New Concrete Tank Build - planning and research stage

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
LOL. I know water can be held in concrete tanks. It's been done before and I'm going to give it a shot. From what I have seen in other large concrete builds is the large tank is actually a couple smaller tanks just overfilled to make one large tank. For example the base of most larger builds is a concrete tub with a few dividers. Water can be lowered to below the glass viewing panel and there would still be 2 or even 3 feet more water in the tubs. That way the fish wont have to be moved for maintenance. Just lower the water and a glass/acrylic panel can be replaced if needed. Each tub can be drained individually for crack repair and so on.
I plan to have a 6 foot deep tank. The bottom two feet will be a concrete tub and the top 4 feet will be a 8X4 sheets of acrylic. I'm leaning towards two 8X4 acrylic panels on the long part of the L and one 8X4 sheet on the short side. The corner will have a 3 foot wall going from the front corner to the back corner of the tank. That way I can drain one side of the L and the other side will still have three feet of water for the fish. I might even go with a 4 foot wall cutting the L tank in half if I lower the water level to 4 feet.

Anyway this is still just a dream, but the planning is fun :)

I was just ribbing ya a little. My first project out of college was a 500 ft parabolic cooling tower for savana river. Then it was a million sf of warehouse floors a year, precast/tilt-up walls and foundations. Heck I even made my own concrete countertops.

The comments I made are direct quotes from my structural concrete professor. Saying "cement" instead of "concrete" would set him off! Good luck and keep researching my man.
 
I was just ribbing ya a little. My first project out of college was a 500 ft parabolic cooling tower for savana river. Then it was a million sf of warehouse floors a year, precast/tilt-up walls and foundations. Heck I even made my own concrete countertops.

The comments I made are direct quotes from my structural concrete professor. Saying "cement" instead of "concrete" would set him off! Good luck and keep researching my man.

LOL I deserve is most of the time :)
I think I'm at the stage where I know the lingo to make an intelligent decision and communicate that to the pro's. Thanks everyone for your input. Now I just need to settle on the actual design. Most likely my filtration will be a large Ultma canister filter or two for redundancy. I would like to put a ledge/shelf along the back wall that would come out about 18" or so and be about a foot below the waters surface. This would be a long shallow area I could put potted plants on and a place for smaller fish to hide. I think it would look cool with a large breeding population of Convicts back there.
Anyway it's time to get a quoit on the garage build......
 
Have you considered polyurea as a sealant?

Never heard of it? That seals concrete? I figure i would go with what ever the recommended sealant is for a concrete fish tank...

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I just read through the thread and something caught my attention. Someone said that concrete is bound to crack at some point.

How are you going to try and manage that? I've used Wetsuite liquid rubber to seal my tank with and it's supposed to have a elongation of 1000% and may be able to hold the seal on small cracks.
 
I just read through the thread and something caught my attention. Someone said that concrete is bound to crack at some point.

How are you going to try and manage that? I've used Wetsuite liquid rubber to seal my tank with and it's supposed to have a elongation of 1000% and may be able to hold the seal on small cracks.

Atleast here in Norway you can buy a cement mix that is made for waterproofing and for swimmingpools.
 
Never heard of it? That seals concrete? I figure i would go with what ever the recommended sealant is for a concrete fish tank...

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It's used in water tank, speedboat hulls, bridge abutments many applications. You would need a polyurea contractor to spray it on though. Everything I've read about it sounds good..really tough, durable, waterproof... If I were building a tank, that's the way I'd go.

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It's used in water tank, speedboat hulls, bridge abutments many applications. You would need a polyurea contractor to spray it on though. Everything I've read about it sounds good..really tough, durable, waterproof... If I were building a tank, that's the way I'd go.

sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX

Good info,thanks. I will look into it.

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Never heard of it?

There are some videos about polyurea on YouTube from a company that sprays concrete ponds. I'll see if I can find some later on.

It's a two-part catalyzed material and is known for flashing off very quickly which is why it's best to be installed by professionals. They make one part moisture cure polyureas that cure much more slowly but I don't know if they're fish safe.
 
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