Nemo's 1500 gallon 144 x 48 x 48 aquarium

[Kevin@Nemos]

This is a build in the making dating back to May 4th 2021. This would be a back dated chronical of the build progress of this beautiful home and the aquarium that it surrounds. This home was designed around a 1500 Gallon full reef aquarium engineered to hold the weight of a massive aquarium on the first floor. It's actually above a state of the are golf simulator! We stretched the capabilities of what glass can do with this 12 foot x 4 foot x 4 foot build. AGE (Acrylic and Glass Exabits) built the aquarium with a steel brace around the entire perimeter, 3/4 " Glass, Low iron on all 4 sides, with PVC bottom all on a 2 inch square tubular powder coated steel frame. This aquarium was a beast!

I hope you enjoy the chronicled build from May 2021 to Present.

In these attached you will find the stick build of the home and the aquarium that will be placed.

This is the divide the Office and main living area. Through the front doors the tank will be to your left. It is viewable from the entire first floor.

Here we laid out the basic plumbing and footprint of the aquarium stand. We called out the hole locations for this aquarium. We have 2x 1.5 returns ran to the basement , 3x 2" drains running to the basement, 2" water change hole, and a 3" emergency floor drain. This will result in 100' of plumbing to the mechanical room.

We hope to update this thread on the progress of the build. Be sure the follow along.

 

[am3gross]

yoooo this is gunna be super awesome!!! take lots of pictures so we can all see the progress! Congrats on the both new builds!

 

[mehaffydr]

Looking forward to the updates

 

[JMetaxas]

Subscribed.

 

[Kevin@Nemos]

So Aug 24th 2021. Delivery day has arrived for our build! This monster tank came in on it's own special trailer. This day was supposed to be a triumphant day but it actually turned into quite the nerve racking adventure. We contracted out AGE to preform the delivery and setting of the aquarium for us. MAN was that an adventure to say the least. The delivery driver showed up a day early before any of the AGE delivery people did; and he did not want to sit around overnight to wait for them to get here and wanted the tank off ASAP so he could leave. AGE and myself had to beg and buy the guy dinner and a hotel room to stick around. All while a 1500 Gallon aquarium and stand sat unguarded outside of the home overnight.

The next morning; man watching this was not for the faint of heart. I'm thankful I wasn't responsible during this process. They used a Lull and the operator that was onsite to move the aquarium off the pallet and onto the forks. Then onto a set of genie lifts to get aquarium into the house. Honestly I would have done it differently but it was delivered and set into place. I will reserve my thoughts on this. BUT it was delivered and set onto the stand successfully.

The house was built around the aquarium and will be the focal point for the entire first floor. We immediately wrapped the tank inside and out in foam and plywood to protect it during the construction process. I've heard many interesting things about drywallers.

 

[flagg37]

That looks nerve wracking. None of your videos are working. You’re probably best off uploading to YouTube and linking here.

 

[officialreefbros]

This looks crazy!! Can't wait to see it built out. Gotta ask, What do you do for work?

 

[choob99]

Any updates?

 

[McPuff]

Excellent

 

[o2manyfish]

Amazing project

Dave B

 

[scootPrime]

Can’t wait to see updates!

 

[lubeck]

Looks like a lot of fun. A beast. following.

 

[srcleary]

Following along. Exciting build!

 

[dca22anderson]

I'm in! This is going to be rad!

 

[SamsReef]

How is the construction coming along? Which state is this build in?

Sam

 

[D_Reep1106]

So Aug 24th 2021. Delivery day has arrived for our build! This monster tank came in on it's own special trailer. This day was supposed to be a triumphant day but it actually turned into quite the nerve racking adventure. We contracted out AGE to preform the delivery and setting of the aquarium for us. MAN was that an adventure to say the least. The delivery driver showed up a day early before any of the AGE delivery people did; and he did not want to sit around overnight to wait for them to get here and wanted the tank off ASAP so he could leave. AGE and myself had to beg and buy the guy dinner and a hotel room to stick around. All while a 1500 Gallon aquarium and stand sat unguarded outside of the home overnight.

The next morning; man watching this was not for the faint of heart. I'm thankful I wasn't responsible during this process. They used a Lull and the operator that was onsite to move the aquarium off the pallet and onto the forks. Then onto a set of genie lifts to get aquarium into the house. Honestly I would have done it differently but it was delivered and set into place. I will reserve my thoughts on this. BUT it was delivered and set onto the stand successfully.

The house was built around the aquarium and will be the focal point for the entire first floor. We immediately wrapped the tank inside and out in foam and plywood to protect it during the construction process. I've heard many interesting things about drywallers.

Kevin, it's Dillon. Give the people an update. Awesome build

 

[chrisdonzella]

tagging along!!

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Going to be remarkable.

 

[Kevin@Nemos]

I guess i've been really lazy and forgot about this build thread! Obviously this tank has been up and running and looking beautiful. But I can't just simply jump head and show the finished product. I want to try and recant all of the up's and down's throughout the process.

So we fast forward a few months into October December 2021 they started building the house around the aquarium literally. When the tank was originally set we had to keep it off of the stud walls several inches so drywall could be installed.

That left me with the incredible task of shifting the 1500 gallon aquarium to the left for it to rest against the wall and back several inches.

Now if anybody knows me in real life I'm a 5. 5 160 lb Asian guy. With a crowbar, viking arms and some ingenuity I did this by myself. I was able to get the tank jacked up just enough to get this PVC pipe underneath the stand to roll it into place. Look how much bend there was on that 1.5 inch pipe! I used it later for plumbing jk

The aquarium stand was built with a 3/4-in cantilever so that we could install drywall and give it a flushed look after the fact.

So going into leveling the tank as it's sat on the plywood subfloor. I noticed dimpling started to form on the leveling feet. I suppose generally speaking a tank this size would sit on a concrete slab but this sat on the first floor of some guys house. Engineered to hold it of course.

If you look closely in one of the pictures you can see the dimpling from the feet.

I was concerned that the dimpling would only get more severe as the tank sat there with added water weight.

So I had to go back and jack the aquarium stand up, lift up the bolts and slide the steel plate underneath each section of feet. And then relevel the entire tank again.

I don't know about you but that is an incredible task to achieve all by yourself without moving the tank off the stand.

So here's where design conflicts come into play. The homeowner was adamant on having a seamless drywall look around the front of the aquarium allowing access only from the back side. I yelled and screamed that that was a terrible idea. How could you possibly maintain a 12ft long, 4-ft tall, 4 ft deep tank with only 3/4 of rear access? You don't.

Oh well. We shall see what happens there.

 

[Kevin@Nemos]

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