18' x 9' x 3.5' catfish tank build in progress.....

necrocanis

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The holes are 4 ft apart if that gives you any idea. lol. I put them to where they will be right beside the barrel biotowers when flowing into the sump. Remember the sump will be relatively small for this build. Just a 300 gal trough with two 55 gal barrels on top. I'll be making some pretty complicated chambers in ther sump. The filtration for this thing will be a bigger nightmare than the actual tank. The tank is plain and simple, just takes hella long to build something that massive all by yourself with minimal funding. Fish are all doing fine waiting on their new home. When I pull the cover back on the pond to feed the fish it's like the oscars and the big boy are like hurry the hell up with our new house. I don't think I'll be putting the oscars in though. The 350 pond might just be their new home. Still haven't decided yet. Either that or I will put them in first. It's all up in the air right now. I have $140 saved up from my bday, and by the end of next week after donating plasma and cleaning several tanks that should be up to $230. I'm going to keep saving up until I have the $320 needed for the blue max to seal it up completely and just get it all at once. I might as mentioned get an extra gal shipped early so that I can play with it a lil first. Plan on making a small box to spray it in and see how well it works. maybe more than one! I might also get a small scrap of acrylic so that I can try that out as well. With months, and months of building this thing I'd hate to make a big mistake by not sealing it right. So might costs me $50 or more to test it out, but it'll be worth it!
 

necrocanis

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:nilly:
mkman;3019563; said:
how about pics of the fish?
Hold your horses!

cockroach;3019667; said:
Starting to look like a pond now. I am enjoying following this build. Keep it up.
You mean "Pondarium" Tnx :D

Eric A;3019857; said:
Now thats lookin superb! Estimated time of water going in? :grinno:
I estimate there will be water in it when I'm through sealing it and it has fully cured!:headbang2

zennzzo;3020016; said:
Love the shot with your hand in the hole...it gives perspective on the massiveness of the build...
Keep up the good work, it won't be long now...
My hands are short, but they are pretty wide. Just measure how wide your hands are and that should give you some idea! That's a 5" wide hole, that's nearly 3" thick.

Dudzy;3020042; said:
Lookin awesome.
Tnx

Eric A;3020056; said:
I was expecting you to say something like, "that pond screams barra!"

LOL
If you guys are gonna buy one and ship it to me, I promise it will eventually end up in this tank! I save my money for the whiskered types though!:nilly:

HarlanAshmore;3020082; said:
Thanks, and here's some fish pics as asked for! I don't think you can tell because his massive head is in the way, but the big boy is chowing down on shrimp.

IMG_6944.JPG

IMG_6954.JPG

IMG_6955.JPG

IMG_6957.JPG

IMG_6958.JPG
 

Super Turtleman

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Keep up the good work. I think one day I'll build one 1/4 the size of yours at the most. lol
 

koop171

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necrocanis;3019479; said:
long awaited pics as promised! There's pics of the front of the tank sanded down completely. There's pics of the holes I cut(took about 4 hrs of drilling). Sanded way too much this weekend. Arms hurt like hell. lol. The front is ready for stain, but there's still tons of screw holes to be filled and the rest of the tank needs sanded all the way around! It's not gonna be fun at all. I'm sick of sanding. So I puttied a whole bunch on the inside. I also have enough of my bday money to get the first 5 gal pail of blue max! Not sure, but I might give it a shot and see what I think. maybe I'll order a small thing through the mail first to test it and see what I think. Without further adue, here's the pics! There's also a pic of what I have rigged up instead of bulkheads. It's just a flange, but I'll have to make it work somehow!

the massive holes for the bulkheads are just Massive. Not that they are big around but the fact that the walls are soooo thick. glad to see some work getting done.

I'm still waiting to see a seperate thread for your skeletons. :popcorn:
 

necrocanis

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Super Turtleman;3021629; said:
Keep up the good work. I think one day I'll build one 1/4 the size of yours at the most. lol
Hopefully you'll get it finished in 1/4th the time also.

koop171;3022303; said:
the massive holes for the bulkheads are just Massive. Not that they are big around but the fact that the walls are soooo thick. glad to see some work getting done.

I'm still waiting to see a seperate thread for your skeletons. :popcorn:
Yeah, that's the problem is the thickness of the walls. Led me to use the closet flanges. The skeleton thread will have to wait until the tank is completed, but I am still working on the skeletons themselves!

TheFishGuy;3022559; said:
Do you tink we could get a close up shot of the bulkhead/closet flange set ut... ? :D
I'll have to get one up on here sometime this week, but it's just a flange right now. The metal around it moves, which in my eyes creats a place for water to seep through. I have an idea about what to do for this. My idea is to goop some silicone all the way around this thing, smear it flat to the backside of the metal plate, after the silicone dries I will drill holes where the screws go through at. I will put down the first two coats of blue max before I slide this in. When I apply the third coat I will coat the pvc on the backside of this with bluemax as well and slide it through. To make it go all the way through the wall I will have to insert a piece of the 4" pipe into the flange tube and leave enough sticking out to put a 4" slip over that piece so that it protrudes out the wall for more piping. The flange is about 1" too shallow to go through the wall. Still debating on weather to use the knife gate valves, or weather to suck it up and save for some 4" ball valves=$200 together. I'm thinking the flow rate will be sufficient through two 4" internal pipes to the sump that I will not add the 2" one that I was planning. I might however add one low on the back side of the tank that would fit a standard water hose for draining and water changes. Maybe I'll put in a connection so that if someone's house nearby is on fire, the firefighters can use my tank as a backup source to put out the fire! lol:headbang2Oh, anyways the silicone on the back of the flange would act as a gasket around the flange itself and the screws. I would of course predrill the holes for the screws and bluemax them before screwing it in. Hopefully that would make it water tight. I could always blue max over the top of the flange on the third coat to be safe. The green grate that you guys see is just lawn drain grate that fits a 4" pipe. it extends out around 4" also so it will have a more powerfull draining capability than the shower drain I was gonna use. In the end I will just have to do it and see if it works! I couldn't find a solid 4" closet flange at home depot, and that's all I have besides ace, which has even less of a selection in the 4" department. I probably should look online. I bought one just for reference. At $5 I just needed an idea of what I was gonna do!:D
 

necrocanis

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necrocanis

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Just throwing this out there, but I had also wanted to do some type of denitrator out on this. What do you guys think of the santamonica? I think it's a little impractical for this set up. I've toyed with the idea of ozone, but not sure it's worth the risks on this large of a scale. Then there's a coil denitrator. I don't know much about it though. Would it even be worth doing a denitrator on this tank? I was wanting to do a drip system with an overflow to the sewer line, but it has me wondering how much it would cost to run sewage and water lines out to the garage, and weather I would get charged seperate for them instead of it being included with the house. There's also the costs of just having the pipe put in, as I don't think I'm allowed to do it myself. So confusing, but I know that water changes will be a pita on this tank. Sure I know just drain 1/4th and fill it up, but how long will that take with my extremely low water pressure? I really would just like to do a 24/7 drip, but like I said no plumbing in the garage yet. If I dripped 10 gph that would be 240 gpd, and 1680 gpw, and 6720 gpm. I think that would work the trick very well, but as stated, no plumbing! Time to research coil denitrators.
 
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