Insanity Fair

[Pumpkinate]

As promised in this recent thread

http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/8827-Creating-a-plant-wall

I will put up photos of my current project. The project is covered in detail (probably too much!) on my local forum:

http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthread.php/29458-Insanity-Fair

My intention is, in the next 5-10 years, to build a very large planted aquarium which would be around 25000 litres and lit by the sun. I thought it best to do a smaller tank first as a trial run. So the aims of this project are:

1. To get experience in constructing concrete aquariums
2. To see how feasible it is to do this as an entirely DIY project (despite being an office worker)
3. To assess if this can be successfully done using swimming pool fittings and thus keeping the cost relatively low
4. To assess how practical it is to set up and maintain a larger planted tank

The main difference between this project and the later larger tank (except for the size) is that this one will be lit artificially.

I have just finished the tank construction but the tank isn't wet yet.

Building a block stand:

 

[Pumpkinate]

Adding some 40mm swimming pool pipes:

Filling the cores:

Stand finished:

 

[Pumpkinate]

It was decided to use this coil tie system for holding the forwork together:

The formwork was constructed in the shed and then brought up disassembled to the house:

Outer formwork shell being assembled:

Reinforcing steel being placed:

Swimming pool skimmer box:

 

[Pumpkinate]

All penetrating pipes were surrounded with a ring of a waterproofing agent which swells when wet:

Inner box formwork going in:

Reinforcing steel finished:

 

[Pumpkinate]

Joists and walers:

And on the inside:

Ready to pour:

 

[Pumpkinate]

The aim was to pour the tank in one go so that a virtually waterproof monolithic structure was achieved. Concrete's fluidity is measured by the slump test where an upside down cone of wet concrete is allowed to slump on the ground:

I specified a slump of greater than 250mm, so the concrete was like treacle.

Concrete was pumped into one corner and allowed to flow throughout formwork mold:

 

[Pumpkinate]

After a very nervous month's wait (I was worried that the concrete might not have flowed throughout the formwork adequately) I removed the formwork. It took all day for my friend and I to do this.

Success! The concrete was marble smooth and there were no voids at all.

 

[Pumpkinate]

Internal dimensions approximately 3 by 1.25 by 1m. Yes, could have been constructed with other materials, but remember the point of this project in post 1.

Removing the formwork cones:

All cone holes masked and then filled with epoxy filler:

Acid etching the concrete in preparation to sealing it:

 

[Pumpkinate]

The inside was painted with an epoxy paint, here is the back wall done:

Starphire glass sitting in place:

I used bits of cut up chopping board to centre and support the glass:

Silicone was injected into the space after the glass was clamped in. A mirror was used to see how the gap was filling.

I was happy with the result:

 

[Pumpkinate]

Note that the tank will be built into a wall so the blocks and concrete will be covered in plasterboard (I haven't got to this yet).

I did not want to go to this trouble and then have a noisy room so all equipment had to be outside. When the tank was poured I also poured this slab for a pumphouse:

The brick wall took me several weekends:

Shed virtually finished:

Note that it was deliberately positioned in front of the window... the reason will become apparent.

Continuing with the swimming pool theme, a swimming pool pump:

A deep bed swimming pool sand filter:

Just mechanical filtration, yes, but with 90kg of sand it will have some biological activity too. With a heavily planted and lightly stocked tank I feel it won't need any more. The nice thing about swimming pool filters is the ease of maintenance.... You can back flush them to clean them and if you do this as your water change you pump the water out of the tank very quickly.

 

[Pumpkinate]

filter and pump in position:

Plumbing fittings laid out in preparation to gluing:

I used mostly 50mm pipes to minimise resistance.

Pipework completed:

 

[Pumpkinate]

behind the tank the pipes look like this:

All pipes were passed through an insert in the window so if I ever sell the house and need to get rid of the tank I haven't made any holes in my brickwork:

The thing on the shelf in the pump house is an autoleveller (another swimming pool fitting!):

It maintains a certain water level but also has an emergency overflow. The autolevelling pipe can be seen here inside the house:

 

[Pumpkinate]

Explanation of plumbing:

1. Incoming water from tank with isolating valve (for when working on shed equipment)
2. Fresh water branch. A hose comes in through the back wall and attaches to this. The tap allows water to be introduced to the circulation for a water change, and that way gets heated before entering the tank. Note that I am on rainwater and so no water treatment is required. There is a branch hose nipple visible that will connect to the auto-leveller.
3. Pump
4. Filter
5. Pipe to heater
6. Pipe returning from heater
7. Branch lines and valve to run UV steriliser (still on my pond outdoors)
8. CO2 branch line
9. Water returns to aquarium and isolating valve. Note that at first glance the valve appears to have been put in backwards but it was done like this deliberately as the valve is purely to prevent backflow from the tank when the pump is off.
10. Autoleveller

 

[Pumpkinate]

Just yesterday an electrician connected power points and a light in the shed. Note the heavy duty cable for the heater:

 

[Pumpkinate]

I made up this frame to hold the lights out of 25mm aluminium:

Hanging in place:

Lights are 4 400W MH's. Sounds like a lot but I'm going to hang them high to allow for the full 125cm front-to-back width of the tank.

Reflector(these are huge!!):

Electronic ballast:

Testing a single light:

 

[Tom Barr]

Why did you not use Cree LED's?

Seems like a no brainer for a larger tank like this and since you have a lot of DIY already, might as well, will save you 2-3x the energy cost of MH's.

They also make some larger 10W LED's that are very bright and might be simpler to make/wire up.

You'd only need about 1 w/gal of tank for the Cree.
Huge energy savings over 1 year.

Not much more initial cost vs MH's.

 

[Pumpkinate]

Why did you not use Cree LED's?

Seems like a no brainer for a larger tank like this and since you have a lot of DIY already, might as well, will save you 2-3x the energy cost of MH's.

They also make some larger 10W LED's that are very bright and might be simpler to make/wire up.

You'd only need about 1 w/gal of tank for the Cree.
Huge energy savings over 1 year.

Not much more initial cost vs MH's.

If I was buying the lighting now I wouldn't use the MH's. I bought the lights almost 2 years ago, long before I started the project and at that time the MH's were the cheaper option, especially as they were on special. Also, I have a 10kW solar panel and in this country you can sell electricity to the government at a higher rate than you buy it back, so I do not actually end up paying electricity bills. The other lighting that looks promising is plasma discharge, but that is still expensive.

 

[Tom Barr]

Another thing might be the noise issue from the larger pump. Often it is better to use 2 smaller pumps and then if you need to replace or service one, you have a back up.

At least you are wise enough to spend $ on solar, then a nice electric car would be a good car for you
No energy or gas bills.

 

[Pumpkinate]

Another thing might be the noise issue from the larger pump. Often it is better to use 2 smaller pumps and then if you need to replace or service one, you have a back up.

At least you are wise enough to spend $ on solar, then a nice electric car would be a good car for you
No energy or gas bills.

Noise shouldn't be a problem.... the pump shed was built almost sealed (except for a vent) to keep out the enormous spiders we get round here. Then there is a space, then a double brick wall, then the aquarium which will have a stud wall before the noise can get to me in the house. The only other noise will be from an extractor fan above the lights but it's a low noise one in a duct about 3 m from the vents.

Also, no neighbours... I live on 70 acres.

We will see, but I reckon you would be hard pushed to hear any noise from this tank once the stud wall is in.

 

[ShadowMac]

It is an incredible build. I will enjoy following this project.

Sounds like you have a nice home. I especially like selling electricity to the govt. from your solar panel. Aussies are very environmentally conscious from what I have heard.