Fish Story Aquarium and Rescue, Naples, FL; two 4500 gal 13'x13'x4.5'
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Lookin most exellent my friend! Im impressed...and jealous hahah... You've done a heck of a job for ur 1st time using #40 and this was one large task to tackle to say the least. I really hope everything from here forward goes smoothly for ya and u have no issues. The windows/braces/supports came out very clean/clear for the amount of glue you used. I probably would have done the same and went as sparingly as possible at $135 a gallon. Theres just no way around the price of materials unfourtunaetly. The sheer size build blows me away haha...and more than appreciate the fact u did everything urself... true MFK style. we just need a pic of u inside of it to seal the deal lol... Great work! and well done. Not an easy project to takle urself.
Thanks, my main man!
45'x14'x5' Rubber liner pond with a 45' window took me about a year to build and very roughly
~$1000 in wood and plywood, screws, etc.
~$2000 in acrylic sheets
~$2000 in acrylic glue
~$1000 rubber liner
~$500 in misc. expenses, Dow 795 sealant, stainless steel bolts, etc.
In sum ~$6500.
Caveats - my aesthetic standards are low and long-term performance of the build is yet to be revealed.
My steps, roughly:
-- dug a sand pit about 1.5-2.5' deep along the house - grade slopes away from the house (by hand, so no formal expense)
-- built the enclosure around the pit and attached it to the house side - 4x4 posts, roof boards, shade cloth, UV-treated tarp on top, insect netting for walls - no expenses included in the numbers above as these are not directly related to the tank construction
-- one 50' wall is the house wall, so built two 15' sidewalls out of wooden posts and doubled up 3/4" plywood, all pressure treated of course
-- built the window, 42 feet x 43 inches to be exact, joining five ~9'x43"x3/4" acrylic panes with four 2' wide posts (posts are outside of the tank) made of laminated sheets of acrylic, posts are 7' tall (~1/2 dug in ground, ~1/2 of the post height is above ground); glued 2'x43"x1/2" panels to each of the 4 joints on the inside, plus 6" wide strip all around the remaining perimeter of each of the 5 acrylic panes inside and out, top and bottom; plus two 3" wide acrylic strips along the top inside and out and a 6" wide acrylic top (to make a T top) along the entire 42' length; the glue is weld on #40 at $550 for 4 gals before shipping from Interstate Plastics, California, took 16 gals; watch and listen to the video above
-- all acrylic is from Craigslist, all cell cast - fish tank appropriate, NOT extruded
----- 9'x43"x3/4" five, $950 all
----- 7'x5'x1/2" eight, $400 all
----- 8'x4'x1/2" five, $600 all
-- attached 60'x20'x45 mil EPDM rubber liner to the window -
----- cross section: window | Dow 795 | liner | 3" wide acrylic strip, 1" thick
----- the 3" strip runs entire length and sides, one piece, made out of 1/2" acrylic
----- the 3" strip compresses the liner and Dow silicone with 1/4" stainless steel 316 marine grade bolts every 4.5", about 100 bolts
----- the vertical sides have no bolts but are screwed to the wooden side posts with stainless steel 6"x5/16" screws
-- dressed the sand pit, made an ~45 degree angle at the window to eliminate blind spot below the grade - the window only shows top 43" of the overall 4'-4.5' depth
-- laid down make shift liner underlayment - 4-5 layers of high quality, thick, used greenhouse plastic, waste scavenged from my neighbor who runs an orchid nursery
-- spread the liner
-- water tested, holds water
That's where we are at. I am fixing the liner to the top perimeter and building a wet/dry filter for the tank that will run on ~7000 nylon mesh pot scrubbers. Projected flow - eight to ten 5000 GPH pumps.
45'x14'x5' Rubber liner pond with a 45' window took me about a year to build and very roughly
~$1000 in wood and plywood, screws, etc.
~$2000 in acrylic sheets
~$2000 in acrylic glue
~$1000 rubber liner
~$500 in misc. expenses, Dow 795 sealant, stainless steel bolts, etc.
In sum ~$6500.
Caveats - my aesthetic standards are low and long-term performance of the build is yet to be revealed.
My steps, roughly:
-- dug a sand pit about 1.5-2.5' deep along the house - grade slopes away from the house (by hand, so no formal expense)
-- built the enclosure around the pit and attached it to the house side - 4x4 posts, roof boards, shade cloth, UV-treated tarp on top, insect netting for walls - no expenses included in the numbers above as these are not directly related to the tank construction
-- one 50' wall is the house wall, so built two 15' sidewalls out of wooden posts and doubled up 3/4" plywood, all pressure treated of course
-- built the window, 42 feet x 43 inches to be exact, joining five ~9'x43"x3/4" acrylic panes with four 2' wide posts (posts are outside of the tank) made of laminated sheets of acrylic, posts are 7' tall (~1/2 dug in ground, ~1/2 of the post height is above ground); glued 2'x43"x1/2" panels to each of the 4 joints on the inside, plus 6" wide strip all around the remaining perimeter of each of the 5 acrylic panes inside and out, top and bottom; plus two 3" wide acrylic strips along the top inside and out and a 6" wide acrylic top (to make a T top) along the entire 42' length; the glue is weld on #40 at $550 for 4 gals before shipping from Interstate Plastics, California, took 16 gals; watch and listen to the video above
-- all acrylic is from Craigslist, all cell cast - fish tank appropriate, NOT extruded
----- 9'x43"x3/4" five, $950 all
----- 7'x5'x1/2" eight, $400 all
----- 8'x4'x1/2" five, $600 all
-- attached 60'x20'x45 mil EPDM rubber liner to the window -
----- cross section: window | Dow 795 | liner | 3" wide acrylic strip, 1" thick
----- the 3" strip runs entire length and sides, one piece, made out of 1/2" acrylic
----- the 3" strip compresses the liner and Dow silicone with 1/4" stainless steel 316 marine grade bolts every 4.5", about 100 bolts
----- the vertical sides have no bolts but are screwed to the wooden side posts with stainless steel 6"x5/16" screws
-- dressed the sand pit, made an ~45 degree angle at the window to eliminate blind spot below the grade - the window only shows top 43" of the overall 4'-4.5' depth
-- laid down make shift liner underlayment - 4-5 layers of high quality, thick, used greenhouse plastic, waste scavenged from my neighbor who runs an orchid nursery
-- spread the liner
-- water tested, holds water
That's where we are at. I am fixing the liner to the top perimeter and building a wet/dry filter for the tank that will run on ~7000 nylon mesh pot scrubbers. Projected flow - eight to ten 5000 GPH pumps.
The front wall of the eye of Category 3 hurricane Irma hit us front and square Sept 10, 2017 around 2 pm. Around 4 pm it got all quiet - the 20-mile wide eye center was traveling over Naples for an hour. Then the weaker back wall continued the battering.
Sustained winds of ~120 miles per hour (~190 km/h) with gusts up to ~140 miles per hour (~225 km/h).
I'm narrating the video but if it's hard to hear me over our obnoxiously loud but life-saving generator, I apologize. All in all, we had been 9 days without power.
We are ok, most fish are ok. Had 2-3 losses so far. Lots and lots of property damage but structurally everything held up.
A lot of work ahead. That will delay our opening by a few months for sure, if not half a year.
Sustained winds of ~120 miles per hour (~190 km/h) with gusts up to ~140 miles per hour (~225 km/h).
I'm narrating the video but if it's hard to hear me over our obnoxiously loud but life-saving generator, I apologize. All in all, we had been 9 days without power.
We are ok, most fish are ok. Had 2-3 losses so far. Lots and lots of property damage but structurally everything held up.
A lot of work ahead. That will delay our opening by a few months for sure, if not half a year.
Thanks, bro. Are you alright up there?
**********************************
All in all, we had been 9 days without power. Just my 7000 running-watts generator. Had to fill it every 7 hours with 5 gal of gasoline. Used ~$50 of gasoline a day at $2.70 a gallon. The first 5 days had to spend ~2 hours in gas lines. Then it got much better.
The generator ran
-- ten 360 watt 5000 GPH pumps
-- one 150 watt 3000 GPH pump
-- fridge and two freezers
-- several lights, laptops
-- a fan (to fall asleep in a 95 F, 75% humidity house)
Not enough power to run the well, RO filters, etc, or supply house with water.
Thankfully nothing happened to my home. Lots of debris to clear. Slowly preparing for next years hurricane season. My cousin and family in lakeland lost power. Got it back like two days ago.
Sounds like you were busy. Glad to see the generator saved majority of your fish. May want to look at a stand alone generator, the big 22kw but they are expensive. A few people in my area had and it came in handy.
I think I know them as "stand-by" generators. I had received quotes. To do it by code, the generator wattage must exceed the whole electrical panel wattage. On my main breaker it says 400 Amp. Times 110 V = 44,000 watts. That's one house. The other house is similar.
I draw electric from both house circuits as the fish house sits in between both houses.
So, by code, I need two stand-by generators that are 50,000 watt each. They are roughly $50,000 each plus electrical work (my panels are not up to current code and have been heavily and confusingly modified throughout the years by prior owners).
Thus, I need ~$100,000-$125,000 to do the whole thing or I could get by with one such generator at ~$50,000-$75,000. (And then I might be able to calmly travel... or just run to a store!) Yet, needless to say, I got no such funds.
I could install a 22,000 watt one with an automated transfer switch myself (that'd be not up to code) but this will still set me back about $15,000-$20,000.
Even if it cost $10,000, I couldn't afford it at the moment, until we open for business.
So I just bought a second gasoline generator rated at 12,000 running watts for $900. And that's my risky plan and I'm sticking to it
My general manager (aka the wife) shot down the video. So edited here it is, resurrected missing a few feathers:
Update on Tank #42 - eighteen lima shovelnose, 2 spotted bullheads, VATF vitattus African tigerfish, tig catfish, African arowana, black shark, albino iridescent shark, orinoco peacock bass, synodontis decorus.
Limas didn't particularly care for the video shoot and shed their slime coat more than usual. The jellyfish-looking things floating in the water column are the slime coat pieces.
Limas didn't particularly care for the video shoot and shed their slime coat more than usual. The jellyfish-looking things floating in the water column are the slime coat pieces.
