Matt's 5000ltr Display

[D5HP]

Thanks D5HP

Plywood tanks are good fun. If my tank wasnt surrounded on 3 sides by walls I would have gone with glass but there seemed little point after a bit of research.
A 12' tank with 10' viewing pane will be amazing especially if you can get a good front to back size too, I look forward to reading your thread!

Well I've always wanted a big in wall and I loved your idea of having fish "swim into view". I feel like you could make the tank a few feet longer without really affecting cost much either. The limiting factor with my current idea is the size of 1/2" glass I can have cut. I like long, shallow, deep tanks. This one wont be a reef for a few years though as I want it to establish itself (and save more money). I did see the fingerlakes site BTW...lots of inspiration.

Thanks for the heads up though. Can't wait to see this one epoxied...

 

[launchnukes]

I haven't checked the thread in a few weeks and im impressed with your progress. Everything is looking great

 

[Moort82]

Not even 1mm out. Are you sure your human, lol

Can't remember if you've mentioned this before but what colour is the back going to be? Is it just a case of dye/colouring in the fibreglass? and how does it hold up to scraping coralline, or isn't it smooth enough to even try.

 

[d3hree]

Not even 1mm out. Are you sure your human, lol

Can't remember if you've mentioned this before but what colour is the back going to be? Is it just a case of dye/colouring in the fibreglass? and how does it hold up to scraping coralline, or isn't it smooth enough to even try.

Lol, thanks Ad, I assure you it is pure luck.

The fibreglass that GRP install is a 4 layered system. The first two layers are what I am tempted to call a standard weave fibreglass. It isnt "standard", it is pretty fine stuff. The third layer is an extremely fine weave that gives a smooth finish. The fourth layer is called a flowcoat and is a black smooth finish resin for want of a better description.

I have a sample that they sent me and it is very nice. A lot more glossy than I was expecting and extremely tough. I have tryed to simulate coraline scraping with it and it doesnt even blemish.

 

[GRP UK]

Lol, thanks Ad, I assure you it is pure luck.

The fibreglass that GRP install is a 4 layered system. The first two layers are what I am tempted to call a standard weave fibreglass. It isnt "standard", it is pretty fine stuff. The third layer is an extremely fine weave that gives a smooth finish. The fourth layer is called a flowcoat and is a black smooth finish resin for want of a better description.

I have a sample that they sent me and it is very nice. A lot more glossy than I was expecting and extremely tough. I have tryed to simulate coraline scraping with it and it doesnt even blemish.

One of my customers gave their sample to the kids to try and break it. They couldn't manage to so it passed the test

As for the GRP, fibreglass, fibERglass.

Two layers of chopped strand mat, impregnated with resin, third layer of fibreglass is called surface tissue to remove the patterning seen in chopped strand mat, flowcoat in black. Nominal thickness of the system is 3mm and as Matt has already said it's pretty tough gear once it has cured.

There's a shot of the sample I sent Matt further back in the thread.

Before the system is applied as described above we coat the ply with a layer of resin so the timber doesn't 'suck' resin from the back face of the 3mm composite.

I'm sure Matt will take some close up snaps when I'm there. If he can stand the smell of the resin of course

Matt GRP.

 

[d3hree]

Unfortunately work is taking up all of my time at the moment so updates have been a little slow, a few more weeks and hopefully I will be able to carry on at full speed.

I did get a couple of hours the other day and whilst waiting on a glued piece of timber to dry I started to mock up how the MH lights will work ( hopefully)

You may have read earlier in the thread that I had designed a lighting bracket to move the lights front to back. I was never really happy with it as it didnt allow the rotation I want. To rotate the lights and point them towards the back is key to avoid lighting the glass and also too much light spill through the glass onto what will be the dining room table.

I felt that my lighting rig was waaay too over complicated for what was needed so I scrapped it and decided to go with the conventional aluminium wardrobe track with runners.

Each track will be 1 metre long and will span front to back.

Inside the track will be the runners, small castor wheels that will allow me to move the lights.

The vital element is the ceiling mounting projector brackets that I found. These will allow 360 degrees of rotation plus 100 degrees of tilt. The amount of rotation gets locked off with an allen key screw and the amount of tilt is adjusted with the large thumb screw in the centre.

Making some adjustments to the reflector meant that i could bolt one end of the bracket to it and the other end to the runner inside the tracking.

I couldnt resist firing up one of the 250w ballasts to see what it looks like.

Things to iron out

Rotating the reflector towards the back of the tank alters the weight distribution and because it all pivots on one point the reflector rotates to one side slightly. During this test I hadnt fastened the bolts tightly which I think would minimise the amount of roll but i still think i will need to make adjustments elsewhere also.

I thought maybe two runners per reflector would stop it altogether as there would be to parallel points to fix the brackets to and wouldnt allow any roll.
Or some bolts that screw through the brackets and run either side of the tracking would stop the upper bracket rolling.

 

[dave.m]

Just a random thought from the ignorant, here, but perhaps your reflector is not the best shape if you want to do spot work. It appears to be designed for a much wider spread than what you are proposing. Perhaps a reflector with a more conical shape would allow you to better focus the light the way you want it, i.e. more like a pendent.

Dave.M

 

[d3hree]

I dont want spots Dave, well I do but i will look at canons or orpheck for those. What i want with the lumenarcs is to not light the glass. Conventional vertical lighting would mean that the front glass is lit. I want the reflectors rotated away from the glass pointing towards the back of the tank.

With 52" front to back I like the spread the reflectors give.

 

[Opcn]

Have you considered DIYing asymmetrical reflectors to get the distribution that you want?

 

[d3hree]

Thanks Opcn
Asymmetrical reflectors would have been an option if i hadnt have found the brackets that allowed the rotation...not sure I would have built them myself though.
I think the rotation and swivel on the reflectors should mean that I can light the tank how i want to without lighting the glass. Time will tell and maybe I will look at the reflectors in the future.

 

[Opcn]

Having gone back to read the whole thing now I'll mention that if I were instructing a child to play under the tank I'd build up that front post a little more. By my reckoning those bolts can only support that front bottom edge by way of tension across the front panel of the box, the panel you've carelessly cut out to install glass .

Given all the fastened joints involved in those bits of cross bracing in the floor I'd imagine that they will not start transmitting significant tank load to the walls until the deflection is way past the failure point of the front 2x brace. They will hold the joists running front to back upright, which is good, but they are all class 2 levers pivoting on the well supported (bolted) back wall and transmitting force to that front 2x cross piece. I'd suggest that you set up a rigid measuring stick and scribe line system to measure deflection when you get around to getting it wet. Ideal wood strength makes a lot of sense when you are engineering loads across 40 floor joists, but when you are depending on one piece of wood that kind of optimism is maybe a bit braver than you realize.

 

[d3hree]

Thanks Opcn
You are not the first to express concerns over the stand. i must admit that I dont entirely agree.
I will have approx 6000kg distributed over 15 6x2" uprights, each upright taking a load of 400kg. From what I have been told and read a 4x2" upright will take a load of 18000lbs (8164kg) as long as it doesnt buckle sideways. Each of the 15 uprights are larger than 4x2" and will be taking a load 1/20th of that.
Whilst I havent relied on the anchor bolts to hold up the tank, being able to bolt the whole tank to the 3 surrounding brickwalls will ensure that the tank isnt able to buckle or slide.

Having said that it would be foolish of me to disregard yours and others comments so i will be measuring the deflection in various places when i first test fill the tank and will amend the stand if neccessary.

Thanks again Opcn

 

[jay9]

Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.m View Post
Yes, it's incredible the way Matt can develop such an advanced design for so little money. Truly an inspiration to us all.

Dave.M
Dave youre a star...

you are truly a star dave.... now i am monitoring all bank statements and paypal accounts .. cheers

 

[Hamish46]

I was just re reading some of the early pages of this thread and i was wondering why you put the water proof membrane on top of the concrete? the water proof membrane is meant to go below the concrete slab to stop water getting into the slab in the first place. if you wanted to keep the timber away from water i would have suggested using steel stirrup's in the slab and then bolted the legs of the stand to the stirrups. I am a carpenter from Australia and i have poured quite a few slabs so i just thought id mention it. if i have miss understood your plans i sincerely apologize. Other wise this is an incredible build thread and i wish there was more like it, the quality of your graphic designs is incredible i cant wait to see more work

Hamish

 

[d3hree]

Hi Hamish

I think I know what you mean, I have no building background though. I didnt pour the slab it is the foundation of my house so I had no opportunity to put a membrane under the concrete. The reason, rightly or wrongly, that I added the membrane between the top of the concrete and timber frame was that I assumed that the wood could potentially suck up any moisture that gets in the concrete.
As you say the hope is that no moisture gets in the concrete to get sucked up into the wood but at the time adding the membrane seemed like a good idea, whether it does me any good or not I dont know but it was only £15.

Thanks for following and your compliments.

 

[Hamish46]

I think for 15 you can't go too far wrong, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it How long do you think until the fiberglass is finished? I'm really interested in the ply tank design, especially how the glass is held in place.

 

[d3hree]

Hi Hamish

I am swamped with work at the moment so I havent had much chance to work on the tank.
I estimate that I have about 2 more days worth of work on it, mainly filling and sanding before I can organise with GRP Matt a time that suits him to fibreglass it.
Not too much longer I hope.

 

[Hamish46]

Sounds good, can't wait to see

 

[Euler Kernighan]

Hi Matt,

After just two months your progress is very impressive - AWESOME!!!!

Keep going on! I'm really motivated right now! :thumbsup:

 

[d3hree]

Hi Euler

Thanks for the compliments, however I started the build back in January so its been a little longer than two months. It feels like an eternity though, the more I do the more I realise how much is left to do. I recently started on the fish room so I will upload some pics soon.