New Concrete Tank Build - planning and research stage

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I've got a lot of experience building concrete tanks for water treatment plants and have also worked on several projects at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo which included a few concrete aquariums. I have been a carpenter foreman specializing in commercial structural concrete form work for about fifteen years now and would be happy to try and answer any questions you might have. Make sure whoever you have engineer the plans knows exactly what you are planning. You're definitely going to need some extra footings and a thicker more heavily reinforced floor where the tank is going to sit, you don't want any settling issues with this type of project. I wish I was in your area I would come build it just for the fun of it.
 
PGill said:
I've got a lot of experience building concrete tanks for water treatment plants and have also worked on several projects at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo which included a few concrete aquariums. I have been a carpenter foreman specializing in commercial structural concrete form work for about fifteen years now and would be happy to try and answer any questions you might have. Make sure whoever you have engineer the plans knows exactly what you are planning. You're definitely going to need some extra footings and a thicker more heavily reinforced floor where the tank is going to sit, you don't want any settling issues with this type of project. I wish I was in your area I would come build it just for the fun of it.
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Outstanding! I will forward all the information/plans to you for your review. This build will happen in phases. Step one will be the garage, and knowing the weight of the tank I agree there will be a more beefy floor. This will have to be communicated clearly to the engineer.

Another question I had is the actual concrete pouring of the tank build, will this be a single pour? I wanted to minimize the leak potential between seams and so on. If a single pour was possible I would prefer that. Ridiculous?

Also I would like the tank to be completely separate from the garage. Even if it's just a plastic membrane between the tank and the garage floor. I would like the option to remove the tank with out destroying the garage. Is that ridiculous?

What about a bottom drain? Do professional concrete tank builders do this?

Do you have plans from previous builds? Pictures? I would be happy to pay for them if it's a reasonable price?

Thanks for any help you can send my way :)
 
If you're talking about pooring the walls in a single poor that should not be a problem at all. I would not put any type of barrier between the floor and the walls. I would highly recommend having rebar dowels for the walls poored in with the floor or at the very least drill and epoxy them in later. Since the wall and floor will be 2 different poors, you will be able to remove it and just have to cut the dowels off flush with the floor. Since you will be sealing the inside you could probably get away without the water stop. Anyway you go about it, it is going to be a major pain to remove it if the time ever comes. A drain would probably be a good idea just use one that will sit flush with the floor in the event that the tank has to come out. I don't have any plans but there isn't much to it to tell the truth.
 
Very Nice Egon there are pumps that can give you around 18000 GPH at under 12.6 amps just have to shop !!!What an awsome project !!!!!!
 
PGill said:
If you're talking about pooring the walls in a single poor that should not be a problem at all. I would not put any type of barrier between the floor and the walls. I would highly recommend having rebar dowels for the walls poored in with the floor or at the very least drill and epoxy them in later. Since the wall and floor will be 2 different poors, you will be able to remove it and just have to cut the dowels off flush with the floor. Since you will be sealing the inside you could probably get away without the water stop. Anyway you go about it, it is going to be a major pain to remove it if the time ever comes. A drain would probably be a good idea just use one that will sit flush with the floor in the event that the tank has to come out. I don't have any plans but there isn't much to it to tell the truth.
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What about the attachment of the acrylic? Would the window frame be a stainless structure that is part of the cement? Or is it common practice to just glue the acrylic to the cement?

Obviously I have a lot more research to do......
 
I wouldn't mess with any type of metal frame. Do you know of any free program I could use to draw the way I would do it to show you.
 
Alrighty then. Let me know when you need a hand at anything man, always willing to help out. We can recruit Mike and a couple cases of beer and break out the hammers!
 
As long as the contractors pour your garage floor properly (im assuming its a floating slab) then there wouldn't be an issues with the strength of the floor. I personally would want to throw on a few layers so some kind of sealer so I can choose the background colour and to be sure it never leaked. that way you could also do it in two pours and not worry about seams leaking. I would plan out the walls for the tank while pouring the garage floor and have rebar installed through the floor and in place to hold the aquarium walls better should you choose to do it that way. I do garage floors 6" thick and 12" thick around the parameter (about 12" wide) with proper rebar and wire mesh (or fibermesh in the concrete and that will hold dump trucks just fine. No way your aquarium will be an issue

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