The Woody Tank

[koa25]

Well, as a lot of you may know, I am parting ways with San Antonio for Hawaii but will remain an active member on MAAST as i will most likely be coming back to SA in a few years. I've read many threads and watched tons of DIY videos the tube of you, and figured being in Hawaii where they are a little less than stringent about their laws on corals for home aquarium I might as well give it a shot while there. I speak of a plywood tank, and a behemoth of one at that. This will be an ungodly slow build as I will not even be in Hawaii until June and the price of acrylic/glass is a little cray. This will be a FOWLR with some local plant life and maybe some Gorgs or something tossed in the mix to keep it simple yet diverse. Seeing as I will have a wide selection of gorgeous fish to pick from a FOWLR was a logical choice. This thread for the next couple months will be to plan and bounce ideas off you guys as a trusted community to help me not make too many mistakes with this one and so by the time I hit the ground in Hawaii I can hit the hardware store the next day to get it rolling. On to the idea…

So depending on the house I am able to get in Hawaii and the space available for the tank I will be planning two tanks accordingly. The dimensions will either be 96x36x30 or 96x24x48. Either way it is going to be an 8 footer. It will consist of man-made rock as I will not be able to collect nor order dry/liverock. Sand will be a slow process as well as I can only collect 1 gallon of sand a day for personal use… Which I will follow laws strictly for this build… *Cough*… But that is for me to worry about later. I am starting to sketch up ideas as far as rock designs and placement. I want it fairly open as I want some sort of bottom dwellers such as a shark or ray. So the rock work will most likely be in the back corners in a pillar like structure with shelf or drop off like designs coming off of them. Makes sense in my head. I will need some input on pumps and water movement cause on a scale like this I am going to be somewhat inept with and would like to try and hide the returns/powerheads/wavemaker within the rock work itself so this looks as clean as possible. So I know this will be a slug of a thread for a while but I had too much time at work and figured might as well start now. Here's to dreaming big :bigsmile:

[allan]

So... coral... that's a no go while there? I'd be very interested in seeing how that coral lights up in a tank. It's all white and yellows under sunlight.

[koa25]

No sps or lps. Cannot collect stoney corals. Only softies. I will still do zoas and palys in another tank. Any coral that is a reef building coral is not allowed to be collected from Hawaiian waters. No non native fish/corals/plants/rock/anything is allowed to be imported to the island. So hands are tied and limited... i may or may not snip an sps or two while there... just to see.

[ramsey]

Sounds amazing! Can't wait to see what you come up with. Being in Hawaii and not being able to collect certain corals would be torturous though!

[koa25]

So i have a skimmer already for this build idea. I picked it up from joshua on here a while back. He said with the right pump this thing could do 1000+ gallons and strip the salt out of the water. Reportedly. I forget the name of the type of valve it has on it but they use it in fountains to make them bubble and foam. So the pump only needs to provide a heavy flow. This is a beast
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Needs the base resealed. Dogs did a number on it.

Here is the fountain foaming piece
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[koa25]

I'm stuck between the either this guy which i like due to the controlability of it
http://www.saltysupply.com/RLSS-Waveline-DC10000-Six-Speed-Pump-w-Controller-p/h2o1123.htm

Or a mag 18-24 with valve to control flow.

The dc-10000 pushes a little more than 2600 gph when maxed out but can go down to half that with the controller. All numbers are with no head height though.

[koa25]

So i have seen a ton of different ways to line a wood tank to include pond liners, foam layers, rubber pain, and two part epoxy. I was originally going to go with a rubber paint. But stumbled on a two part paint epoxy that seems like it will work pretty well and cheaper than the rubber paint approach. The two part paint epoxy is by www.pondarmor.com (http://www.pondarmor.com) and has gotten some awesome reviews from people using them in plywood builds as well as in aquarium/pond build. So this is most likely the approach i will take with coating the wood on the inside of the tank. It recommends using fiberglass cloth at seems to strengthen the seem and also act as a second line of defense and security. As well i have read people having issues with adhearing acrylic or glass to the rubber paint with silicone. But no issues with the two part mixes. so better safe than sorry.<br><br>

[koa25]

For acrylic and glass figures

glass:
http://www.livingreefs.com/glass-thickness-calculators-t21048.html

Acrylic has a calculator on an excel spreadsheet attached at the top of this page.
http://www.sdplastics.com/aquaria1.html

[koa25]

So the man with the wood and acrylic skills of an evil genius took my mangled Beckett skimmer and turned it
into a lean mean dual Beckett skimming machine. I was just hoping he'd fix it but he pimped it out.
Before
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After
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I also picked up a 4' sump that i will use for half of the filtration. I will also be running as large as i can fuge on this guy. With whatever limiting Hawaiian laws will allow me to do in a fuge. May not even be able to run miracle mud ha ha.

[allan]

Shark

Shark

Shark

Shark

Shark

Shark

And a $50 green chromis.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[koa25]

Ha ha. I don't think they have small sized sharks in Hawaii. I can get a baby reef or black tip. But have to release him once he gets too big. With my luck he'd find me when I'm scuba diving one day and try to get back at me for the one day i forgot to feed him chomp down on me ha ha.

[kkiel02]

First thing I would recommend is not doing 36" wide tank. I have a 8x3'x25" tank and wish I would have stuck to 30" wide. Everytime I go through a door I have to flip it on its side. If I had to do it over again I would do 8'x30"x30".

[jcnkt_ellis]

Personal preference, I'd be hesitant about getting another 30 inch deep tank. I don't know if I have short arms or what for my height (I'm 6'), but even with a 4"-6" deep sand bed its difficult for me to do more than brush my fingertips against it. Its a p.i.t.a. to work with anything that lives on the sand or near it...

[kkiel02]

Yeah good point I can barely reach some parts of my tank. I actually am happy with my dimensions minus the whole 3' front to back. I wish it was 30" instead.

[koa25]

Well its going to be primarily a fowlr. So once i set it. I shouldn't be playing around in it too much. And i shouldn't have too much at the sand bed. The house i have lined up when i get there has a 16 foot wall in the living room. So i was rethinking the dimensions. Want to do a 12'x2'x2'. Thought it would be cool to have all that swimming room for tangs. But then glass or plexi over 8' is hard to come by and/or expensive.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

You have the right idea. 8fters are awesooome. But I have noticed tangs as they get large in all their glory need more room. 12 ft for sure would be awwesooomerr. for sure if you can do it. I want one. I just asked the wife if I could buy her a convertible red mustang would she let me have a 12fter in the livingroom, she said sure after I pay off the old dodge. o well.
Get a 12fter before marriage, thats all I got to say. :(

[BBQHILLBILLY]

If you like big tanks, I have seen z28s tank and it made a tang look small.:bigsmile:

[jcnkt_ellis]

I like the thought of 12x2.5x2 to make sure you have enough turning space for some of the big boys you can put in a fowlr :bigsmile: I'm not sure of what is all endemic to Hawaii but there are some colorful large triggers, snappers, groupers, etc that would do great in that tank

[koa25]

Achilles tangs is what i want. Love those guys. That is my only goal. Other fish are just side attractions. ha ha. But i know what you mean about turning space. I have to take into account weight. That extra .5 of a foot adds another 100 gallons and another 820lbs of weight. And if i did 30 deep i would have to go 30 high which is another 100+ gallons again which is another 1000lbs plus the sump and refugium. Then **** just gets crazy.

[Scutterborn]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/25/ubezurah.jpg

Saw him yesterday at Elegant Reef. Extraordinary fish. I'm still waiting on my 6' round tank before I even consider it!
-Ben-

[Tristan23]

Go big or stay here!

[Scutterborn]

I know what you mean about the 6" difference. My tank is the same dimensions as Ace's tank but 6" narrower. That's the difference between a 185 and 250...


-Ben-

[koa25]

Oh man. You just got me excited to move Ben. I've been wanting one of those guys since I got back into the hobby. 250 is a hefty price tag when i can now net them out of the ocean ha ha. Once you finally do that round tank. That will be amazing. I will be Jelly bro. I wouldn't mind staying. But 2 years in hawaii ain't going to kill me. ha ha. Plus Shane just picked up my beautiful 40 breeder this morning and i don't think i will be able to wrestle that thing out of his hands now ha ha. He seems attached and so does his wife. They were already arguing over it ha ha.

[koa25]

144"x30"x30" is 561 gallons. around 200 gallons between the sump and fuge area (rounding up) thats 761 gallons of water weight. which is around 6240lbs in water alone. not including rock and sand or wood. Grant you that is spread out over 12'. But still nuts to think about.

[Scutterborn]

6' diameter by 36" deep is my dream tank. 634g display. Kinda wants to make me go 7' diameter. That'll be 863g!


-Ben-

[koa25]

Those are some sexy dimensions my friend. 7 would be pretty intense. You could swim in circles in your tank ha ha. I look forward to that build thread and reenforcing the floor like crazy lol.

[koa25]

reading tempest's thread earlier about overflows got me thinking. I was going to just run pipe from the bottom to the water level and just cover the pipe with man made LR or something. I was going to do just the two corners. But then thinking about if i did 12', i might want to toss one/two in the middle. So a single return and drain in each corner and then a dual drain/return combo in the center. Any concerns with this that i'm not thinking about? Or, should I maybe space them out evenly down the tank. What diameter should i do for the drain and return? 1.5" drain 3/4" return?

Ignore the link. More of a reference site for me to remember. Easier to save it here.
http://fingerlakesreef.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13 (http://fingerlakesreef.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13)

[Scutterborn]

I'm running 2" drains. It's nice and quiet. If I were in your shoes, I'd do four 3" drains. It can't hurt.


-Ben-

[koa25]

Big'ol drains. Can you have too big of drains? Should i still only do the two or ones in the middle as well? What sized returns you think?

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Mike it for sure depends on how much flow you want with your sump/refugium. Your design on the sump/refug will determine your drains.
Or are you talking about closed loop?:bigsmile:

For example Im using Aces 1st sump/refug 7fter, I think. I have a 1.5 and 1 inch drain with a mag 18 for the 8ft tank. Along with a closed loop.
Thats too much for the 1st chamber of this sump design.
It would spill over sides. So I split the drains and drain them into 2 chambers. Its still too much water flow. I have to turn the mag18 down.
Thats fine Ill split the return and use it for something else. Just fyi . lol

[koa25]

Yeah, i'm trying to figure out how i will link the fuge and the trickle system i bought together so that i can just have it run through one continuous filter setup to include the massive beckett skimmer. I will have to tackle that beast of plumbing everything together once i get there and get it setup. Cause I am tankless at the moment i am thinking about building the stand and possibly the tank minus the glass being inserted. Strictly all the wood working aspect for now. Then the rest when i get there. The Army will move it for me so why not make them work for it right? Curious how they will fill about moving a 12' wood stand a box ha ha.
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I know the picture is a little sketchy (no pun intended) but i am at work and have limited functions ha ha. Gives a basic idea. I was looking up and i know 4x4s might be a little over kill for the stand. They can support up to 3500lbs vertically. With the weight being dispersed over a 12' distance i could easily do 2x4s but want to try and limit the number of supports under the tank. For the top of the stand i want to use 2x6's and then 2x4s for the lower section between 4x4s. Curious what those engineer savvy people think if it is over kill or not.

[koa25]

On staff duty and have nothing but time to kill so I've been researching more. Found a couple good resources.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?356641-How-to-waterproof-a-plywood-aquarium

This is still happening. I've finally cleared out all the boxes and made room in the garage to start building once i get all the tools squared away and money locked in. I got a dewalt table saw the other day from Lowes. Been wanting one for the longest time and will definitely help with the build. still probably 4 months out from even starting. Want to make sure the 190 is looking pretty first of course. No reason getting side tracked.

[allan]

Man, I hate staff duty.

Good to see things are going well for you over there, mike. And thumbs up for the new tool acquisition.

[koa25]

So I sketched up (no pun intended) something of a tank idea using some 4x4's lap jointed together with some timber screws to hold the main frame together. The base and back side will be 1" plywood with a 2x4 frame to support the plywood. It'll be 96x48x30. The glass will be set into a routed out lip on the inside of the 4x4s. Any engineering minded individuals see issues or have any input on this design idea. I have all the tools to get this project going. Just finishing all the pre planning for this guy. Any insight on this will be appreciated.


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