Final questions before i undertake building my 1500g+ tank.

[legendaryfrog]

i can get 1" acrylic shiped for 23$ a sQuare foot

 

[wizzin]

i can get 1" acrylic shiped for 23$ a sQuare foot

so that's 3500 just for the acrylic excluding any top braces. then you've got the adhesive, the rest of the frame (assuming you aren't talking about making an unsupported 10'x10' box) so you're going to have well over the cost of the acrylic. I'm talking about 3500 for everything. the block only cost about 500.

 

[legendaryfrog]

I'd rather pay 4500-5000 dollars for an all acrylic tank rather than 3500 for a concrete block tank.

btw, i have TONS of spare acrylic cement. i over estimated on my first few tanks.

 

[johnptc]

the cyro site says you need 1.5 inch for a front 10x3 supported at the top..............

i can get 1" acrylic shiped for 23$ a sQuare foot

 

[legendaryfrog]

john, how much did your 5000 gallon tank cost? (just the tank)

 

[legendaryfrog]

Yet another suggestion;

a 10*6(or 8)*3 concrete block aquarium, with a 10*2.5' window that is 1 thick.

will THAT work?

 

[johnptc]

Yet another suggestion;

a 10*6(or 8)*3 concrete block aquarium, with a 10*2.5' window that is 1 thick.

will THAT work?

according to their calculator a if the tank has a 24 inch vertical opening with 6 inches below and 6 inches above the frame opening for a total depth of 36 inches ... 1 inch would be ok...........

 

[legendaryfrog]

great.

just 3 more Final question...how much does a stainless steal angle cost, how do you attach it to the concrete block, and where did you purchase yours?

 

[johnptc]

great.

just 3 more Final question...how much does a stainless steal angle cost, how do you attach it to the concrete block, and where did you purchase yours?

see pm...........

you could also use fiberglass angle.

i used pond shield on the block.

i 'glued' the angle with pond shield or thickened west system epoxy to the block already sealed with pond shield.

then set the acrylic on the bottom of the tank to support its weight and sealed with silicone. I used the dow corning primer and sandpaper to prep the acrylic and a grinder on the ss.


I got the 316 SS from titan metals in long beach CA.

see both articles .the 2400 and 5000 gigas tank


john

 

[Dr Joe]

Actually, you want to build the block wall full height, then fill the cores with concrete so that it's a monolithic continuous column inside the cores of concrete, which tie all the blocks together.



If you're going to use glass, you don't want glass in contact with concrete. Even a silicone gasket might cause glass failure. Reason is that any little imperfection in the concrete could cause the edge of the glass to crack if there is movement.

I agree with the concerns of "skimming" the walls with concrete. I thought about doing this. You'll find out that doing that is going to end up being about 5x more expensive due to the treatment of the thin concrete. As stated, the concrete would need to be a special mix to hold up at that thickness. I think you'll find out that a wood frame will be more expensive than block. If you're set on wood, I'd suggest using some other type of lining other than concrete. The Fish Guy (on the cichlid forum and here) used a sort of concrete panel called hardiboard and coated that with drylok, although sanitred would work as well.

Don't let this stuff scare you away from the project though!! You're going to get lots of comments here from the folks that like to over think things and suggest over building to an extreme. I do suggest consulting a structural engineer first though.

Some how I got two post mixed up, I was thinking this was in a basement with high walls for the tank and hand mixed concrete.

But now we've moved on to acrylic...