The 480gal Fish Condo Has Begun

[rnelson]

In regards to the amount of sand in the display, I weighed my sand that I took out of the 240....about 450 lbs.....I bought 90 lbs more at the LFS this afternoon.....already had bought 180 lbs last week....should give me a total of 720 lbs which would be slightly less than 3".....

 

[TandN]

cant wait to see this up and going

 

[eckrynock]

Playsand will be fine and I would think 33 gallons would be enough. Somewhere in that thread, somebody used a 55 gallon tank for a rdsb on an entire lfs system and it worked. 480 gallons is a LOT of water, though!

 

[michad]

Need any help with the setup on that tank???

 

[rnelson]

Yeah, Michad, come on over....you can help with the plumbing

 

[michad]

Left you a message about that earlier....almost have it done here

 

[rnelson]

The monster has arrived!!!

The monster has arrived!!!

Well, got the tank this morning.....man, what a monster to unload!!!! Got it on a cart in the garage. I am going to paint the back this evening, a dark blue.

I built the stand over the weekend.....got my steel beams this afternoon. Since I had to pay for a 40' section, I used all 5 beams.....they are 6" steel H-Beam with a 4" flange. Here are some pics of the stand:

 

[rnelson]

The tank will sit about 41" high, I'll have 35" of room under the stand.


Here are some pics of the tank....I peeled back the plastic off the back in preparation of painting.....wish I had gotten pics of it in the crate....it was sitting on a huge pallet and was really well packed.....the pics:

 

[rnelson]

More pics:

You'll notice the overflows are at an angle....I wanted to minimize the 90 degree angles as much as possible for the shark.

Getting exciting!!! Will post more pics later!!!

 

[mike126]

WOW!!

 

[leoskee]

Wouldnt a middle row of blocks help spread the wieght a little better? The ends might crack those tiles.

 

[46bfinGA]

Very nice.I like the lids. Having the middle open under the tank is going to be great.How much did the beams cost?

 

[rnelson]

The total cost of the beams was $224......$10 of that was for the cuts....they sell them in 40' sections, so I had 4 cuts made. I'm using 9lb metal, total weight of the beams was 351 lbs.

 

[rnelson]

leoskee, don't know......I may support the front and back beam....


Painted the back of the tank tonight, kind of a purplish blue. I'll see how it looks in the morning.

 

[rnelson]

Purple/blue looks OK on the back....I might should have went with solid black but I don't want to repaint it.....

Since this will be a shark tank, I need to make extra sure that my rock formations are steady....I was thinking about doing some PVC shelves, with a twist. In addition to holding up the rock (and making caves), I thought I might drill a bunch of holes in the PVC, cap off the ends, then run it over the back of the tank and into a pump coming out of the sump. That way my rockwork is always aerated, less detritus buildup, and more flow.

Has anybody done that before that could give me some advice?

 

[clekchau]

looking good

how is that stand working for you?

 

[clekchau]

regarding the pvc/pump, i think steve weast has his tank like you described

 

[rnelson]

clekchau,

Got it leveled yesterday....the H-Beams should have no problem at all holding the weight.....the only thing I'm worried about is busting the foundation.....it's a slab with rebar so it SHOULD hold....

Glad to know that someone has done the pvc/holes/pump thing before.... in theory it should help with buildup on the rocks.....hopefully I can build it without exposing too much of the PVC.

 

[LNell]

In regards to the pvc rack you mentioned, are you saying you'd have it hooked up to the pump coming from your sump? I wouldn't do that if I were you. When the siphon starts when your pump turns off you'll drain most of your tank back into your sump. This will cause quite a flood. I guess you could put an outlet near the water's surface to keep that from happening. However, I would recommend hooking the pvc rack up to a closed loop pump. That would be ideal.

 

[asnatlas]

Do you plan on painting the steel beams ?? If it were me I would...