Building New Tank

[weisoon]

Fellow reefers,

Will be shifting house soon and thinking of converting 1 of the room into a fish room. May go for at least 5' or 6'. Thinking of resting the tank on a concrete platform with openings below to house the sump and all equiptment. Also to open a hole on the wall so that the tank will be viewed from the living room giving the tank in wall look.

Thinking of providing natural sky light in the fish room so that quite a bit of strong sunlight will illuminate the tank.

Have a idea of using fiberglass or some special material like corian for all the other 3 sides and glass for the front. Anyone has any experience on building this type of set-up.

Cheers.

[Clownfish]

hehe....

sounds like AT's tank

[weisoon]

Have not met up with AT or any of the reefers here. Read somewhere that his tank is designed along this concept. Maybe one of these days when free can get invited to see his tank.

BTW, no problem with HDB regulation on 6' tank as house will be re-build on landed.

Cheers.

[marinebetta]

Go to Aquafauna center (next to Mainland) and have a look at the tanks at Cichlid World - they have a 14 ft tank set on the ground with corian (or granite...not sure) top rim - very nice....Even Morgan was having ideas

[Morgan]

Should see the huge tank

Endless possibilties in what sort landscaping you want to do......you can go as far as your pocket allows.

My reef tank tank is made from fiberglass with 1 viewing glass panel.

Don't know about corian durability for long term immersion in salt water.

[scooter blenny]

Fellow reefers,

Will be shifting house soon and thinking of converting 1 of the room into a fish room. May go for at least 5' or 6'. Thinking of resting the tank on a concrete platform with openings below to house the sump and all equiptment. Also to open a hole on the wall so that the tank will be viewed from the living room giving the tank in wall look.

Thinking of providing natural sky light in the fish room so that quite a bit of strong sunlight will illuminate the tank.

Have a idea of using fiberglass or some special material like corian for all the other 3 sides and glass for the front. Anyone has any experience on building this type of set-up.

Cheers.

corian material is very nice and very ######.... on top of that, once scratch........it will take a lot of sanding to smoothen it.

take a look at my corian chopping broad and u will know what i mean....

[weisoon]

marinebetta, morgan

saw the tank sitting on the ground. Recall that only the top is granite but all sides are glass. I am thinking of using corian to mold a tank except the front viewing of glass. Spoke to some contractors, they said that the fabricating/molding part is not a problem, however, till now no one has tried using corian for tank and on paper the material is able to withstand chemicals.

morgan, your fiber tank, did you coat a layer of paint after the rein layer?

[scooter blenny]

and er....one more thing. When use fibre glass.....be very sure it does not comes into contact with MEK or "skydroke"(not sure of the spelling). The later is one of the hydralic fluid.

make sure u do not breath in f.glass dust or allow it to enter your body. it is extremely health hazard.

[marinebetta]

marinebetta, morgan

saw the tank sitting on the ground. Recall that only the top is granite but all sides are glass. I am thinking of using corian to mold a tank except the front viewing of glass. Spoke to some contractors, they said that the fabricating/molding part is not a problem, however, till now no one has tried using corian for tank and on paper the material is able to withstand chemicals.

morgan, your fiber tank, did you coat a layer of paint after the rein layer?

As far as I know, Corian is very resistant to many chemicals and I think should be safe in salt water. I think the main concern is whether it can take the pressures. I guess it depends on the thickness but best to check with the manufacturers (and I don't mean the local guys - may need to check with the brand owners)

[Morgan]

Not too sure about a coating of paint on the inside...does not look like there is. The insides are smooth.

[Hon]

If not mistaken, Corian is made up of 80% acrylic. The remaining 20% is some fibre. If you thinking of making a tank out of corian, I guess your have the apply the acrylic tank rule in order to withstand pressure. They are actually quite easy to bend..

[weisoon]

Morgan

Guess if you see the inside very smoth, then there is a layer of paint coated. Raw surface should have a rough layer whereby you can see the fibres and usually the resin used to bind them is light brown in colour. Will check out with some of the contractors to see if the paint or resin used will have any long term effect like leaching of chemicals back into the water body.

[weisoon]

One more thing i forgot to ask you guys:

Is it good or does it make any difference if i allow natural sunlight to illuminate the tank from the top coupled with MH lights or use entirely artificial lighting? One example is like the tubs at PR, notice that there is some light coming through the 'plastic' coverings on the ceilings. However, there is very little transmittance due to the 'plastic'.

I am thinking of using glass panels for the skylight of the ceiling of the fish room.

[Morgan]

weisoon

I had my tank for many years and never have any problem.

I'm using sunlight for illumination as the tank is outside the house.

if you have skylight in the room ...won't the room be too hot like a very warm greenhouse...heat trap and nowhere to for the heat to escape. Do you have plan to air con the room?

I have not encounter problem using natural sunlight for illumination except that it can get a little hot.

[weisoon]

Morgan

Spoke to the architect, the room will not need air-conditioning if the windows and doors are left open, however there will still be an air-con installed. Needless to say, the system will have a chiller.

Want to ask something but may sound absurd: Read somewhere that the light that transmitt through the skylight glass panel then into the tank may have some of its spectrum altered and thus possibly causing an algae bloom.

[marinebetta]

I believe there are many kinds of light transmitting material that can be used as roofing material but most absorb UV and other portions of the spectrum for our (human) comfort. Your architect may be the one who knows best which material to use - maybe he could check out what they use in greenhouses - I would assume greenhouses require good PAR whilst limiting some heat (at least in the tropics).

Let us know what they say - I would be most interested to know....

[Morgan]

weisoon...will be interested in any information and cost you can get for the roofing.....thinking of replacing my polycarbonate tank shelter.

As for algae bloom....this happen when nutrient in the water is high.

[mv3i]

morgan ... think u can post a pic of your tank

a picture speak a thousand word !!!

[Morgan]

morgan ... think u can post a pic of your tank

a picture speak a thousand word !!!

[weisoon]

Morgan,

Just as I thought, algae is usually due to high phosphate, NO3 etc.

Spoke to my architect and he mention that the glass that people normally use for skylight are those that block UV. colour wise, most people use very light green tint, if I need anything special like marinebetta mentioned those that was used for greenhouse, he will have to do some research (because not many green house in Singapore)and get back to me.

Cost wise, he is keeping quite as to whether he is going to absorb if I want something more expensive. As re-building work out to be about $120 per square feet, will need to ask him if the contractor can do a small job like replacing existing shelter, and of course the price.

Concerning the corian, will check out with DuPont singapore office.

May take some time before i get all the infos.

Cheers.

[Morgan]

weisoon

Blocking out all the UV is not really good, coral need uv exposure for corals..

Look forward for your info.