DIY 500 gal planning

[Lee Laviolette]

I've just joined and look forward to one day being able to input answers to some threads. For now, I can only ask questions and try to learn from your experiences and expertise.

I am building a new house and have dedicated a wall between office and game room for a 500 gal marine fish tank, approx 8' x 3' x 3'. I want to assemble it myself. Less about saving money, more about gaining a deep undestanding of aquatic systems (plus that "Did-it-myself!" pride)

Where do I start? Is there an ultimate book I need to read? What equpment? Which manufacturers?

I've spoken with the pros in the area, and just feel that I will be the owner of a nice tank if I use them, but not more than that.
I do have a 55 gal now which I've been practicing with for about 9 months.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!!




are you wanting to build the tank itself, or do all of the plumbing and design yourself.

if you want to build the tank, what do you want to build it out of. all acrylic, wood with glass/acrylic viewing pane, fiberglass with glass/acrylic viewing pane. each of these have there merrits.

here is a good thread to get an idea on what is involved.

G~

[Lee Laviolette]

Thanks for the welcome!

My thought was to purchase a prefabbed glass tank, then install and plumb it myself. I might do the trim carpentry or have that as part of the overall trim work which I will sub out.

[Geoff]

since you want to get a prefabbed tank, i would suggest figuring out exactly what you want to do before getting the tank. this way you can get the manufacturer to drill the tank. having them drill the tank is about the only way they will guarantee against breakage when drilling the tank.

since this is going to be an inwall i do suggest drilling the tank. will this be viewed from 2 sides or just 1? do you have a closet that you will use for all of the equipment?

G~

[Lee Laviolette]

I will have 3 locations for equipment. Under the tank (42" from flloe to bottom of tank), an adjacent closet about 3'x3' and a nearby mechanical equpiment room, where the water softener for the house will be located. I thought to establish a saltwater mix tank in here and pipe a connection to the aqaurium area.

I love the idea of the tank mfg doing the drilling. Which companies should I get quotes from? Lee

[Lee Laviolette]

Also, yes it will be viewed from two sides!

[wanareef]

You can start reading here : http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/totm/index.htm

and another http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/fo...?s=&forumid=45


That's a big endever on your part. Good luck.

[PJ]

Lee,

Welcome to TRT. I'm really too new hear to give you any advice, but there are LOTS of others here who will be able to answer all your Q's.

Welcome to TRT !!!

PJ

[Lee Laviolette]

Thanks for the threads and warm welcome! Keep them coming!

[PJ]

Hi Again Lee,

I admire your plan to do it all yourself. I don't have the patience, let alone the know-how.

As I was re-reading the threads a thought came to me.

I see that your plans are for the tank to be 8'L x 3'D x 3'H. THAT's a big tank.

However, before you start buying and cutting the material you might want to give it some thought to build the tank to be 8'L x 3'D x 2'H.

Your proposed height, three feet, is pretty deep.

I see that you are in Houston. Home of the Houston Rockets.

Unless your arms are as long as Yao Ming's, you will probably find that cleaning the glass of a tank two feet deep is going to be much easier than cleaning a tank three feet deep.

I am by no means an expert on the issue, being a new reef guy myself, but when you mentioned a three foot height all I could see was the image of you on a large ladder reaching in and trying to get the last 12 inches of algae off the sides of your tank.

Then again ..... if you're a certified scuba diver .......

Good Luick



PJ

[Phishnoob]

Wow sounds great!

I would make the tank about 4 to 8 inches shorter so you can use 8 foot lumber for all the 4 by 4's and all you will need for supporting this behemoth. This makes it easier to get correct sized lumber. There are some amazing woodworkers on this site that can help you with support. Five hundred gallons of water alone is roughly 3000 pounds before rock and all that.

Someone someplace posted formulas for length height and depth that looked good but I could not find it again.

Welcome to TRT...no matter what you ask there will be an answer and no one has ever said anything negative even to my stupid questions

Phishnoob

[Doug1]

If its going to be viewed 2 sides, you might consider acrylic, so that you can easily drill the small ends for all your plumbing and stuff. On a tank that size cost should be about same or cheaper than glass, as well as a lot easier to drill

[Lee Laviolette]

Thanks guys for all the great thougts. As I am going from the "Don't know what I don't know" to the "Know what I don't know" stage of learning, reality (fear?, reason?) is setting in.... My wife thinks tha I should leta pro design, build and establish it, but I won't learn nearly as much that way, and end up spend $12-$15k to boot.

Maybe a compromise is to have the tank prefabbed and drill by a manufacturer. What are my choices? WHo should I get quotes from? Also, I am leaning to glass because of its superior scratch resisteance. What am i missing?

[PJ]

Lee,

For what it's worth, I have two acrylic tanks, and yea, minor straches if you're not careful.

I prefer acrylic because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I don't want to take a chance with the next big quake breaking the glass and putting all that water and animals on my floor.

PJ

[Doug1]

When you get into the size tank you are talking about, glass is so heavy,expensive,costly and difficult to drill
The scratching issue is pretty minor compared to everything else, good luck and have fun with it