I’m a happy guy! Why? Well because I’m finally getting started on the meat and potatoes of our AP build!

This little number is not so little. As mentioned in my previous post, the tank will be quite large.. close to 840 gallons! Jacuzzi anyone?… I’m sure the fish won’t mind 😉

So with all the reclaimed lumber, I’ve had a busy day of selecting pieces that were not warped. Surprisingly there was little termite damage, but warping seems to be the most prevalent issue with reusing this wood. So took my time, found lengths that had minimal issues and got to cutting!

All in all, not a bad Friday’s work! There’s still a bit more work to do. I must get the OSB fitted to each frame piece. Then comes some outdoor paint to help give the wood some extra protection from the elements (it is after all going to buried in the ground.. more on that later). Then some foam insulation on the inset areas to help keep the water as well insulated as possible. I’m trying to minimize temperature fluctuations as much as possible, which of course might be a little overkill on my part. But that’s how I roll!

Much of the framing is pretty straight forward. I had to offset the additional support sections so that I could properly screw them to the rest of the framing. I got this nifty little idea from my friend John who has already got his AP system setup and growing food. But for the size of the tank.. the idea was to do as little cutting of the OSB board material as possible. I’ll only have to cut one section in half, then add to each end piece. The rest of the tanks sides can be fitted with the OSB without cuts since those sides are the same dimensions as the 4×8 boards.

I plan on following up with more later on the tank build, but got all excited about getting it going, that I just had to post something!