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New Aquarium Build


Joel

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Hi all,


The wife and I are about to start construction on our home. Needless to say, it's an exciting time for us at the moment.


She has told me that I am allowed one tank only in the new house :( "awww man..."


I told her if that was the case then it would need to be a big tank. ...She had no choice but to agree ;)


As it is still pretty far away, the following are my thoughts so far only. I would like to seek advice from you all about different aspects of the design and was hoping that I could continually update this post as I go through the motions of designing/building.


Feel free to add any points of view or advice as you see fit for discussion.


In short I'm thinking of the following:


- 10ft x 2ft x 2.5ft high aquarium

- 5ft x 18" x 18" baffled sump

- 5ft x 18" x 18" spare tank (She doesn't know about this yet - it could be a "spanner in the works" later on)

- Treated pine timber rack

- Dressed high grade plywood cabinetry


To give a bit of context the rear and left side will adjoin walls. I will paint the rear and side of the tank black.


10895413344_ed33f53231_c.jpg


10ft Aquarium

I currently have a coast to coast overflow with a Bean Animal system on my tank and would like to use it again as it is quiet and with the coast to coast I can add a few other DIY filters like FBF and Denitrator with ease.


In this case I do not want the coast to coast to extend the full width of the aquarium as I would like to see in from the side of the aquarium without looking into it.


Question: On my current system I need about 100mm clear behind the tank for the bulkhead fittings to project and pipework to run down to the sump. I would like to get the tank/rack closer to the wall if I can. What is the recommended clear space behind the tank?


I will leave the majority of the decisions on the tank build to the tank builder but will get details on what they want to do. I would appreciate a little advice on the tank build if anyone has any. Ie. I have assumed that the walls would be 12mm glass and base would be 15mm. I have assumed that it would need four bridges etc. I will add an angle or similar to the rim of the tank at the top to conceal the silicone and top glass side on view if you know what I mean.


10895585514_c96f330ba2_c.jpg



5ft baffled sump

I would like to stick to a baffled sump as I have used these for a long time and am a big fan of them. I can add plenty of different media and other things and have my DIY filters feeding into the side of them easily also.


5ft spare tank

This will be used as either a quarantine or fry growout tank


Timber rack

I am thinking of using a timber rack as I believe it would be more cheap to construct and maybe more sturdy. It is also handy for building the cabinetry to be able the fix to the timber rather than the steel.


Question: I am hoping to use 150mm square TP uprights and 90x45mm beams. Does anyone have advise on the suitability of these sizes for the amount of weight involved?


10895412786_643ecaabed_c.jpg



Cabinetry

I am planning on making the base of the tank sit down below the top of the plywood to hide the styrofoam base and the base of the glass if I can. I would probably make it out of around 30mm (or nearest standard thickness) plywood. I am thinking of making the top and the turn down wall removable to be able to slide the 5fts in and out if needed (I won't be doing that often though).


10895546614_a64988f948_c.jpg


I will likely add a hood of soughts also to conceal lighting and cables etc. It won't cover the entire top of the tank though.



This is a .GIF of what I am thinking at the moment:




Let me know what you guys think.


I'm undecided whether to stock frontosa only or a mix of Tanganyikans. I'm leaning toward the mix including frontosa. I have heard people have had success with frontosa in a mixed species tank but I am thinking I would have to get more domesticated frontosa rather than my wildcaught fish as they would likely eat most tankmates. If I were to do this I would likely buy fry to grow out with the rest of the fish... What are everyone's thoughts?


I will update the post as much as possible but do get quite busy at times.


Cheers


Joel

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Hi Joel

My wife also told me just to have one tank in the house, now I've got a 10x2x2 on a pine cabinet in what used to be formal dining room before we moved there. Now we just call it the fish room, it's a great place for the kids and I to chill out while my wife has her tv room.

2.5 foot high would be awesome, If I had my choice again, probably would do that high. Your cabinet plans look goo too. Maybe worth considering another foot long with your sump? For the sump I've got 6 long by 18 high by 12 wide sump underneath. Then I've got a 2.5 foot tank under there for growing fry. Looks like you have a good plan worked out there. One thing t think about carefully is youve got to make the most of the space underneath the tank and think of what sort of setup you want inside the cabinet and how much space you will have with plumbing etc.

regards,Rob

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G'day Rob,

Ideally I'd like to get a 3ft high but have noticed that there is quite a difference in price between a 3ft tall and a 2.5ft tall. I assume it is because a thicker glass is needed for the 3ft high... Also, I have already had an engineer add five extra concrete piers beneath the slab in the proposed location of the tank to cope with the weight.

Yeah, I will need to look at the sump in a bit more detail I think. I will also need to work out what size is appropriate to take the water from above when the pump is off... I really like the baffled sump setups as they are easy to access and I can add things to is quite easily.

Cheers

Joel

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Hi IHTON,

Not quite sure what grade of timber is suitable to use. I would try to use a treated pine if possible. From looking online I can see that there are F5, F7 and MGP10 available. Are any of these grades suitable? Alternatively Is there a recommended minimum F grade for this design?

I don't think it's the soil but rather the slab design. From memory we have class M soil. We are building a project home so they are using a waffle pod slab. I spoke with the engineer about adding around a maximum of 2500kg of weight over the approximate footprint. He advised that the slab was rated for around 5-6 Mpa and adding that much weight would produce close to 10Mpa (from memory). He suggested that we add five more piers to be safe. It only works out to be an extra $240 so I said go for it - worst case is the house gets a bit of extra structure added to it.

Cheers

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F5/F4 is pretty low grade softwood, which is Pine. Personally, I'd go with something a little better, but you can get it to work. I would use at least F17 for the plywood, just because of the water involved. Your beams will be fine, maybe even a little overdone. In terms of strength, you could almost use 50x50 SHS steel without any central posts. However, I'd be tempted to add 1 central post just to limit deflection and put less strain on the glass.

In terms of the slab, I might explain a few terms to you. a "kPa" or kilopascal is the basic measure of loading for an engineer, and is 100kG/1m2. I like to call it the "1 fat guy per square meter" loading. We also use a 1.2 SF for known loads. Therefore, you have 1.2 x 2500/(100*10*2*0.3^2) = 17kPa. ie, its all about the water depth, and you only have about 30 inches of it.

Even with a class M soil, you should have 50kPa direct bearing, and assuming a slab on ground, a 150slab should be fine, nothing extra needed.

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Thanks for that.

What grade would you suggest? Could I use a higher grade for the posts and beams that run along the length of the rack and use a pine for the timber on the short section?

I did think about using steel but if I did I'd have to get someone else to build it. I think I'd have trouble fixing the joinery to it also.

I assume steel would be a little more expensive than timber - unless I am overdoing the timber by a long way.

Unsure what 'SF' stands for. Is it a contingency?

Thanks for the calculation! I've gotten my MPas and kPas mixed up...

Could you please advise what the numbers in the formula represent and how the 30 inches of water fits into it? I think the first two numbers relate to kilo newtons but am lost after that... The estimate of 2500kg max considers the 10ft tank, rack, two 5ft tanks below and rockery, sand etc.

I don't have the engineering drawings with me at the moment but am sure the slab wasn't 150mm thick above the pods. I think the piers may have been proposed as it is on a cut side of our cut and fill block of land. Does that make sense to you or would you have just locally thickened the slab to be 150mm around the area of the aquarium?

I probably won't change it anymore as whenever I make a change with these people it usually results in about a one month turn around and they were due to start last Thursday...

Thanks very much for your help/advice with this.

Cheers

Joel

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When I asked for timber grade, I hadn't really looked at it too closely. Then I realized your spans are only 600mm. F5 should be fine.

SF= Safety Factor. Normally Live loads have 1.5, but as you pretty much know the loads, 1.2 so probably safe. Although I didn't include massive amounts of rocks, and they are heavier, so maybe a bit more might be added on.

So with my calculation, it was 1.2 Safety Factor x Weight(2500) / (Conversion factor(kilograms) x length (10 ft) x width (2 ft) x metric to imperial conversion (0.3))

This is slightly inaccurate, as your load is evenly applied over the slab, but at discrete locations due to the legs. However, if you equate to say, a double cavity brick, I'd say your loading would be very similar. ie, 150 thickening should be fine even for class M soils.

Put it this way, I put my 2ft high tank on the slab without even thinking about it. As long as you have better than class m, and slab on ground, it shouldn't be too much of a worry. Suspended slabs are completely different, and I would never put a decent aquarium in an elevated apartment without specific advice, as you will be far beyond the loading.

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Put it this way, I put my 2ft high tank on the slab without even thinking about it. As long as you have better than class m, and slab on ground, it shouldn't be too much of a worry. Suspended slabs are completely different, and I would never put a decent aquarium in an elevated apartment without specific advice, as you will be far beyond the loading.

That's definitely comforting to hear.

Appreciate all the information - Thanks very much!

Cheers

Joel

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

G'day Yellow,

I am keen for a 3ft wide but it is going into a dining room that is 3860mm wide.

I think with a 3ft wide, we would be left with about 2800-2900mm wide which would make things a little 'pokey' with people shuffling chairs around the dining table etc. I can see it becoming a real pain. What do you reckon?

I was actually thinking the other day of a few different biotopes that might happen over the years... First will definitely be the Tanganyikans and the wife has already told me 'you need some colourful fish - you need marine...' :roll I can also see a planted tank at some stage (when I get plenty of time on my hands to maintain it...). Perhaps the big Americans have a place in the tank too at some stage.

Thanks for the vid. I like how such a big fish appears/disappears into the darkness.

Sorry chuin! I must have missed your post....

I'm not quite sure what size pipework just yet. I was hoping to pick a few members brains when I get closer. Have been flat out lately and haven't had the chance to look at this further.

I am now thinking of putting the overflow outside the rear of the tank and simply piping up underneath the overflow. Don't suppose anybody has tried this before?

I am mainly interested in viewing the tank as one big clean box... little or no overflows, pipework etc will be visible from the front.

Cheers

Joel

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What do you reckon?

No, it's logical. A had a 2.5ft wide tank in my lounge room, and it did impact on living space. Once I took it out, we had more room to move around. However, if I had the room, I'd go 3ft because your fish-keeping options are far more varied. Though, if you already know what you want, the decision is a no brainer. I'm looking forward to its development either way.

Good luck! :thumb

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