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Unread 10/16/2009, 09:35 AM   #1
Jens Kallmeyer
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My new 400 gal peninsula tank

HI there,

We finally bought an apartment here in Berlin, therefore I had to tear down my old Gorgnonian and NPS dominated130 gal semi-cube (click http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1121362.
The apartment is on the the fourth floor of a house built in 1920. The last time this place had seen any kind of renovation must have been somewhere in the late 40s or early 50s, so we knew from the very beginning that we need to get busy before we can move in. Several walls were ripped out, and roughly half of the apartment the support beams in the floor had to be reinforced or replaced because some previous repair jobs were done very badly. I used that opportunity to have the floor beams in the living room reinforced in order to be able to set up a large tank. The living room had an old oak floor, but it was in bad shape and the cost for carefully removing and removating every single piece would have been prohibitive. So all the old floor was ripped out

Then the construction guys put in new beams (14x10", 23 ft long) between the old ones. The beams had to be split lengthwise to get them up on the 4th floor. The main problem was that they could not use a crane because there is a large and protected tree right in front of our house. So the company brought in 10 more workers, placed them on the scaffolding of the neighboring house and lifted the beams one by one with a little pulley and lots of hands for support. The beams went in through the window, through one room into the corridor, further through bath and kitchen (the walls had been ripped out before), out of the kitchen window, then they could turn them around and get them into the living room. The guys hated me for that....


The last beam was a bit problematic, in order to get it in place they had to rip out another wall. As we have a lot of stucco on the ceiling, I was concerned that it might fall off when they take out the wall, but the construction guys worked very carefully and everything stayed on its place.
Finally the wall was out and the reinforcement was in

As soon as the reinforcement was done and the first layer of flooring (1.5" waterproof fibreboard) installed, I put a wall in to support the stucco.
a



Last edited by Jens Kallmeyer; 10/16/2009 at 10:14 AM. Reason: typo
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Unread 10/16/2009, 09:55 AM   #2
Jens Kallmeyer
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After the wall was in we put in the real flooring, again solid oak. I did not cut any corners when it came to the stability and ruggedness of this floor and used an MS-Polymer glue and 2K-PU coating, that stuff is normally used for Gym halls or corridors in public buildings.


After that (and all the rest of the work...)was done, we finally moved into the place. We basically had decided on a room divider/Peninsula tank before, separating the dining area from the living room and also allowing a good view from the library. Size was mainly dictated by the room we ended up with 67x40x35, with a rather low stand (24" high). This way the tank can be viewed from the Sofa as well as from the dining area without looking up or down too much.
The entire filtration will go into an adjacent room.
Circulation will be done with a mix of Turbelle Streams and closed loop pumps. The two streams will be mounted to the right and left of the overflow on the "wall" side of the tank, the two CL outlets will be at the bottom of the "free" side of the tank, blowing upwards onto the reef in a 45° angle. There are two overflow boxes, the high one leads to the filter, the lower one will be fitted with a 6" high screenhttp://www.aquadriver-shop.de/shop/d...t=&start=0&nr=, this way there are no dangerous intakes in the tank on which fishes may get stuck. As I always put a lid on the overflows to avoid fishes disappearing, the filtration overflow needs an emergency intake in case the screen gets clogged and the water level in the main tank rises. Therefore there is a hole in the side of the overflow, it will be fitted with a bulkhead and an elbow.
This is a construction plan of the tank, all three viewable sides will be in optiwhite.




Last edited by Jens Kallmeyer; 10/16/2009 at 10:16 AM.
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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:08 AM   #3
Jens Kallmeyer
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Finally the tank builder got all the panes and could build the tank. Of course, the tank had to be glued in place as it would have been impossible to get it up onto the 4th floor. There is no way to move 800 lbs of glass through our staircase.
But first I had to build the stand. I still had two versions of my previous stand from Paletti, the company first delivered the wrong profiles so I got a second one for free. The old stand was much higher so I had the vertical profiled cut down to 24". The base and the top of the stand are 1" (top) and 1.5" (bottom) marine-grade plywood. Levelling that thing out was an absolute nightmare, but it finally worked out quite well.



Then the great day came and the guys from Aquarienbau Voigt arrived. Carrying all the glass into our apartment was nasty, I only took the small pieces but the two poor guys carried all the large ones. They insisted in doing it themselves, I did not argue with them. Each of the side panes was around 180 lbs.

The bottom is in place, all the other pieces are placed around it. Now the gluing started. I could not believe how quick they were, the whole tank took slightly longer than 3 hours!

The master doing the final touches

The real boss inspects the new tank..

Now everything has to harden for two weeks, enough time to get the lights installed and the front panels of the stand delivered.

I will keep you posted

Best wishes from Berlin
Jens


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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:23 AM   #4
MSHUR
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Wow!!! great job. i am surprised that they glue tank in side ur apartment.... what kind of warranty they provide?...
Are you planning on MH , T-5s or LEDs?....

good luck!!!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:33 AM   #5
Jens Kallmeyer
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HI

Gluing it on site was the only way possible, otherwise it was not possible to get the tank on the 4th floor. The company gives a 15 year warranty on the tank. Lighting will be T5 only.

Jens


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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:39 AM   #6
MSHUR
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Thats great!!! 15 years..wow..
Are going to run zeovit ?

mike


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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:41 AM   #7
Jens Kallmeyer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSHUR View Post
Are going to run zeovit ?
Surely not


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Unread 10/16/2009, 10:50 AM   #8
MSHUR
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thats pretty strait answear ive been running zeo since Thomas introduce zeo in US, then i stoped 1 ago./ I couldnt get PO4 down ( i do have lots of fish). Now i run prodibio with a small amount of GFO.. been running this combo for 7 month and so far so good... i do use some zeo supps though..
I have very similar tank desing as yours . my tank was done by Elos and i couldnt drill bottom of my tank and now i expirience lack of flow in the front... i guess its gonna be place for some LPS


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Unread 10/16/2009, 11:14 AM   #9
CincyGida
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Great start - can't wait to see how it progresses!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 11:16 AM   #10
marinelife
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Looks great!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 12:20 PM   #11
adddo
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This is awsome, i'll be following this one for sure.

Congrats on the new apartment also! Turned out great from what we see in the pics.


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Unread 10/16/2009, 12:30 PM   #12
Gary Majchrzak
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jens Kallmeyer View Post
Surely not


Looks great, Jens.
I wish aquarium builders in the USA were hip to these types of installs.

Best of luck always!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 12:35 PM   #13
rkaires
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Very nice tank! Do you have any plans on how the equipment room will be set up.


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Unread 10/16/2009, 01:11 PM   #14
Rennsport
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Very cool and unique build ! I look forward to updates!!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 03:36 PM   #15
Jens Kallmeyer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adddo View Post
This is awsome, i'll be following this one for sure.

Congrats on the new apartment also! Turned out great from what we see in the pics.
Hej Bjarne,

will you be in Linkoping next weekend? The local
Reed club is organizing a symposium and invited me as a speaker.I Cam Show you some really scary pics of the Renovation of the apartment
Cheers Jens


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Unread 10/16/2009, 03:51 PM   #16
hatfielj
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Wow, that's a lot of work you put in there. I love old buildings, they were built so much better back then. Can't wait to see the new tank all finished!


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Unread 10/16/2009, 04:22 PM   #17
popper231
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wanna do that to my house?


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Unread 10/16/2009, 06:35 PM   #18
Tater11
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oh ya this is going to be good!!need updates please.


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Unread 10/17/2009, 10:49 AM   #19
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subscribed!


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Unread 10/17/2009, 11:01 AM   #20
MarineGirl411
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What a beautiful apartment. Can't wait 2 see more on the tank.


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Unread 10/17/2009, 01:42 PM   #21
adddo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jens Kallmeyer View Post
Hej Bjarne,

will you be in Linkoping next weekend? The local
Reed club is organizing a symposium and invited me as a speaker.I Cam Show you some really scary pics of the Renovation of the apartment
Cheers Jens
Hallo Jens

I saw that you were going to visit us up here on the invitation to the symposium! Unfortunately i will miss it since my wife is working that weekend, so im stuck with our little kids here in Stockholm.


I'm hoping to see some photos and get a full recap from my friends at http://www.saltvattensguiden.se


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Unread 10/17/2009, 02:28 PM   #22
adddo
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By the way Jens.

Will you be continuing your work with NPS corals in this new tank aswell? Or are you changing direction?


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Unread 10/17/2009, 03:45 PM   #23
Jens Kallmeyer
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This new Tank will be too large for a dedicated NPS system, it will rather become a mixed reef with many photosynthetic Gorgonians and some SPS. As I have a small dedicated aquarium room now, I will rather opt for a smaller dedicated NPS tank some Time in the future.


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Unread 10/17/2009, 03:58 PM   #24
elijaher
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Great job on the tank. Did your inspector approve lol?


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Unread 10/19/2009, 06:53 PM   #25
ksed
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Looking good Jens

Kevin


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