looks like you’re doing great! Are you building this for personal use only? Or are you planning on selling floats? I would be wary of your pump if I were you. Is it ½ HP? You’re going to have 200-250 gal of water so ideally you’ll have a pump that can cycle through 3 times in under 15 minutes. I’ve had a pump seize up before and repair can be time consuming and costly. Once solution breaches the internal housing and reaches the impeller, it’s only a matter of time before the motor burns out.

Consider getting a digital timer so that you may run your pump while not there. It will need to be run at least twice a day no matter what, so if you ever want to take a vacation you’ll need the timer.

Also, did you only get one waterbed heater? You’re going to need two, spaced apart on opposite sides of your tank’s base. One won’t be enough to maintain temperature all day with the door opening and closing.

So you’ve floated only once and you’re building a tank!? That’s awesome, very impressive. As you’re probably learning, they aren’t as simple as they appear, it’s great that you’ll be an expert on maintenance and construction by the time you get to float. Wish I would’ve built my first tank instead of purchasing.

Another tip for you, when you get your salt and are ready to mix, don’t follow textbook instruction on the process. Most manufacturers and ‘experts’ will tell you to put 2 inches of piping hot water down, then add all 850 lbs. of salt and mix while turning on the heaters. This is not the best method in my experience. Instead I would slowly (painfully slow, at least 3-4 hours of work) add salt to empty bucket (maybe 25 lbs at time) then add super hot water and mix. Then I dump my buckets one at a time until finished. The finer your grade of epsom salt the better off you are. San Francisco bath salt co. is a great source if you don’t have one already. You’ll want to end up with 10.5 inches of water and at least 850 lbs. of salt.

A hydrometer bought at your local auto parts store will be required to check your water’s density. 1.3 being the appropriate reading. I use hydrogen peroxide (about a capfull) in between floats as well as a product called ‘spa perfect’ by natural chemistry which gets added 2-3 times a week.

I hope this was useful to you. You’re design looks like it will work fine. Oh, did you remember to drill ventilation holes? didn’t see that in your photos. The tank is 6 X 12? a big one! most designs are 5 X 9 or 10. I’d love to be able to get an NBA center in my tank, but probably not! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions/concerns. Jeremy.delong@gmail.com