Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

[mseepman]

I chose to go the LED route, but I also chose DIY instead of fixtures. $5000 or more was too big a pill to swallow. My DIY light has come together really well so far and with the BJB connectors, it has been soooooo simple. Price wise, I'm looking at less than half the cost and a little elbow grease. I don't know electrical either, but it's coming together. You should look at Modular LED as an option. I hear they are simple to put together too.

[asylumdown]

At last! There is a tank!

Kevin and some guys were at the house today installing it. Wish I could have been there to document it (it's HUGE!), but I stopped in to take some pics this afternoon.

Dining room side


Office side


Overflows



Now, there's one problem that may or may not be major, and I'm hoping someone here can give me guidance. Kevin is headed out of town for the next 10 days and I don't think I'm going to be able to reach him, and they are literally putting the panel on the office side that will seal the tank in to the wall as we speak. After that, they will be mudding, taping, and tying the drywall in to the enclosure's corners, so removing the tank if this is a problem is going to become exponentially more destructive, expensive and time consuming, so I need to know if this is a problem now.

The plywood that the tank is sitting on is 3 inches thick, they had to build it up so that the cabinet framing had something other than the steel stand to attach to. When they made the plywood, it was bowed and the centre was higher than the sides, so they installed bracing on the underside to pull the plywood flat. It appeared to have worked, but now that the tank is on, I can see that there's like a quarter inch variance in height from the centre of the stand to the left and right sides. On the right side (when looking from the office), you can see all the way under the tank to the dining room.

Here's a pic of the foam/plywood interface in the centre of the tank:


Here's a pic of the foam plywood interface at the left edge (when looking from the office):


So my question is thus - how much allowance is there in that foam for compression? Will it compress enough to compensate for the slight bow in the plywood, or am I going to be looking at a snapped tank when I fill it with water? I really could use some guidance...

[lastlight]

That's really bad man. I'd never fill that sorry. Stand needs to be level even with foam. Foam is not really for compensating for an overall unlevelness in a surface but more for imperfections in an overall level surface.

[asylumdown]

yah, I thought so too. I just got off the phone with the builder, they're halting the finishing and are going to try and fix the plywood in the morning. If they can't get it to flatten out by adding more bracing to the underside, the entire enclosure needs to be ripped out.

This would be where I wish we could swear in this forum.

[Magma]

be thankful you caught it now and not later when its enclosed and the tank cracks after you fill it....

[asylumdown]

Man this is gutting.

Hopefully we can fix it with a thin layer of self leveller or something. Literally the entire enclosure is at some point anchored to that piece of plywood.

What's worse, I now need to explain to my fiancé that my aquarium will be the reason for another week or two delay to us moving in to our already months late house.

[mseepman]

Eek...I feel your pain. Every step in my new house feels like I'm centering it around the tank and no-one seems to understand why except me. Things like this seem okay to builders but to us....no way! I'm glad you caught it now.

[The Grizz]

Don't know what others think of it but there is an awful lot of air bubbles in the silicone holding your tank together there Adam, just my 2 cents .

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Don't know what others think of it but there is an awful lot of air bubbles in the silicone holding your tank together there Adam, just my 2 cents .

+1

It seems odd to have that many. I was wondering if it was just a close up shot and they were tiny, but after a second look, that's a lot of big bubbles.

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

+1

It seems odd to have that many. I was wandering if it was just a close up shot and they were tiny, but after a second look, that's a lot of big bubbles.

I thought that is plastic cover, else that is bad