Fishfreaks' 400 Gallon build

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Looking forward to reading and seeing this setup go in.

[snow1]

This looks great! It will look cool once it's all done.

[lastlight]

Awesome start to a build thread. Love those dimensions. My only concern is the stand. Looks to have no horizontal bracing or plywood cladding on any sides to prevent the whole thing from tilting in either direction. Good luck with a quick possession.

[Skimmerking]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wood , wood and wood nails , screws i can almost smell the drywall mud mmmmmmmmmmmm good ..

love it man

[Lance]

Looking good! I like the dims of the tank. You're going to love the 36" depth.

[Fishfreak]

lastlight Awesome start to a build thread. Love those dimensions. My only concern is the stand. Looks to have no horizontal bracing or plywood cladding on any sides to prevent the whole thing from tilting in either direction. Good luck with a quick possession.

To be honest I don't care much for the stand design. I initially had planned on having a tubular steel stand made for the tank but because I didn't want the tank recessed on the display side and wanted it flush with the wall, the builder wanted to build the stand for me to make finishing the display easier for them. They offered to do this for free and said that the stand would be clad with plywood (to clarify they have never done a fish tank feature before and have no experience or really know anything about reef tanks). As you will see in the pictures to come, they ended up cladding the stand only with drywall. My brother in law is an engineer and when I showed him the picture today, he agreed that it should have horizontal bracing or be clad with plywood. I will have to get the builder to change this. I hate how they braced it vertically underneath. I virtually have no real-estate for equipment. I had planned on putting the sump against another wall anyway but a more open area under the stand would be nice.

[Fishfreak]

Tank move day was on July 15 '10. We initially planned to drive the tank down to our walkout basement garden doors, remove the doors and bring the tank in that way. After a lot of consultation, we figured this would be the easiest. Due to all the rain we had the days prior, we couldn't get a truck back there or we would have been stuck for sure. So change of plans and we decided to go through the front door, straight down the stairs and into the basement. This meant we had to turn the tank on its side to get through the front door and that meant removing the external overflow. We accomplished the move with 8 guys at the garage where the tank was being stored and then 7 at the house because one got lost on the way out to the acreage. This didn't seem to matter and I am surprised how smooth the move actually went. When we first all saw the sheer size of the tank, the reactions were not to positive. This is a heavy tank. With an online aquarium calculator, I figure the tanks weighs approx 886 lbs, the overflow another 110 lbs( removed before we brought into the house ) plus the eurobrace, cleats on the inside bottom and plywood mount, so well over a 1000lbs. It is amazing though what a few friends, 8 suction cups, a couple of dollys and raw human strength can move. No one got injured and once the overflow was removed, we had the tank through the door, down the stairs and on to the stand in about half an hour.