Fishfreaks' 400 Gallon build

[Fishfreak]

So after lurking around here for over 4 years and quietly learning a lot from fellow members, I figured with this build I should start a tank journal and maybe I will gain some new advice or even give others some ideas. I haven't posted here very much but sure do spend significant amounts of time on Canreef and most of what I have learned has been invaluable.

I will begin with a little history. I started with my first reef tank back in December of '05. It was a simple 65 gallon non-drilled perfecto tank. I told my wife that this was more than I ever needed, but the saltwater bug hit me pretty hard and by the fall of '06 I upgraded to a standard 150 Gallon AGA aquarium. I must say my wife has been incredibly supportive in the pursuit of this crazy hobby and none of this would have happened without her . The 150 is my current tank right now. We had our first child in Dec of '06 and since have had 2 more and basically ran out of room in our current house. So we decided to build on an acreage southeast of Edmonton last fall. I always told my wife if we ever were to move, it would make sense to upgrade to a new tank since I would have to break down my current tank anyways. Thankfully she agreed and this is where the new tank comes into the picture. We decided to build out the basement right away and basically designed it around an in wall 400 gallon tank with dedicated fish room behind it. The contractor didn't start on the house until January of this year, so at this time I ordered the tank because the contractor gave us permission to move the tank in before the house was completed, for obvious reasons such as size and logistics.

I ordered the tank from Marine Aquaria here in Edmonton back on Jan 27 '10 and it was completed some time in April and has been in storage until now. I got to say Marine Aquaria did an exceptional job. It was exactly like I planned it. It looks amazing and not only am I happy about it, but I am sure my fish are going to love their new home as well. Especially my Achilles, who has lived in the 150 for over 3 years now. So without further rambling, here are the details of the tank and sump:

The tank is 400 gallons and made of 3/4 glass.
Dimensions are 96 x 36 x 27H with front pane made of starphire.
Coast to coast external overflow.
Back of tank covered in black acrylic with acrylic/vinyl black sides.
Both sides of the tank are drilled with 3 holes, 1 intake and 2 outlets for closed loop.
Bottom of tank has a plywood mount.

The sump is custom made of glass and dimensions are 72 x 24 x 16H

So currently our house is at the finishing stage. We were able to move the tank in on July 15 and unfortunately it is now a waiting game. The builder still can't give us a possession date or won't (I am not sure what the case is) but I figure it will at least be another 2 months or so till It will be up and running. The tank move was very weather dependent because our house is still a construction site and Edmonton has had a lot of rain this year which made the clay around our house very sloppy and difficult to get a truck into. Well enough of all the reading and lets get to some pictures.

Basement and tank wall opening


Fishroom and the overbuilt stand that the builder insisted on building for me

Basement and tank wall opening with drywall


More pictures to follow soon.

[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.

[Fishfreak]

Pictures of the move. There are quite a few.

[Fishfreak]