the new 17,000 gallon reefzilla thread

[woz9683]

Hey Bill, just curious if you've made a decision about skimmer/s for the tank. At one point, it was four smaller (relative of course) ones and then I heard maybe just a couple big ones. What are you leaning towards these days?

Love the scope by the way, can't wait to see all these amazing ideas in action.

[billwann]

As of right now Iam going to use the four smaller skimmers i have built allready . There just like th eones in teh pictures , The reason for this that they are already done and I donthave as much time as i would liek right now so ill build bigger ones later . I finished up painting teh walls tonight , It took 21 gallons of sherwin williams epoxy to do the walls of the equiptment room and teh back of teh tank . When teh humidity dies down iam going to start the tank itself anf teh sumps , I want to move my fish into one of teh sumps of 4th of july weekend if all goes good .

[jmg944t]

Originally Posted by kappaknight

I don't think this is Bill. Call it a hunch... but I assume a successful guy like Bill would know how to spell.

I would assume a guy as successful as Bill is more polite than you. I would assume he is building this for himself not us. I would also assume that we would appreciate his quickly typed updates so that we have something to drool over. This project is amazing for one man to undertake and fund. If he's willing to share we can overlook his being in a hurry.

[john_auberry]

JMP944.....I agree

[Mizer67]

Originally Posted by john_auberry

JMP944.....I agree

ME TOO!
And BTW, thanks alot Bill for sharing this with us! If I had all the money in the world I doubt I would have the guts to tackle something this ambitious! Can't wait to see it loaded with a train car full of rock and enough fish and frags for a public aquarium!

[Bergovoy]

Not sure if it is bill or not, but it does not matter at this point, as long as we get to hear a good story, and if that is the Bill, he gets to tell a good story.

And for the record, it is a GREAT STORY.

I do have a question though...

You want to place live stock, but have not set panels, or finished coating the walls?

Also, you indicated that the epoxy coatings were put on with an airless, what did you use to prime the walls, and how was that applied.

I had understood masonry walls, even cast in place needed to be 'filled' by using a roller applicator to ensure a thick coat that would remain wet long enough to allow the material to penetrate and bond with teh substrate.

Also, I understood that you performed some moisture tests earlier, were you able to climatize the house and the sump / basement area well enough, or did you have to suppliment with external equipment.

I would have great concerns about the coating of those walls, this is not something that you want to redo later on...

Also, how much if not all of this work is contracted out to reputable aquarium type vendors and contractors?? And how did you find them and were they local or did they fly in to do this job.

How about the design team? Are they experienced in the designing of hbitats for marine life? and same questions as above, how did you find them and were they local??

Thanks

Bill

[billwann]

Well for all that don't believe this is really me , Scott just left my house and saw the tank . Iam sure he will be reporting .

So on to the questions .

Iam moving the live stock from my old tank into one of my sumps which will be done this weekend , not the whole tank . I still have to epoxy the tank walls .

I used an airless sprayed on all areas of the walls not the tank , only places that will not come into direct contact with the water , Thus i used a different epoxy for the room walls then the tank . If you know much about epoxy you will find that it is not hose paint and you do not use a primer , the best surface prep is a good sandblasting . I know the epoxy will last longer than the house around it .

Not sure what you mean by cliamtize the house , youdont need to it was 85 out when i sprayed it . went on wonderfully .

I contracted nothing out on Th's job expect the poring of the concrete , I don't trust anyone , especially anyone in the aquarium business , in the end I will have done everything myself . I do this with everything , I don't ask anyone to do something unless i know how to do it first . Iam a funny person but I do it all from start to finish .

The people who design tanks for a living are a joke , They have only the knowledge of there specific task , not the whole picture , Yep I talked to Reynolds and ATM and there was another but the name escapes me right now . They were a joke to deal with period . Iam amazed they can get anything done right . I took my drawing to a structural engineer to go over them but thats about it , You need to learn to trust yourself and no one else because in the end you only have yourself to blame . Hell I done let People work on my Ferrais because i want it done right , The only way to do it right is do it yourself .
You will find there is no information out there on how to build tanks like this , it just doesn't exist anywhere , and the people who know aren't saying , job security . I would not do this if i wasn't 100 percent sure , I don't make mistakes with something like this , Can you imagine 20,000 gallons in your living room , I can and don't .

Scott forgot his camera so ill take some pics this weekend .

[dobejazz]

Thanks for the update Bill and please post pics !

[atzak]

wow, you really do type like your wearing boxing gloves

[tims]

Bill thanks for the update

[Bergovoy]

You did the archt drawings? Did you have to get city or govt approvals, and if so, didnt they require licensed archt dwgs? Could not get away from that in California.

I understand the not contracting things out, but there are some things that can be done not only more then adequately but even better by skilled tradesman, unless you are a jack of all trades and master at all of them?


Certainly I am good at some things, maybe even better then good, but there are many more people that have done things many more times than I will ever get a chance to practice on to get good...

I have not done epoxy extensively, but the couple of times I worked with it, we still needed to prepare the surface, and etching the surface was part of it, but there was a primer / sealar coat that bonded with the surface. (this was food prepeartion areas)

the climatizing question was to make certain that the surfaces that were being coated were similar in ambient temperatures, again to allow for suffiecient thickness coating to be applied to allow the penetration.

I dont want to get technical on the construction aspect, just had a couple of questions on it.

The livestock move that you are doing this weekend, is that into the sumps that were downstairs, the ones that you showed pictures of the concrete walls that were formed out in the foundation???

And are those walls getting coated? or are they already coated.

I would think that there engineers that do design marine environements for aquariums, both public and private... And they would do anything for money.

But then again, if you have the tools, facilities, faculties, and time, I am thinking that other then the structural issues getting confirmed, a large scale is not much different in components then a small tank...

Anyways,

No need to answer my posts directly,, there are others out there there probabably have more specific and pertineant questions then I.

Thanks

Bill

[billwann]

The town teh house is in is pretty laid back , The tank is in the dawings of teh hosue we submitted for teh permits but thats about it , everythingis in my head . The house is so far from what it was drawn as its insain , we started with around 7500 square feet and eneded up with over 12,000 .
Iam a jack of all trades , on thi shouse i did all of teh electric , some of teh plumbing , fought withteh plumbers teh rest of they way beacuse they wanted to do everythuin g half ass , but in wisconsin youhave to have a liscened plumber . I hate plumbers and electricians ,Thats why i do it myself .
I will take over after teh drywall and finish teh rest of teh house just beacuse i cant stand inperfection , I installed teh pool and filtration , I weled teh gate out front and did all of teh steel work for teh house , I will be doingall of teh wood floors and marble floors , The tiel work in the bathrooms , designing and installing teh kitchen and bath cabinets . All of teh trim and crown moulding .and painting , The reason why I chose to do these things is i find that teh peopel you hire have only a certine degree of perfection they will work upo to , and this is not acceptiable to me , I liekthings perfect . Iam nust I guess , I cant stand looking at someone work who is sopos to be a perfosonal and seeing carppy teh work is , I have never seen a trim carpenter yet do perfect work .
I will buy teh tools and teach myslef how to do ity befor i will hire anyone , teh bulk of teh trouble i hav ehad on this house has been with contacrors doing poor worka nd saying it was good enough , ask Scott about how thet went with teh pool floor , The guy has to redo all of teh exposed aggraget floor becue he screwd it up teh frrsit time .
So i figure on teh tank teh onkyway to do it was myself , I have a fair ammout of experiance building tanks and such , I have a CNC rounter to make all of my skimmers and reactors .
Iam not sure what eposy you were using but all of the pharmacutical companys i have worked for have used the same suff i used in teh same way , alot of peopel acied etch teh surface before , it does an ok job but teh best is a good sandblsting but man does it make a mess , butit give teh epoxy somethimng to bite too. The fish will be moved to on eof teh sumps .
each sump hold 1900 gallons , so its a bit bigger then there current digs , they should liek it . I spoke to a few enegineers but they were more pain then what they were worth , I pretty goood at engennering things . I did use one to figure teh thicknees of tehtank floor then I added 4 inch to it beacvuse i didnt trust him .

[billwann]

I do type liek I have boxing gloves on , but iam sure you guys get the point .
I hate typing .

[billwann]

test picture

[dogstar74]

Bill, Forget the haters! I just love this project. Thank you for taking us along on the journey. This is like someone building the X plane or something, and we get to see it step by step. I would hope that God forbid, something bad happens, that you would feel inclined and free to share that event. I pray that nothing bad does happen, but Mr. 4000 didn't expect anything bad to happen and we all learned from his humidity nightmare. Please don't feel like you need to turtle up if something bad does happen. We would all really learn a lot if you shared with us.
Thank you again for taking us all along.