EternityBC's 450g 12 feet of floating fun

[eternitybc]

I have always wanted to do one of these tank builds but never seemed to get around to it. Since I hope this is the last time I upgrade my tank (fingers crossed) I figured I would give it a shot. My wife and I have been in the hobby for about 12 years now slowly progressing from a 5 gallon to having multiple 100+ tanks.

This all started when I just finished setting up 125 in the living room last year.



I even had my fish room plumbed into the basement and had everything well underway.






It included a easy inline water change system where I could isolate 20 gallons (bottom Bin) with a 3 way, dump it into the drain, then gravity transfer 20 gallons RODI (top bin) into it within 30 seconds. I would just add salt and then return it into circulation once mixed.

So..........
That was all great except by the time it was setup we had already outgrown the 125 and I didn't want to keep multiple display tanks anymore. So instead of starting the quarantine process with new fish, we made the hard decision to start again and this time we are going BIG. As Big as we can.

That left us with this 144x22x33, and yes it's going to float in the air with the bottom open
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I put together a PVC frame to get an idea of the size.
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Now I wanted to go a lot deeper, but 22" was already right up to the window sills. Having dealt with tall tanks before, the 33 is going to be a pain, but I love the look and the extra water volume, so it will be worth it. It's going to make my aquascaping a little tricky but I have 100 pounds of branch rock that should help.

I have been planning this build on and off for the last year or so and we're about 6 months into the build. We have the tank on the way from Concepts, LVLs in place, and fish room gutted. I will try to post each major step in the next weeks to get up to current date.

Next post, the support beams. 5-1/4 x 18" PSL2.2E Monsters

[hillegom]

Go big or go home?
I want to see the build.
Keep the pics coming

[WarDog]

Oh this is going to be good. Can't wait!

[eternitybc]

So the first step was the structural engineer. At 8.6 pounds per gallon we're nearing 4000 pounds just to start, add the glass weight, rock, sand, beams, etc and we're easily approaching 6000. The tank is 3/4 sapphire glass and the bottom can't deflect more than 1.5mm over the 12 foot span.

Now luckily the room sides are directly over the foundation so we came up with a plan to embed two sets of 16 foot LVL beams into the walls on each side.



Now with the structure figured out it was time to try and find someone to build it. This proved a lot harder than you would think, after having a bunch of people look at the job we finally found a company that could pull it off.

And so it began:
The beams were so large they only could be moved by crane.


How do you get two 16 foot 1000 pound beams in the house? Well you cut a hole in the side of it


They had to cut through the floor and make sure the weight was directly transferred onto the foundation:


Each beam was tied together along the full length. Here is a shot from below.


When it was all done we had a floating shelf spanning from wall to wall.


And finally here is a mock up of what we're planning to do on the face of the beam. With the bottom open and lit up with a led strip.

[hillegom]

that was a lot of work. You will have to stay in that house for a while.
Looks sharp.
I"m glad you had an engineer to help
Tank next.
I am waiting for water Woohoo

[Ryancw]

Incredible, i cant wait to see more.

One of my favorite parts of build threads is peoples creativity and ability to tie it into the home rather than just a tank, on a stand, in a room.

Great work