Fish Room Redux - 3600+ Gallon Plywood Tank Build

[nolapete]

cvermeulen, you got me to thinking about the frame and you have a good point. I was feeling antsy about it because we used old wood I had on the outside frame (you can see the darker wood) and I forgot to put wood glue between the 2x6 and 2x4.

I'm going to rebuild the frame with new wood on the outside and just use 1 2x4 glued and screwed to the face. The glue and double screws should make it stronger than it will ever need to be.

Thanks for confirming my gut feeling to rebuild it. The extra 3" of viewing window in both directions will be nice too.

 

[nolapete]

A friend reminded me that wood glue can break apart in damp conditions, so switching to using Liquid Nails Heavy Duty Construction Ahesive instead. Even if it takes 10 tubs at $5 each, the extra $60 (including tax) is money well spent.

 

[cvermeulen]

A friend reminded me that wood glue can break apart in damp conditions, so switching to using Liquid Nails Heavy Duty Construction Ahesive instead. Even if it takes 10 tubs at $5 each, the extra $60 (including tax) is money well spent.

I went that way on my first wooden tank. I saved the cash on my second tank using the logic that the wood and joints should never get wet anyway. If your wood glue is getting wet enough to delaminate, you got bigger problems!

that said, on a tank this large, an extra $60 or so is cheap insurance.

 

[nolapete]

Yah, we all know what Murphy does with that "should never get wet" don't we. LOL Thanks for catching that before I got too far in. Always good having another set of eyes looking at something.

 

[nolapete]

dogofwar schooled me on internal sumps, so in the offset part of the tank, I'm going to build a 305 gallon (98x24x30) internal sump. Under it, I'll build a cave structure.

The whole thing will provide extra reinforcement for the tank as well as place for some fish to hide.

 

[BigDaddyMagnum]

awsome build man, keep us posted, hope all works out for the best, lol now to try and talk my "cordinater" into letting me start a build......

 

[nolapete]

Sump filter initial design. Probably full of flaws, but just tossing some things around.

Brown section is where water overflows into sump. Haven't worked out whether I'll just have a section of eggcrate or these cool grates I saw at Lowe's the other night. Probably the latter, but regardless they'll be painted with krylon fusion black. Primary pre-filter is in this section.

Muddy green sections contain an array of 3 100 micron sock filters inside 3 50 micron sock filters. The water enters from the overflow chamber then travels toward the ends of the sump.

Minty green sections contain an array of 3 25 micron sock filters inside 3 10 micron sock filters. The water enters these as it turns from the previous array. The water from these section overflows into the purple section.

The purple section contains scrubbies and exits from the bottom into the cyan section.

The cyan section has submersible pumps plumbed into pvc pipe into the tank with eductors on the ends to increase flow. The four 12 gallon canister filters' pumps are in here as well.

A rough idea, but a start nonetheless.

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

with this setup the second array of sock filters would have to be sugnifficantly lower than the first and then the purple lower than both, unless you wanted to pump the water over. can you see what i mean?
i'm guessing you want the whole filter inside the tank and below or near the upper rim of it?

 

[Bucko]

My favorite adhesive for anything that may get wet is Gorilla Glue
http://www.gorillaglue.com/glues/glue-guide.aspx

 

[nolapete]

Nope, they run horizontally not vertical. All water must flow through each array in order to get to the next array. Once it goes through the second array the whole chamber can overflow into the scrubbies.

It's an internal sump 305 gallons 98x24x30 on the right side of the tank which is obscured from view since my viewing window is offset.