Well after years of dreaming and months of planning I finally got started on my huge tank. I want to thank MFK and everyone here for the inspriration and knowledge to do this big of a build. I also have to give credit to UaruJoey for giving me the final piece to the puzzle.
I orginally wanted to do a 96" x 36" x 30" 450 ish gallon tank but got a great deal on a 7' tank so I decided to go wider. The final dimensions will be 84" x 45" x 24" giving me just under 400 gallons. This tank will have all glass sides with a plywood bottom and top. The bottom and top will be coated in pond shield then siliconed to the glass. I was orginally going to build my filter out of 55 gallon plastic food grade drums simuliar to how Joey did, but have decided to go with a more traditional style sump to save space in my garage.
Heres the 210 gallon tank I picked up for $200
I started of with a few simple drawings to get my ideas on paper and out of my head.
Here is the orginal filter plans ( I will have the new plans later as I am still working out the details)
Here is a 3 sump design I am still working on but the concept will be to connect 3 50 gallon tanks using 2" pvc. The first will be mechanical filtration and a small refrugium, then the second will be a fluidized bed, and the 3rd will be half fluidized bed and half bubble trap. Notice the plumbing is arranged in a way to give me easy access to the mechanical filtration while making good use of the space under the stand. Still working the kinks out.
Stand plans
Now on to the actual build.
The base will be made out of 2x4s
Each leg will consist of at least 3 2x4s
The top will be out of 2x6s to give it more strength
This is where the tank will sit when its complete
Still need to finish reinforcing the legs and adding the 3/4 in plywood to the top and sides to add even more strength, but this is where I stopped for the weekend. Im hoping to get more done this week but between my wife, kid, and my job its tough to get much done on the week nights.
Now that the stand is closer to being finished Im starting to see how big this thing really is. HAVE I LOST MY MIND!?! hahaha luckily my wife is 100% behind me on this....for now anyways....
I orginally wanted to do a 96" x 36" x 30" 450 ish gallon tank but got a great deal on a 7' tank so I decided to go wider. The final dimensions will be 84" x 45" x 24" giving me just under 400 gallons. This tank will have all glass sides with a plywood bottom and top. The bottom and top will be coated in pond shield then siliconed to the glass. I was orginally going to build my filter out of 55 gallon plastic food grade drums simuliar to how Joey did, but have decided to go with a more traditional style sump to save space in my garage.
Heres the 210 gallon tank I picked up for $200
I started of with a few simple drawings to get my ideas on paper and out of my head.
Here is the orginal filter plans ( I will have the new plans later as I am still working out the details)
Here is a 3 sump design I am still working on but the concept will be to connect 3 50 gallon tanks using 2" pvc. The first will be mechanical filtration and a small refrugium, then the second will be a fluidized bed, and the 3rd will be half fluidized bed and half bubble trap. Notice the plumbing is arranged in a way to give me easy access to the mechanical filtration while making good use of the space under the stand. Still working the kinks out.
Stand plans
Now on to the actual build.
The base will be made out of 2x4s
Each leg will consist of at least 3 2x4s
The top will be out of 2x6s to give it more strength
This is where the tank will sit when its complete
Still need to finish reinforcing the legs and adding the 3/4 in plywood to the top and sides to add even more strength, but this is where I stopped for the weekend. Im hoping to get more done this week but between my wife, kid, and my job its tough to get much done on the week nights.
Now that the stand is closer to being finished Im starting to see how big this thing really is. HAVE I LOST MY MIND!?! hahaha luckily my wife is 100% behind me on this....for now anyways....
