Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank
- Thread starter arapaimag
- Start date
I am a new member of MFK and was drawn to the site by your mega tank. I saw the link on Netscapes hot stories home page last week. I am interested in your mega tank because I am preparing to build a 60,000gal tank. You mentioned that you used 5' X 3' X 1" glass panels. Is this regular glass or is it tempered laminate glass? I was thinking of using 4' X 7' X 1.5" tempered laminate glass. How thick are the cast concrete walls for your 50,000gal. tank? I am planning on a 12" thick walls. What type and size of square tubing did you use to frame up the front of the tank? Did you seal between the square tubing frame work and the concrete? How has your filter worked out for you? What pump are you using for your filtration system?
wooww! i also like to see your dream..... -No matter how many tanks you own/-Until you Dream Eclipse your reality.....
that had to have cost a fortune to build... i wish my landlord would let me do something like that!
Welcome to MFK you really belong here.
I am sure your fish will love the room in your 60K.
I used regular glass because I was told it is stronger than regular laminated glass the same thickness. Laminated glass is recommended in situations where the public is involved due to the safety aspect of one pane holding should the first be broken/cracked.
However your intention of using tempered laminated I am sure is better and considerably stronger than either regular glass or regular laminated.
I used 12" thick walls.
I used 3" square tubing and and I am sorry to say don't remember its thickness. A welder who had built large zoo type exhibits for alligators/crocs did the work and I relied on his judgement. He applied a rustproof coating to the exposed metal which was bolted to the concrete floor and the conctrete was framed around it to the height of where the glass started.
The filter worked well the first 6 years then after that the water has become more cloudy. This I am sure is because as the fish increased in size so did the amounts of food they received. I am updating the filtration and heating over the next month. I will update this article at that time with all the information and pictures of the new filtration system. The 15k will also receive an upgrade although the sand filter is still doing a good job in that tank.
I use at present a 3hp Jaccuzzi for the 52K and a 2hp Jaccuzzi for the 15k.
What are the dimensions of your new tank? What fish are you putting into it?
Do you or anyone have any suggestion of the minumun thickness of a tempered glass should be to hold a 4x12 4ft high tank? I'm trying to converet my pond into a wooden tank and tempered glass in the fornt side being at least an inch thick. My problem is that I was told the weight of the glass was going to weighing in a 1,200pds I no i try lifting 560pds of card broad paper Bale before with 5 people it never budge of the ground!(....Argh
) so naturaly they the Glass sales person told me it had to be Crane in( i don't want all that Drama...) I also planned to have it at least 2-3feet off the ground.
last time i didn't reinforce the bottom, form one side to the orther with 2x4s, that was a big mistake of my side of thinking because i was tired from wrestleing the monster size pond liner in the incloser. it Bulge end up buldging out a half a foot and i ended up draining the pond out and reinforece the bottom Now after doing all of that i deafeintly want that thing turn into a fish tank
) so naturaly they the Glass sales person told me it had to be Crane in( i don't want all that Drama...) I also planned to have it at least 2-3feet off the ground. last time i didn't reinforce the bottom, form one side to the orther with 2x4s, that was a big mistake of my side of thinking because i was tired from wrestleing the monster size pond liner in the incloser. it Bulge end up buldging out a half a foot and i ended up draining the pond out and reinforece the bottom Now after doing all of that i deafeintly want that thing turn into a fish tank
I don't have experience with such a wide piece of glass. John 2400 gallon arapaima tank used 2" acrylic for a similiar sized front viewing area. He said it weighed 600 lbs which is a lot better than the weight of your glass.
Zookeeper is your perhaps best bet for advice with his years working in aquariums and zoos.
Zookeeper is your perhaps best bet for advice with his years working in aquariums and zoos.
