1900 Gallon Tank Ideas

[420Coupe]

I built a sump under my tank and have my heaters in the sump. You can see my build in my sig. With electric heaters it takes a lot of juice to heat that much water. If you can take advantage of a gas water heater it would be a lot cheaper to run.

Those are a lot of supports. I think it's a little over built. You won't have room to get under the tank to do maintenance on the sumps. Just calculate the total weight of the thing and divide up the number of supports. 4x4 posts can take a lot of weight. Mine works out to little over 400lbs load per post which is more than enough safety margin. Keep in mind it's compressive load so it will take a lot of weight. If it was cantilever then that's a different story.

As far as lighting. I used the clear corrugated roof panels from Lowes and installed normal drop ceiling fluorescent fixtures into the ceiling.

Another thing to consider is your inside corner where glass meets glass. Make sure the corner is supported against outward pressure. Without bracing all the outward pressure will be on the glass to glass silicone and you don't want silicone to take any load.

BTW great looking design.

Thank you ! Yes i've been looking into hooking it up to the water heater. I also have bracing i've redone the design a bit, so your saying i can actually stick to code and do the 4x4 every 16" ?

 

[sashimimaster]

Not sure about any code for building fish tanks but I would do a weight calculation with the amount of water you have with 8lbs/gallon approximate specific gravity and divide by how many posts you want. That way you have some spacing and can make some doors to open under the stand to get at the sumps after the drywall has been covered.

Also I would have some support around the perimeter of the glass and not let any glass seams bear any load. Especially along the bottom seam between the glass and floor. That's where most of the outward pressure will be.

 

[420Coupe]

Im still debating on whether or not to add more bracing for the top or not. So essentially i can increase spacing, right now i have it every 10" instead of every 16" which reduces them to about 9 4x4 every 12"

 

[Egon]

Im still debating on whether or not to add more bracing for the top or not. So essentially i can increase spacing, right now i have it every 10" instead of every 16" which reduces them to about 9 4x4 every 12"

A lot of guys use conduit (metal electrical pipe) to span the gaps above the fish tank. They flatten the ends, drill a hole through the flat part, and lag bolt the pipe to the frame of the top of the tank. The conduit is galvanized and resist rusting. The up side is it’s very strong and takes up less room, no down side I can think of.

 

[420Coupe]

I'll see if add the conduit, still want to some what solve this filtration system before moving forward. My question is what is the maintenance that i would need to get into the sump besides cleaning which i plan on leaving to one of the sides so i can get to/change out easily. Im More or less going based off your sump designs and just elaborating the exact dimensions/look it will have. Essentially mine will be a 'maze' starting from 1 end and snaking around until it has covered the length of the box. Ill see if i cant get a 3D design to better understand what im speaking about. But i'm still confused about how exactly to tackle filtration for over 1900 gallons of water ?

 

[420Coupe]

is it the same and i just need to turn more water an hour to cover the larger mass of water or ? as well as should i have insulation, i feel like if i did it would save me some $$$ monthly on heating cost. But as i dont want it to show it would just be the bottom of the L insulated with the two sides that have stands and the entire sump. still all problems i want solved prior to beginning construction.

 

[Egon]

is it the same and i just need to turn more water an hour to cover the larger mass of water or ? as well as should i have insulation, i feel like if i did it would save me some $$$ monthly on heating cost. But as i dont want it to show it would just be the bottom of the L insulated with the two sides that have stands and the entire sump. still all problems i want solved prior to beginning construction.

Figure what your turn over will need to be, 5X is good IMO. Then find a pump that will move 5X the tanks water per hour. Of course all this depends on feeding and the size of the fish. You can always add a pump to increase flow. You can't always add a drain so I would consider making a drain that can handle up to 10X per hour water flow. If you need that much fine, if you dont, no big deal. If your drain is not large enough your stuck doing a major overhaul to add another drain or enlarging an existing drain.

 

[420Coupe]

so what would be a good diam 4" ? and is having 1 biotower enough or is a second one needed ? or this just pending on how much water is moved through it ?

 

[Egon]

All those questions depend on the water flow. I would say 3" would be fine but check out the stickys and do the math. First thing you want to do is figure what your max flow is going to be and plan your drain. Then pick out the pumps. I always use two pumps in my large tanks so when one fails in the middle of the night at least I'm only 50% down. I also have an extra pump in reserve for quick swap out.

Edit: Of course, I believe, for larger tanks an ultima canister filter is better.

 

[sashimimaster]

I think 3" dia pipe is plenty of flow. Also think about water changes. If you have a house drain close by you would want to tap into that. If not you can add an algae scrubber to minimize water changes. I clean out my algae scrubber every week and rarely change water. My nitrates are under 5ppm but my bio load is not that high yet.

As for your stand, I only have 12 4X4 posts for my entire tank which is ~680g. Yours is around 3 times that so do the math.

I don't like the idea of having any metal around water/humidity. Even though it's galvanized it will eventually rust. Metals will always corrode it's just depends on how quickly. I'd rather coat wood with epoxy than have rust dripping into the tank. Now if you powder coat the metal then you're good to go.