concrete aquarium questions

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tank90

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 28, 2006
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michigan
HI, I am building a new 3 car garage out back on my property one of the bays will be walled in and finished, heated ect.... I am in the process of getting the floor poured right now and i am going to build a tank in there as well...

1. I am going to have the tank walls poured with the floor as it will be one solid piece.

2. the tank will be 8 foot deep, 10 foot wide and 6 foot tall.

3. the window will be 6 foot wide and 3 foot tall.

4. it will have a bottom drain and a bottom sidewall bulkhead running to a filter on the other side of the wall.

opinions / questions..........

1. how think should the tank walls be and the tank floor ?

2. does anyone know how to figure out the water pressure at this size ?

3. what about the window glass or acrylic and thickness of each ??

4. would a new pool filter work for this tank ?

5. should a use drylock to paint the concrete with ??

any advice, opinions, thoughts ect given I would greatly appreciate befor i get this started......

thanks in advance ....Chris.
 
Quite the loaded post,
honestly, i would only trust professionals answering some of those questions, if something screws up because you took some 15 year old kids advice off a forum you'll be kicking yourself (no offence to 15 year olds, i'm sure there are many smart 15 year olds that give great, its just an example).
 
thats true but there are many people on here that have built large impressive tanks and i just thought som of them might have some good ideas ( or at least be willing to share them ) based on their past projects
 
tank90 said:
HI, I am building a new 3 car garage out back on my property one of the bays will be walled in and finished, heated ect.... I am in the process of getting the floor poured right now and i am going to build a tank in there as well...

1. I am going to have the tank walls poured with the floor as it will be one solid piece.

2. the tank will be 8 foot deep, 10 foot wide and 6 foot tall.

3. the window will be 6 foot wide and 3 foot tall.

4. it will have a bottom drain and a bottom sidewall bulkhead running to a filter on the other side of the wall.

opinions / questions..........

1. how think should the tank walls be and the tank floor ?

2. does anyone know how to figure out the water pressure at this size ?

3. what about the window glass or acrylic and thickness of each ??

4. would a new pool filter work for this tank ?

5. should a use drylock to paint the concrete with ??

any advice, opinions, thoughts ect given I would greatly appreciate befor i get this started......

thanks in advance ....Chris.
Click to expand...


For a tank that is 10'L x 8'W x 6'D: the water weight will be 29952 pounds = 14.98 tons.

Assuming you center the window in the wall, the bottom edge of the glass will be set 1.5 feet above the floor. That translates to 4.5 foot of water depth, which in turn is 280.8 pounds per square foot.

You are talking a lot of wieght. I would suggest an engineer design the foundation and walls. The engineer will also be able to specify a window material and thickness for you.

Also if you complete the project use a sealant that is safe for drinking water. A lot of people on this forum could specify a brand to use.
 
consult a structural engineer first check your local building codes window thickness depends on how deep in the pond the window is but 1" thick glass would be thick enough no matter what and 1 1/4" cell cast acrylic would work too as for painting only use a two part epoxy that says potable on it heres a link to get some and for filtration a large sand filter would be perfect


http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/11733/cid/3035

heres another site that might be helpful it calculates water volume of your tank and how much wattage fro heating how much filteration you need and also lighting requirements

http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/areajava.html
 
use lots of 5/8 rebar to reinforce in the article section there is a tank made from concrete i would use acyrlic of around a 1 1/2 thick if it were me doing better safe than sorry the pad your pouring in there make sure it can hold the wieght dont skimp on the reinforcement th rebar should go into the stone bed at the bottom of the slab for the base atleast 6 inches and the base pad should be 6 inch minimum for that amount of satic weight and should be able to support more than the weight there to be safe
good luck with your tank
Nic :)
 
I am in the design process on a similar project. I work for a poured wall company and we specialize in high end custom projects so I am hoping to utilize the discount :) . I have been working out some prelim designs for the tank and the filter system. I personally am leaning toward a wet dry on a grand scale. I have made all my filters in the past and have had excellent success. My thoughts were to use a plastic holding tank below grade (very well insulated) for the sump so it would take up less space. There is a plexiglass company in New England that specializes in large aquariums, I might be able to track down a number for you. They gave me ideas and specs on thicknesses for the window. I would defenitely agree you should get the project engineered, I have seen water under pressure do BAD things to concrete.

I would love an update on what you find out.
 
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