Help with beginning a conversion to a reef!

The aquarium has been located on a load bearing wall perp. to the joists for a few years now when it was FW. But considering the 30gal sump, 120lbs live rock, and 150 lbs of sand this will be considerably heavier than the old FW tank. 185lbs/sqft actually. Considering the design load of a floor is 40 lbs/sqft, Im a little concerned.

My father is a structural engineer. We talked about it today and hes concerned about it too. I drew up the locations and joist/beam positions under the tank and he's going to have a look at it tomorrow. We will likely over design a solution and will probably reinforce the floor with with an additional load bearing 6x6 wall directly underneth the load. Next Sat will be a great day to do this since Ill be emptying the aquarium at that time. It sorta sucks since my main hobby is RC planes and helis and thats where my building area is. Ill have to re-arranged to accommodate a new wall, but I think Id rather have a safe house than not. Funny how projects go from simple to complex in a real hurry. Especially if you are me.

 

in reality the extra weight of the rock and sand in the tank is acutaly offset by water displacement so there realy isn't extra weight other than the sump wich will only be 2/3 full unless power goes out then water from display tank will move to sump

if you are realy worried about it you can move your sump into the basement this will also give you much more room for the equipment and other stuff

not to mention less weight on the floor above to worrie about making only about 800 to 1000 lbs

 

Not a bad idea really. I would just have to increase the pump size to offset the head increase...something to think about.

Hmm...that would also allow me to do additives and water changes from the basement, which might help keep things clean.

 

I disagree here tazzy it's "not offset" LR being more dense than water and depending on what type of LR you buy.
SAND, is MORE porus but soaks water up , and water will be at the bottom
of the tank as well. so its not really off by weight ratios

I figured my tank weighs roguhly 300 hundred pounds
+ 200 pounds of sand + 220 gallons of water(1760pnds)
= 2260 total pnds. ( thats a crap load of weight on any stand but can be easaly held up if made perfectly level )
naturaly if you wanna add some 250 pnds of LR rock as well ( im sure some water will be off set but best to figure for
all "known" weights that will be there )

2X4's work well for legs if multiplied together
If im not mistaken a 2X4 can withstand 1500 pnds per square inch ,
of course the taller the "leg" made the less stAble it will become , hence
I screwed 3 pieces of 2x4 together @ 30 inch tall legs and have mine sitting
on 6 of them ( it's over kill but will withstand the weight and any inperfections of being level for a long time )

 

Got the engineering back today and looks like some slight modifications in the basement will make it a safe bet. We will simply post up directly under the tank with 4x4 and blocking to prevent them from moving.

Contacted an electrician adn hes going to come out and give me a quote to put in 3 gfci outlets off a separate fuse or 2 so that will give me 6 plug ins which I think should be enough. Now Im just trying to estimate power usage.

You guys mind if I use this as my build thread or should I start a new one?

 

Actually I just went through the calc for electrical draw so the electrician can get me a quote and I was shocked (see what I did there? ) at the amount of power something like this can use.

I came up with 3000 watts / 21 amps as an approx figure when everything is running. Thats no joking around right there. A dedicated circuit seems like a sensable choice.

 

I was thinking about all this stuff yesterday and it occured to me that I could use the existing pump and sump if I downsized to a smaller tank. As I thought about this the more excited about it I get. I figured Im a product designer by trade so Im going to take this as an opportunity to design and build my own tank that will fit my living space and budget and operating budget better than the 75 will.

Im leaning toward a tank that is 24x24x15, a 15" deep cube. This will rougly be 30 gallons. Ill have a 10 gallon sump under the tank so effectively Ill have 40 gallons. I will have the tank as an open top to view down into the tank, and the shallow depth of the aquarium coulped with a 4" sand bed will allow me to use PC lights rather than MH, saving me the long term operating expense, potentially saving me the heat transfer (although a chiller if necessary will be far less expensive to purchase and operate on this tank) saving me the need to re-wire another circuit, saving me the weight issues, and creating something that in the long term will, IMO, be a nicer aquarium.

I have a friend who owns a glass shop that will cut the glass and drill it for me. Im thinking a center overflow drain rather than a box so flow isnt inturrupted, with the return near the center. That means Ill only have a single 90 degree bend in the tubing as well, and I can use my existing rio 1700 pump for the sump. Im still deciding whether or not to go with powerheads or a plumbed in system at this point.

Anyway, when I realized that my operating expense for this aquarium at 75 gallons would be 70 bucks a month, I decided to look at other options and Im glad I did, and Im glad you all helped me come to this conclusion as well.

Jason

 

operating cost of cl vs powerheads will be cheaper for the cl usualy most high flow powerheads draw a lot of power depending on the pump you can get a 2000gph pump that will run a closed loop much cheaper power wise

as for your over flow I would keep it toward the back as it will be easier to hide in the long run

marc

 

Now Im weighing the benefits of an aquarium I build against an all in one. As far as all in ones go, what are your thoughts on the 34 gallon Solana? Will the lights absolutely need replacement to fill my coal goals?

What about the CADlights 39 signature? Same deal, the lights need changing out?

 

most of the time all in one systems still end up needing a remote fuge sump and normaly a upgraded lighting system