Building an aquarium question.

[W.olly]

Hi all, i am in the planning for building an aquarium, now at the minute i am going with plywood and fibreglass. But there is always the choice of steel, the thing i am stuck on is what to seal the steel with on the inside, i would want it to last for many years and obviousley be fish safe.

So the Q is what could i seal the inside of the aqurium with, or even all of it in and out.

Thanks wayne

[big-all]

no sense off scale here
aquarium is that not a selection off tanks and pools???

[Hitch]

How would you see your fish.....

Or do you mean a tank stand?

[W.olly]

Well for the scale it is going to be around 1200 gallon, 9 x 7 x 3 foot.

There will be a viewing window in one side ,looking into the tank/aquarium from the conservatory.

I am either going to build from plywood/grp, conrete of either block or poured, or as here steel, just depends on build cost of all, i think steel would be expensive but worth looking into.

Glass is way out of my budget at around £5000 so thats a no no.

I can do all the fab work myself as allthe build work otherwisesoitalldown tomaterials.

My main concern is what to seal the inside of a steel tank with?

wayne

[big-all]

you have i believe 5.3cu.m. or 4 tons assuming 27% air space at the top
you will need a hefty structure off possibly 2 or 3 tons including tank

[Hitch]

If you need a sealed steel tank, just fully weld all joints on the inside....youd probably be looking at fairly decent plate thicknesses with some bracing.
Id be more concerned with the water issues.... unless you went down the stainless route...

[W.olly]

Thanks for the replys but the Q was

So the Q is what could i seal the inside of the aqurium with, or even all of it in and out.

[Hitch]

Im lost, i could probably help, but dont understand what you are trying to do. If you make a steel tank you would seal the corners with weld.

[W.olly]

An aquarium needs to be sealed from chemicals etc, all the nastys that will kill fish, like with concrete ponds, they needs to be sealed, with a pond sealer of some sort. G4 GRP etc
A mild steel tank would corrode ( stainless is to expensive ) not good on the fish i am keeping. It is for fresh water fish, not salt water.

Now i will be or would be welding al the seams etc, brace bars etc, but i need to find a good way to seal the tank from the water on the inside and maybe the out side.

I am not sure on the wall thickness as yet but i have decided to use U channel instead of box section as to save from rusting on the inside, this will be used alround for the brace/bearers and viewing window frame.

[kellys_eye]

What kind of 'poisons' do you expect to leech from plain old steel immersed in water? Personally I wouldn't bother.

[big-all]

mmmm ship wrecks make good reefs
they sink ships and even old railway coaches from the new your subway to act as reefs

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1643767620080517

[Stoday]

Powder coating?

[kellys_eye]

Powder coating?

doesn't that require a 'baking' process? Can't imagine getting that tank in an oven.....

[W.olly]

Well then, after looking into all the ways to do this, concrete block, poured concrete, all wood and resin seal plus more, i am going to go with a steel fame of maybe 3x2x1/4 U channel and a bit of 4x2 channel with a ply line and grp seal.....although it can change you see concrete block is cheaper but thern theres the concrete for the tank base, not the fish room base oooooo decisions, we will see i will be starting this in the new year once i have drawn up the plans and the slab base.

[Stoday]

Powder coating?

doesn't that require a 'baking' process? Can't imagine getting that tank in an oven.....

You take it to a commercial powder coater. Geez, if I said "hot dip galvanised" would you say you couldn't get it in a pot?