Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

[asylumdown]

The finishing carpenter was there prepping the enclosure today. Site meeting with the builder, the finisher and Kevin on Friday to get exact final measures to place the glass order.

Dining room view:

We had to replace the original top sheet of plywood on top of the stand with a much thicker 3 inch piece of wood in order to have something to drill the door frames in to. Also, the MDF columns on either side needed to be wide enough to cover the steel legs of the stand in order for there to be enough clearance to attach the door hinges. In order to keep this view symmetrical, it means that about 3 inches of the right side and 5 inches of the left side of the tank will actually be covered up.

Office side view:

When I stopped by tonight, the finisher had also installed an MDF panel on the office side where the purple line is. It matched the front of the tank, but would have meant the tank couldn't have been installed without reducing it's length by 5 or 6 inches. I had him remove it (obviously), and we're redesigning the office side of the aquarium so that you'll be able to see 100% of the width of the tank. Depending on how the finished enclosure looks, I might also do cut-outs on the front side so less glass is hidden.

[mseepman]

Love seeing this coming together! What were the biggest hurdles in explaining what you wanted to accomplish to the builder? I am in the process of building a house around a tank and would love to know before I run into the same issues.

[lastlight]

Wow that is a thick piece of plywood! Certainly nothing I've ever seen at home depot etc.. you don't even need support in the middle with that thing lol.

Keep crackin' the whip I like what I'm seeing!

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Love seeing this coming together! What were the biggest hurdles in explaining what you wanted to accomplish to the builder? I am in the process of building a house around a tank and would love to know before I run into the same issues.

So far it's been communicating the requirements of the actual tank, which aren't really flexible. For example, the tank has been designed from the start to have 4 vortech pumps (either 4 MP40s or 2 MP40s and 2 MP60s) as the main source of circulation, and I had a really hard time explaining why I needed the joist spaces open on the left and right sides of the tank. I think carpenters are used to being able to make on the fly adjustments when real world conditions don't match drawings exactly, cheating certain measurements here and there, but in the case of an aquarium half an inch can be the difference between being able to use the pumps you want, or the protein skimmer you bought, or having easy access to a critical area.

I've approached it from the perspective of letting them know what my 'givens' are: things that absolutely must be adhered to from a functional perspective, like size of access points, clearances, etc. The outward design I don't care so much about and left that up to the guy who designed the house, so I just said as long as the givens are respected and built around, the finished product from a cabinetry point of view can be whatever it needs to be.

I've been doing it from the start, like after I explained it, the plumber and electrician knew why I needed the ability to bring water from the basement up to the tank cabinet, but I was the only one who ever really understood how critical that part of the design was to the tank functioning at all. So I just had them install the allowances I would need later on to make it all work the way I want. For code reasons they weren't able to run the electrical cords that will connect the pump and auto-top off system to the controller under the tank, so I had them install two empty conduits that run through the floor that are wide enough for me to thread cords and tubing through myself when it's time to set it all up.

Originally Posted by lastlight

Wow that is a thick piece of plywood! Certainly nothing I've ever seen at home depot etc.. you don't even need support in the middle with that thing lol.

Keep crackin' the whip I like what I'm seeing!

I think they actually made it on site, it's more than one sheet glued together. It's actually got a slight curvature to it, so they're building wooden braces on either side of the steel centre brace and installing some monster screws to pull the whole thing flat.

Also, Doug mentioned to me last night that MDF is a dangerous choice for building material in a tank enclosure. We had talked about that on site months ago and I was pretty sure we had that issue addressed, but to be on the safe side I checked with the carpenter today. They're actually not using MDF, it's an MDF like product called Medex which is more water resistant than MDF (and formaldehyde free, which is a definite plus around a tank!). All the Medex cracks/seams/joints are going to be caulked and sealed and then we're going to apply 2 layers of a 2 part exterior grade flexible epoxy coating. It's used in commercial and industrial applications and is also used as a liner material in swimming pools. The company doing the painting deals with marine aquariums all the time so I think it will be OK. It's more expensive than using something a little more water resistant like birch or paintable plywood, but the painted texture of MDF/Medex is a better match to everything else that's going on in the house.

[asylumdown]

Tank enclosure is coming along nicely! Had a meeting with everyone today for final measurements so we can place the glass order. Gained an inch in height, the tanks going to be 27 inches from top to bottom now. I'm probably going to put a 2 inch layer of sand in, so it will be 25 inches from the top of the water.

[lastlight]

Rock-on man love it!

You sure you don't want to have them do a solid sheet of plywood and then carve those lines with a crappy utility knife?

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Rock-on man love it!

You sure you don't want to have them do a solid sheet of plywood and then carve those lines with a crappy utility knife?

hehe, if it wound up looking anything like my first design studio shop project... I'm pretty sure I'd be headed for divorce.