EternityBC's 450g 12 feet of floating fun

[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

[eternitybc]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Sadly no tank yet, it's with the movers and scheduled for delivery on July 6th which has me both terrified and thrilled.

Here it is being built:




3/4 Sapphire all around. Overflow on one side with three 1.5 bulkheads, and two 1" return holes on the other. We put holes along the top back brace to allow for 4-6 gyre to be positioned along the back wall. I plan on putting 2 MP60s and 2 MP40s on the sides.

Since the tank sits almost against the wall I needed to make room for the Gyre magnets and a way to hide all the cables. I put together some recess boxes:


Here are all four done:


Each has a hole in the bottom so I can run cables down below the tank.


Here it is all mudded and painted:

[bauder1986]

Now this...this I must follow