~210g inwall epoxy/plywood tank & fishroom build - Large Aquariums and Ponds

Kurt Reinhart · 11-18-2007, 08:07 AM

I've been working for several weeks on converting a portion of a porch into a fishroom/walkin closet.

Pictured below is my old plywood/epoxy 140gal against the wall where the new tank will go. This will be an in wall design. The bulk of the house has a basement but behind the wall where the porch is sits on a concrete slab. Probably the biggest pain was building up the porch floor (pic 2). Picture three shows me hanging drywall after cutting through the wall into the living room where the in wall will be configured.

Last picture shows me enclosing the porch.

DonaldmBoyer · 11-18-2007, 08:14 AM

Yikes.

Nothing like a "little" home improvement, huh?

Good luck and be careful! Keep us up-to-date on the progress! What are you planning to put in the aquarium?

Kurt Reinhart · 11-18-2007, 08:40 AM

While the fish room/ closet is progressing, I added sunpipes for natural lighting. I've felt somewhat rushed to get the pipes in and the aquarium built and epoxied to beat the Montana winter. The sunpipes are great. Where I live is arid so they haven't endured a good rainstorm yet. I think this is probably the best brand of product considering tube quality (i.e. high reflected light), dome, and other exterior materials are incredibly high quality. They aren't cheap though. I ordered two 13" and all the accessories and it cost ca. $800-900. The customer service is great!

I love how the light changes during the morning and evening with shades of yellow, red, blue. They also put out a good amount of light even during overcast. I hope to eventually have some data to add but am too busy building to quantify much.

Some reefers are using them.
Example
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...&pagenumber=31

Questin · 11-18-2007, 08:52 AM

Very sweet start, I hope those sun tubs work out for you, natural light is always a good thing IMO. Cant wait to see how this comes along.

I love looking around reefcentral as well, the information they have on reef tanks is unreal if you can take the time to look like you have.

Kurt Reinhart · 11-18-2007, 08:53 AM

I'm building a plywood/epoxy aquarium. The dimensions are 75" * 24"* 30" (L*W*H= ca. 210gal). I'm planning an exteneral overflow and sump. I'm hoping to design a biotope tank based on Florida spring. Water will enter the tank on the right and from heads on the bottom spraying left. The overflow will be to the left--more on it later.

I live in the middle of no where, so a build seemed like the best idea. I looked into getting a prebuilt glass tank. It could have been freighted to Billings, MT (2hr from me) drive. It would likely weigh more than my wife and I can load into our minivan. Because of the weight, tank+ shipping cost, inability to easily resolve issues related to damage, incorrect design, etc., I went with a build. Plus I had already built a 140 gal using GARF.ORG plans. I'm not sure if this is going to be the most cost effective for tank for many of you to build but is should work for me.

So far, I have built a plywood box which is slowly transforming into an aquarium. It has a Euro brace and I will likely add more bracing later in the design. I just picked up the glass. I bought Starphire low iron glass (1/2"), and it looks great! It cost ~$450 which is a pretty standard cost for this type of glass. This is probably the best glass on the market. Some will debate whether the cost is worth it but for me it is.

I've created a hybrid design based on GARF.org instructions and modifications by several reef tank builders. Here are some links to other threads showing plywood builds. The main thread describes the epoxy materials and technique in great detail.

Main thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1026436

Other threads
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=716410

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1239312

I'm using the West system epoxies which are great but expensive. I think that I'll ultimately use ~3 gallons worth. Again, because I live in BFE, I had to order the epoxy. I got it from U.S. Composities Inc. in FLj (http://www.shopmaninc.com/). They also carry the supplies and fiberglass that I'm using. Following the instructions listed above in the "main thread", adding the epoxy is taking considerable time. Also, I'm having to fix an overflow issue which I'll talk about next.

Questin · 11-18-2007, 09:15 AM

I think Starphire glass will be wonderful for a freshwater plant tank, I cant wait to see how clean this will be. All the flow in saltwater tanks leaves particals in the water you will always see, but a plant tank really does not have this, its going to look awesome I am sure. I'm loving it already, just hoping you get it done before winter hit there as well, cause I don't think I can wait longer then that to see it =P

Kurt Reinhart · 11-18-2007, 09:24 AM

Wrong link earlier for ordering epoxy online (http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html).

Overflow issue...

In the picture below, you'll see the hole that I routed/cut in upper left side of the tank. This was to function as the overflow from the tank into the external overflow (see pic sitting on two 2*4s on top of the tank). The hole is ca. 18" long & 1.5-2" in height. This seemed like a marginal amount of surface area based on the overflow size calculator (with <1,500 gph) [http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/drain.php]. I'm sure the hole can handle the flow but not with a nice thin amount of water will overflow.

I then remembered (after cutting the hole) that this is an inwall design and that the external overflow box (above tank in picture) will prevent the tank from fitting into the inwall hole design. I'm designing the overflow and plumbing on the fly. Since the tank is so tall relative to its width, I'm trying hard to avoid internal overflows. Several reefers are using long external overflows to the rear of the tank (coast-to-coast they call em)--essentially end to end.

Luckily, I haven't attached the overflow box yet. So I'm thinking of patching some of the hole and shortening it ca. 3-5" & shortening the overflow box. I'll follow the patch by this guy (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=6) using epoxy. Then I'll shorten the overflow and attach. I'm thinking of adding a bulkhead to the left side of the tank to drain water up into the overflow box. This will enter the box on the bottom via a bulkhead. Then I'll add a stand pipe so that the height inside the box is just above the entry height of the overflow cut (hole on side of tank). This should allow the overflow into the tank to be the primary source of water entering the overflow box with some water from midtank via the bulkhead. Also, the height of the standpipe will prevent the water in the tank from draining below the overflow cut.

Sorry no design pics (yet?). The box may have trouble fitting two durso pipes and the one stand pipe once shortened. This link has some ideas on making durso pipes smaller (http://www.randystacye.com/dursostandpipe.htm). What do you think? I would like all the overflow related stuff to be to the left so water is flowing from right (input) to left (output to sump). The flow will probably be too low for a river effect but hope that taller plants will show the effect of the current.

orlando · 11-18-2007, 10:03 AM

This is going to be nice. Good job man, I love huge projects. Cant wait to see the outcome.

Kurt Reinhart · 11-18-2007, 10:22 AM

Coming form Florida and swimming, diving, and snorkling in springs, I have a desire to connect with my tank in a personal way. I've also caught some of my own fish. So that tank stimulates all sorts of memories for me.

I'm hoping to make this a Florida biotope tank (or at least something that reminds me of FL waters). Between winter weather eventually setting and depleted cash, adding fish/plants will probably take awhile. I've been keeping some native fish with some success. Basically, I would like to keep some smaller sunfish, a school of something (?), and mostly grasses (vals and sag). Grasses will be the main component. This site lists many of the plants and has pictures (http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/photos.html#v) of them in nature.

My main problem is coming up with a supply of fish and some good algae eaters. When diving in springs, I really haven't noticed much algae nor algae eaters... However, after looking at some of the photos in the site above, I noticed algae. I've used salfin mollies & flagfish (omnivores) before but they eventually stop eating algae and start eating the food for the other fish. I have used Malaysian brown snails before. As their name implies, they're not from the US but might have to do. Some of the fish that I'm considering are linked here (Spike's Everglades Aquarium- link down : (. Many can be ordered here (http://jonahsaquarium.com/contents.htm and http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwverts.html and aquabid.com). I have relatives in FL and have actually caught and transported fish back many times. I just moved (July 07) and currently am only maintaining one dollar sunfish that I caught from FL a few years ago.

Kurt Reinhart · 11-22-2007, 02:12 PM

Still adding epoxy. Working on repairing the overflow slot.

Here is a skematic of the plumbing that I worked up. I'm not crazy about the resolution of the picture. If you want to see another then try this link (http://www.iecology.net/aquarium_bui...%20design.jpg).

I got the idea of the 10 gal prefilter from Robert Michelson's reef tank (http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/RCM/RCM...inSystem.html). This may be complete overkill. What do you think? Suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, I plan to use a pump rated to 1500 gph to return water to the tank from the sump. However, with the plumbing it will likely only push around 950gph. Here is a head loss calculator to see how much you're likely getting out of your pumps (http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.php). Its pretty enlightening.