on starting a new thread in the near future where I will be looking for input about this issue exactly. The advantage that I have is that I have the option to build off of the wall, like a cabinet maker would do when building custom cabinets. I hope to hear from you, and will be checking back to see how you rectify this situation.

best of luck