My 52x28x28 reef tank in progress

[intensity888]

Len,

My house was built in the 50's with nearly the same spacing (13") and size of joists as yours. I called a contractor I was familiar with (25yrs experience). I told him about my tank (180) and estimated weight. He told me that on a load bearing wall with my support the maximum load would be 1500 lbs per square foot!

It never hurts to be careful, but maybe first you could not hire someone to do the work, just pay them a few bucks to give you a max load estimate. i'm sure it would be cheaper and maybe even free.

 

[Len]

Kevin, that's comforting to know. The contractor coming over next week will first assess the situation, but I may still have him strengthen it just in case of quakes or what not.

 

[intensity888]

sounds good. I will be interested to hear from you what their load estimate is also, so we can compare notes, so to speak. Being on the east coast, the possible quake scenario didn't even enter my mind, but we did have a supsected terrorist arrested in my neighborhood recently. maybe i need to bomb proof my living room.

 

[Len]

The floor is fortified The supporting joists were sistered, and additional cross beam was added, and four pillars added to support the cross beam (cemented to the concrete foundation). I'm waiting for the cement to cure, then in goes the sand tomorrow night Oh, I removed about 100 gallons of water and whatever gear I could to lighten the load during this process. There was simply no way I could remove the tank and stand.

 

[Anonymous]

Congrats, hun!!

 

[LA-Lawman]

go Len, Go!

 

[Anonymous]

I'll snap more photos soon. The bulk of today was spent patching up minor leaks and one major one. Suffice it to say, I recommend you tighten down bulkheads with a wrench or socket.

I second using a wrench. I hand tightened mine at first and no matter how tight I did it by hand it always leaked. One 1/2 turn with a wrench fixed it and I was comfortable that it would not crack the glass.

 

[Len]

180 lbs of Fiji LR ordered from Marine Depot. This weekend will be aquascaping. I'll snap photos when I can. Sand is settling down nicely (about 120 lbs of Special Grade and 30 lbs of sugar-sized Caribsea). There's a lot of fine aragonite powder at the surface that I will probably siphon out. I'll probably order another 30 lbs of live sand to increase biodiversity. So far, I have about 3" of sand. I was aiming for 2", but I can always remove sand later on.

 

[nanocat]

How much does it cost for a service like that?

I'm not sure if they regularly fill people's tanks up directly, but they had a scheduled LFS delivery in my area so they agreed to drop by. I doubt they'd fill a tank that's under a 100 gallons though (not worth their effort).

I may have gotten a super deal on this fill, so I don't feel comfortable in stating what I paid. Let's just say it wasn't much more then salt mix and less then drinking water you buy by the gallon at your supermarket.

I used to pay .25 a gallon, but recently I'm paying around .31/gallon at the LFS. Great stuff, Catalina water 8)

 

[Unarce]

Any updates or photos, Len?

 

[Len]

4 boxes (176 lbs) of Fiji rock is in there and the tank is aquascaped for the most part. I have another 40-50 lbs of Marshalls rock coming in today which will finish up the aquascape. After that, I have to plumb up my Deltec skimmer and AquaZ Orion media reactor (for carbon and maybe phosban). And I still haven't installed my lights yet.

I'll have pics over the weekend of the aquascape and hopefully the cabinent/plumbing.

 

[Anonymous]

Len do you pile the rock up or do you use a PVC frame?

 

[Len]

I don't use PVC framing. I did with a 50 gallon I had, but I prefer to arrange them without the framing. The rock is currently very secure but very porous, with a nice network of tunnels and open spaces.

 

[N Awe]

I have read some fish can dislodge the rocks. Is that a big concern? If so how did you stack the rock to prevent the landside. I am learning a lot following your setup. Thanks

 

[Len]

Hey N Awe,
:welcome:

I basically planned with simple physics - that is, big rocks on the bottom with lighter rocks on top. I feel comfortable with the structure when I can shake it aggressively with my hand and have nothing fall apart on me I also don't plan on getting fish that have the habit of knocking rocks around. I was going to get a grouper for this tank but have decided against it for this reason

 

[Len]

Ok, some really ugly shots of my aquascape in progress. I can't seem to get a sense of front-to-back dept right with my camera perspective, but hopefully it doesn't just look like a mountain of rock. When my lights are installed, I'll try again.

I plan on using SPS corals to finish up the aquascaping as well as cement the rockwork together. With their addition, it should be a lot easier to grasp the depth of field. But of course, that's at least a year's away

 

[Len]

The recessed cave and overhanging ridge (though you can't really tell in the photo)

 

[Len]

Another view of the same area with a little better depth perspective .... oh, and yes, the water is still yellow. I haven't got my skimmer and carbon pump plumbed properly yet.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet!

 

[Len]

The lower left portion. Again, the sense of perspective is all screwy.