My 960g plywood build. Let the fun begin...

[d-man]

This is the 2nd big plywood build that my lovely and loving wife has been part of. I say part of rather than let me, because I would have done it anyway.

In my last house I built an 860g 145"x32x43" plywood tank. It was awesome but only had it up 2 yrs because we had a baby girl and I decided my 2 storytownhouse was too small and was time to sell my place and go buy "œour" place together.
It had to have 3 main things to fit my parameters and the wife was happy to
Oblige.
#1. It has to have 1 wall for me to build a large tank again. Preferably at 10-12 footer but sometimes we sacrifice for other things.

#2 the entire garage, yes ENTIRE, would be used solely for aquarium stuff. Ie QT systems, coral systems, equipment and such.

#3 the backyard had to have area for a pond.

The wife was more than willing to have my "œnecessities "œ met knowing she was getting a house that we could call our own. And she wasn't going to be paying much more in her portion of the mortgage since I was fronting the down payment lol

So we started looking... 2 months later after seeing some decent ones with some great aspects but didn't fit my qualifications we stumbled upon our purchase. Although qualification #1 was on the smaller side, the house was completely remodeled and I decided I could sacrifice a lil extra tank space for a large .44 acre yard and a larger size garage for the holding systems and QT systems. Yes SYSTEMS, plural!! 900g with of Qt and holding fish, plus 450g for Corals only. And space for 1000g of water change containers, etc.

 

[d-man]

So we closed on both the townhouse and house within 1 day of each other. And made moving my 5 or 6 tanks residing in the garage a lil easier than it could have been. I had a few Fish remaining but most of my corals were sold, given away or died in the 4 month process of the 860g tear down.

We moved in on July 19th and I quickly went to work on the garage systems to at least get the Fish a decent temporary home. The wife wasn’t too pleased that that was my first priority but she knew that it had to be done.
As far as the DT tank build, well that had to wait til we got back from our Hawaii trip 2 weeks after we moved in and another week and a half for my daughters 1st bday. The wifey wanted the party at the new house....ugh! I, on the other hand was less than thrilled. We had been there a month and we still had stuff to put up, yet 70-80 people were now going to come over...worst of all, the tank wasn’t even installed yet...geesh

 

[d-man]

So one day after the party on 8/26/18 I was dealing with a massive hangover, vomiting and body aches(1st bday party was a rager, lol) I knew it was finally time to start construction on this perfectly good house.
The tank was going in what was the laundry room that backed up against the dining room wall. The space I had and location meant that the measurements were going to limit the size as well as having to have the equipment all under tank or close by for certain pieces.

Tank measurements are 8’x4’x4’ and sump is 60”x30”x17.5”.

Lighting will consist of
4x400wt halides (14k), 4x300wt marsaqua(leftover from last build)

Return pump-fluval sp6 connected to 2 1” seaswirls

Flow
2 closed loops - 1 vectra l1 and 1 sp6. Each one will have 3 returns
2-4 jebaos Cp-55s. I had one on my 860. Worked great. Better than gyres imo. Both mine broke within 5 months.

Geo CaRx with masterflex pump
110wt tmc uv sterilizer
Apex classic until the new alk controller comes out.

 

[d-man]

Here's the dining room wall front side and laundry backside. Stated the hole prior to remembering to take a pic.
And yes laundry is being moved to the garage. So I guess the garage will have one thing other than aquarium stuff

 

[d-man]

Why are the pics not straight?

 

[d-man]

Moving the stand base through the door
And starting some verticals

 

[d-man]

Bracing the subfloor in 100 degree heat.
Tank is between 2 load bearing walls. We sistered a 4x8 to each joist then crossbraces all those with a 6x6 onto of 2 6x6 posts with 16"x16x18" concrete footings.

 

[d-man]

My lil helper. Yes I took the screws away from her right after the pic.

 

[d-man]

All in a hard days...
So here's the wifey, my boy Spartacus and a lil fiberglassing.

Lots of screws, wood glue and trips to Home Depot went into it at this point. But it took me all day to get here.

 

[d-man]

The finely woven fiberglass mat I received from a client of mine who owns an airline paint company. Way stronger than typical fiberglass mat.
The state of my house at the moment. Luckily I haven't been scolded for the mess. Frankly I wouldn't care anyway the couch is pretty comfortable lol.
But in all seriousness my wife is extremely cool about it all and has even helped out when called upon. Going to MACNA as well and she knows her tangs, and wrasses better than a lot of hobbyists.

Hopefully I'll start using the PondArmor tomorrow to get a coat or two on.

 

[d-man]

Btw the tank is 3/4” plywood bottom, 3/4” plywood back x 2 sheets, sides are also 3/4” plywood x2 sheets. The front is 2x4 bottom and sides with a 2x6” top frame. The glass will have 3” on bottom and sides, with 5” up top of overlapping.

Glass will be 93.5”x45.5”x3/4”

Eurobracing up top will be front/back 2x6”s and sides 2x4s.
There are 5 double 2x4 ribs on the back for vertical bracing that will be connected via top crossbracing of a 2x6 and 2x4 mated together going from front to back. It will be plenty strong

 

[DaveMorris]

Sounds like a pretty cool set up. Looking forward to seeing it develop.

 

[McPuff]

Following this build. I really like the dimensions. Lots of aquascaping possibilities.

 

[d-man]

Thanks guys. Yeah can’t wait to have it up and running.

It’ll also have a faux(foam/rock) wall all the way around that I’ll attach corals to. I’ve done portions of this on my other two an it looks so natural after a couple months. People always comment on it. This way I can have a reef wall without taking horizontal space allowing for the Tonga branch to be better utilized. Plus no more cleaning coralline off the back