Hi' There,
I made a roughtly 280us G tank , took me a wile due to some differernt family stuff that come up and holidays. in total about 3 months ! Slow as if i had time i could of done it in a week tops.
The Shed:
First off i had no where to put a tank so needed to put one in the shed as its the only place it'd fit. Unfortuantly the shed leaked, was full of crap and was no place for a Tank!
I repaired the roof by pretty much replacing the whole thing, removed the crap into box's and in the house (the mrs aint impressed with my bike being in the living room but nvm eh!)
Next up was insulating the shed, for this i did one layer of bubble wrap, followed by a thick layer of loft insulation followed by some fibre glass sheeting. (its roasting in there!)
Luckily i have an outside toilet so theres water in the shed so i have connected the water supply a HMA filter.
The tank and stand:
The dimensions are 72"L x 30"w x 30"d , it's made with 1inch marine grade plywood coverd in fibreglass sheeting which was about 1cm thick to make it water proof. I then used a pieve of 12mm toughned glass for the veiwing panel. The bracing is done via the lid which is screwd in and gives multiple braces across the tank. The stand is made with Angle Bar(spelling?) which is around an 1-2cm thick. Total cost of the tank and stand was £100 for the glass , rest was free from someone i know.
There is one Heater in the tank also its a Eheim 300w and is only used when/if i need to turn the sump pump of for any reason the tank stays warm. The tank has 2 40mm overflow holes at the top about 1 -2 inch from the top. It also has a hole on the oposite side for the output from the sump pump and one small whole for the HMA filter to feed into the tank.
The stand:
Wood all ready to go :
Missed a couple of steps as got carried away and forgot about pictures!
Video of my dads goldfish from his pond testing out the tank was safe, also shows equipments etc. :
[YT]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Dkyqab0sCcc [/YT]
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Dkyqab0sCcc
This is the tank completed with the stock in, mostly vid of the ray but does show my others eventually
[YT]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=t8NSEPLT-n0 [/YT]
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=t8NSEPLT-n0
The sump:
The sump is currently a 48"Lx 20"w x15"d with 4 compartments, one has thick foam, the next has like bits of cut pipe , followed by one with fine pads and then the last one has all the heaters etc in it.
I have 2 300watt eheim heaters in the sump with one 5500lph water pump.
I also have an overflow in the sump which go's through the shed wall and outside towards the drain, this is so that i can run the hma filter into the main tank and not have to wurry about taking water out. Means i can leave it running 24/7 water change, the temperature has yet to drop even .1 of a degree when doing a water change, i have it on as low as it go's which does around 700-1000 litres a day at a guess, it can most likely do around 4000-5000 a day but the heaters would be on all the time costing me more money and the fish may not like it.
The sump is having some issues with it randomly leaking so i'm going to replacing the plywood sump with a water butt once ive worked out a decent way to partition it.
HMA Filter:
The Inhabitants:
1 Marbled Motoro Ray (thanks Lee really liking the ray!)
1 Datnoides Campbelli
1 Polypterus Weeksii
1 Polypterus Ornatipinnis
3 Polypterus Lapredei
1 Polypterus Senegalus
1 Polypterus Endlicherri Congicus
1 Royal Plec either L190/L191
1 Wild Caught Oscar
2 Tin Foil barbs (i have some more growing out still)
Future Stocking :
The poly's are staying, i'm hoping to get a complete collection of full grown adults at some point.
I have a florida Gar growing out
I'm always going to have a Stingray of some sort.
I'd like an Asian Arowana but wont get one for some time due to funds.
Unfortuantly the bad bits with this build is it was done in the shed as we couldnt fit through the door, so when i move house in a couple of years i either take the shed apart or take the tank apart to get it out. what i'll most likely do is scrap the tank but keep the glass and do a new bigger build at my new house
Hope you enjoy
I made a roughtly 280us G tank , took me a wile due to some differernt family stuff that come up and holidays. in total about 3 months ! Slow as if i had time i could of done it in a week tops.
The Shed:
First off i had no where to put a tank so needed to put one in the shed as its the only place it'd fit. Unfortuantly the shed leaked, was full of crap and was no place for a Tank!
I repaired the roof by pretty much replacing the whole thing, removed the crap into box's and in the house (the mrs aint impressed with my bike being in the living room but nvm eh!)
Next up was insulating the shed, for this i did one layer of bubble wrap, followed by a thick layer of loft insulation followed by some fibre glass sheeting. (its roasting in there!)
Luckily i have an outside toilet so theres water in the shed so i have connected the water supply a HMA filter.
The tank and stand:
The dimensions are 72"L x 30"w x 30"d , it's made with 1inch marine grade plywood coverd in fibreglass sheeting which was about 1cm thick to make it water proof. I then used a pieve of 12mm toughned glass for the veiwing panel. The bracing is done via the lid which is screwd in and gives multiple braces across the tank. The stand is made with Angle Bar(spelling?) which is around an 1-2cm thick. Total cost of the tank and stand was £100 for the glass , rest was free from someone i know.
There is one Heater in the tank also its a Eheim 300w and is only used when/if i need to turn the sump pump of for any reason the tank stays warm. The tank has 2 40mm overflow holes at the top about 1 -2 inch from the top. It also has a hole on the oposite side for the output from the sump pump and one small whole for the HMA filter to feed into the tank.
The stand:
Wood all ready to go :
Missed a couple of steps as got carried away and forgot about pictures!
Video of my dads goldfish from his pond testing out the tank was safe, also shows equipments etc. :
[YT]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Dkyqab0sCcc [/YT]
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Dkyqab0sCcc
This is the tank completed with the stock in, mostly vid of the ray but does show my others eventually
[YT]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=t8NSEPLT-n0 [/YT]
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=t8NSEPLT-n0
The sump:
The sump is currently a 48"Lx 20"w x15"d with 4 compartments, one has thick foam, the next has like bits of cut pipe , followed by one with fine pads and then the last one has all the heaters etc in it.
I have 2 300watt eheim heaters in the sump with one 5500lph water pump.
I also have an overflow in the sump which go's through the shed wall and outside towards the drain, this is so that i can run the hma filter into the main tank and not have to wurry about taking water out. Means i can leave it running 24/7 water change, the temperature has yet to drop even .1 of a degree when doing a water change, i have it on as low as it go's which does around 700-1000 litres a day at a guess, it can most likely do around 4000-5000 a day but the heaters would be on all the time costing me more money and the fish may not like it.
The sump is having some issues with it randomly leaking so i'm going to replacing the plywood sump with a water butt once ive worked out a decent way to partition it.
HMA Filter:
The Inhabitants:
1 Marbled Motoro Ray (thanks Lee really liking the ray!)
1 Datnoides Campbelli
1 Polypterus Weeksii
1 Polypterus Ornatipinnis
3 Polypterus Lapredei
1 Polypterus Senegalus
1 Polypterus Endlicherri Congicus
1 Royal Plec either L190/L191
1 Wild Caught Oscar
2 Tin Foil barbs (i have some more growing out still)
Future Stocking :
The poly's are staying, i'm hoping to get a complete collection of full grown adults at some point.
I have a florida Gar growing out
I'm always going to have a Stingray of some sort.
I'd like an Asian Arowana but wont get one for some time due to funds.
Unfortuantly the bad bits with this build is it was done in the shed as we couldnt fit through the door, so when i move house in a couple of years i either take the shed apart or take the tank apart to get it out. what i'll most likely do is scrap the tank but keep the glass and do a new bigger build at my new house
Hope you enjoy
