My 3665 Gallon Lined Plywood Tank Build Log

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Hey Pete, I havnt been around for a week or two. Looks like your having a blast. Keep it up.
 
Going to do a little redesign and rebuild while I'm not too far in.

1) Only use 1 2x4 for the lip of the frame instead of 2. The second isn't providing much in the way of extra strength and takes away an extra 3" of viewing window in both directions.

2) The old 2x6 lumber around the outside of the viewing window has had me antsy from the get go, so it'll be replaced with new lumber to put me at ease. The old lumber is very hard, heavy, and seemingly brittle to a degree.

3) Between every wood on wood surface, I'm going to put Liquid Nails Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive. It'll add about $60 or so to the build, but well worth it for the extra insurance.

This allows me to rework a little bit of the structure and change some of the assembly order.
 
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.

sumpfilter.JPG
 
I know I saw a build someplace where a guy used normal silicone to seal a big acrylic window, he held pressure on it with PVC pipes wedged in until it was full, and the water pressure basically kept enough pressure on it to keep it sealed. I'll see if I can find it.

edit: here you go http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_1700g_tank_1.php


Now just imagine a setup like that with an Amazon tropical setup. Imagine a huge school of Neons, Cardinals, Angels and Discus along with other small tropicals. Heck, if possible, I would build a section on top for Amazon River Turtles to climb out and bask. wow.. just image that setup.

*sigh* I need my own house.
 
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