9ft Cold Water Tank Build Thread!

[IsaacMTSU]

So, this is “Day Zero” of our 9ft cold water river tank build. I wanted to start a thread here, because it has been a while since I did any major changes with our aquariums and I know this build will be 5000x better with input from everyone here! We are building a semi-custom house and the plan is to put this extra-long tank in the living room built in shelving.

Starting points:

• The house will be built with a blank inset section to the right of the fireplace in the sections labeled “built-in” and “buffet”.

• 9ft open length and I want there to be an open shelf below it so it looks like it’s own floating shelf. (the shelving will be much more minimalistic than the crowned wooden style in the photo.

• 18” x 18” x sub-108” (~130gal water volume when ‘scaped)

• I’m not worried about the weight. This tank is probably nothing to you guys here at MFK anyway! The house will be a single level built on a slab, so we can go straight to the concrete. I’m an engineer with access to a full machine/fab shop to make whatever we need to get the look while supporting the 1600lb load across the length.

Tank Setup:

• ½” Glass, probably low-e front panel

• Cold water planted nature tank with mainly 2-3 young Southern Appalachian Brook trout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_trout#/media/File:Native_brook_trout.jpg

• Ideally, the shelf above the tank will have the LED lighting (maybe 2x Finnex Planted + style strips) mounted on the bottom and hinge up to serve as a lid allowing me to access the tank. Will most likely be 2 sections. May need heat sinks cut into them.

• Cabinets below will house JBJ-Arctica Ti chiller, 2x Fluval FX4 canister filters, air pump, lighting controller, power strips, etc.

• There will be a black back panel and a little room behind the tank for plumbing/wiring.

• I want flow from right to left.

Most important layout questions:

• Can I run the canister filters into the chiller? Is that the normal setup?

• How much heat/noise does a chiller generate? It will be 67-74 max in the house and we’ll need 60-65 water. Would I need to ventilate it or could I keep it in the cabinet?

• I want to flow from right to left. I may add some internal “brick” filters in the right corners to shoot some extra flow down the tank. But for the main flow, could I just run a 180° elbow (might split it into a multi port 4-6 smaller elbows) over the rim of the tank and have the pickup elbow over the other end of the tank? I don’t think I want to have holes permanently drilled in the glass.

• What is the best way to keep the water well oxygenated? Is it as simple as a spray bar on the water inlet and air pump making fine bubbles?

• Any tips on an auto water top off setup? The house isn’t built yet, so we can run a flexible PEX water line to the cabinet. I just don’t know the best way to detect and add to the water level. I’ll want an inline filter in the cabinet to filter chlorine and stuff. I’ll be able to manually vacuum to drain the water outside about 5 ft to the right of the tank.

Anyway, I can’t wait to get this going! Any tips, ideas, changes, etc. that you all have done or would suggest will be appreciated!

 

[DIFish]

So, this is “Day Zero” of our 9ft cold water river tank build. I wanted to start a thread here, because it has been a while since I did any major changes with our aquariums and I know this build will be 5000x better with input from everyone here! We are building a semi-custom house and the plan is to put this extra-long tank in the living room built in shelving.

Starting points:

• The house will be built with a blank inset section to the right of the fireplace in the sections labeled “built-in” and “buffet”.

• 9ft open length and I want there to be an open shelf below it so it looks like it’s own floating shelf. (the shelving will be much more minimalistic than the crowned wooden style in the photo.

• 18” x 18” x sub-108” (~130gal water volume when ‘scaped)

• I’m not worried about the weight. This tank is probably nothing to you guys here at MFK anyway! The house will be a single level built on a slab, so we can go straight to the concrete. I’m an engineer with access to a full machine/fab shop to make whatever we need to get the look while supporting the 1600lb load across the length.

Tank Setup:

• ½” Glass, probably low-e front panel

• Cold water planted nature tank with mainly 2-3 young Southern Appalachian Brook trout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_trout#/media/File:Native_brook_trout.jpg

• Ideally, the shelf above the tank will have the LED lighting (maybe 2x Finnex Planted + style strips) mounted on the bottom and hinge up to serve as a lid allowing me to access the tank. Will most likely be 2 sections. May need heat sinks cut into them.

• Cabinets below will house JBJ-Arctica Ti chiller, 2x Fluval FX4 canister filters, air pump, lighting controller, power strips, etc.

• There will be a black back panel and a little room behind the tank for plumbing/wiring.

• I want flow from right to left.

Most important layout questions:

• Can I run the canister filters into the chiller? Is that the normal setup?

• How much heat/noise does a chiller generate? It will be 67-74 max in the house and we’ll need 60-65 water. Would I need to ventilate it or could I keep it in the cabinet?

• I want to flow from right to left. I may add some internal “brick” filters in the right corners to shoot some extra flow down the tank. But for the main flow, could I just run a 180° elbow (might split it into a multi port 4-6 smaller elbows) over the rim of the tank and have the pickup elbow over the other end of the tank? I don’t think I want to have holes permanently drilled in the glass.

• What is the best way to keep the water well oxygenated? Is it as simple as a spray bar on the water inlet and air pump making fine bubbles?

• Any tips on an auto water top off setup? The house isn’t built yet, so we can run a flexible PEX water line to the cabinet. I just don’t know the best way to detect and add to the water level. I’ll want an inline filter in the cabinet to filter chlorine and stuff. I’ll be able to manually vacuum to drain the water outside about 5 ft to the right of the tank.

Anyway, I can’t wait to get this going! Any tips, ideas, changes, etc. that you all have done or would suggest will be appreciated!

First of all congratulations on the house+ tank. Building them both at the same time gives you so many more options and I think this project will look awesome once finished. I don't have much experience with chillers or canister filters as I have never needed/ used them, so I will just comment on what I know. First the finnex leds don't put out much heat, but as you are trying to get the tank under 65 you need all the help you can get to save from having a crazy chiller. Heat sinks would not be a bad idea and I would also look into making sure the pump in the canister filer is efficient and not a big producer of excess heat that will make your chiller have to work harder. For the flow of water, the piping over the top of the tank could work as long as you pump was large enough. If not there are so many brands/sizes of slap on powerheads that a lot of people use with great success. On a side note, Drilling the glass is probably the better option unless you are planning on moving/changing the tank in the future. For oxygenation, cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, and a lot of people can rely solely on the output of their filter for that. As long as the water has significant surface movement it will almost always be well oxygenated. Since you are building the house, I recommend adding a drain to the room with the canister fIlter, and putting an overflow to it for automatic water changes(drip system). Just drop in fresh clean water, and the extra water will overflow down the drain. No water changes and no worrying about automatic top offs. Lastly I know you are probably already sold on a canister filter, and there is nothing wrong with that, but a nice sump would give you a lot more options and if you did it right, would actually be less maintenance. Just my 2cents, good luck with the build.

 

[IsaacMTSU]

Thank you! I really should research sumps more. I just thought the canister would be the least likely to leak/spill/overflow option. I could see me letting it siphon the whole tank into our living room for some reason. Do they have sealed sumps? I just don't like the idea that the water can overflow the sump or that it has to be pumped out. I like the inline simplicity of 2 canisters fed through a chiller, but a sump would be way better if it can be done just as cleanly. I don't want to drill the $1,500 tank just for the inlet/outlet to be clean. I might want to rearrange it or something once I get it installed and don't want to be stuck with it like that. We want to keep all the plumbing out of the slab as well, the drain would have to be a pumped out line if I do a tank drain/drip.

As for the lights, I have a 24" Finnex Planted+. It doesn't get that hot, but like you said every bit helps when you're keeping cold water. I was thinking the lid/shelf would be like this and hinge away:

 

[IsaacMTSU]

Planning Update:

I looked up videos about the FX4 water change, does anybody have experience with Fluval FX4s? It seems to me like using that drain port with the supplied gravel vac attachment would be cool, but then filling it back up through that port would just ruin your filter with chlorine.

I think this is going to be the layout of our tank build cabinet. The FX4 has a drain that can lower the tank level any time through the intake. I can run a hose out of the cabinet to the outside garden for that. The JBJ chiller has very little backpressure, it should only reduce the output of the FX4 by about 25% max. I will have two 3-way ball valves and some extra hoses setup as shown below (filter into the chiller) to make water changes and vacuuming easy. There will one hose that stays outside on the water spout or maybe stored under the cabinet:

Normal Operation

Drain/Vacuum

Re-Fill

I think I will stick with the FX4 over a sump, but I'll continue researching sumps to find one that I think will be as easy as the FX4. Again, any suggestions you guys have would be awesome!

Also, is there anything I should worry about as far as condensation on the outside of the tank goes? Should I make a tiny edge around the powdercoated steel frame and drill a drain hole in it? Or is the condensation not that bad on a coldwater tank? The room will be 70-72F (-ish) and the water will be 60F probably.