Sean's Concrete tank Photos

[seank]

Hi all. As most of you know, I've been busy planning a bigger tank for some time now. Unfortunately it did not go as originally planned but everything is back on track. I am in the process of renovating my house and due to a lot of breaking and ceiling replacing - a lot of dust was all over the place. So for the last couple of weeks we were all living(eating, drinking, sleeping, watching tv etc) inside the main bedroom and we are all a bit gatvol of this place. Fortunately we are starting with the back section of the house and I'll definately change the bedrooom.. Enough of that...

I originally planned a 3700 lt Concrete system but due to space (The wife's version - according to me there is plenty space) had to make it a tat smaller. Then came all the equipment issues. I eventually settled for a 3000lt system but the guy I bought the glass from in Johannesburg, misread the size and cut it smaller than ordered (Again to the joy of the wife) and I again planned around the glass size (Only one viewing pane).

So after all this issues had to go for a 2340lt system. At least it is bigger to the existing one but not completely to what I planned.

So we started breaking walls, retiling and receiling the whole house, new kitchens, bathrooms etc, and then came the time for the long awaited tank.

I built a base that could be strong enough to hold 03 tonnes of weight.
Worked out the reinforcing I needed. The difficult part was not to have deflection on the base as I was worried about the front glass panel. The best I could get was 0.2 mm short time (01 year or less) and 04 mm deflection- long time( 10 - 15 years). But it was difficult to get almost zero deflection as I did not want to build support beams below the slab that would geopordise space for future refugiums etc. But the latter eventually outweighed the 1st and to my dismay had to put extra beams (In time i'll work around that)

Next came the moving issue of the existing tank. So I SET OFF ealy Sunday morning with a lot of empty drums. Filled them up and came back to the house to start emtying the tank. Fortunately you get good people like Herkie and he brought a huge tank and pump and a lot of hands from Kwambonambi to assist me in this job. We emptied (well almost) the existing tank into the huge drum he brought, moved the tank (It was standing in the place the new tank was gonna be built) and re filled it with water. Believe me. An almost 1000lt tank (without most of the water) full of rock and coral is not easy to move - Again a Big Thank you to Herkie as well as his whole family that helped.

Ok, let me start a new post regarding the new tank and equipment.....

[seank]

I started getting all the equipment and for the last couple of weeks I saw a rise in Courrier services to my house and a huge dcline in my Bank account. I had to part with my old skimmer as Herkie and myself Diy'ed it to the limit and still it was too small. Next came the Chiller as well as a lot of live rock, dead rock (Aquascaping etc.)

I built a 450lt sump a couple of months ago and seeded it as well as put some livestock in to get the whole cycle thing going. Needless to say, a couple of guys already came over for some goggas out of the sump.

I then decided to enclose the sump area (situated in the garage) and built a brickwall around it that also accommodate a new dedicated Db as well as the rest of the plugs, timers etc. (Photos to follow when completed next week -wiring etc)


Reef Octopus with Needle wheel pumps





And the Kalkwasser

[Mekaeel]

sounds good man.keep em pics rolling

[Tridan]

Looking really great if you dont mind please let me know how you plan to seal/waterproof the inside of the tank?

[Alan]

Sounding good, how about some pics of the tank in progress?

[seank]

Sorry Guys, waiting for Photo Bucket

[Alan]

Sean really nice skimmer you got, the one mod to be done on it is to replace the flat washers with O rings where the venturi enters the pump. When you assemble that puppy you will see what i mean.

[seank]

The Chiller -thank you Marco and Andrew for the above mentioned and the stuff still need to be delivered (Robin and Michelle -it includes you guys)



Ok here we Go.

This is the part my wife did not enjoy... (Never told her it is not gonna happen in 02 days)

[seank]

The Big Move:

[seank]

Thank you Herkie and friends

[seank]

And then came the tank Building:



The Slab:

[seank]

I did the Concrete pour over the weekend but first I had to "Design a void for the glass to fit flush to the outside of the wall:

[seank]

I stripped the side shutters yesterday, leaving the void for today not to break the "nip" off where the glass need to fit:

[Mekaeel]

hey man.this is wicked

[seank]

I am starting with the fibre Glassing tomorrow and will load more progress pics over the weekend, but here is a couple of pics when I played with the pre rockscaping today:

[seank]

Some random photos:

[seank]

Cool. More pics to follow over the weekend and thereafter I'll upload the Complete new engine room - as soon as Andrew made his visit...

[SIMS]

Looking good...

[seank]

Alan, no adjustments made on the skimmer, and I connected it to the existing tank, but I did not see any problems - anything I must watch out for??

[HenkHugo]

goeie bliksem dis groot!