Stand or not for huge plywood tank

[Tj203]

Pond pump, 620 watts. As far as heating, the tank is insulated and I’ll be heating it to 75*

View attachment 1512201

Pond pump, 620 watts. As far as heating, the tank is insulated and I’ll be heating it to 75*

View attachment 1512201

That's a pretty strong pump. I don't know if you ever saw that jebao dc return pumps. I just did some calculations and if you ran 3 of of the dcp-18000L or 20000L you would get more flow and use 25% less power I also like them because their DC power so you can adjust the flow. That 25% power over a year or two will pay for the pumps numerous times over. It's worth spending whatever you need to spend to get the most efficient pump your pump will cost $73 a month to run at 16 cents for a KW the jebao would be $52 a month to run
I have ran jebao for years and never had a problem with them.
As far as the heaters it takes 2.47 watts to heat 1 gallon of water 1°. A lot of times it's cheaper to heat the room the tank is in. For me it was 600 gallons that I needed to heat about 10 to 12 degrees that's 15,000 watts
Here is a calculator.

Electricity bill calculator | Energy cost calculator

Electriciy bill cost calculator. Electricity usage/consumption calculator.

www.rapidtables.com

Love the concept of insulating the tank how do you plan on doing that? I was actually thinking the same thing with my new tank I put a canopy on and with the LED lights it should get somewhat warm in there I was going to put a fan on a temperature controller to turn on and off and hopefully the lights will help heat the water and the canopy will help keep the heat in.
I have a glass tank now and I was actually thinking about putting some insulation on the back panel because it's black I will not see it through the tank.
I thought 3/4 in acrylic would have been a better insulator but it's not.
I put two 20 amp circuits in my house just for my fish tank lol

 

[Tj203]

Pond pump, 620 watts. As far as heating, the tank is insulated and I’ll be heating it to 75*

View attachment 1512201

Better yet if you get a Reeflo hammerhead that's only 372 watts. It also comes with two propellers so if you don't need that high flow you could even drop it down to the smaller size impeller and it is only 253 watts.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

The floor has 1/2” foam boards under the 3/4” plywood and above the 2x12x10’s. The walls are 6” thick and the canopy is 3/4” plywood. It’ll have two openings with lids.
I was thinking about running some plumbing through the wall into the laundry room so I can hook up to the hot water line for backup.

 

[Tj203]

The floor has 1/2” foam boards under the 3/4” plywood and above the 2x12x10’s. The walls are 6” thick and the canopy is 3/4” plywood. It’ll have two openings with lids.
I was thinking about running some plumbing through the wall into the laundry room so I can hook up to the hot water line for backup.

I've seen people put one of the very tiny electric on demand water heaters they have them that plug into a 110 outlet you could use Rodi tubing to heat the incoming water. I know when I was trying to cool my tank down I would be running water in it for 45 minutes and it would only cool down two or three degrees.
I forgot you were doing a plywood tank that you definitely help retain the Heat. you still have to bring it up to that temperature but maintaining it shouldn't be that bad.

I was trying to use an heat exchanger from a furnace to try and extract the heat from my dryer. But I just don't do that much laundry.

I was very successful making a aquarium chiller with a mini fridge, window air conditioner some copper tubing and water to water Heat exchangers. It worked absolutely amazing would drop my tank temp no problem and that was over 1100 gallons. It only cost about $200 for everything.

I would never have guessed how much heat is generated just by the water getting pumped through the pipes.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

The wife and I did an experiment for the tank last night. We used a spare piece of plywood then we painted sections with spray paint, latex paint, bare bondo, woven fiberglass and bare wood. We then covered everything with epoxy resin used for deep pours. That’s one coat, two layers will be needed to cover the fiberglass.
so, now we can paint the inside of the tank first, then put down epoxy, apply the woven fiberglass, then apply the topcoat epoxy. The window frames will not be epoxied so I don’t have problems with the silicone seals. We’re also going to place river rock tiles on the floor and epoxy over them. Once cured it’s 100% fish safe.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

The wife and I did an experiment for the tank last night. We used a spare piece of plywood then we painted sections with spray paint, latex paint, bare bondo, woven fiberglass and bare wood. We then covered everything with epoxy resin used for deep pours. That’s one coat, two layers will be needed to cover the fiberglass.
so, now we can paint the inside of the tank first, then put down epoxy, apply the woven fiberglass, then apply the topcoat epoxy. The window frames will not be epoxied so I don’t have problems with the silicone seals. We’re also going to place river rock tiles on the floor and epoxy over them. Once cured it’s 100% fish safe.

View attachment 1512882

We also sealed Gorilla tape under the epoxy.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

This way we don’t have to vent the house for noxious fumes from “polyester resin” or worry about mixing the resin too strong and starting a fire .
it also gives my wife a reason to get more epoxy for her crafting…..happy wife, happy life.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

Got the first coat of paint down, nautical green. So , I’m a little tired of all of the black background colors. I know that it makes the colors in the fish pop, but a lot of the fish that I’m putting in this tank are naturally dark, I didn’t want them to be camouflaged.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

This is the tile for the floor of the tank.

 

[SeabeeShrek]

As my wife says, this ***** is staying put so it might as well be a good conversation starter.
It’s gotta look the part