Planning Large Reef Tank - Colorado foundation concerns?

[IUfan]

Tentatively planning a 600G tank. It would be placed in the basement on a concrete slab floor.

Which is normally fine, but apparently the ground here in Colorado is particular bad and has tendencies to swell, shrink & move a lot with rain/droughts.

Anyone live here in Colorado and have a large tank, and know whether I have anything to be concerned about?

Thanks!

 

[tkeracer619]

Yup. Hard pressed to find a pad that isn't cracked here. Consult a foundation company and build it on a beefy steel stand.

 

[halmus]

My Colorado tank is 350 and isn't officially running yet. But I had fresh water in it for a few months. Also in the basement. I'm still building it out.

I agree with the beefy steel stand suggestion. That's what I did. I would at least try to build it on a slab where it isn't straddling one of the seams they made. I assume those are intended to encourage a crack along the seam if one should happen.

I don't know if it's an option or even a good idea, but what about laying out forms that fit the footprint of the tank and pouring an additional slab (6" thick?) on top of the basement slab. Reinforce that with rebar. That might be a horrible idea, or might me entirely unnessasary with a strong enough steel stand. It wouldn't work if you are trying to fit filtration under the tank.

But, it's an idea you could bring up to the foundation people.

I went with a steel stand and leveled it with steel shims leaving at least a 1/4" gap under the frame and then poured a thin layer of concrete under the entire stand. That way, I know every square inch of the stand is being supported evenly and spreading out the load as opposed to just a few points of contact. My floor was far from level or even. Maybe that was a bad idea, but I makes sense in my head to spread out the load as much as possible.

 

[IUfan]

TKE, I totally forgot that you live in Colorado. Did you do anything special for your new tank?

I'm just worried if the tank is on one slab, that it may cause subsidence on one slab or cause it to tilt?

 

[CafeReef]

Checkout this build thread, it's so ironic you ask this because I literally was asking about some of the work done on his house and he said it was because of the heaving of ground in colorado. Maybe he could give you some tips?

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2624431


**Edit**Halmus has already chimed in I still recommend checking out his build though haha

 

[tkeracer619]

TKE, I totally forgot that you live in Colorado. Did you do anything special for your new tank?

I'm just worried if the tank is on one slab, that it may cause subsidence on one slab or cause it to tilt?

No, I didn't do anything. The foundation tech I hired didn't think it would be a problem with my slab.