Concrete/cinder block tank construction

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Ocean Railroader;4611117; said:
Waynes World are you building a cement tank right now?
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Just having a brew at the minute mate.....sorry LOL

I think i have decided to do a concrete tank of some description, either poured or block.

I need to dig out for a slab base etc first, no rush with this project, also its being built as part of the garden wall for one side and i need to do a bit of work on the garden as i go.

If you dont mind me aslking, but why you ask?

wayne:)
 
I'm trying to find out information on cement fish tanks block and cement in that I'm thinking about actively carrying out going after my dream fish tank when I buy my own house in the next two years. I plan to buy a existing house with a little land and then dig out a foundation for a fish room next to the house that would be about as big as my existing bedroom in my old house as a inside joke. I also plan to build eather a metal building or a large room that would become a train room for a giant train set.

Right now I'm collecting info on how much of this dream of a giant fish tank is feasble in terms of people building it themselves and how much the matirals would cost. I've even got several qotes on the price of a eight by four foot two inch aylic sheet at $1320 but I plan to look into the price of say a seven foot high ten foot wide sheet that is three and a half inches thick to see how much that would cost.

Before running into this website I origanlly planned to buy a 500 or a 1500 gallon main aylic fish tank for my house and then have a 300 gallon and a large hexagon tank in eather a living room or in two different rooms such as say a living room and my house's bedroom along with my Old 75 gallon fish tank all linked up by clear pvc pipes that would allow the fish to swim from to tank to tank. But when I joined monster fish keepers I've changed my plans to go after building a fishroom with a viewing window and cement walls with a clear pvc pipe that would link up from it to a smaller cement fish tank say in my bedroom that would allow the fish to swim between the two fish tanks.
 
How are you going to filter the two tanks, there will be dead spots everywhere with the linked system, not to mention level issues?
 
Myself i will be trying Koi pond filter tanks, i was going to get 2 150g (uk) fish tanks and convert to sumps, but the Koi filter systems are the same as aquarium setups and come in big sizes. Will save a lot of work using them.

wayne:)
 
waynes world;4612708; said:
Myself i will be trying Koi pond filter tanks, i was going to get 2 150g (uk) fish tanks and convert to sumps, but the Koi filter systems are the same as aquarium setups and come in big sizes. Will save a lot of work using them.

wayne:)
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Make sure you install a bottom drain and fit sweep bends only to it, trust me on this one:)
 
I plan to have three different water movement systems two of them would each be in each tank by itself and move the water around eatch tank on it's own water treatment system to move the water around though gravel beds like a giant fish tank or maybe sometype of sump that would have water pumped out of the bottom of the tank and let into it and then the water would fall back into the tanks.

The thrid one would be fairly sized pound water fall pump that would pump the water from one tank and then move it though a pipeline that would dump it out into a water fall feature that would let it back into the main tank. Then the water would flow though the tank and then send a current of water though the clear pvc pipe water skyway that would be six to eight inches wide and it would flow back to the tank with the intake pump that would pump it back to the main tank.

The two fish tanks would be built at the same level was one another and the clear pipe skyway would have it's top built a foot below the top level of the two fish tanks so that water could flow them under gravity and not need any speical air removal systems in it.


As for building this system I only plan to build one tank first such as the exparimental test tank that would be seven feet deep and have a section of pvc pipe conector built into it to allow it to be linked up to tank two at a later date. But when I first built it I would built it to seven foot deep stardards but only fill it with four or five feet of water first to test out filtering it and see how well the fish do in it and the costs of taking care of it.

Then at a later date maybe three or five years after the first fish tank is built depending on funding and soical things then I would build the second fish tank and the clear pvc skyway for the fish.
 
I think you will find plenty of concrete & cinder block tanks in existence.

With cinder block, you need a very stable base, so soil test and thick bottom slab. If the walls shift, there are countless places it could leak. Cinder block tanks are inferior from a waterproofing perspective. Seal the inside - just the one waterproof barrier, little to no structural strength but fiberglass or polyurea are both durable. Cinder blocks are not watertight nor is the grouting.

Poured concrete is vastly superior, use 42Mpa+ (dense mix) which is waterproof by itself, add crystalline additive as secondary seal (swells & fills microscopic voids when wet so literally self sealing) and thirdly an internal waterproof barrier. So three levels of waterproofing in comparison. If you do a monolithic pour, its one seamless structure. If you do layered pours with cold joints, you can use water stops but you have similar issues to cinder albeit less joins. You can set "key points" in the formwork so the next pour interlocks. Poured concrete allows you to custom the cement recipe/mix and interlock the steel so much wider range of options in unique situations.

Many swim pools have viewing panels these days. So just have a look around. Some very deep, some very large.
 
Listen to Fishdance :)
I just finished a 230gal in-wall, rendered rebar & filled block on 3 sides, poured over-rebar'd on the bottom & angle-iron framed glass on the front.
Techniques & materials used for (potable) water-tanks should do it, no need to get too-too elaborate. If/in secondary sealing with a "regular" epoxy, don't go too smooth a steel float render as it (epoxy) won't stick as well as you might like for longevity. There are likely aditives to get it to stick - the imperfect mottled steel float finish looks kind'a fantastic. Note #2 is that silicone doesn't stick to epoxy & polyurathane doesn't stick (well) to glass, so either rely on a thick bead & water-pressure to keep the seal at the glass-cement (epoxy) boundary, and use polyurethane (3M5200) everywhere else that can't be done with cement and/or epoxy. Note: You're not on a wee island, so likely have more materials & additive options :)
 
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