Big favour
- Thread starter Eric A
- Start date
hmm how to explain this properly.?
Ok imagine a 10 foot long 1x4. Now if you have a few people hold the board on either side 10 feet away from eachother without anyone holding the middle it the board is turned flat with the ground it will sag from it's own weight. Now turn the board vertical and it no longer sags.
I give that example because I think I figured your drawing out after your last comment. You have an enclosure made from 1' plywood. Framed on the corners and edges with 1x4's and then again with 1x4's around the top, bottom, and viewing frame. It may very well hold the outward pressure due to the mass and the fact that you are only 30 inches deep.
So things to factor in. Plywood sheets are 4x8. This means you will have a butt joint which will require proper framing and sealing. Your design will take 4 sheets of plywood just for the enclosure.
Your design is roughly 750 gallons (748.051948 US gallons to be exact at max fill). The water alone will weigh 6250lbs (6242.79273 to be exact again). A sheet of 1" plywood weighs roughly 100lbs (courtesy of bob vilas estimate). So without framing, glass, a stand, a sump, lights, etc you will be placing 6650lbs on your floor. This will give you just over 1lb per square inch on that specific area of the floor when you are done. I'm not a structural engineer so I don't know what kind of support a common household floor gives or what kind of weight dictates reinforcing with jacks or the like. Maybe someone will answer that question.
I'm just going to throw guesstimate numbers at you to give you an idea of the costs involved for just a few things.
Plywood 80-100 per sheet.
Glass 400 - thousands based on your measurements and quality/thickness desired as well as overall size since the length will make the glass much more expensive.. two windows would be cheaper.
Wood for the framing you've proposed and a stand, 200 - tons more depending on how fancy you go.
Sealing the wood, bare minimum guess 140 and way up from there depending on what you want.
You are looking at a grand basically without addressing filtration, fittings, lighting, decor, etc... Now I will admit you can probably build this whole setup with lights and filtration/pumps for under 1500... it just wouldn't look finished and would definitely be on the cheap. Most people want their tanks to look like a nice piece of furniture in their house. You could easilly go up from 1500 very quickly.
Just things to think about for your budget. I'm sure others can post some ideas on the cost they've incurred. Overbuilding isn't always the culprit.
To add a bit to it, after do i quick search on the cost breakdown for a lot of similar projects on here I have been unable to find one with a price tag under 1500 that didn't always have most of what they needed for the build..
Ok imagine a 10 foot long 1x4. Now if you have a few people hold the board on either side 10 feet away from eachother without anyone holding the middle it the board is turned flat with the ground it will sag from it's own weight. Now turn the board vertical and it no longer sags.
I give that example because I think I figured your drawing out after your last comment. You have an enclosure made from 1' plywood. Framed on the corners and edges with 1x4's and then again with 1x4's around the top, bottom, and viewing frame. It may very well hold the outward pressure due to the mass and the fact that you are only 30 inches deep.
So things to factor in. Plywood sheets are 4x8. This means you will have a butt joint which will require proper framing and sealing. Your design will take 4 sheets of plywood just for the enclosure.
Your design is roughly 750 gallons (748.051948 US gallons to be exact at max fill). The water alone will weigh 6250lbs (6242.79273 to be exact again). A sheet of 1" plywood weighs roughly 100lbs (courtesy of bob vilas estimate). So without framing, glass, a stand, a sump, lights, etc you will be placing 6650lbs on your floor. This will give you just over 1lb per square inch on that specific area of the floor when you are done. I'm not a structural engineer so I don't know what kind of support a common household floor gives or what kind of weight dictates reinforcing with jacks or the like. Maybe someone will answer that question.
I'm just going to throw guesstimate numbers at you to give you an idea of the costs involved for just a few things.
Plywood 80-100 per sheet.
Glass 400 - thousands based on your measurements and quality/thickness desired as well as overall size since the length will make the glass much more expensive.. two windows would be cheaper.
Wood for the framing you've proposed and a stand, 200 - tons more depending on how fancy you go.
Sealing the wood, bare minimum guess 140 and way up from there depending on what you want.
You are looking at a grand basically without addressing filtration, fittings, lighting, decor, etc... Now I will admit you can probably build this whole setup with lights and filtration/pumps for under 1500... it just wouldn't look finished and would definitely be on the cheap. Most people want their tanks to look like a nice piece of furniture in their house. You could easilly go up from 1500 very quickly.
Just things to think about for your budget. I'm sure others can post some ideas on the cost they've incurred. Overbuilding isn't always the culprit.
To add a bit to it, after do i quick search on the cost breakdown for a lot of similar projects on here I have been unable to find one with a price tag under 1500 that didn't always have most of what they needed for the build..
