Starting a 300 gallon build & need advice along the way

After some debate my wife and I have decided to start a major project in our home. She wants more storage in the house, I want a big tank. So we are working with a close friend, who happens to be a master cabinet maker, to build a large cabinet for my wife's storage needs with a large tank integrated into the unit.

I am not new to aquariums but I am new to monster tanks. So I thought I would start a thread showing our progress and allowing other forum members to comment and learn as I go merrily along.

Please feel free to comment and give me your feedback and ideas. No flamers please. Thanks!

So to start here is the concept drawing we are using as we proceed. The tank itself will be roughly the following dimensions:

300 gallons
120 inches long
32 inches tall
18 inches deep

Pharaoh;3726005; said:

Keep in mind that you are going to lose a little of the cabinet space to the filtration that will be on the tank. Have you decided where that will go?

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Good question Pharaoh. I have a full basement underneath the tank. Therefore, I plan to install the sump in the basement. This will let us keep the cabinet for storage and not have to deal with space limitations. Although it will mean more plumbing and pumping I think the advantages of installing the sump in the basement far outweigh the disadvantages.

Pharaoh;3726028; said:

Its a great idea. There is another member that has done something similar. They actually mounted it up high in the basement in order to reduce the head loss of the pump from having to push the water so high. So just keep in mind you will need to get a bigger pump that normal or something that is capable of higher head heights.

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I think I will spend the money on a larger pump/pipes to overcome more head vs. the hastle/expense of mounting the sump on a self near the ceiling. Thanks!

Here are some pics of our progress so far. These show the beginning of our base ofcabinets upon which the tank will set. Thus far we have the floor base and cabinets set. We still need to build additional framing to support the tank. Detailed pics of the framing will follow next.

Click the images to view larger and go to my Picasa album.

First we laid down a base. This is an important step in any project. Since my house was built in 1912 nothing is built true to square. Therefore we had approx 5/8in off level to deal with.

The base is made of 2x8 with 2x4 cross members.



http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.omeg/FishTank?authkey=Gv1sRgCOuljOu_2OGDUQ&feat=embedwebsite






As I am sure many veteran tank builders know a fundamental rule in building a monster tank is to be sure your floor can support it. My house was built in 1912 and is a much sounder construction than most modern homes. The beams are old growth and a 2x6 really measures 2 inches by 6 inches. None of this 1.5 x 5.5 inch stuff! Anyway, my floor supports consist of paired true 2x6 fir at 20 inch centers. The subfloor is 3/4in shiplap at a diagnal and the flooring is 3/4 in clear fir.

We are building a tank over a cold air return so you can see the supports previously mentioned:





And here are the cabinet boxes as they progressed. The drawers and shelves are being made at present. When we get them done I will show more pics.