280 gallon tank project has begun!!!!!!

[Travis]

Will there be access to the rear? Or is everything accessed from the front?

Oops. I almost missed this one. There will be 19 1/4" space between the sides of the tank and the tank room walls, and 59.5" between the rear of the tank and the rear wall. This should leave plenty of room for rear access. I'm still not certain if there will be front access. So far my 98% of my searching has led to inwall tanks with no front access. This along with only having 12" of space between the top front of the tank and the ceiling isn't leaving me much to work with.

[Drowningfish]

Tazzmacd - I was replying to minfinger' scomment that greenbaord can be used on the floor. It was not intended for Travis.

Any oil based paint will do. You can apply one coat of oil based primer and one coat of oil based paint. Apply the moisture barrier is no needed in my opinion as long as you have an exhaust fan or dehumidifier.

[Travis]

I have made a couple more changes to the plans. The first change is that the tank will have two 2" drains instead of two 1.5" drains. This should allow 1 drain to be able to handle all of the flow should the other get plugged. It will also make it easier to quiet the drains. There will be 4" between the drain bulkheads instead of two which will make it easier to service them. Here is a picture of the new layout for the drains:



Now that I've decided that the tank will be an in-wall tank I have decided to make a couple changes to the sump returns and a couple of the closed loop returns. Originally I had planned on having 2 sump returns and 2 of the closed loop returns come through the top bracing on the sides. This would have caused me to use 1.5" PVC elbows in the tank so the water wouldn't be directed straight down. Since one of my goals was to have as little plumbing and water flow devices in view as possible, this had to go. Since only the front of the tank will be viewable I can now have these returns on the side of the tank instead of through the top bracing. Here is a picture that shows where the returns will be:



The top bulkheads will be the sump returns and the lower bulkheads will be returns for one of the closed loops. Now the problem with returning the water through the sides of the tank is that when the power is cut to the return pump, the tank will drain to the bottom of the return bulkheads. In this case it would mean around 75 gallons draining to a 50 gallon sump. To solve this problem I will have the return plumbing make an upside down "U" before the bulkhead. The top of the U will be above the water line. There will be a tee at the top of the U. The water will flow straight through the tee and into the tank. The other outlet of the tee will be reduced to 1/2". A length of PVC will run from the outlet to the water level of the aquarium. It must run to the aquarium because otherwise the outlet would become a venturi by sucking in air and spitting it out into the tank in the form of many small bubbles. Because the outlet of the tee terminates at the operating water level of the tank, when the power is cut to the return pump the water level in the tank will drop causing the outlet of the tee to suck in air and break the siphon. This way water will only drain to the bottom of the overflow teeth.

Since I will no longer have return holes in the top bracing, the size of the bracing will change. Originally the perimeter would have been 8" in the back, 4" in the front, and 6" on the sides. Here is a picture of what it will look like now:



This will allow much better access to the tank.

[SOMEthinsFISHY]

very good details done here !

[danny zubot]

nice work on the stand, your dad is a good welder. You should be able to sleep at night knowing that you won't have any mishaps.

[Travis]

nice work on the stand, your dad is a good welder. You should be able to sleep at night knowing that you won't have any mishaps.

My dad says thanks. After this project is finished I not only want to be able to sleep good at night but I also want to be able to go on vacation without having to worry about anything with the tank.

[Mickey]

Travis:
I'm surprised you won't need some cross bracing with a tank of that size? Can you get away without it because the back bracing is 8 inches wide?

On the tank that's being built for me, I will have two 8 inch wide strips dividing the tank in thirds, plus 3 inch bracing around the outside. Tank is 72 by 30 inches. I'd gladly take wider bracing in back if I could avoid the bracing across the tank.

Mickey

[Travis]

MickeyDee, I wanted this tank to be eurobraced for 3 reasons: 1)to allow easier access to the tank. 2) to allow more light from the metal halides and VHO's into the tank 3) in rare cases, metal halides over braces or too close to them can cause them to crack. The euro bracing did change the price significantly but it was worth it, IMO. IIRC, with regular bracing, the sides of the tank would have been either 1/2" or 3/4" thick. With the euro bracing the sides will be 1" thick and the front will be 1.25" thick. Also, the reason the bracing is wider in the back is because of the overflow. I think the back bracing would have been that wide either way.

[Mickey]

Interesting. My tank will be euro braced as well with 3 inches of glass on top around all four edges. But, when I asked if they could eliminate the pieces going across the tank, they said they couldn't. Perhaps because mine is glass? I may ask about it again since it's not done yet.

Mickey

[Travis]

Hmmm... Yeah, it could be a different story with glass. Who is building it?

[nickb]

I'm confused. I thought the whole point of eurobracing was to eliminate the cross-bracing? Here's a photo of a 240G starphire glass tank without the cross-barcing (custom made by Aquarium Obessed). I think all of their tanks have the same basic layout.

http://www.geocities.com/aquariumobsessed/62x32x28.html

[SOMEthinsFISHY]

where in ct i used to live there !

[Travis]

nickb, I guess that confirms it. MickyDee should be able to get his tank eurobraced.

[Mickey]

Well, I'm getting my tank from Aquariums For You in Long Branch, New Jersey. I put a call in to them today but no response yet. We'll see what they say.

Mickey

[Travis]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been hectic around here with finals and and getting ready to close on the new home. I do have a few new updates to share. First of all, I have made yet another change to the tank. After speaking with James at Envision Acrylics, I decided to go with 4 1.5" bulkheads in the overflow instead of 2 2" bulkheads. The reasoning behind this is that the 2" bulkheads would have required a larger overflow cutout in the bracing to fit the bulkheads through. This would have caused the bracing to lose a lot of it's strength in the back. To make up for the lost strength, and still keep the tank eurobraced, the bracing would have had to extend 3" past the back of the tank. Since I will use the back of the tank for 90% of the accessing, I had to figure out an alternative. I chose to go with the 4 1.5" bulkheads for 2 reasons. The first is that it would allow even more flow than the 2 2" bulkheads. With 4 1.5" bulkheads the overflow will be able to easily handle 5,360 GPH. I won't be running near this much flow through the sump but it is nice to know that I can if I ever need to. The second reason I chose this configuration was for redundancy. If 1 of the drains got clogged, the other 3 could easily handle the flow. Even if 2 of the drains got clogged, the other 2 would be able to handle the flow. Here is a shot of what the overflow will look like now.

[Travis]

Because the overflow will now be a total of 28" long instead of the previous 18", it requires a longer cutout in the bracing. To keep the strength of the bracing a short 2" strip will be added that will run through the center of the overflow.

Another modification I have made to the bracing is that I will be going with a 6" wide brace across the front instead of 3". This should allow absolutely NO bowing of the front of the tank.



This still leaves a cutout of 66"x16" which will be plenty for the lighting configuration I will be running.

[Travis]

The construction of the tank itself was delayed a month. Envision Acrylics ordered some more 1" black acrylic (the back of the tank will be 1" black) and their supplier delayed the order without even letting them know. Oh well, the black acrylic should be in tomorrow and then they will start on my tank. James is going to send me some pics of the tank's construction and I'll post them here. It doesn't really matter that the construction was delayed because the tank will still be done sooner than I need it (the benefits of ordering early).

[Travis]

I decided there was no way my clams would be happy in this tank with over 60 turnovers per hour. That is just too much flow for clams. Therefore, I purchased a separate clam tank to house the clams in where I can give them much less flow. The clam tank is 27.5"x22"x18". The front of the tank has a 45 degree viewing panel which allows me to view the true colors of the clams. This is the same as viewing the clams from top of the water. Most of the brightly colored clams don't show their true colors when viewed from the side through a glass or acrylic aquarium. The tank didn't come with an internal overflow but I have ordered one and will install it when it gets here. Just like my display tank, it will be a trapezoid overflow centered in the back of the tank.

The clam tank will be placed in the living room which is upstairs. I will use an Iwaki MD-70 RLT to supply water to the clam tank from the sump. My dad and I have built a steel stand for the tank. After building the stand for the display I decided I really like the aesthetics of a powdercoated steel stand. I won't wrap any wood around this stand. There will be nothing under the stand except for the overflow drain which will not be visible unless looking from under the stand as it will do a 90 degree bend after the overflow, then go through the wall and down to the sump. I will light the clam tank with a single 250w DE HQI ballast, pendant, and bulb.

Here are some shots of the clam tank:

[Travis]

And here are some pictures of the stand. It is getting powdercoated tomorrow and I will post some more pictures of it then.

[SOMEthinsFISHY]

very nice photos so far keep them coming !!

[steve68]

Sweet !!!!!!!!!!!
where did u get that clam tank i want one....

[Travis]

Thanks guys.

I got lucky and came across the clam tank in the selling forum. Clams Direct was selling them a while back. Try contacting Barry, he may still have some or know where to get them.

[A Reef Scene]

Great looking tank

[Lunchbucket]

Travis you are freaking kidding me man!! jealous man i am

hope you need to order some more clams because i want MORE

can't wait to help you out buddy
Lunchbucket

[SOMEthinsFISHY]

yes very nice clam tank !!