The epic discus project

[bizfromqc]

I'd love a sump like this... except I'd use it as a display tank LOL
This is one massive tank/stand, it's going to look awesome.

I'm curious, what's the weight of the metal stand?

[fischkopp]

... maybe they will be nice enough to do a demo @ the next plant meeting  ...

Sure. Someone bring a tank and vinyl and we can stick it on.

Did you consider painting the plywood black as well?

No. I ironed some trimming to the edge of the bottom panel though. In it's finished state, the stand will be fully furnished with doors, so there is no need to paint the inside.

I'm curious, what's the weight of the metal stand?

It's big. When we saw it the first time we were joking that you could put a car on it! It will look less massive as soon as the tank sits on it. It's not too heavy. I can lift it, so it may be around 50kg? But you need two person to move it around because its quite big.

That was actually another point: We purposely chose the height to be the same as our kitchen counter, which is right next door. It places the tank on a very nice eye level once if you walk by or sit in front of it.

[exv152]

...My friend Ken knew an experienced welder, it was on me to organize the metal for the stand. Commercial stands are mostly build of cold rolled steel, which has the advantage of being stronger. That allows the use of thinner and hence lighter material. But it's also a lot more expensive, so hot rolled steel it was. I used square tubes, 2"x2", I can't recall the thickness though...

Very nice stand I must say. Do you know for sure if the four legs will sustain the overall weight of two tanks, which should be about 2000lbs with water? I'm not an engineer but wondering you had any other input from someone who would know. I've seen a similar shelf sold at lowes (w/welded joints) and it apparently can hold 2000lbs per shelf. But the shelf pieces are slotted and fall within precut holes in the posts.

[Stussi613]

Very nice stand I must say. Do you know for sure if the four legs will sustain the overall weight of two tanks, which should be about 2000lbs with water? I'm not an engineer but wondering you had any other input from someone who would know. I've seen a similar shelf sold at lowes (w/welded joints) and it apparently can hold 2000lbs per shelf. But the shelf pieces are slotted and fall within precut holes in the posts.

The weight of the two tanks will be evenly distributed across the entire frame, assuming that it was welded "true" which it appears to be, so the total weight on any given leg will be considerably less than 2000 pounds. The stands at Lowes have a 2000lb per shelf weight rating because it's likely that the tabs that go from the shelf into the frame likely have a 600lb shear stress rating, assuming there are 4 connection points from the shelf into the frame. It's very common for those types of systems to have a rating based on the amount of weight that will exceed the ability of any, or all, of the tabs, to succumb to shearing.

Since the tanks weight will be distributed across the entire frame assembly of each level the biggest consideration would be the shear stress rating of the joints holding the cross member pieces to the vertical supports. Without knowing the type of weld used to join them it's hard to calculate what the max shear weight would be, not to mention that the tank will be sitting over the actual legs on each side at all 4 corners.  I'd be willing to bet the max weight rating will far exceed the weight of the tank full of water based on the number of cross supports and number of welds that can be seen.

[charlie]

I think the tank has being on the stand about a year now & functioning could be wrong, Robert will elaborate.

[Stussi613]

I think the tank has being on the stand about a year now & functioning could be wrong, Robert will elaborate.

If it's been built for over a year why are we only getting a few snippets every couple of days 

I'm so excited to see how this build turns out!!!

[charlie]

Some of you who have seen the tank have encouraged me to start a post a little about this project. It's starting to come to a point where I am happy with it so I will share my journey.

[daworldisblack]

Lol.. I didn't want to burst anyone's bubble but I guess this was coming lol. Its up and running and its AMAZING in person

[bettabreeder]

Rah, not fair! I wanna see pictures then!!

[bizfromqc]

Someone's being a tease...

[bettabreeder]

+1

[charlie]

Good things come to those who wait 

[daworldisblack]

Lol.. let Robert do his thing! I like his step-by-step guide.. its a manual for a future project

[fischkopp]

Thank you for your comments and concerns.

I am by no means an expert nor did I engineer the metal stand. But I did some research and looked at how other people build their stands. Followed by an discussion with friends that have much more experience with this kind of work. It came down to 2x2" inch metal tubes with a certain thickness. When I got the metal quoted I found out that the next thicker material was just 10/20 bucks more in total, so I went with that. Too bad I lost my notes on that, but I believe it was 3mm.

The design of the stand is overall more sturdy due to the cross bars. Metal stands you get commercially for aquariums (LFS stand) don't have these. Also, LFS stand have the horizontal bars the same length as the tank, the vertical bars are on the outside; this meas that the weight of the aquarium is mainly held by the welding joint. Most LFS stands I have seen only welded the top edge of the square tube! In my construction, all sides are welded and the legs are "inside", reducing the stress on the welding joint.

Yes, the tank has been up for a while and I was a little worried in the beginning when we lifted the tank into place and filled it the first time. Floor and stand are holding ever since.

Pictures will come. 

[wandmangels]

Lol.. I didn't want to burst anyone's bubble but I guess this was coming lol. Its up and running and its AMAZING in person

+1

[fischkopp]

Moving

With the stand in place it was time to clean up the living room and move that tank into the spot. Did I mentioned that we moved the tank with two people into my apartment? And that the tank was probably at minus 15 deg Celsius at that point. You could watch the water condensing on the glass, making it very slippery. Somehow me manged to bring it up in one piece, but I highly recommend everyone to move big tanks in warmer months, and to get a few extra hands. So for this rather small move, but in a tight space, I called in all my fish buddies. An hour debating made let the five minute move go by quite smoothly. The biggest challenge was to lock the foam down so it wouldn't move when we push the tank in. The green painters tape that you have seen in other pics already came in handy here. I used the pink construction/isolation foam from Home Depot, they were the only ones where I found it 1/2 inch thickness. 

Then came the hour of truth, the time it took to fill the tank for the first time. Everything stayed levelled. Nothing cracked. No leaks. Yeah! Time to start the real work. I had bought some pieces of driftwood earlier, so I thought I just dump them in the tank to get them out of the way and let them release their tannis. This should become an extensive 9 month soak.

Well, I didn't anticipate that when I started the project. Shouldn't take too long to set up that tank, right? So I got myself some discus when I was at the OCA a few months earlier. A couple of nice Stendker discus that came from Discus Hans, nice guy btw. I didn't even have that 180 then, but that was ok I thought, since that tank would be to big for them anyway. So I started them of in a 15gal. This is the first time I had discus, and they were young ones, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches in size. So I tried the best that I could imagine to raise them properly. I was doing 95% water changes twice a day to assure good water quality, but doing this over a three month period is quite time consuming. Besides, the fish was growing, and so was the tension. I lost 3 little guys due to stress, whereas I found that certain strains were more susceptible to stress than others. It was a relief to move the gang into the 75 gal, which meant I had to worry a little less about missing water changes. But I still tried to do 50-75% daily.

The 180 arrived Using the sump as temporary home ... ... for the discus that I had already.

[Stussi613]

Omg, I was just checking back on this thread when you posted...talk about timing.

I'm loving where this is going!

[daworldisblack]

keep it coming!

[bizfromqc]

...
So I started them of in a 15gal. This is the first time I had discus, and they were young ones, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches in size. So I tried the best that I could imagine to raise them properly. I was doing 95% water changes twice a day to assure good water quality, but doing this over a three month period is quite time consuming.
...

95% WC twice a day is nutbar, how we're you accomplishing that? With 2.5-3.5" fish in a 15G that is approximately 13" high, that doesn't leave a whole lot of water, less than half an inch in the tank 

I'm assuming then that you poured water in while you were taking it out or spreading it out over the day? Can you eleborate on that?

[exv152]

Are you heating the WC water? I assume that would be the only way to do two 95% WCs per day without stressing them out. Also, what kind of feeding regimen are you doing?