Kessil

Gimmito's 450 gal L-shaped tank

> do you smell smoke ? I think my pockets are burning again. $) :)

> LMK how those rocks work out.
I have used him twice. First time : Took forever, leached phosphates for months, but rock was great.
Second time : Rock was cured, no phosphates, but not as nice.
This time ... I may scour craigslist first.
 
We pulled out a couple of hundred lbs directly from his tank and he had some nice Fiji rock with interesting shapes (I'll post some pics when I get a chance). I have one huge 40 lb piece that was worth driving down to the city to pick up. I'll let them
sit out for awhile and then start cycling them to avoid and pests. He's selling some sweet equipment if you haven't picked up any yet.

Thanks again Mario for the heads up !

Now I just have to order some thorite, fiberglass rods, & wait for my 1 1/2" cross tees to come in and I can start the rockscaping !
 
Are you getting a 50 pound sack of BASF (Thorite) or one of the smaller sizes bagged by another dealer? Marco has a pretty good deal on smaller sizes... if you buy the 50 I'll buy some off you, otherwise I'll give Marc a call :)
 
Not sure how many pounds of thorite I might need for about 300 lbs of rock...what do you suggest ? I'll just give you whatever I don't use if I go with the 50 lb bag.
 
photo-103.jpg


Here's a pic of some nice Fiji rock I picked up from Ted (ExtremeReefer) and Bill (CookieJar). They range from 15 lbs to a whopping 40 lbs on the one on the bottom. This bring my total to about 300 lbs and I think I'm good to go once I get my rockscaping materials. :bigsmile:
 
photo-105.jpg


I also got a chance to install the fire rated doors w/my bud Ethan. For those of you thinking of doing a in wall tank from a living room to the garage, you must maintain a 1-2 hour fire rated door in the garage ....and it ain't cheap. $)
 
GreshamH said:
Are you getting a 50 pound sack of BASF (Thorite) or one of the smaller sizes bagged by another dealer? Marco has a pretty good deal on smaller sizes... if you buy the 50 I'll buy some off you, otherwise I'll give Marc a call :)
Click to expand...

Hey Gresh....where can I get a 50 lb bag of the thorite locally ?
 
gimmito said:
photo-105.jpg


I also got a chance to install the fire rated doors w/my bud Ethan. For those of you thinking of doing a in wall tank from a living room to the garage, you must maintain a 1-2 hour fire rated door in the garage ....and it ain't cheap. $)
Click to expand...
well done!
Is the building inspector checking on you?
It is the right way to do it no doubt.
 
That's quite a compliment coming from you Jon...thanks. I recently had a pre walk through for final inspection and I volunteered that I was putting in fire rated doors...just trying to do things right.
 
Curious what those doors are for? Its not a people door, what is it? Just an access panel to the side? If so wouldn't a firewall on the drywall side of things inside be sufficient?
 
Mike,

They are 2 pairs of doors to access the back of the tank. The top is to access the tank, vortechs, lights, etc. The bottom doors are to access the sump, return pump, reactors, etc. You are correct that drywall is a sufficient firewall, but I would not have acccess to the back of the tank. Some folks will just sheetrock for final inspection and later put in non-fire rated doors (which would be way cheaper).

This would definitely turn into a 5 year tank build if I did that. :p
 
No I understand those are access doors, however I was wondering if drywall on the living room side would have been sufficient for a fire stop. Or is it one of those things inspectors don't consider a 450 gallon volume of water to be able to stop fire? :D

Of course I could just be completely missing the layout of your tank too :D
 
Well, the fire could melt the acrylic ... water drains out ... fire spreads.
Besides, regardless of reality, the codes are unlikely to have a fish tank exception, and the inspector
will not care.

Hope the inspection goes well.
 
Well its not specific to fish tank exceptions, however a fish tank isn't considered a "source of water" when it comes to code for GFCI outlets strangely enough :D Maybe because its a bit too specific, or code writers don't realize how crazy large some of our tanks can get :D

Reminds me of the PVC code, a fire could burn pvc, lowering water pressure... well wouldn't the water that shoots out where the pvc melted put the fire out? I'm sure 450 gallons of water will put out any fire should it melt through the acrylic :D
 
The sheetrock on the living room side is enough for code, but the problem is the tank (since it does penetrate into the garage). You would think the the tank would be self extinguishing w/450 gallons of water, but inspectors don't see it that way. Thus, the two options of enclosing the back of the tank w/sheetrock of fire rated doors.

I hope the final inspection goes well too.
 
Yeah figured that was the case tank = opening... Oh well never argue with an inspector, even if you win they will find little tiny things and nail you there, I was listening to the inspector talk to my solar guys when they came to sign off, holy crap it was like being back in shop class in high school where the teacher picked at every little thing you did then proceeded to tell you why it needs to be done that way!
 
Yeah...I have a buddy who is a electrician and he said the city has like 40 electrical inspectors. It's a crap shot who you get, but good to schedule inspections right before lunch when they're in a hurry. How's those solar panels working out for you ?
 
Its funny you said that, my inspection was right before lunch, and there were a few things that probably should have been brought up, ground not being bonded to the gas, no AFCIs on any breakers on a panel that is obviously post-2005, amongst other things. He just was picky about a few connections on the conduit which was fine by me :D

As to the panels, they're working great, cranking out a ton of power every day, granted its been unusually sunny in SF, but I'll see how well they do when the cloudy winter comes around.
 
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