Here in probably 6-7 months I plan on building my turtles a tank vs their ghetto pond. I've been working on the design for the past few days in sketch-up and this is what I got so far.
I have a top part for a basking area the size will change, I have a spare piece of glass I want to use for it I just don't have the exact measurements for it and didn't want to get it out since its a pain. I plan on cutting a hole in the top for the heat lamp and mounting a uvb florescent fixture inside for the basking area the top and bottom will be sealed off using left over marine epoxy.
The whole tank itself will be coated 2 times with fiberglass and marine epoxy resin, and I may paint the inside black I'm not sure. The glass will be taken from an old 55 gallon tank and used for the windows.
This is how I plan on framing the glass its basiclly inserted into 2 L's in the frame of the tank. I'll silicone it to the 2x4s and then silicone the seams around the edges. Where the glass meets up in the middle of the tank on each side there will be a 2x4 bracing the seam, however at the far end corner there will be no bracing aside from the top and bottom of the frame.
Because I wanted to keep the inner dimensions as large as possible the bottom plywood will be a full 8x4 sheet 3/4" and dropped into the bottom like so with the glass sitting right on top of it.
The bottom of the tank will be braced like so and will effectively be doubled up since the top of the stand will be exactly the same as the bottom of the tank.
The stand will have 2x4s approximately 10" apart going across it with a gap in the front 3 lengths for a sump.
The sump will contain 6 plastic organizing drawers 2 stacked up in 3 rows, each one will be fed by a 1inch drain line and the return will be a 1inch line teed off to feed each side of the tank. I'm planing on using a rio hyper flow 32 which should give me around 1500gph at 4' head and I'll be using it at around 2-3' head. It will be hooked up to the return lines with a union ball valve and a check valve right after incase of pump failure since I want the return lines about 5-7" from the bottom of the tank.
Here's just another picture of the plumbing in the back of the tank.
Here's what I'm thinking from the drain lines. I'll have 2 upturned elbows to skim the water and then in the middle I'll have a T with an end cap on the top and a small hole as a siphon break and it will be set just slightly lower then the elbows. There will be a line extending down as far as I fell I can have it go without sucking up sand and a strainer on it to keep fish out.
And last but not least here's a link to the sketch-up model.
I think that about encompasses everything. I'm mainly looking to get critique on the design and feed back about the sealing and everything, since I cant afford failure or leaks.
I have a top part for a basking area the size will change, I have a spare piece of glass I want to use for it I just don't have the exact measurements for it and didn't want to get it out since its a pain. I plan on cutting a hole in the top for the heat lamp and mounting a uvb florescent fixture inside for the basking area the top and bottom will be sealed off using left over marine epoxy.
The whole tank itself will be coated 2 times with fiberglass and marine epoxy resin, and I may paint the inside black I'm not sure. The glass will be taken from an old 55 gallon tank and used for the windows.
This is how I plan on framing the glass its basiclly inserted into 2 L's in the frame of the tank. I'll silicone it to the 2x4s and then silicone the seams around the edges. Where the glass meets up in the middle of the tank on each side there will be a 2x4 bracing the seam, however at the far end corner there will be no bracing aside from the top and bottom of the frame.
Because I wanted to keep the inner dimensions as large as possible the bottom plywood will be a full 8x4 sheet 3/4" and dropped into the bottom like so with the glass sitting right on top of it.
The bottom of the tank will be braced like so and will effectively be doubled up since the top of the stand will be exactly the same as the bottom of the tank.
The stand will have 2x4s approximately 10" apart going across it with a gap in the front 3 lengths for a sump.
The sump will contain 6 plastic organizing drawers 2 stacked up in 3 rows, each one will be fed by a 1inch drain line and the return will be a 1inch line teed off to feed each side of the tank. I'm planing on using a rio hyper flow 32 which should give me around 1500gph at 4' head and I'll be using it at around 2-3' head. It will be hooked up to the return lines with a union ball valve and a check valve right after incase of pump failure since I want the return lines about 5-7" from the bottom of the tank.
Here's just another picture of the plumbing in the back of the tank.
Here's what I'm thinking from the drain lines. I'll have 2 upturned elbows to skim the water and then in the middle I'll have a T with an end cap on the top and a small hole as a siphon break and it will be set just slightly lower then the elbows. There will be a line extending down as far as I fell I can have it go without sucking up sand and a strainer on it to keep fish out.
And last but not least here's a link to the sketch-up model.
I think that about encompasses everything. I'm mainly looking to get critique on the design and feed back about the sealing and everything, since I cant afford failure or leaks.
? hum?