I need help building a custom aquarium

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Chucklez

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Jul 3, 2003
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Valmeyer, IL
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I have just finished building my new house with a walk-out basement. The basement is unfinished and I have BIG plans to finish it. I am going to put in a family room with dimensions of 28x25. On the 25' wall I plan on building into the wall a 20' long x 3' wide x 2' tall reef aquarium. This equates to close to 1000 gallons. I have added a simple tank layout to try to demonstrate what I want to do. Please dont laugh it isnt to scale.

Behind the tank will be a workshop type room, for the refugium, lighting, and other components.

The basic tank construction will be a basic plywood box, with 3 acrylic viewing panels spaced throughout the front. As I said this tank will be built into a wall.

Now comes the reason for this post. Does anyone know how I can build this tank to be structurally sound? Im thinking the framing will have to be 2x6 planks spaced about 6" on center to support the 10,000 lbs + of weight this tank will be. This adds up to alot of wood and alot of cost. Does anyone have a more economical cost method, or any better ideas on the spacing of the framework?

Thanks in advance for any help, ideas, or suggestions that you may provide.
Chucklez
 

BrianH

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Oct 16, 2001
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Oakland, NJ
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Since I have no experience building tanks I can't help you out personally, but mabye you can get some ideas from the enclosed website where the owner (Mr. 4000) built a 4000 gal. reef tank in his basement. Beware that the rummor is he had to tear this tank down due to too much moisture in his basement warping his floor joists.

Brian
 

vidrar

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Jul 24, 2003
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I'm new to building tanks, currerntly half way through my first tank but i've been doin ALOT of research on it.

First problem with your design is the acrylic viewing panels. they say that if your panels go over 18" from top to bottom you should NOT use acrylic, so you might want to either consider taking some of the depth off you tank, or pricing out some very thick tempered glass, talk to some one at a glass shop.

Secondly, BrianH has a good point about ventilation. the area with your tank in it needs to be very well ventilated, preferably with a direct suction to the outside of your house. Not knowing what the exact current state of your room is now, you will want to put extra thick vapor barrier on the ceiling and walls of the room to help protect the interior of the walls and the rest of the house.

hope this helps somewhat.
 
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