SWUBE: 1000 gal Swiss Reef

Ridgeway Swiss

Ridgeway Swiss

A Member
OK here goes !

I'm a English reefer that now lives in Switzerland and I've been keeping salty tanks since 1987 although with many breaks in-between, I guess at some point you need to meet a partner, buy a house etc

I've just dismantled my 250 gal Deltec tank that's been running for the last 6 years but now it's time to go full custom !!!

My new system is currently about 75% through the build phase but here's the overview:

Display: 5.25ft x 5ft x 3.75ft made from 1" thick Opti-white (low iron) glass

Sumps: 5ft x 2ft x 2ft, upper and lower sumps both more or less the same dimensions, these are made from 5/8 inch white PVC

Return pump: Abyzz A400

Flow: 4 x Vortech MP60

Lighting: 12 x Hydra 52

Control: Apex Neptune

Skimmer: Deltec TC3070s with self cleaning head

Elements: DaStaCo

Scape: Marco Rocks


Some pics will explain more easily than my poor words.
 
This was an early sketch in order to define the location and what size tank we could fit in, the spouse factor was key and so far it's cost me a new dog, a new kitchen and lots of decorating....



This plan meant taking out 2 walls, blocking off access to our utility room and therefore having to create a new access through another wall. Also you'll notice that pillar on the front corner of the tank, more about that later....



The base needed some serious thought and it was a choice between aluminium or steel/concrete and as I had the builder already here for the other works then I chose the later:



The concrete base itself became a work of art that the Swiss builder took some delight in executing to the Swiss standard, he dug out around 3ft for the foundations and then made a steel reinforced concrete structure that the steel beams would sit on.

 
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Before the builder could start with the walls and base I had to take out the cow feeder, yes you read correctly.... The house is around 250yrs old and is actually a farm that was converted many years ago and most of the part we live in is where the animals used to live hence in the room that will become the reef technical back office it used to be where the cows were fed and they had a 1ft high slab of concrete on the floor just to elevate their food a little, nothing a jack hammer wouldn't get rid of



I mocked up the tank with a wooden frame just to get a feel for it:



And then Benoît the builder cut the floor ready for the foundations, we decided that the correct depth was officially 1 Cocker Spaniel



Whilst this was going on we installed a dedicated electrical supply for the aquarium, this has 15 outlets and each one has an RCBO so in theory if any equipment goes it will only take out what is on that circuit and i will split the risks by having say 2 heaters and both on separate outlets



The base concrete was made around the steel frame as below



And for a while half the house was held up by temporary steel supports

 
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Once it was all cleaned away we could get a better look at what we had



I had 2 steel frames made up, one for the tank base and one for the top of the tank as it will be without central braces



This was the new access to get to the back of the tank from the kitchen area, the walls are 3ft thick so it took a will to cut through...



I picked up the steel beams and then after cleaning them I gave them a few coats of a plastic based paint

 
Next we had some tiling to do



Back to the pillar that was originally on the front corner of the tank..... We changed the plan some what and managed to find a way to avoid the pillar but that meant cutting out more of the house and adding more steel supports. This main beam now spans 16ft across the room



I then started to build up the base with the steel beams, wooden sub base, polystyrene and then steel tank base frame



I started on the Apex system, nearly completed but still a few more cables to sort out



Also I managed to squeeze in the 12 x Hydra 52 PSU's




More soon.
 
ace_92101 said:
Wow! Talk about a construction project.
Click to expand...

yep the spousse factor in bucket loads:hammer:

it's been a very dusty start to the project although this seems to be over now although there's still plenty of dust around, will take a few months to clear the house of it I think
 
Wow really admire you detailed work in cleaning up all the electrical components it looks fantastic you really must have a lot of time in that! You are going to be so happy having it so organized! Great build this far!
 
OK so plenty has happened over the last few weeks so here's a bit of a catch up.

Firstly I decided to make a full scale mock up of the tank.



This brought another challenge though, the only place I had space to do this was in the barn and that's 20ft up.... so I convinced the children that it was a good idea to haul 600lbs of Marco's best up there





This gave me the chance to have a first go at a scape, at least it helps to gives ideas for what I want to achieve and my final version will be quite different



Next up was some glass

 
The glass is 1" Optiwhite, nice and clear. These are the 1" thick top brace bars that will run all the way around the tank on the inside as there are no cross brace bars. This will all be strengthened by a steel outer frame.



It meant I could get on with the tank construction so the base was started.



Next was the 2 side walls, this was after the black film was applied to the glass on one side



Then the front and back panels, my back needed a rest after all that as each panel is about 225lbs

 
The tank got strapped up for a few days just to pull it all it as we had already used around 15 tubes of silicone at this stage. Also the braces on the base were added, these are 1/2" thick



The top 1" brace bars were then added and clamped up for a week, also I cracked on with the tiling in the technical room. why oh why did I say I was going to tile the whole room I hate tiling.....



Once all that lot was cured enough the top steel frame was added. This is the same as the lower frame 1" x 1" angle in 1/4" thick (ok a bit thinner but my imperial translation is capability isn't that good, 5mm in real money...)

I and guess you already noticed that I put the lights up around a week ago. These are the 12 x Hydra 52 in Euro spec i.e. they have more blue in them. These are controlled today via the AI Director but I also have an Apex AWM module that I may use so that they are fully Integrated in to the system.



They are all mounted on the AI aluminium rails that are suspended from some custom boat sail riggings made from high grade SS



Next was to drill some holes in that 1" thick laminated glass, yes what fun that would be.....



It was best to drill it from both sides to avoid any shattering and also to avoid the lamination adhesive in the middle.

It resulted in this, just 4 more to go

 
Sump 1 was ready last week so I could get the Alu sump frame in place and start getting some equipment in there just to check sizes and positioning before tidying it all up



Also I added the 3 x 2" bulkheads to the tank but I'm waiting on a specialist supplier for the 1/2" black glass for the coast to coast weir that runs the 5ft length across the back panel.



Well that's pretty much where we are today. Waiting on sump 2 to be finished and the glass for the weir, hopefully all should be ready within the next 2 weeks which I really hope is the case as we have some long weekends coming up and I need time to get the plumbing sorted and glue this lot together.....



Well that's all folks, now off to earn some greenback to pay for this thing
 
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