Knowledgable folk,
I hear a lot about ply and fibreglass, but what about concrete? Has anybody built back&sides out of concrete that they could post or comment on? Did it miss it in scanning through older posts?
Q#2 would be about bracing- could one build a welded (steel) L-bar frame then fit/seat the glass into that to avoid all that annoying bracing on a larger home-build?
Me, thinking through: build the tank into the corner of the wall on my balcony.The idea would be to pre-fab a 2x2x7 frame out of L-bar and mount it onto tube-steel legs in the outer face and corner, but drill&cement it into the concrete wall in the back and inside of the wall-corner. Then seal the concrete with epoxy or similar (also sealing the metal) then drop 1/2" glass panes into the front and open side so it'll catch a little AM sunshine to keep the plants happy. In a perfect world the steel frame would only be top and bottom, so not visible (obvious) at sun-end corner(s).
Bottom could be 2x4-reinforced ply or reinforced concrete. Plenty of weight, but this place was built for hurricane- it's a bunker. Both incorporated walls are structural/supporting.
Thoughts?
My current tank is a 100G long/tall/show held on a tube-steel welded stand. The reason I've not started the above project is that the existing tank is in the same spot- rebuild would be replacing this tank.
A
I hear a lot about ply and fibreglass, but what about concrete? Has anybody built back&sides out of concrete that they could post or comment on? Did it miss it in scanning through older posts?
Q#2 would be about bracing- could one build a welded (steel) L-bar frame then fit/seat the glass into that to avoid all that annoying bracing on a larger home-build?
Me, thinking through: build the tank into the corner of the wall on my balcony.The idea would be to pre-fab a 2x2x7 frame out of L-bar and mount it onto tube-steel legs in the outer face and corner, but drill&cement it into the concrete wall in the back and inside of the wall-corner. Then seal the concrete with epoxy or similar (also sealing the metal) then drop 1/2" glass panes into the front and open side so it'll catch a little AM sunshine to keep the plants happy. In a perfect world the steel frame would only be top and bottom, so not visible (obvious) at sun-end corner(s).
Bottom could be 2x4-reinforced ply or reinforced concrete. Plenty of weight, but this place was built for hurricane- it's a bunker. Both incorporated walls are structural/supporting.
Thoughts?
My current tank is a 100G long/tall/show held on a tube-steel welded stand. The reason I've not started the above project is that the existing tank is in the same spot- rebuild would be replacing this tank.
A
