That was it!! She didn't have to say that twice. Out went the old plan, and something new was drawn up. But what to do when you essentially have permission to put *any* size tank in the house as long as it fits to the wall length?
After a lot of calculations, research and some more calculations, I finally settled on the size of my new two-tier setup. The top tank will be an 8x3x2.3 and the bottom tank an 8x2.5x1.5 (length/width/height). Knowing that the top tank would weigh in at a mind-boggling 1600kg or more when fully filled, the next hurdle was to get a stand that would take this weight and more.
I asked around and there was nobody who could build a custom metal stand to those specs (or any specs for that matter). So I decided to go for a timber stand as a fellow PCS member very kindly offered to build it for me! Thanks very much Brad
So today was the day and I went over to lend a hand and take some progress shots.
I will add more photos once the tanks are ready. Enjoy!
Specifications:
Top tank
8x3x2.3 (240x92x70cm)
12mm glass all around
1468 litres
246kg empty
Bottom tank
8x2.5x1.5 (240x73x46cm)
12mm base, 8mm sides
766 litres
109kg empty
Stand
240cm long
120cm high
92cm wide
1. the timber, already cut to size.
2. Two legs done, 6 more to go!
3. the basic frame, standing up for the first time. Every step of the way it was checked if everything was square and level.
4. the top is done apart from bolts, the bottom almost done. It was around the time it started to take shape when it was starting to draw the attention of the young ones
5. All done and bolted up! Now it just needs some minor work here and there and it'll be complete.
6. To give a size comparison, Brad's daughters on their new (and temporary) toy.
Thanks for reading, there's more to come when the tanks are ready.
Update:
The stand has been moved to my place and over the past two weekends I have started to work on it. Sanding it down with fine sandpaper, cleaning it and then putting stain and varnish on last weekend for the first coat. Today I did the second coat and it's looking pretty good, no staining masterpiece but not too bad for a first effort
I've also learned that using a mohair roller to apply the stain and varnish will cut the time by more than half!! And there I was using a frigging paintbrush last weekend
Today it's taken me less than two hours to apply the coat. Last weekend I was working on it for about 5 hours.
I still need to do touch ups and put the second coat on the underside.
Question: how do I dispose of mineral turps? It doesn't say on the bottle or the stain can.
After this the MDF will go in, the hole will be cut in the top MDF board and the stand will be moved inside to be levelled. Stay tuned!
Update 30/11
Another coat went on last friday and the stand was moved inside to its new place the next day. Much to my delight the stand is perfectly level!! So no fiddling around needed.
The bottom tank is finished and the top one in the works. Not much longer to wait, enough time to make decisions about substrate, filtering, fish etc etc etc.......
Update 11/1
Today the Bonds Removal guys delivered my tanks! They did a great job and there is no way this could have been achieved with just manpower, equipment was absolutely necessary.
So here are the first photos of the tanks in their final place:
To my delight the tanks are still perfectly level:
And to give an idea of how big it is, I got my wife to take a photo of my ugly self standing in front with outstretched arms around the corner.
I will add more photos of details like the plumbing holes soon.
The top tank will get a proper border around the bottom so the MDF and poly are hidden.
The top tank still needs to fully cure so I will not be putting any water in just yet. But the bottom tank will get filled soon and checked for leaks, before the fishies can move into their new home.
Big thanks go to Oliver and the crew from Aquotix for his patience and advice, Bonds Removals for a terrific job and my wife for putting up with all this
Update 24/1
I finished putting all the plumbing onto the top tank. I fitted the bulkhead yesterday and filled it up a little to test the seal (ok so far!). Today I fitted the pipes and valves that go underneath the top tank.
Here you can see the bulkhead inside the tank.
This is what it looks like underneath.
These are the valves. I purchased some Hansen valves, they are a bit dearer but I think you get what you pay for. I found this to be true with most garden/plumbing equipment. I used a T-piece to split the pipe so that one end goes to the canister and the other I can attach a hose to for draining.
On the left is the canister end, the right the hose can click on. The canister end will have a converter end on it that allows attachment of the filter hose.
Tomorrow I will fill the tank up to half to put some pressure on the pipe joints and see if they hold. The next step is to fill it up full and check. Then the sand goes in and aqua scaping begins!!
Update 31/1
It has taken a few days work setting up the top tank, rinsing 180kg of sand and putting it in, bucket by bucket, climbing up the ladder. Then filling it up full, turning on canister 1 and letting it move the water overnight. The next day I started cleaning the limestone from my old tank and putting it in the new one, cleaning canister 2 and hooking it up to the plumbing. Then I transferred all the fish. One of the bigger fellas managed to jump out of my net/hand and fell 2 meters onto the tiles! I quickly put him in and he must have sustained a concussion or something because he swam all weird, upside down and in circles, poor guy
But after about 20 minutes he was back to normal and now he is doing fine Talking about doing fine, the fish LOVE their new home. They have spread out nicely, there was no chasing as had happened when I previously moved them or restructured the rocks. I put some smaller Venustus in there and they are staying in a school, moving around the tank in between the big guys, it looks awesome! All fish are taking full advantage of the room, inhabiting all layers of water. One of the small Venustus I could see was starting to colour up in his old growout tank, boy did he change colour once he was in the big tank! Before it was a light hint of blue, now it's a glowing blue on his cheeks and body.
While taking some photos I also managed to get a good one of my juvi male Placidochromis milomo VC-10:
Shots of the finished tanks:
There are still bits and pieces to do, but the bulk is done and I am very happy with the result. Thanks again to everyone who helped me, I appreciate all the hands on help and advice.
I realised that since I started keeping fish, I have always upgraded tanks in size so that I could fit the old tank into the new one, LOL
I wouldn't go bigger than this though, unless it is somehow built into the house or the house is especially set up for it.
