building a 1000 gal concrete block monster tank

[wizzin]

hmm very interesting dont think i've seen blocks used before whats the plan on the reinforcement for the structure that is a lot of pressure per sq inch for just morter..
really am liking it thinking of something for myself like this..

concept is the same as building a retaining wall or a koi pond. You fill the cores with rebar and concrete. The block and morter alone are good for close to 2000psi, which is probably about the force of the water, so to slightly over engineer, i'm filling every other cavity.

You'll note the "bump" in the back. That's the main column and center span beam for the house. Beneath it is a 4" slab on top of a 4'wx4'lx36"d footer. I had one of the architects at work look at it, and he said I probably wouldn't even need to fill each core. The mortar and block alone would hold it. Just think of a house foundation. Then he said, if it were him, he'd fill every other core. So that's what I'm doing.

As for the block. I figured the cost both by building out of 2x4's and 2x6's @12" o.c. and sheathing in 3/4" ply and coating in sani tred, vs cmu and an interior skim coat of concrete and drylok with sanitred only around the glass frame and the costs were a lot less in favour of the cmu method. The problem is, it's permanent. Well, unless you want to rent a jack hammer before you sell your house, or the new buyers love big tanks.

I really do think i'm leaning toward the SA tank concept. Stay tuned...

 

[cichlid savage]

That's going to be 1 helluva tank! Can't wait to see more pics as it develops. keep us posted.

 

[Potts050]

How much will it cost to heat this bad boy?

 

[wizzin]

How much will it cost to heat this bad boy?

I'm starting with (2) 800 watt pond heaters and going from there.

I'm also going with a single 3500gph pump instead of 3 500's. Should turn the tank over 3 x per hour?

 

[blacksmith37]

If it is 10 ft by 4ft deep , it will have a little less than 8,000 lb force on the front wall . I didn't follow how you will bend the rebar at the corners to hold the structure together. As a general rule, motar and cinder block have about zero tensile strength, so any cement type structure requires steel to take all the tensile loads.
Not to be a crumudgeon ; but I would keep all children out of the basement while you are filling with water.

 

[wizzin]

If it is 10 ft by 4ft deep , it will have a little less than 8,000 lb force on the front wall . I didn't follow how you will bend the rebar at the corners to hold the structure together. As a general rule, motar and cinder block have about zero tensile strength, so any cement type structure requires steel to take all the tensile loads.
Not to be a crumudgeon ; but I would keep all children out of the basement while you are filling with water.

lol. The corners interlock. Then the core of the cmu is filled with rebar and concrete. See below. I've been in the architecture biz for about 11 years now, and I've never heard tensile strength used to describe characteristics of concrete. Tensile strength is important to metal and a lot of other materials, but not to concrete. In other words, the force required to pull a concrete block apart would be to discuss the shear of the concrete, since it's the bond of the cement and rock failing that you're really talking about.

I've had a structural engineer and 4 architects look at this and they all agreed it's fine.

Furthermore, look at this link. This guy built it out of half the block width I am, didn't have cores to fill and is a little higher than I'm going from the looks of it.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tYVfzXKkA5IJ:www.koicarp.org.uk/koi_pond1.htm+concrete+block+pond&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

Thanks for your concern though.

 

[wizzin]

I actually wanted to add another 2 cents, and this goes for more than just concrete design. There are an awful lot of folks that tend to want to over engineer things. Over doing things isn't always the best practice, especially when costs are concerned. We could design buildings with 2'-6" thick foundation walls, frame the entire upper floors with 4"x4"s and sliding glass doors out of 1" thick laminated tempered glass too, but it wouldn't make any sense. Yes, it would withstand a direct impact from a 747 at cruising speed, but at what cost?

Building something that won’t implode without spending a small fortune is what I'm trying to achieve here. I'm sure I could up the amount of rebar, use 2 layers of concrete block and cover the entire structure in carbon fiber too, but I don't see the point.

 

[ewurm]

Man, this sounds complicated. I am staying out of the building business.

 

[dapike1979]

Cool!! My Dream tank!!!! Good luck!! I cant wait for more pics!!

 

[ewurm]

The design looks good to me, but I was wondering the concretes effect on water parameters.