New tank?? 280ish

[8BALL_99]

I got most of my sump built tonight. I have to wait for it to dry some before I can flip it and glue the other side.. But you can get the idea. I pretty much built it just like my drawing. I ended up making the refuge baffle 16" instead of 15" though. I had it a little shorter incase the teeth got clogged up the water could just run over the top.. But since its so long and has so many teeth I'm not worried about that.. Besides with the top bracing the water has a 1/4" above the teeth before it overflows.. Anyway On with the pictures!

Top

Peices cut ready for assembly

Cutting Teeth for Refuge

One side done..

Will

 

[8BALL_99]

Sump is all done. Have to wait a few days to water test it though. Over all it turned out pretty well. I've got a few small bubbles here and there. Most the seems look really good though. A 30" wide tank is a little more trouble to work with. Not to bad though. It seemed like it took forever to run weld on around the top and bottom seams. Probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to have two people for that. I also built a bracket to hold my Float switches for my ATO. I've already got one on my current sump. But I don't think it would work well with the new one. I just used some scrap left over from the other cuts. Pictures!

ATO Bracket

Will

 

[H@rry]

Will, you da man! Your sump is bigger than a lot of people's display tanks. What thickness is your acrylic?

 

[kiran523]

Will, incredible job man! I really liked the float holder as well. How many gallons did that bad boy spec out to?

 

[8BALL_99]

Thanks guys, Well if you filled it to the rim it holds 99Gallons. With it running at normal levels. It should have about 62 gallons or so in it. Gives me a good 35-38 gallons of room for water when the returns are cut off. I don't think I'll need more then half that, But better safe then sorry.. Its just 1/4" cast Acrylic. The foot print is a little misleading.. Its only 16" tall and will only be filled to half that most of the time. The only part I'm a little worried about is the Refuge baffle. I had a peice of 1/2" in the shop big enough. But I was cheap and didn't want to use it.. Insted I used the peice I cut out of the top. On the plus side though I only ended up with two small peices of scrap. So my cut layout worked out perfect. When I water test it if the refuge baffle bows to much I plan on adding a brace to it.

 

[kiran523]

I wouldn't worry too much being that you used cell-cast acrylic. In any case, you'll find out in a day or two.

 

[8BALL_99]

Well small update. I added some 1" Acrylic bars to the sump to help support the refuge baffle. I also built a box that sits on the bars that will hold mangroves. Got the Metal stand built. I ended up adding a piece of flat steel 1/2" by 2" wide on the back where its open. Laid the steel on its edge and welded it to the back span. I'm pretty sure it will hold a ton on its own haha. I just have to paint the stand then wrap it with wood.. I've got the main part of canopy built. I was going to trim it out last night, but I watched a movie LoL. But the best news is the tank should be ready to ship end of this week!!!!! So I should have a new tank sometime next week.. As soon as I know for sure its on its way I'm going to start taking the 190 down so I can get the stand in place and get to work on all the finish work.. I also still have to cut a hole in the ceiling for the skylight. Of course I can't do that until I take down the 190. Still waiting on the skylight also

 

[RevHtree]

PMed you about the old tank..

 

[kiran523]

Hey Will, how about a new pic of the sump?

 

[8BALL_99]

RevHtree, YGPM

kiran, Sure I'll take one tonight. Its not much different I had Bought some Acrylic rod of different sizes. some to mount my pumps with and some smaller rod to help hold my rock in place. I thought the 1" looked kewl and would make a good shelf

 

[8BALL_99]

Well I got around to taking some pictures. Including one of the updated sump.

Here is a few shots of the canopy.. Its not done yet.. But its getting there.. Worked on couple hours the other night and a couple tonight till I ran out of wood

I tried to take more pictures as I built it. Since before people were asking of shots of how i put it all together.

 

[8BALL_99]

Couple shots of the metal stand.. I still need to paint it and of course cover it with wood. I guess I'm going to paint it with 2 part epoxy since I want to make sure rust isnt and issue. I'm not going to build the wood part till I set the stand in place and level. I want to make sure everything fits snug so it has that built in looks.

Will

 

[H@rry]

Is the entire weight of the whole thing going to rest on 5 bolt heads? Would that tend to "punch in" to the floor?

 

[8BALL_99]

Yes H@rry, member me and you talked about lori's stands and that exact same issue. I'm not worried about it punching into the floor cause it will sit on concrete like my current stand. I'll remove some of the tile since this stand is wider. My biggest concern with my setup was all the weight sitting on the bolts them self. I plan on shimming around the tank to help carry the weight just in case.. I really just used the bolts to help level it. I know for a fact where my current tank sits the floor from one end of the tank to the other is off by almost a 1/4" not a big deal with my current stand since I built it in place. My father In law is a certified structural welder. He is who helped me with the stand since I can't weld . He swears the bolts are more then enough to hold 4000Lb. The picture is a little misleading they are very large.. The stand is built out of 1.5" square tubing. The head on that bolt is about 1.4 lol But just incase I plan on cutting wood shims to help carry the load once the stand is level.

I agree though. If this was on a wood subfloor with tile or hardwood flooring I wouldn't use any kind of feet for a stand. Even with a slab if I had hardwood in the room I wouldn't trust it.. I'm sure that much weight would "punch in" the flooring over time.

 

[H@rry]

What about laying down a strip of angle steel under the feet. You could still use the bolts to level and the angle wouldn't flex like flat steel and it would distribute the weight more evenly.

 

[8BALL_99]

Biggest problem with something like that would be rust. I'm already going to dip the heads of the bolts in epoxy resin and paint the stand in 2 part epoxy.. Any metal on the concrete would be very hard to keep from rusting!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Here's what Beaslbob said:

Dispite being unusual and sometimes the club clown, I do work in the structures and materials division of the aviation engineering directorate here at redstone.

I saw Harry rasied some questions on 8ball's new stand which includes bolts probably for height adjustment. Can't really tell as at work here the pictures don't show.

But if 8ball can give me some design details and dimensions I can do some preliminary calculations to check on the welder's "it'll be fine comment".

But then we generally tend to over build these things anyway.


Bob

 

[wareagle35031]

8ball where did you get the acrylic weld glue for your sump, as I am going to build a fuge out of acrylic?

 

[8BALL_99]

I get my weld on from tap plastics most of the time.. Someone posted on here the other day a Ebay user that sells it for a few dollars less.

As far as the bolts go Harry's concern is with all the weight of the tank sitting on 5 small points on the floor. But the floor is a concrete slab. If I remember right the standard is 3000psi for a slab.. So my estimated tank weight of 3500Lbs would only be a problem if it was sitting on 2 of the bolts.. The bolts have a 1 1/8
" Head on them. 5' of them shoud be able to support 15000Lb plus as far as the floor is concerned anyway.

My concern was with the threads of the bolts holding the load. I think they are 7/8" threads. We welded the nuts for the bolts in the ends of the tubes. My father n law thinks Im crazy and swears they will hold 3x the weight. But Im thinking Im going to add blocks under the frame after is leveled to help the bolts hold the weight. I think with just a few shims this won't be an issue either. Still not even sure its an issue now.. I just overbuild lol

Do you think five 7/8" bolts can handle 3500Lb of verital force on the threads?

Will

 

[8BALL_99]

Duh I came up with a simple fix for my concern. Im going to put flat washers on the bolt between the head of the bolt and the stand.. So the threads won't be holding the load..