Dismantleable Aquarium

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lesbianchap

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 1, 2008
11
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Iraq, returning to Savannah, GA
The idea is to have a tank that can be broken down into it's base parts (sides) when moving, then re-assembled at a new site. I beleive this can be done.

The seams on an aquarium under the most stress are the ones holding the sides to the bottom. The idea is to use Silicon as a compression gasket between each side. Everything is attached using large bolts and washers. The aquarium is divided into 6 parts: 1) Base, 2) Front, 3) Back, 4) Left Side, 5) Right Side, 6) Center Brace.

Each piece requires a bit more epoxy sealant then normal, but not too much more. The full surface of the plywood needs to be epoxied on the Base piece. The Front and Back require Epoxy on the inside surfaces, and surface that connects to the base. The sides require the inside surfaces, the surface that connects to the base, and both sides epoxied. The Center Brace is fully epoxied due to it's location: It'll be in a high moisture area, and a splash-zone.

Bolts will connect the Front and Back to the Sides. Again, Silicon will be used as a gasket. After the initial tightening of all the bolts and studs, a traditional bead of silicon should be spread smoothly on all inside connections, as is seen in a typical all-glass tank.

I have it mocked up in Google Sketchup but the connection over here isn't letting me upload the pictures right now...hopefully I can get them up soon.

Any ideas on this...could it possibly work?
 
That 's too complicated. Let's take a wooden tank lined with 40mil rubber liner. If you need to move, empty the tank content, then use some kind of saw and cut the tank into 2 parts, along the lenght of the tank. You would end up with the back, and the front with the viewing window. Move them to new location, put the 2 pieces back together, tape the liner using available patches. Then build somekind of braces to brace the 2 pieces together. I think it would work but the braces has to be strong, probably some kind of threaded tied rods from homedepot. But I'm not trying it, happy Friday:)
 
Kind of like this? The stand and the tank are held together with 3/8" bolts and nuts. I fiberglassed the exposed surfaces and epoxied the inside surfaces where the panels bolt together. When I assembled it I siliconed all of the inside joints. After assembly I siliconed the inside seams for added security. It has been holding water for a couple weeks now. I have 200 lbs of sand in it with rocks, claypots, and fish. I am going to eventually remove the clay pots when the snow melts and I can get to my pallet of rocks.

When it comes time to break it down all I need to do is use a razor blade to slice the seams, undo the bolts, then remove the panels. With the stand I will have to remove the bolts and use a bottle jack to pop the front and back off. Then I just strip the silicone with a paint stripper wheel and reapply epoxy just on those parts and re-silicone.

TankFloorTopNBottom.jpg

TankFloorComplete.jpg

TankSideOuter.jpg

TankSideInner.jpg

TankFloorNSides.jpg

TankWholeWClamps.jpg

FrontSideangle.jpg

Front.jpg

Fullshotbare.jpg

DSC_0027-1.jpg
 
tunerX;1397222; said:
Kind of like this? The stand and the tank are held together with 3/8" bolts and nuts. I fiberglassed the exposed surfaces and epoxied the inside surfaces where the panels bolt together. When I assembled it I siliconed all of the inside joints. After assembly I siliconed the inside seams for added security. It has been holding water for a couple weeks now. I have 200 lbs of sand in it with rocks, claypots, and fish. I am going to eventually remove the clay pots when the snow melts and I can get to my pallet of rocks.

When it comes time to break it down all I need to do is use a razor blade to slice the seams, undo the bolts, then remove the panels. With the stand I will have to remove the bolts and use a bottle jack to pop the front and back off. Then I just strip the silicone with a paint stripper wheel and reapply epoxy just on those parts and re-silicone.
Click to expand...

That sounds like what I'm talking about (only 100% epoxy and no fiberglass). Question: Do you got a thread about the construction of your tank? If not, how big is it? Looks like you used 2x6's for some of your construction, but that's just a guess based on how it looks.

I like how you got glass on both sides, though usually I see them recommending at least a 2" overlap between the glass and wood frame. Looks like your overlap is a lot less.
 
I used 5/4" strips that I cut to 2". They were screwed in every 3 inches with #9 3.5 inch deck screws to make an L channel. I put siliconw in the L channel then set the glass. Once that was dry, about 4 days, I siliconed the other side with a 1"x1" bead. It is sealed inside and out. That is 1/2" tempered. I think the 2" recommendation came from people that use plate glass.

I used 2x6 and 2x8 for the stand and main beam. I made the tank side walls with 2x8 and have the plumbing inside the wall. Everything else is lumber.
 
Sorry didn't answer some of your questions. I started posting on Cichlid-forum. No one really supplied any answers to questions and I ended up having to go to other forums and use other posts to get some questions answered so I didn't keep up with the posts.

The tanks outside dimensions are 111.5x54x34. The stand is 111.5x54x32. The water volume is three parts.

1) Main part of the tank. 96x48x28 ~559 gallons
2) The glass panels have a 1.5 inch L channel so after the glass is in I have 2x 94.5x1x26 ~10 gallons
3) The sump is 4 boxes totaling about 184 gallons volume but runs 50 percent full.

Sump 1 is for Mech filtration. I use 4x 400 micron filter bags combined with 4x 100 micron 7" filter bags. These are stuck on my 2" down pipes. The downpipes overflow to another mechanical filtration bay. There are 2 pieces of 19x21x1 reticulated sponge pads with a 100 micron 19x21 felt filter pad. This aerates the water then diffuses bubbles before it goes to a pump chamber.

Sump 2 is for all of my pumps and heaters. I have two Quiet One 14000 that run to two 7.5 foot 1.5" PVC spray bars. I have a Mag 12 with a prefilter that feeds to the last two bio boxes. For heating I run 2x 300 and 2x 250 watt heaters connected to a 15 amp temp controller.

Sump 3/4 are for bio filtration. I used the mechanical filtration sump and the prefilter on the Mag 12 to ensure that the water going into my bio chambers is clean as possible. I did it this way because the display is getting 10x turnover and bio is more efficient at 2-4x. The Mag 12 is 1200 GPH which is about 2x turnover for my tank. I have 20 gallons of 1" bio balls. The Balls are fed nitrites/ammonia via a set of spray bars. The balls are spread into 4 chambers of 5 gallons each. My plan is to pull an entire chamber and wash them in the dishwasher. Without a good maintenance plan you can turn your bio balls into a nitrate factory.

I have further plans to attach my 40 watt UV light in a loop system within the pump house sump. I am also thinking of scrapping the bio balls and going with 2x 24" FBF that run their effluent to the sumps where the bio balls were. I am also installing a continuous change drip system, I just need my parts from grainger to arrive. I will be doing 2x 2GPH emitters but may add another 1 or 2 GPH emitter if I don't like my weekly water test results.


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=153460&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=30
 
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