L Coast to coast with euro brace

[XLIII]

Planning 66*30*30 acrylic with bean animal pipes on a short end. My aquascape plan would very easily support an L shape across most of two sides, but I hear it will be difficult to access and clean with euro bracing, or have to lower operating tank level significantly.

1. How much maintenance do you need to do on internal weirs?

2. How deep and wide wide would this extra long weir box need to be?

3. If going to external overflow is better, would it be better just to have bulkheads to the bean pipes box and forgo any type of surface skimming? What height should these be relative to drains?

 

[lapin]

I built a 5'x5'x3' tank. The overflow is 4' long and 12"x12". If the overflow was internal I would have a hard time removing the screens from the down pipes to the sump to clean them. Not only that you will need to clean the teeth of the overflow. I would make the overflow as long as possible for more surface skimming area. By speading it out it will make the flow into the box a bit more quiet.

 

[Mikeltee]

I built a 5'x5'x3' tank. The overflow is 4' long and 12"x12". If the overflow was internal I would have a hard time removing the screens from the down pipes to the sump to clean them. Not only that you will need to clean the teeth of the overflow. I would make the overflow as long as possible for more surface skimming area. By speading it out it will make the flow into the box a bit more quiet.

That's awesome! Do you mind if I ask what you have invested in the acrylic? Is there a good source online?

 

[lapin]

The tank cost me about $5000.00 to build. I think the 2 sheets of 1" acrylic was about $3600.00 plus a fee for them to CNC router my cuts. I used Weld-On #40 for the seams. Now this was 10 years ago. I bought the plastic from a local supplier. We have 2 here in Austin. At the time I was quoted $20,000.00 form various tank builders

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

The tank cost me about $5000.00 to build. I think the 2 sheets of 1" acrylic was about $3600.00 plus a fee for them to CNC router my cuts. I used Weld-On #40 for the seams. Now this was 10 years ago. I bought the plastic from a local supplier. We have 2 here in Austin. At the time I was quoted $20,000.00 form various tank builders

Contact us for your next one. We can save you money.

 

[lapin]

Funny that they can build me the same tank for less than the cost of the acrylic.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

Funny that they can build me the same tank for less than the cost of the acrylic.

We would not build this tank. What I meant is we can provide you the cut pieces. Do it all the time for other fabricators. We possibly buy for lower prices too. Maybe.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

The tank cost me about $5000.00 to build. I think the 2 sheets of 1" acrylic was about $3600.00 plus a fee for them to CNC router my cuts. I used Weld-On #40 for the seams. Now this was 10 years ago. I bought the plastic from a local supplier. We have 2 here in Austin. At the time I was quoted $20,000.00 form various tank builders

Our price to you for this cut set including cnc would be $2,100. Plus about $300 shipping. Cell cast..944 actual.

 

[areefer01]

Interesting - I had reached out to you, Tenecor, and was told no custom builds or light mods to your standard size builds.

Planning 66*30*30 acrylic with bean animal pipes on a short end. My aquascape plan would very easily support an L shape across most of two sides, but I hear it will be difficult to access and clean with euro bracing, or have to lower operating tank level significantly.

1. How much maintenance do you need to do on internal weirs?

2. How deep and wide wide would this extra long weir box need to be?

3. If going to external overflow is better, would it be better just to have bulkheads to the bean pipes box and forgo any type of surface skimming? What height should these be relative to drains?

OP - I do no maintenance on my weirs. In fact my overflow is a bit of a rubble junk drawer and a mini refugium. I have a pair of matted gorilla crabs in mine. Great place for snails, pods, mini stars, and everything else to thrive while the crabs get anything that goes over the overflow...

With regards to size the only thing I would suggest is make sure you factor in your plumbing size. Bulkhead + BA parts. If you are going with a Bean Animal overflow in the true form follow his directions and design. In short make sure you can accommodate the bulkhead, pipes, tees, etc.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

Interesting - I had reached out to you, Tenecor, and was told no custom builds or light mods to your standard size builds.



OP - I do no maintenance on my weirs. In fact my overflow is a bit of a rubble junk drawer and a mini refugium. I have a pair of matted gorilla crabs in mine. Great place for snails, pods, mini stars, and everything else to thrive while the crabs get anything that goes over the overflow...

With regards to size the only thing I would suggest is make sure you factor in your plumbing size. Bulkhead + BA parts. If you are going with a Bean Animal overflow in the true form follow his directions and design. In short make sure you can accommodate the bulkhead, pipes, tees, etc.

Correct. That is why I said we would not build this tank. Precut kits we offer to lots of fabricators.

Edit: the reason we don't build a tank like this is because it requires a long cure time the actual labor to put it together is only about 90 minutes. Then it sits around for up to two weeks curing and that is space we need for our regular production.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

Our price to you for this cut set including cnc would be $2,100. Plus about $300 shipping. Cell cast..944 actual.

Sorry. I made a mistake. I quoted oversize sheets. It would have been $1,400 plus shipping.

 

[XLIII]

OP - I do no maintenance on my weirs. In fact my overflow is a bit of a rubble junk drawer and a mini refugium. I have a pair of matted gorilla crabs in mine. Great place for snails, pods, mini stars, and everything else to thrive while the crabs get anything that goes over the overflow...

With regards to size the only thing I would suggest is make sure you factor in your plumbing size. Bulkhead + BA parts. If you are going with a Bean Animal overflow in the true form follow his directions and design. In short make sure you can accommodate the bulkhead, pipes, tees, etc.

Thanks for the input, I think I am leaning toward a hybrid: internal is only for water skimming and could be maybe wiped down squeezing under the bracing, connected by relatively open bulkhead to external to house plumbing for ease of access to screens and pipes as recommended earlier.

 

[XLIII]

I built a 5'x5'x3' tank. The overflow is 4' long and 12"x12". If the overflow was internal I would have a hard time removing the screens from the down pipes to the sump to clean them. Not only that you will need to clean the teeth of the overflow. I would make the overflow as long as possible for more surface skimming area. By speading it out it will make the flow into the box a bit more quiet.

Thanks for the dimensions, about double my plan so it's good to know an approximate overflow size