AlexGs 4200 Gallon Display + 2100 gallon fish room? --- New House = New Build

[AlexG]

Fine work. Now can you please add some water to it so I can continue to live vicariously through you?

Working on it. A little closer everyday.

 

[squidarcher]

Looks amazing!!!

 

[revhtree]

I finally have completed the first fitting of my aquarium top brace. Once I get a couple modifications completed I will glue each section together.

UNREAL! Dude.....HURRY!

 

[AlexG]

Small Update

The running system seems to be doing well. Of all the new corals I have only a couple of monties are not fairing well which is a good sign since the new acros are still alive and a new chalice. I am going to send out another ICP test this week to see if the zinc levels are lower. I am also seeing signs of growth and alk consumption which is another good sign. Since the tiles have been removed the system seems to be doing well. Fish are still doing well just have not added any new fish for now however one of the mollies in the 700 gallon refugium tank had babies. The spearing mantis was in a molt when they were born so there were a bunch for the first week but anyone that was hanging out near the mantis lair is now missing once the mantis emerged from its molt.

I decided to recalibrate my pH probe and afterwards the apex was acting weird with my dosing pump bubble magnus turning off the outlet. The pH recalibrated lower so I wanted to make sure my kalk stirrer was properly dosing so I reprogramed the bubble magnus and placed the output line into a graduated cylinder. However nothing happened. After a bunch of reprograming, manual runs on the doser, and configuring the clock I realized that time was not advancing on the clock. I looked it up and its an issue that happens with the model bubble magnus I had. It was a hand me down from another setup and was fairly old. I did some manual kalk dosing small amounts like the doser but I needed a replacement. Luckily my local LFS had a slightly used Neptune Doser so I got that running today. I think this will work out better in the long run anyways since I have better programing options on dosing which I will need later down the line. Now I just need to get my pH raised up over the next week or two.

In my 25 gallon lagoon tank that is an Australian live rock experiment tank with 15lbs of live rock I have only added a single snail as an outside addition the rest is all critter that came out of the rock. I noticed yesterday something in the water column swimming very small less than a mm in size. I turned off the water flow and captured one to go under the microscope. I am getting some inital identifications as free swimming hydroids (planulae) and there were a bunch of them in this little tank that came to the surface once the flow was turned off. This is why I love live rock. I have had hydroids before and never consider them an issue or pest but I have never seen free swimming stage before. Like tiny jellyfish.

I also made another discovery I was happy to see and that is bioluminescent activity at night. I will have to see if I can get can catch one of these organisms to make an identification but I can confirm the tiny blue dots at the bottom of the red image are bioluminescent displays. I will try to capture some better images and video soon.

As for the build I just finished gluing the last top brace beam together yesterday. I am going to work on cross brace hole drilling this week and then I will assemble the top brace again with cross bracing again before I begin the next phase of the aquarium build.

 

[AlexG]

Update time

Happy to announce that I have finished construction of my aquarium top brace which was the last structural element I needed to build for the display aquarium.

 

[Sltloser]

Looks awesome Alex! How many pieces of glass are you going to use on the long front side? I'm guessing they'll span between the upright posts so you don't see the seams?

 

[dca22anderson]

Love what you are doing!! Great progress!!

 

[AlexG]

Starting prep work for fiberglass. I made two test pieces to practice a mock tank bottom and top brace. First step was test the fiberglass resin on dried wood glue and test my DIY wood filler using fiberglass resin mixed with wood flour. The resin went over wood glue like it was not even there which is a plus in case I miss any wood glue residue while sanding. Wood filler also worked as expected. I then did a full coat or resin on the wood then waiting until it was tacky then applied more resin and a layer of 2oz chopped strand mat fiberglass. Fiberglass turned out fairly good but the outside corners of the top brace bubbled. I thought it might happen but this can be easily fixed by using two pieces that joint at the corner instead of bending over outside corners mostly for the top aquarium brace. I have woven mat fiberglass coming next week so I will cut off excess and fix the bubbles before I apply woven mat fiberglass. Once all that is done I will likely sand a bit then apply pond armor epoxy. Better to test on small pieces before starting on the 4200gallon display.

 

[AlexG]

Small Update

I am still sanding away and removing excess glue from the aquarium in preparation for fiberglass and water proofing. The return line rough in has been taken down and all the top tank brace sections have been detached detached from one another so I can start taking them down one by one for additional sanding as needed. I did use some old pond armor that is expired to test on the fiberglass test piece and I am happy with the results for a single coat. The pond armor could be removed from the fiberglass but it took some significant force with a screwdriver to cut it deep enough to reach the fiberglass. I have a new batch of pond armor on the way so I will perform another test with the new batch in the near future. I also picked up a couple of 4" inline vent fans for an upcoming DIY project for the build. I am going to first use these fans to vent out the waterproofing fumes once I tent the aquarium for water proofing. I have my woven mat fiberglass arriving this week for testing. Once that is completed I am going to start the waterproofing process starting with the 6' & 12' sections of the top aquarium brace which can be done outside in the garage since they will make it upstairs. The 24' and 30' sections of the top aquarium brace will need to be done downstairs. Its going to be a busy time but I think once preparations are completed the waterproofing itself will go relatively quickly.

 

[AXBROWN]

Small Update

I am still sanding away and removing excess glue from the aquarium in preparation for fiberglass and water proofing. The return line rough in has been taken down and all the top tank brace sections have been detached detached from one another so I can start taking them down one by one for additional sanding as needed. I did use some old pond armor that is expired to test on the fiberglass test piece and I am happy with the results for a single coat. The pond armor could be removed from the fiberglass but it took some significant force with a screwdriver to cut it deep enough to reach the fiberglass. I have a new batch of pond armor on the way so I will perform another test with the new batch in the near future. I also picked up a couple of 4" inline vent fans for an upcoming DIY project for the build. I am going to first use these fans to vent out the waterproofing fumes once I tent the aquarium for water proofing. I have my woven mat fiberglass arriving this week for testing. Once that is completed I am going to start the waterproofing process starting with the 6' & 12' sections of the top aquarium brace which can be done outside in the garage since they will make it upstairs. The 24' and 30' sections of the top aquarium brace will need to be done downstairs. Its going to be a busy time but I think once preparations are completed the waterproofing itself will go relatively quickly.

I set this up in the room my tank is in and it helped considerably with humidity. Love this AC infinity unit!

 

[AlexG]

Almost ready to start the fiberglass work for the display. As part of my preparation I corrected the one top aquarium brace beam that was not straight which required me to cut through most of the beam, add a spacer, then repair by turning that small section into a 4"x4" block. On a side note I also picked up a set of gloves and a clam knife so I can shuck live clams for the puffer. I decided to feed a clam at night since the regal angel and spanish hog can really bother the puffer when its trying to eat.

 

[AlexG]

It was a fun weekend of prep work and fiberglass. I have tented the display tank and added active ventilation for when I am applying fiberglass and epoxy for water proofing. The 4" vent fan does a great job of creating a negative pressure in the tent and pulling in fresh air from the house to vent the fumes outside when I used some DIY wood filler using wood flour and fiberglass resin. In the garage I prepped fiberglass and started applying fiberglass to 4 top aquarium brace beams that fit out of the basement. I ran through most of the gallon of resin I purchased for testing but did not finish any of the beams in the garage. I am going to use the remainder of the resin I have to hopefully complete wood filling on the 24' & 30' beams along with the aquarium bottom. Then I am going to precut the fiberglass for the remaining beams and aquarium bottom. Once my resin order arrives I should be ready to start fiberglass work I was taking notes on how many oz of resin was used/sqft for coating the wood, chopped strand mat, wood filler, and woven cloth. I then calculated my total sq/ft that needs fiberglass which was ~317sq/ft. I have ordered what I believe will be all the resin and fiberglass that I need.

Fiberglass Steps I am taking:

1. Put on safety glasses, gloves, respirator
2. Prep removing excess wood glue residue and sanding
3. Cleaning to remove dust
4. Mix and apply DIY wood filler using resin and wood flour
5. Sanding wood filler and cleaning
6. Pre-cut chopped strand mat and woven fiberglass for each side of the beam with labels
7. Apply coat of fiberglass resin to wood that will get fiberglass and wait min 45min
8. Apply more resin to wood, lay chopped strand mat fiberglass, wet out fiberglass with resin, roll fiberglass smooth
9. Wait 24hrs, then inspect and remove and excess fiberglass using an abrasive blade, remove any bubbled areas that did not bond to wood
10. Clean beams again
11. Apply more resin on the beams, apply patches if needed, then apply woven cloth fiberglass, wet out fiberglass, then roll
12. Wait 24hrs then inspect, cleanup and patch if needed
13. Repeat process until completed

 

[AlexG]

Forgot to attach the photos

 

[Smoke-Town]

Unbelievable build. Flawless meticulous craftsmanship. 2.5 years of patience and discipline that would give a Tibetan Munk a run for his money. Can't wait to see this in action. This dream tank is on a whole nother level

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Whats unbelievable is the wife. Here you are taking up the entire basement with a fish addiction but you also spend all your time and some major bucks putting it all together. Very few wifes would put up with that. She's a keeper.

 

[AlexG]

Unbelievable build. Flawless meticulous craftsmanship. 2.5 years of patience and discipline that would give a Tibetan Munk a run for his money. Can't wait to see this in action. This dream tank is on a whole nother level

Thanks. Its a labor of love. If I keep my pace of work up I am hoping to have the display finished and potentially in fill testing this year.

 

[AlexG]

Whats unbelievable is the wife. Here you are taking up the entire basement with a fish addiction but you also spend all your time and some major bucks putting it all together. Very few wifes would put up with that. She's a keeper.

I keep telling my wife that she is the coolest wife ever. I always tell her she has a fan club of reef keepers out there.

 

[GBRsouth]

I keep telling my wife that she is the coolest wife ever. I always tell her she has a fan club of reef keepers out there.

Your wife, Dave Andersons's wife and Andrew Sandler's wife should start the Awesome Reef Wives Club! And they can sign up others I've not mentioned.

Oh, and something I've posted on Dave's thread before that applies to you and Andrew. You three need to hold seminars on gaining permission from significant others!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking awesome, Alex!

 

[Nate Chalk]

Dude. What. Can the concrete even take this much weight :O I thought my 200G+ DIY build was nutz