Boom's 180 Gallon Tank Project

[Boom]

Alright folks, lets get this started!

My wife surprised me a few weeks ago by telling me that for our upcoming anniversary (in November) she's letting me get a big aquarium. I've been wanting to upgrade from my 55 african cichlid tank for a while, but she was always dead against having a bigger tank. Well, she finally gave in. I shopped around for prices and hummed and hawed about what size tank to get. I knew I wanted a 6' long tank, but the width and height were undecided.

Finally, I settled my heart on a 180 gallon and managed to find a brand new one built by Bow Valley, being sold by an AA member for a reasonable price (I think). In the mean time, I started researching how to set up a sump, drew up some rough plans of how to build the stand, and shelving around it, and sorted out a bunch of the other details.

So what I want to do is start by posting some pics of what I've got so far, and a brief explanation of how I'll be setting up this bad boy in my basement. Of coarse i will go into more detail as I go along. Please be patient as I'm doing this all in my spare time (which seems more and more limited lately), but I plan on having much of it done in the next few weeks. And all of it done by Christmas. So lets see how accurate I am on that.

First, here's a picture of the spot in my basement where the tank will be going. It's against a wall between two others, the wall on the left extends out 2 feet, so that helped decide on the depth of the tank. The area is 11'9" wide, so I'll have 5'9" (2'4 1/2" on either side) to have shelving which will be storage for books, games, and kids toys.

I had to take a few pics of my current 55.

Here is the 180 gallon tank. 6' x 2' x 2'. I brought it home on Monday night. Not the best pics, but you all know what an empty tank looks like.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Boom

[Parachromis1]

I love creativeness, if onyl I had the guts to try it myself!!

[Boom]

...

I will be drilling the tank in the morning. I will also be building my own acrylic overflow box.

Here is the acrylic I bought. It's black and opaque to hide the plumbing.

Here is the plumbing I'll be using. Well, most of it, Arnold has my bulkheads so he can bring the right drill bits over in the morning. And they didn't have a few minor pieces I needed.

I'll be using ball valves on both the drain and return lines. Makes it easy just to shut the water completely off to do maintanance on the sump.

The PVC primer and glue.

[Boom]

Here is the sump I picked up. It's a 33 gallon with tinted glass, and dividers built in. I was originally going to build my own acrylic sump, but for the price I just couldn't turn this one down.

And the light diffuser (eggcrate) I bought to use as dividers in the sump.

I'll be painting the back and sides of the tank black (on the outside of coarse), because it'll be built against the wall with shelving around it anyway. I like the depth that a black background gives. I considered a 3D background but the price turned me off (sorry Patrick).

[Boom]

I also already picked up the sand for the substrate. All 80kg (176 lbs) of it. That should give me about 1 1/2" base.

I'll be building the stand (hopefully starting tommorrow as well). Here is some of the lumber I'll be using as well as outdoor graded screws.

Well that's all I got for now. More tommorrow!

Please ask lots of questions. Feel free to make suggestions, and like I said, please bare with me. Hope you enjoy!

Boom :boom:

[rocker85675]

nice tank. but is a 33 gal sump big enough for a 180 gal?

[Boom]

Well, I look at it this way. Alot of people would strap a cannister filter to this tank, like a Fluval fx5, and call it done. The fx5 claims to move 925 gph and has a mere 1.5 gallons of media capacity. In a 33 gallon sump, I can put 6 to 10 times that amount of filter media, and will be moving a true 1400 gallons per hour at a 5' head height. (1900gph rated pump)

It's also much easier to customize and clean filter media in a sump (easier to get at) so I'm more likely to do it often.

Some other people may do a couple cannisters like Fluval 404's for example or other similar "large" cannisters. But even those would only move a combined flow of less than 600 gph (they're rated at 340 gph each, but that's with no media or head height). And would also have far less room for filter media.

So some may argue that a 33 gal sump isn't big enough for a 180, but that's how I look at. I would go with a bigger sump if I could, but I'm limited to a 3' space under the tank anyway. The wife wants some shelves on either side under the tank.

Boom :boom:

[jvision]

Looks like a great start! One thing I've heard is that silicone doesn't always seal on acrylic - maybe get some other advice on that. That's the reason why I just cut up a 15gal tank for my overflow in my 90.

[Lana Bollers]

Boom,

You will have to do lot's of explaining on the way, with me being new to fish, I don't understand very much of this sump system... so I would love lots of pictures of that and explaination of what everything does or is supposed to do...hehe

It looks awesome, so far and you have a good headstart....your wife is letting you do it...haha

Lana

[Parachromis1]

The sump idea will workout I think....just make sure that if the power goes out you don't flood your basement.

So IMO, I would put the overflow box only like 2" from the surface of the tank so the sump won't overflow.

Everything else you have looks like it shall be fun!!!

PS, you may also want to get some acrylic bonder, so the cone will bond with the acrylic and glass.

[Boom]

Don't worry Lana, there will be lots of pics and lots of 'splainin.

About the acrylic holding to the glass with silicone. I did a bunch of reading on that thru various places and forums on the net. The concensus seems to be that It works as long as it doesn't have to hold pressure. I.e. in my case there will be more pressure from water volume outside the overflow, then there will be inside the overflow, So it should hold no problem.

Pimpdocta, the height of the overflow box means nothing (at least in my set-up). All it does is determine how much water goes into the overflow box, how fast, and the level of water in your tank, which in my case, I want as close to the top of the tank as possible. My plan is to use a Durso standpipe, which (when properly set-up) completely eliminates the worry of overflowing anything. That in conjunction with a very simple method to prevent a reverse sifon effect thru the return line, makes the whole system failsafe. I'll talk more about this as I get to that stage of the build, so stay tuned :thumbs:

So today was a bit of a bust. Arnold didn't show up to drill the tank for me because he couldn't find the drill bits he needs. So he's gonna look for them and we're gonna shoot for Monday or Tuesday to get that done.

In the mean time I rough cut the lumber for the stand to length. (I always rough cut to length first to machine the boards, then cut to final length just prior to assembly). And I jointed one face and one edge of all those boards.

That likely doesn't mean much to most of you, so I'll explain.

When you buy a 2x4 at Home Depot or wherever, the boards are never perfectly straight. I pick thru the pile to find the straightest ones I can, but they almost always have some sort of twist, bow, cup or bend to them. I refuse to work with anything but straight wood, so, I straighten it myself. To do that I use this tool, called a jointer.

You run the board thru the machine on one face first, and it makes that face perfectly flat, taking out any bow or cup.

Then you run it thru again with that face against the fence, making an adjoining edge perfectly flat, as well as perfectly square to the first face.

Why do I bother? Aren't the boards "good enough"? Not for me. I treat a fish stand like a piece of furniture, even though it'll be covered up, the structural strength is imparitive to hold the weight of the aquarium. I wouldn't want any other furniture in my house built with warped boards, so why skimp out here? Imagine a board on it's end, that has a bow to it. Now put 2000 pounds on top of that board's end, what'll happen? It's gonna bow more, and maybe break. Do the same thing with a perfectly straight board, and the board just stays straight!

Here's some example pics.

These two boards are some of the straightest I could find. Notice how they bend away from each other at the top (right side)?

Now here are the same to boards after I jointed them. See how they are perfectly straight?

Edited October 17, 2008 by Boom

[Boom]

Here is all the lumber that will make up the stand. (Minus the plywood, which I havn't bought yet.)

So as of now, I've flattened and squared one face and one edge of every board. Next, I will be running the boards through my planer, which will make the opposite face perfectly flat and parallel to the first face, and the other edge flat and parallel to the first edge. This will give me a perfectly straight, flat and square board. After that, I'll cut all the boards to they're final length (remember I just rough cut the length so far), and then start assembling them together.

I'm working all weeekend so not sure how much of it I'll get done before Monday...

Everyone with me so far?

This part is kinda boring, wait till we get to the actual tank set up!

Oh, and here is my sketch (plans) of what the stand will look like. this is about all I ever do for most projects.

Edited October 17, 2008 by Boom

[firestorm]

Wow, very thorough. Looks like it will be a nice set up. I agree with you about the sump, it all depends on the power of the pump, not the size of the sump. And if you think about it, most canisters only hold about 2-5 gallons of water. Just a word of advice, make sure to not build the overflow too high, otherwise the water level will be too high. I service an aquarium where the idiots built the overflow only about 1/2" from the top, the water literally almost spills over the sides of the tank. At least 1" or more would be fine I would imagine.

I cannot tell from your picture of the wood materials, but what sizes of boards are you using?

[DaveDude77]

Good work Boom. That's exactly what I was hoping you were going to do. Keep up the good work and i look forward to the next steps.

And thanks for your time in sharing this with us.

[patrick]

Man, I want a jointer. I can spend a couple of hours digging through the wood to find the straightest ones and also make sure they are as light as possible to ensure they are dry and wont warp once they start to dry. It is so annoying when you think you have a straight board and then after a couple of days in the garage they are warped...

One question; when you run them through the jointer, do you do it equal with all boards no matter how much is actually needed to make sure they all have the same thickness once you are done?