700 gallon tank

vayapues

vayapues

Member
My wife and I just purchased a new beautiful home. As I am walking around this home, I realize that between a living room, and the exercise room there is a closet, that was added by a previous owner. It used to be an open doorway between the two rooms.
So it occurs to me that I could take the closet out, and build a custom floor to ceiling tank. This idea is fresh, and full of flaws I am sure. I would love some ideas.
Firstly, the floor is NOT made for that much weight, I am certain. I would have to hire someone to come in and reinforce the floor, so let's assume I hire an engineer, and get that taken care of.
The closet is 6' wide, 2' deep, and 9' high.
I would envision utilizing most of that space for the tank. Leaving space on both sides for LED lights.
Essentially these LED lights would hide behind a white plastic sheet, and would be programmable to run through a variety of colors, ie, changing from aquamarine, to blue, to purple, slowly, etc.
The tank would have a bowed front (facing the living room) and a flat back (facing the exercise room). The tank would stand about 8' high, leaving a foot or so room at the top. The side facing the living room would be completely closed. The side facing the exercise room would have a hinged door.
I would drill the bottom of the tank, and using PVC would place a long pipe up the middle to the top, for a drain. I would then hide this pipe with custom aragocrete. Embedded in this aragocrete would be a variety of blower heads, connected to pvc, also hidden, and connected to a pump.
Along side of this closet is another smaller closet, which I would modify as the control center. I would place the sump in the side closet, along with filtration, skimmer, timers, etc. Maybe a fuge also, depending on space...
Problems I foresee:
There is no way on Earth I can reach the sand bed, or virtually anything else for that matter. Meaning that I can't clean anything, or at least not effectively.
I can't do any live coral, as there is no way I can reach the rock work, and getting sufficient lighting would be super challenging through that much water. Aragocrets looks nice once it gets some purple on it, but... not sure if it would look nice enough. I may want fake coral, but they all look super cheesy, and fade over time / get covered in coraline themselves.
When things die, I won't be able to remove them, which could then cause a chain reaction of death.
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I guess what I am asking experts, is... is this just a really bad idea? Most of the problems have to do with not being able to reach anything.
Also, are there problems I am not considering?
thanks everyone
 
chewwy

chewwy

New Member
Why not just make it only like 2 feet deep so you can arrange the rocks and have corals. I would prefer that over the extra depth imo.
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
I agree that a reef tank is a nice setup, but I already have a few of those. This is a different project, with a different goal. This will be a wall. My kids can sit at the base, and feel like they are in the tank. Imagine how cool it would look when guests visit, and one of our walls floor to ceiling is teaming with bright blues and aquamarines.
As I have thought about this today, I am less and less worried about cleaning, and getting to dead fish. If I do the rock work right (one very large solid piece) and slope it pyramid style, I should be able to reach everything with a long net.
My biggest questions now are how to decorate the rock. I suppose anemones, and urchins might be a solution, since they could move around at will. Though lighting would still be a problem for anemones...
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Agreed,...I like the idea of a floor to ceiling tank but I think it would be a maintenance nightmare unless you wanted to go swimming anytime you needed to clean the tank. You may have more options availabe to you for doing whatever you want with the tank meaning, fish only, reef or what have you.
If the choice were mine I'd go with something shorter like mentioned above...perhaps a 2 foot tall tank or 30". Build it on a stand and then make a nice cabinet face with some door and trim work for the front viewing area of the tank. This way most of your tank could be upwards of eye level and you could pack a nice size sump and equipment underneath the tank and save yourself some space. Just an idea.
Let us know how things progress.
Does your house have a basement or is it on a slab?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
LOL...Corey a while back someone poasted some pics of a scuba diver in a tank......This "establishment" has a few 1000G tanks, and that was how they cleaned it
 
chewwy

chewwy

New Member
If your set on making it super tall, it could work. When you clean it you could just do massive water changes at the same time, like take out half so you can lean down in and be able to reach the bottom without submerging your face. Not sure if this still allows you to take it to the floor but if your willing to spend and do a little more work you could easily do 4' deep. Hope your a little agile though, and dont fall in! So kind of risky when you think about it. Maybe send the kids in since you say you have kids? Haha jk on that last one
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
Thinking to make it easier to clean, we would do a fake sand bed. Ie, concrete made to look like sand. Angle the blowers to make sure nothing settles.
Definitely bowed!
Water changes... That would be a hassle wouldn't it. Maybe plumb a drain... But where would you store the new water, while it warms / salt dissolves.
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
I suppose the solution to the water change issue is to go fresh water, instead of SW. Then I can plumb a drain in, and a faucet above it, and do frequent / small water changes. I have not done a fresh water tank for years... but as I think through this, the maintenance for a SW tank of this size is proving to be a very big pain. Too bad I can't do a planted tank. That would be fun to have one that size, but no way I could reach anything to trim the plants...
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
I have decided to move forward, and to do it as a SW tank. I am going to hire the acrylic out to a company that specializes in large aquariums. I plan to do the rock work, plumbing, and lighting myself. After thinking about water changes, I have decided to place a large water change storage tank another part of the house, and plumb it to the main tank. That way, I can mix the water, let it dissolve, and warm up before pumping it into the main tank.
Right now, it is looking like about a $6,000 job, which is actually better than I thought originally. Probably won't start until it warms up, as they will have to build a support wall in the basement to carry the 5000 pound load.
Going FOWLR but I am going to make the live rock out of aragocrete, and seed it with a few pieces of LR from other tanks. No sand. Instead I am going to make the base out of one solid piece of LR, so that it Lola like the reef just sort of sinks out of view. I will probably stick to small fish, like damsels, and a few tangs so that there is a lot of movement and color.
Any other concerns I have not considered and also advice on decorating the rock, ie fake corrals that won't fade is deeply appreciated. I will post pics, as this project comes together.
 
laxplayer50

laxplayer50

New Member
Glad you made your choice with SW.
You will enjoy it more then freshwater after everything is done, imo. im definitely going to look for some pics
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
just get a 4 inch i beam and two metal supports like the ones you have in the basement already.that will hold the weight.
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
Started getting quotes from custom aquarium builders. The difference in methods and price is tremendous, and surprising. Thank goodness for references, and online reviews.
 
kylev

kylev

Member
Is your basement finished? Assuming its just a slab on grade you could very easily (if your not too concerned with asthetics) just install some concrete pads with the turnbuckles made for a 4"x4" to sit into (such as what is used on a deck), run 4"x4" up to 4"x12" that sits on the strong side and spans across your floor joist. If you floor joists are running in the same direction as your tank use two sets of pads/posts/beam and use an additional 4x4 that ties across the floor joists between the 4"x12" and joists on say a 3'-4' spacing. IMO this would be much cheaper and would not require hiring it out.
 
vayapues

vayapues

Member
Still getting bids back.
I think we have settled on a particular company, but there are still a few bids out, and I want to be fair, since they took the time to CAD the tanks for us.
Kylev, that is an interesting idea. The basement is finished, but I will be tearing into it, to reinforce the floor above, and also to run the plumbing.
I had originally planned to put the plumbing in the closet next to the tank, but due to water changes, and other issues, I have decided to plumb the sump across the house to the utility room in the basement. This way, I can build an open sump, fuge, plenum, and above that, a mixing tank, that drains into the sump, where I can mix and heat the fresh salt water. I am going to run the drain into the same floor drain that the water heater and boiler for the house drain into.
I am going to have to cut out about 40' of sheet rock in the ceiling to run the pipes, but se la vi.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
How exciting it must be to be able to do something like this.....I can't wait to see how this build progresses
If you put a sand bottom....you can have a couple of stingrays....OMG I love stingrays
 
kylev

kylev

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by vayapues http:///forum/thread/382230/700-gallon-tank#post_3337962
Still getting bids back.
I think we have settled on a particular company, but there are still a few bids out, and I want to be fair, since they took the time to CAD the tanks for us.
Kylev, that is an interesting idea. The basement is finished, but I will be tearing into it, to reinforce the floor above, and also to run the plumbing.
I had originally planned to put the plumbing in the closet next to the tank, but due to water changes, and other issues, I have decided to plumb the sump across the house to the utility room in the basement. This way, I can build an open sump, fuge, plenum, and above that, a mixing tank, that drains into the sump, where I can mix and heat the fresh salt water. I am going to run the drain into the same floor drain that the water heater and boiler for the house drain into.
I am going to have to cut out about 40' of sheet rock in the ceiling to run the pipes, but se la vi.
Are you talking a drain for saltwater, and would this be going to a septic system? If so from my understanding saltwater can be a killer to septic systems.
 
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