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View Full Version : New Tank planning & questions


Majorwld3
02/22/2007, 04:27 PM
Great news, my wife asked about us having a tank again.

A little history. We had a great 65 gallon rr tank, but sold it because of money needs, maintence issues, an impending house move, and our landlord not liking it. We moved and have started to settle in the new house. During the course of considering furniture and decorating issues, my wife asked if a nice sized room divider tank would be good between the kitchen dinner table and the den. It was one of those moments where you just take a deep breath and say "perhaps."

The planning will be a long process because I want to move slowly and plan ahead. There is currently a 4' high book shelf room divider with A WET BAR! Which means there is a plumbed water source and drain right there. There is also an electric outlet right there. Of course lots of rewiring and plumbing will be needed. I need to do planning drawing.

Which program do you guys use to do your sketches?

I did a little prelim measuring and the tank may be 5' to 6' wide. I just need to do a good plan on traffic flow around it, etc. The ceiling is 8 foot there so I do not yet know if I will extend the hood to the ceiling or not. I will need to research a structual engineer about the wieght and the floor. It will be hopefully close to the footing/cement wall of the den crawl space. I will post planning pictures.

Which structural engineer do you guys recommend?

Unfortunately, there are several significant budget items to do before I can start working on this. You don't know how tempting some of the full set up sales have been lately. But planning and timing are key. Then there is having the money.

Very excited,
Lane

roguemonk
02/22/2007, 06:20 PM
I do my plans on scraps of paper that I can never find the following day.

Brad "Plan for a long time and then wing it!"

GoldenReef
02/22/2007, 10:16 PM
Lane,
Glad you are getting back in the hobby too.
I just started back too.
I sold you some of the stuff when I got out of it a while back..
John
Golden

Mr.Biggs
02/23/2007, 06:15 PM
What size foot print are you looking at?

5' or 6' wide and how long?

Clown-N-Around
02/23/2007, 06:24 PM
Very cool, Lane. Will be good to have you back in the hobby. Sounds like a really neat project.

chadscharf
02/23/2007, 07:36 PM
I use Visio Enterprise Architect for all of my drafting, mechanical/structural, electrical and plan diagraming. It's pretty easy to learn and a lot easier to use an some of the AutoCAD programs out there.

If you want to plan correctly and validate plans w/ overlays, diagram validation, etc, then I would suggest a pro tool.

Otherwise you can always Photo Shop or even MS Paint, just be sure you place a Pixel to Inch scale and print to scale so your diagram is accurate.

If you want, I even have some old copies of Visio (2003 Pro and even 2000 before Microsoft bought it) you can have.

Zooid
02/23/2007, 09:47 PM
I use AutoCAD 2004 but it's far too difficult unless you have experience with it.....and f'n expensive too

Deuce67
02/23/2007, 10:31 PM
Nice. Welcome back to the hobby.