questions for the experts, 800 gal tank setup

scarter

scarter

New member
My wife and I are building a house and plan to get an 800gl from glass cages. I have a few questions for the experts around here.

The carpenter wants to know how to mount the tank against the drywall. I had no idea what to tell him. I plan to have the tank in a fish room and have the tank flush mounted to the living room wall; or slightly recessed about 6 in with finished drywall going to the tank. would the carpenter just drywall to the tank edge and the silicone the drywall to the glass? anyone with experience in building a fishroom feel free to chime in here.

also, I believe the best type of stand would be the cynder block style stand. does anyone have a link or info on building this type of stand?

also what about humidity, can I just exchange with outside air and use a chiller? basically making the tank sort of outdoors? or should I run a dehumidifier and an ac unit? or should I buy an air exchanger? should I have the builder connect the house duct work to the tank room or have it seperate from the house unit?

not to be rude, but I really only wat advice from people with experience setting up large tanks
 
I bet that cinder block idea came from Glass Cages . Have your builder hammer together a wood frame . God help the movers if it's a glass 800 .
 
funny, it sure was glass cages idea about the cynder blocks, but it seemed like a good idea to me...
 
i think your trying to say you want the tank to be recessed into the wall 6 inchs which would make the tank 6 inchs into the fishroom correct? if this is the case just look at any inwall tank setup and show the pictures to your carpater and im sure he could figure it out
 
Ok for the stand... you can build a floor joist style stand and support that thank fairly simply. you basically use 6x6 posts lag bolted to 2x10's the length of the tank. These types of joists will support thousands of pounds. I wouldn't do a cynder block stand. It just looks silly. If you are going to spend this kind of money I would put a bit into the stand as well.

I wouldn't run the duct work for the house into the system. For my fish room I ran 300cfm fan's on humidity controllers from inside outside. Humidity will be a problem with 800g+.

Good luck.
 
uztaryn, are you saying that I dont need any sort of temp controll inside the room? our summers get in the 90's sometimes and I would be worried about overheating
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9661622#post9661622 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scarter
funny, it sure was glass cages idea about the cynder blocks, but it seemed like a good idea to me...
Click to expand...

If done right, there is nothing wrong with center block stands...

rnelson's thread
 
thanks for the link, I would be worried about a shift in weight to the side could send the whole thing crashing. for the price he paid for the h beams I would be 3/4 of the way to a welded steel stand. I am still on the fence.

what I am really curious about is the humidity, currently for my 200gl I run a dehumidifier and the ac in the house. I have heard a lot about exchangeing with outside air, sounds great but what if the outside air is 90deg? I would think that would really heat up the tank, unless I vented at night when it was cooler. It jwould be great not to have to runa dehumidifier and an ac unit, would save me about $100 a month. thats more monry for corals.
 
G'day scarter,

Sounds like your going to have a great set up. Cant wait for the pics.

The 6 inch recess your building sounds great. I have seen pictures of this done. I plan on doing the same when I build my house. In regards to how close you place the tank near this could be a matter of debate, but I would leave a gap say quater inch away from the tank and leave this space open. A new house depending on the type of construction you use will move. The weight settles and the timber (if your using a timber frame) will shrink as the timber seasons ( moisture in the timber dries out).

To tight a fit and you are asking for trouble, which im sure you dont want.

If the floor is a structually designed concrete slab, then the cinder block stand would be ok. Concrete shrinks a little, but not much movement.

If you are using a timber bearers and joist floor, then id take uztaryn's advice and beef up the floor as well as build your stand. Obviousily there is plenty of build threads, so you wont have problems finding a stand idea you like. Personally id build the stand, it can be braced to your needs and can take a bit of abuse. It will also allow you to move the stand around to get the perfect position, build a catwalk for access etc :) .

Good luck and hope this helps
(cant help with the humidity prob sorry)

Chris
 
g'day chris and thanks for the great advice. I am now thinking that leaving a small gap would be a great idea. I could leave a 1/2 in gap all aroung and then seal it when the house settles. that sounds like good advice. And yes the tank will be on solid concrete.
another question, should I ask the builder to add extra cement to the area where the tank will sit or is standard building code sufficent to hold 1000gl of water?
 
Without a doubt mate, thicken the area.

1000 gallons is a lot of water/weight. If its not to late you can put in a thicker slab with a footing under that to act as beams if you want to. Personally I would thicken the slab to 200mm/8 inches as a MINIMUM. Thicker if you like, but especially if your building on a clay site. This thickening should be part of the slab, not hard to do. To reinforce the thickening, get your builder to tie 1/2 inch bars together to form a mesh. This will give the thickening a lot more strength. Make the thickening 3 foot longer on all edges, based on the size of your stand/tank. This will help distribute the load better, especially if you use the cinder blocks for the stand.

If my calculations are correct ( i convert to metric to understand better) you are looking at a load of around 5 tonnes. Theres not much difference between the metric and imperial system, but thats a fair bit of weight your going to have. I allowed 1.3 tonne per 1000ltrs, 3.8ltrs to the US gallon so that would give you around 5tonne give or take a little. This allows for water only, very important to keep this in mind.

If you have any doubt about the above, contact a structual engineer to have a look at your project. I dont know soil types, reactivity, total weight (could guess or allow extra) so there is varibles you could have to consider, but I doubt you would have a problem. An engineer should not charge to much for a small project such as this, if you choose this approach. I would at least get a quote and think seriously about it.

Good luck and let us know how you go :)
 
Are you doing a remote sump? My 500g sits in my living room and drains down into a basement to a remote sump. I do all the cooling and heating down there; however, my 4 x 400w halides do a decent job heating up the tank itself.

All of my temp controls and humidity dispersment is done in the basement. I have a 24" canopy on top of my tank with an open top. With 30ft cealings in the room that the tank resides I have not noticed much in the way of heat around the tank.

I am certian that the more you confine the space around the tank the more you will have to worry about heat. In my house if it gets much over 76 degrees I see noticable temp rises in the water. I use an Aqua Controller 3 to control cooling devices on the remote sump. If your house stays the same temp all the time that will help.

Not sure if that is any help or not, just my experience.
 
so whatever room the tank is in will need to be temp controlled and have an exchange with outside air. sounds like a waste to run an ac unit and then pump that air outside.
 
Has anyone tried putting an exhaust fan or 2 in the ceiling above the light ballasts ( depending on space and set up of course ), and drawn the air into the roof space. Put a whirly gig in the roof which will draw the air/heat out of the ceiling.

By whirly gig i mean those things that are fixed to the roof, and the internal fan spins around in the wind drawing air from below.

I think you can stop the draw in winter if you want to keep your ceiling space warm for winter.

No idea how effective this would be on a real hot day though.

Its just an idea, I have no idea on the practical side when used for heat dispersion for an aquarium. If it sounds silly just ignore the comment. An ac unit might be just as cheap to run if it is a head unit dedicated just to the fish room, easier to control the temp in a small enough area. :rolleyes:

Doing maintenance in an air conditioned fish room, mmmm just imagine. :p
 
I do my air exchange down in the basement with my sump and frag tank. I have a 300cfm fan kinda like what you would have in a bathroom only bigger on a humidity control. I don't really have any issues by my display tank.
 
so after some research I am thinking that the best way to controll humidity and temp is with a chiller. what I am gathering is that I should pump air outside and allow the neg pressure to and a vent to allow air to return to the room. and I should use a chiller to controll water temp and I can leave the room the same temp as the outside air.
 
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