Large Tank costs/etc Questions

[ferret]

Ok. I'm crazy and this is years off, and my wife will probably never let me, but..

When I have a house and a nice basement with a nice concrete pad under it, I want to build a tank. A big tank. My currently under consideration dimensions are something on the scale of 3-4 foot depth, 4-5 foot height, and 10+ length. I'd run it all the way against a wall, or as much of one as I could. I'd want it at least a foot off the ground (Probably use cinder blocks to raise it up).

I figure the biggest issue would be getting 10 foot long pieces of acyrlic/glass for the walls

I'm not even pondering whether it would be salt or fresh water at this point, so I'll leave lighting considerations out for now.

Any ideas on the possible costs or major hardships? Besides getting walls long enough, filtration would seem like the next major concern. I need like 10,000 gph filtration I think. The above dimensions hover somewhere between 1100 to 1300 gallon I believe.

I'd just love a huge tank to let some of the big tank busters loose in.

 

[yaksplat]

I think the biggest issue here would be structural integrity. At a depth of 5 feet, the pressure is going to be roughly 2.23 psig. Based on this number, your joints will have to handle an extreme amount of force.

To give you an example, the front wall will have a total force exerted on it of 8028 lbs. Each sidewall will have a force of 3211 lbs. All of this force will get concentrated at the joints. Assuming an equal distribution of force, this is roughly 53 pounds of force on every linear inch of silicone at the corners and about 33 pounds on the lower joint.

Then you will also need glass thick enough to handle the stress of the water pushing against it. For this case you will need 2" thick glass for the front and back and 1.5" glass for the sides. 8O 8O

To be on the safe side, the bottom should also be about 2" thick

I hope you have a big wallet

and good luck with your wife

Jim

8O

 

[Thaiboxer]

Holy cow! That's all I can say. And I'll echo Yak's comment about your deep pockets...

 

[ferret]

Hey I can dream

 

[snapcrackler]

Monthly maintenance costs and electricity = car payment

You could put a bumper sticker on your wife's car that says "my other car is an aquarium"

 

[ferret]

By the time I have a house, $200-300 monthly shouldn't be a huge concern, as I'll be fully graduated by that time and should have a fairly nice salary. Plus about that time, I'll have my current car paid for so hey, I'll have $300 a month to waste

The setup and construction would be the major concerns. What are he possiblities for construction not involving glass/acyrlic? I've read of silicon sealants for brick, etc. Due to the thickness and dimensions of the glass panels required, it might be easier to construct a reinforced brick enclosure and only have the front display panel to worry about.

 

[Thaiboxer]

They have a 1000 gallon tank at an LFS near me, and that's how they did it. It's mostly enclosed with non-glass, and has two large acrylic windows.

Still... I'd go with a concrete outdoor pond for a lot less money, especially if I lived in Georgia.

Good luck!

 

[yaksplat]

That would still be one expensive and heavy piece of glass 8O

 

[ferret]

I have to have a yard for a pond :/ And my wife keeps talking about townhouses. They don't have yards really.

 

[Thaiboxer]

That's my problem now - I'm in a twin home in a small townhouse complex. I love my house, but really want a yard. I want a Jacuzzi and a koi pond... they might get cold in MN, but Pondmom seems to do okay! I have this perfect back yard in my imagination... sorta like Mr. Miagi's from Karate Kid, but not quite so elaborate.

Back to reality!

 

[ferret]

What if, instead of one long viewing panel, I split it in two? Or three? Ie, put brick columnes in the middle or at the 1/3 and 2/3 points, and therefore have say two panels 5 feet long (Or 3 panels each 3 1/3rd foot long)..

Might shrink and take away from the overall viewing area, but you should still be able to see inside pretty good, and the brick columns should help add support to the front area, I'd think.

It'd be easier to get panels that size I'd think, though more overall seams involved.

How thick would it need to be for acrylic, btw?

 

[yaksplat]

Yes, that could be done with much thinner glass. I can't run the calcs without the physical properties of the specific type of acrylic that is used. I would assume that the thickness would be close, maybe a little less. Although, the acrylic would flex more, but it has the capacity to flex, unlike glass, which prefers to crack.

I still think that the biggest hurdle that you'll face is your wife

 

[ferret]

Haha, I actually mentioned it to her. I told her I'd cut back on tanks some if I could work on this as a long term hobby/project type deal ;P She didn't particularily complain

I told her I'd cut back to three FW tanks (From 8 currently) and they'd all also be in the basement. (My current 75 and 90Gs, plus a 55G eventually for my two goldfish). I still plan to have a SW display tank in my living room once I have a house, but otherwise I kinda do want to cut back. I'd rather feed 4-5 large tanks that 10 tanks of varying sizes. Its just easier ;P

This big tank would be a huge FW community. All fish between 4 to 12 inches.. Maybe I'll even put some smaller fish in and they'll survive due to breeding and the babies having a huge amount of space to hide

Various barbs, gouramis, loaches, bala sharks, rainbow sharks.. Just a nice huge big community. I think the Oscars will have to stay out of it though. Putting them in would probably lower the overall population of the tank quickly.

 

[Thaiboxer]

People are always picking on my Oscars! They're not mean, they're just hungry! If you were walking down the street minding your own business and all of a sudden a bite of steak were dangling in front of you on a string, you'd eat it! That's all the Oscar is doing...

It's a societal problem - the Oscars can't help it!

 

[ferret]

Phhbbtt. I'm gonna make a pond one day, and put my oscars in it, instead of koi

 

[snapcrackler]

Ohhhhh, FRESHwater. hehe, I was thinking this would be salt. That's why I was thinking the monthly costs would be so high (salt - supplements - etc) .

Heck if you're going FW your monthly costs will be a lot lower. LOL

 

[ferret]

Yeah. Its crossed my mind to just buy some sort of pool filter I'm sure it could be converted to my purposes

This would be a planted tank and all. I suppose after construction is finish, I'd put a foot or two of water into the tank initially. Bring in all kinds of drift wood and stump and trees and stuff (Cleaned of course), and add lots of plants. Add one heck of a lighting system, the fill it up and go find some fish.

I figure with such a large system, I could drop in like 15 fish and not worry about ammonia spikes. It'd take too long for the ammonia to build up. Of course on the same note the bacteria build up would probably be slower. I need about 3 lbs of biospira

 

[FreddyFish]

Huge basement tank

Hey, why don't you build one room in your basement without any windows. Build a big acrylic tube in the middle for you to sit in. Then make a opening in the middle of your aquarium-room ceiling to climb down to your viewing/tube.
Good luck and don't forget a diving suit.

 

[excited_newby]

I like the idea of an indoor tank much better than an outdoor pond. Just way much cooler. Have you though of pooring reinforced concrete for say two of the walls and then glass for the other two. A LFS by me (Big Al's in fact) has a massive tank and it is set up like that. Anyways best of luck, and I sure hope that you are successful, don't break the bank, and have a very flexible wife.

If you decide to go through with it post pics all the way along!

 

[LAGlocker]

Man I would love to have a tank like that one day, but cleaning that sucker would be a massive undertaking. Talk about your huge gravel vac lol. Just think of trying to clean that thing gives me the shivers. But then thinking about showing that off wow. What I couldnt do with a tank that size. Talk about your massive fish.