DIY Concrete Aquarium 5,000 gallon - Anderson Family Reef

[P-Dub]

Well, I'm a little late to the show. Outstanding work and a dream to have a tank you can get into!
Couple questions for you @dca22anderson.
Will you be building the aquascape prior to adding the viewing panels? I ask because the 2-foot gap above the rim seems a bit tight to bring in, what I would imagine would be needed for this size of a tank, very large rocks for the scape.

Will you be installing active ventilation to combat the sheer volume of moisture accumulation in the form of evaporation? That is a large surface area for evaporation. While the tank may last 10 years, the remainder of the surrounding home's structure may not with excessive moisture accumulation.

How do you plan on combating the heat generated so close to the ceiling structure from whatever lighting you will be using? I like the MH's but those Orpheks I like more. Either will generate a tremendous amount of heat at the ceiling and assuming you will be mounting them at the ceiling for clearance above the water....

Looking back at your forms and the structural Rebar at the viewing windows, I could not tell how close the rebar is to the edges of the cutout. It appears that the recess for the viewing panels are unsupported, or not fully supported, against lateral pressure with sufficient rebar installation and is primarily supported by just the poured concrete. Did I miss something?

 

[ClownWrangler]

Well, I'm a little late to the show. Outstanding work and a dream to have a tank you can get into!
Couple questions.
Will you be building the aquascape prior to adding the viewing panels? I ask because the 2-foot gap above the rim seems a bit tight to bring in, what I would imagine would be needed for this size of a tank, very large rocks for the scape.

Will you be installing active ventilation to combat the sheer volume of moisture accumulation in the form of evaporation? That is a large surface area for evaporation. While the tank may last 10 years, the remainder of the surrounding home's structure may not with excessive moisture accumulation.

How do you plan on combating the heat generated so close to the ceiling structure from whatever lighting you will be using? I like the MH's but those Orpheks I like more. Either will generate a tremendous amount of heat at the ceiling and assuming you will be mounting them at the ceiling for clearance above the water....

Looking back at your forms and the structural Rebar at the viewing windows, I could not tell how close the rebar is to the edges of the cutout. It appears that the recess for the viewing panels are unsupported, or not fully supported, against lateral pressure with sufficient rebar installation and is primarily supported by just the poured concrete. Did I miss something?

This is why I suggested LED lighting. With LED lighting, if your heat sink is an aluminum block with coolant cannels, much like a PC processor cooling system, you can bring almost all of that heat into the water column with a heat exchanger. You would have to custom build it, but is wouldn't be too difficult.

As far as the rebar near the window opening, the primary concern here is the lateral shear stress and you are correct in that the rebar wouldn't help unless it extended all the way in to the raised ledge in front of the window. If it extended up to the ledge but not into it, it could actually weaken that area by creating a stress concentration. If I had the full dimensions, I could do some rough calculations on the shear load gradient imposed by the pressure on the pane and the subsequent sheer stress, but I'm fairly certain there's going to be a high safety factor here as thick as that ledge is.

Additionally, if there is a sharp corner inside the recess for the window, this will create a stress concentration, so this corner should ideally have a radius. This goes for all sharp inside corners in a structure. But its not a huge deal if the safety factor is high.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Thinking of using these:

Amazonas 320 Aquarium LED Lighting • Orphek

Orphek Amazonas 320 LED Light Fixtures are developed specifically for public aquariums and other venues displaying reef or freshwater aquariums.

orphek.com

I Serviced the Ventilation on some Green Houses, way back when. They had their Lights on a Tractor Cable, and they moved across the plants. This reduced the amount of lights fixtures they needed.

 

[dca22anderson]

Well, I'm a little late to the show. Outstanding work and a dream to have a tank you can get into!
Couple questions for you @dca22anderson.
Will you be building the aquascape prior to adding the viewing panels? I ask because the 2-foot gap above the rim seems a bit tight to bring in, what I would imagine would be needed for this size of a tank, very large rocks for the scape.

Will you be installing active ventilation to combat the sheer volume of moisture accumulation in the form of evaporation? That is a large surface area for evaporation. While the tank may last 10 years, the remainder of the surrounding home's structure may not with excessive moisture accumulation.

How do you plan on combating the heat generated so close to the ceiling structure from whatever lighting you will be using? I like the MH's but those Orpheks I like more. Either will generate a tremendous amount of heat at the ceiling and assuming you will be mounting them at the ceiling for clearance above the water....

Looking back at your forms and the structural Rebar at the viewing windows, I could not tell how close the rebar is to the edges of the cutout. It appears that the recess for the viewing panels are unsupported, or not fully supported, against lateral pressure with sufficient rebar installation and is primarily supported by just the poured concrete. Did I miss something?

Thanks for checking it out!

We will put in some of the larger rocks before the panels go in and probably stack the rock in there we will use to cover the framework and closed loop system. I plan to do a bigger (much bigger) version of what I did on the 720gal: I want to integrate some pond blocks hidden underneath or something close to that to help support the rockwork and provide some areas for critters to hang out.

I will have an active air exchanger on the exterior wall to help with evaporation and air exchange.

Planning on some old school fans to carry the heat towards the exhaust for the air exchanger to keep the heat down up top. I do that now with my MH set up's and it works pretty good. It's a tight fit but I wanted to get the viewing panel up off the ground and in perfect sitting view from the couch. (I'll push for higher ceilings in the next place)

The rebar has about 2" of concrete cover all the way around, some places a little less and some much more but the walls for the front openings for the windows are 10"+ thick with 8.5"+ x 2.5" of concrete to hold back the windows. My best guess is that the rebar around the window openings is 2" or less away from the opening for the windows. I hope that's enough. Another thing I'm going to do is adjust the water height to right over the panel to give me some more working room above the tank and have less pressure up top. Great observation. I agree that rebar supporting the window framework is the way to go.

Thanks for your questions!

This is why I suggested LED lighting. With LED lighting, if your heat sink is an aluminum block with coolant cannels, much like a PC processor cooling system, you can bring almost all of that heat into the water column with a heat exchanger. You would have to custom build it, but is wouldn't be too difficult.

As far as the rebar near the window opening, the primary concern here is the lateral shear stress and you are correct in that the rebar wouldn't help unless it extended all the way in to the raised ledge in front of the window. If it extended up to the ledge but not into it, it could actually weaken that area by creating a stress concentration. If I had the full dimensions, I could do some rough calculations on the shear load gradient imposed by the pressure on the pane and the subsequent sheer stress, but I'm fairly certain there's going to be a high safety factor here as thick as that ledge is.

Additionally, if there is a sharp corner inside the recess for the window, this will create a stress concentration, so this corner should ideally have a radius. This goes for all sharp inside corners in a structure. But its not a huge deal if the safety factor is high.

I'm having a heat exchanger built now and could easily work that out... I do have the lights on a sliding rack so I can slide them back while I'm swimming in the tank. I guess flexible pipe from the light rack to the heat exchanger would be in order for that application...

I planned to have about 1/2" -1" of rebar supporting the window panel edge (overhang in the concrete). Not sure if it all worked out that way but we will see. Also I feel pretty good about the 8"+ of concrete supporting the edge. I have also rounded the inside edge on all corners of the tank as well in the channels for the viewing panels. Good points.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Love this build!

 

[dca22anderson]

Got the replacement epoxy cans today to replace the two kits shipping broke last Saturday… :mad:

 

[dca22anderson]

Lucky me they broke open both A & B so it mixed and started to cure in the box ‍

 

[dca22anderson]

Love this build!

Thanks!

 

[Reefhab]

Got the replacement epoxy cans today to replace the two kits shipping broke last Saturday… :mad:

dangit!

 

[dca22anderson]

dangit!

I know right, so lame!

 

[Holy_makerel]

Wow! What a build. Can't wait to see water in it

 

[LDH]

@dca22anderson Amazing. So fun to follow. Do you have Instagram??

 

[Foxchase]

Amazing build. Commenting to stay updated

 

[dca22anderson]

@dca22anderson Amazing. So fun to follow. Do you have Instagram??

Thanks! I post a bunch on YouTube and a little on Instagram…

https://youtube.com/c/DaveAnderson

 

[dca22anderson]

Trying to get the silicone and bumpers for the viewing panels sent from AE… still need to do a few more coats of epoxy… I plan to fill holes and do another coat this week!

 

[VanDalsenReef]

Trying to get the silicone and bumpers for the viewing panels sent from AE… still need to do a few more coats of epoxy… I plan to fill holes and do another coat this week!

Looking fantastic. What does your time frame look like to get water in?

 

[mattgsa]

The build is coming along great! Thanks for sharing.

 

[dca22anderson]

Looking fantastic. What does your time frame look like to get water in?

I hope to have it sea worthy in the next 30 days but I am still waiting on all my filtration from Aquarium Engineering...

 

[dca22anderson]

The build is coming along great! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Forty-Two]

Wow - what a fascinating build.
Maybe someone asked already (sorry if its a repeat) - what are the plans to clean the tank physically? How are you going to get in there? or is that part of the plan at all?