10'x14' 2500 Gallon Plywood Stingray Pond

[JohnG]

Didn't get quite as far as I was hoping today. Got the bulkheads installed, partially installed the aeration system, and installed brackets on the floor that will hold a PVC and plastic mesh wall.

The wall is there so we can drop it in to divide the tank and section off the males when the females need a break. The brackets are 2x4s which we already coated in sweetwater epoxy paint. They where attached by coating them in max acr resin and using the resin as a glue to secure them.

For aeration we have 12 airstones and 2 bubble wands. Its all being powered by a Pond master air pump designed to power 14 airstones. We have 1 corner with 12 airstones in it, and then the 2 bubble wands are against one of the walls as you can see in the pics. The corner with the 12 airstones doesn't have any output bulkheads and no way to get a good current in that corner, the airstones will take care of that for us. Also gives the rays a nice area to play in the bubbles and leaves the center of the tank open for mating.

The airstones and bubble wands have all been glued into place using silicone so the rays don't just move them where ever they want. All the air lines you see in the pictures are going to be glued down to run against the walls with silicone. We ran into a little problem when we ran out of air line, got to get some more tomorrow and finish it.

All the dust you see on the floor in the pics is just temp, will come out when we do our final wash before filling.

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

awesome cant wait to see more

 

[ECarbonel]

Looks amazing!!! Cant wait to see the end result!!!

 

[Bulutan]

very nice build. rays are gonna love it

 

[sponger_2]

this is gonna be sweet when filled. where is this thing built? it looks awfully close to the countertop/cupboards. Also as far as sand, there is sand called lapis lustre that is natural colored. Its fantastic. Does not stick to the rays. Contact jk47, hes up where you live and could get you in touch with the people you need.

 

[Steve_89]

Great setup mate.

I can't wait to try this one day

 

[tscharf]

maybe i missed this part but how did you seal in the gladd and what kind of glass are you using? in addition how thick is it and what are you planning for filtration

 

[JohnG]

maybe i missed this part but how did you seal in the gladd and what kind of glass are you using? in addition how thick is it and what are you planning for filtration

Windows haven't been installed yet. We are gluing the windows in place with Dow Corning 795 silicone, there is a frame built into the pond that the window will sit it. I will have detailed pictures on this when we do it.

The windows are 3/4" thick cell cast acrylic.

Filtration is going to be a fishmate 9000 sponge filter and a aquabead 9.0 cubic feet bead filter. Also have a 55W UV. Will have more on these when they are installed.

 

[tscharf]

sounds good

 

[JohnG]

Made alot of progress today. We have one window installed, second window to be installed tomorrow. Also go the aeration system finished and all the airlines siliconed down to the floor.

Installing the windows was the part of the build we had the hardest time figuring out so I will go over how we ended up doing it. When constructing the pond we created a frame for our windows to sit in, the frame consist of a 2x4 on the floor just below the window opening with 1 2x4 on each side, giving us a bottom and sides. We left a 4" lip around the top and sides, and a 2" lip on the bottom. We ment to leave more on the bottom but it ended up being 2".

First we sanded the acrylic where it was to be joined to the pond frame with a rough paper to. After it had been sanded we took rubber pads and placed them on the acrylic as spacers to leave a gap between the acrylic and the pond.

These we got from walmart, they are just little rubber dots about 1/8" thick with a sticky backing, they are often put under something that is to sit on tile or other hard service so they are not in direct contact.

The epoxy paint on the frame was then sanded with rough paper. After that we coated it very thickly with Dow Corning 795 (Black) silicone. Once it had been coated we placed the acrylic window into the frame and pushed it hard against the silicone.

A note on the Dow Corning 795, this stuff is extremely sticky, I had thought we would have to hold the window up until it was braced but once pushed against this silicone it did not pull away at all.

Next we fastened 2x4s across the top with 2 C Clamps to push it harder against the silicone and frame. We then constructed braces to push one of the top corners which we did not have a C Clamp for, and also the bottom against the frame.

The way the braces where constructed was by screwing 2 2x4s together to make about a 12ft beam. We have 8ft 2x4s and screwed them together overlapping. Then we placed the 2x4 across the pond which is 10ft and marked about 1" to small on each side, and then cut the 2x4s. This left us with a beam that was about 1.5-2" to short to reach across the pond and push on the window, just as we wanted.

Then we took high density foam insulation from homedepot, the pink stuff not the white, put some of it against our window, then placed some of it on the other side of the 2x4 which was on the opposite wall, and pushed down on it till it was firmly pushing against the acrylic, the foam insulation made up the extra space we left and provided a cushion to protect our acrylic and the wall.

Once we had finished bracing it we used our leftover silicone to do a bit of touch up and where done. Tomorrow we will be doing something similar for the other window.