O.K., spent the last hour reading up.
Not that I ever had any doubt but you are certifiable. Can't wait to start my own commitment project. I hope you're proud of yourself 'cuz I'm sure this is gonna be the deal breaker fer wife number last.
"Honey, I'm thinkin' of blowin' out the front wall of the basement family room and replacing it with a foot of acrylic so I can fill the basement with water and fish. Won't it be cool...you'll be able to see the fish from the street!"...SLACK SLACK! (sound of wife cocking my old 870...
Realizing that I'm a week late, and I couldn't find or understand what you may have done to accommodate this but the diagonal bracing would be more useful across the bottom since that's where the greatest stress is. Did you anchor your wall plates to the concrete? Again, not tryin' to be a kill joy, your monument to 2x6 pine is utterly amazing.
For the next bigger tank I was thinkin' maybe Durisol insulated concrete forms. They're made of recycled mineralized wood fiber. They're too porous to wick moisture, stack like Lego blocks, can be coated with just about anything that you can trowel or spray and can be had with a layer of insulation already integrated into the form blocks. Vertical rebar epoxied into the slab and horizontal rebar inside the forms in rings from bottom to top. Fill with LaFarge polymer enhanced self consolidating concrete (about 6500 psi) or equivalent and you've got a rock solid fish tank, or pill box depending on your available field of fire.
For heat, cover the floor with flexible roll insulation and a layer of Warm Board plywood subflooring. It comes pre-routed to accept PEX tubing and the whole surface has a layer of aluminum bonded to it for hot water radiant heat reflection. Top it with a 2" slab and paint the whole shootin' match with your rubber pond paint. You could tap your existing domestic water heater for a seperate loop to connect to the hydronic heat exchanger for nearly free tank heating. If you account for it creatively you might even be able to qualify for an energy savings tax credit. Just tell the IRS that you built an insulated water filled trombe wall for use as a thermal battery.
Now that I think about it the whole thing could be built right next to my dining room picture window as a free standing structure (we usually eat in the kitchen anyway). Then I could fabricate a retractable insulated roof and it can do double duty as a swimming pool in the summer...
http://www.durisolbuild.com/
http://www.warmboard.com/
Do you see the kind of trouble this sort of thinking leads to?
Stress wise consider the physics involved in above ground swimming pools. Medium guage sheet metal with a sectional track and caps screwed together with little #6 screws holding back 6-8-10,000 gallons of water. The whole thing depends on the integrity of a 20 mil. piece of vinyl.
Me thinks you are plenty sturdy. Crazy as a schmidt house rat, but sturdy. God it must be great to be single...
You definitely win my Large Cojones Award for the year.
Terrific project! Keep up the good work and good luck. If the room mate witches about the noise go get yourself an air powered impact to drive screws with. After a night of that he'll never be able to hear your screw gun again.
wish I had my own home so I could do a project like this
