Rob's ten ton tank

[robvdv]

I've been planning and building a 10000 litre/2650 gallon glass aquarium for around 3 years now. I've also built a 15m x 5m (38' x 13') steel and glass greenhouse holding all the filtration for the tank. I've had an awful lot of problems during the process, but I seem to be doing okay now, so it's time to post here. If you're interested in a blow by blow account, the gory details are here: http://www.sareefkeeping.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12932

Here are the pics. The house was more or less built around the tank. I'm trying not to be embarrassed about that:

Here's the separate foundation being case for the tank:

Originally, it was going to be made out of acrylic. The guy stole my (substantial) deposit, so I wound up doing it in glass instead:

The front sheet is 71mm thick (just under 3 inches) and the side sheets are 58mm (just over 2 inches).

Here's the rebar in the roof. The gap is where the tank goes :

A little further on:

And enclosed:

Piping to the greenhouse going in:

Finally getting the acid wash (pre epoxy) in:

 

[robvdv]

First epoxy coat:

Gosh, it looks so clean by comparison to how it looks now

The tank, minus the glass:

The glass:

EPDM rubber spacers in place:

Glass being craned in:

 

[TheFishTeen]

Awesome! Subscribed to this one, can't wait how it comes out!

 

[robvdv]

Terrifying stuff:

Lowering it in:

Manoeuvring it into position:

Oops. The glass struck the side of the tank going in. That little crack is destined to become a big crack.

A little superheroism from the glass guys, making sure the crack doesn't run all the way across the pane:

Here was the result:

And finally, success. Nearly two tonnes of glass in position:

Mmm, that's a lot of glass:

I pushed in around 100 tubes of silicone with a pneumatic caulking gun (Dow Corning 895):

My skylight arrives:

 

[robvdv]

Edge posts arrive. I fitted them using Sika epoxy. A difficult, nasty job amongst several other difficult, nasty jobs:

Trying to get a nice finish on the edges. This:

Becomes this:

The first fill. Expecting a tidal wave any minute:

And then, woo hoo! it's filled (with goldfish, sorry):

Hmm, interesting afternoon sun patterns:

 

[dave.m]

I snuck a peak at the end of your build on the SA Reefkeepers forum. Nothing gives an idea of the true scale of this monster like those last two images.

Man, I do love a monster tank! Best of success with this beast.

Dave.M

 

[robvdv]

Prototyping the rockwork:

First stab at the rockwork. At this point I was trying to get the interrelationship between the elements right. I'm not an artist, so I struggled a bit.

The first of the artificial rocks:

Trying to get a feeling for how it works in the tank:

More or less settled on a backdrop:

The slow process of covering it in epoxy and fibreglass:

All the pieces together:

 

[robvdv]

Giving them a more natural coating of coral chip and dolomite sand:

Everything in place:

Time to work on glazing the skylight:

First fill with natural, unflitered seawater (possibly a mistake):

Umm, who's this hitchhiker? A fish leach?

Waiting for the tank to mature. This is where we were 4 months ago:

Then a minor disaster. Dinoflaggelates:

 

[robvdv]

I can tell you, walking past this every day makes you a sad man:

A few months of that, and I'd lost my sense of humour. I implemented a very aggressive plan to control them. Finally, I had some success:

And now, where we are today, rearranging the rockwork:

 

[robvdv]

Here's part of my greenhouse. All the filtration, refugiums etc. are location here:

And one of my Rics. They make me happy:

I should probably post the details of this in the propagation section.

 

[slief]

Amazing! That is one hell of a tank! Very ambitious and extremely impressive! What did you do to address the dino issue?

 

[robvdv]

What did you do to address the dino issue?

I added the following:
1. 600mg/hour of ozone into the skimmer
2. a 55W UV sterilizer
3. calcium hydroxide to raise the pH to 8.7
4. a 350W pump hooked up to two Beckett foam heads to improve airation and redox
5. another 30 airlifts to improve redox
6. 2kg of carbon changed weekly or so (probably too little)
7. I'm mechanically removing the sludge.

I experimented a bit with hydrogen peroxide, but wasn't convinced.

 

[Tater11]

this is amazing..

 

[skiprr]

Wow. That's amazing!!

 

[Emster]

Dude that is sick thanks for sharing:thumbsup:

 

[dahenley]

WOW, i have seen both of those builds from different websites, and i never realized they were from the same person.....
WOW!!!!

(had to close my laptop when the wife walked by.... Otherwise i would get a slap in the back of the head with "dont even think about it" comment.. haha)

 

[flounderfish]

Sweet! I really like the idea of natural lighting.

 

[photobret]

This is awesome! I am from Cape Town and lived in Capri Village. It's been a while since I kept marines in SA. Are there good places to get fish and inverts from? I am so stoked to see SA representing in the big tank group. Definitely going to subscribe.

 

[rkesling]

Truly speechless! :spin2: I have seen some amazing builds before but i think that this one takes the cake!

 

[125G Reefer]

:eek2::eek2::eek2:
WHOLLY CRAP!!!! WOWWWWW
Read the other link also. Very cool, Very cool indeed!!