Jestersix

Eight's 170 gallon in wall LeeMar

[quote author=Eight link=topic=6394.msg81762#msg81762 date=1234804884]
My garage isn't insulated at all. It freezes in the winter and gets stupid hot in the summer. I'll talk to my contractor about insulation possibilities. Might pay to have it insulted properly now vs. always heating the tank.
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My tank is in the garage. I insulated the tank, canopy and stand instead of the garage.
 
Ok, this weekend was the 'cut the hole in the wall weekend'... Overall things went incredibly smoothly. Some progress photos:

Shot from the inside the family room, prior to cutting. A large mirror used to hang about where the aquarium is going.

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From the garage on the other side.

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Drywall down, studs about to be cut.

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Gerry, my old friend and contractor, cutting out the studs. Base of the stand starting to take shape too.

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Close up of the stand base. Because the family room floor is 13" higher than the garage floor, we had to build a "stand for the stand" to raise it up. The base stand sits on top of the garage foundation. Those three sections will serve as additional storage.

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Gaping hole in my family room! On the left you'll see two GFI outlets in conduit. The top one will be used for my lights and the bottom one for everything else. Both of those outlets are actually separate circuits that go back to my house electricity panel. We took an old 220v electric drier line that I'm not using and split it into two 110v circuits. Didn't have to run any new wire at all.

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View from inside.

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Here's a shot from the back with the stand and tank in place. I used Ron's old stand and pushed it flush up against the wall. Gerry shimmed the old stand to make it exactly level with the plate stud so that we could slide the tank forward 3" into the wall. We had to cut the old stand's top in order to extend the holes for the closed loop and overflow. The hinges are doors for storage space underneath the stand. You'll also notice that there is a step that we built higher than the bottom of the existing stand. I'm only 5'6" so building the step extra high has the effect of shortening the tank stand to make it easier to reach into. I built it up an extra 10" so I can reach the bottom middle of the tank pretty easily.

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Close up of the frame and access panel from inside. We used birch 1x3s that I had lying around to build the picture frame.

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The access panel is about 9" high and pushes inwards. Having access from the front will make it easier to place corals and feed the fish. Thanks Mike for the recommendation... I'm really glad I put the panel in.

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Phew... it was a lot of work, but it's nice to have the tank finally in place. Nothing more 'itchy' than an empty glass tank just waiting to be set up in your garage. :p

Bulkheads, valves, unions and other plumbing parts are coming in on Monday, so this next week I will be working on all the plumbing. Lights have also arrived, but I will work on those after the plumbing because I need to figure out what I'm going to for a light rack.
 
Oh, almost forgot. I just finished acclimating my Dachshund Wrasse. Very rare specimen, sometimes imported from Germany.

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Jason, have you done all the research to feel secure those are reef safe? Maybe you found one that does not nip. Congratulations on the build out so far.
 
I didn't leave my dachshund in the tank for too long because it kept reminding me of a puppy mill, so I don't know if she'll nip at LPS or not... :p

Anyways, I got most of my plumbing parts in the mail yesterday including 11 bulkheads, 3 true union ball valves and 6 uniseals. Amazing how quickly all these parts add up. I also picked up 6 feet of vinyl flooring from HD and stapled it to the inside of my stand to make a waterproof base. It came out better than I thought it would. I ended up using short drywall screws, washers and upholstery tacks to attach it to the stand base.

I also picked up all the PVC piping, pipe straps, etc. Today my PVC manifold comes in along with a few more plumbing parts. Tonight I am going to try to finish the drain plumbing and begin assembling some of my rock.

I bought a 6' section of 1/2" acrylic rod, a masonry bit and some pond foam. I have a 50 pound box of dry marcorocks base rock to work with. Really nice light stuff and shipping was very fast. I wish i had more shelf rock though.
 
Sweet, I sometimes wish I had a "basement" connection like that where I can do a nice inwall jobber.

BTW, why is there an outline of Mickey Mouse on your drywall?
 
I dunno where Mickey came from... he was there when I bought the house 10 years ago... I think maybe there was a poster there and maybe it bled through?

In any event, Mickey is still there... we re-used that section of drywall to replace a section that was cut where the stand hits the wall... he's just lying down now instead of standing up. Heh.
 
I made a ton of progress this past weekend and the RO unit is almost done topping off the tank as I type. (Amazing how long it takes to make nearly 200 gallons of RO water in one shot... I think it's been running for 72 hours straight.

I decided to use vinyl flooring from HD to line the inside of the stand. Corners tucked and screwed into place.

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Couple hundred dollars worth of valves, uniseals and bulkheads. *Ouch* (I spent more on my plumbing than I did on the tank and stand...)

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Here's a shot of the manifold pieces, prior to assembly. Lots of 3/4" ball valves to feed a chiller, future frag tank and also run various filters/reactors, etc.

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Completed manifold.

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Reeflo Snapper pump with heavy duty Cepex union ball valves. I felt like I was assembling a nuclear reactor. You can see the completed manifold in place in the stand.

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Moment of truth... tank gets water for the first time. Please, no leaks!

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Completed back side of the tank.

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So far so good. I was a little worried at first because when I started filling the tank I found some water drops on the inside of the stand, but it just turned out to be a union that I hadn't twisted tight. I'm hoping to have enough water before I go to bed tonight so I can run the Snapper for an hour or two and check for leaks in the return lines.
 
Grrr.... problems...

1) Sump is too small. It's a 29 gallon sump, 30x14x16. It came from my 80 gallon and I knew it was going to small, but I didn't realize that it wouldn't be able to keep up with the Snapper. The Snapper drains the sump so fast that there isn't enough water to pump before the return lines bring the water back down. I have to throttle the Snapper down to 60%. I guess that's ok for now, but I am going to either order a new custom sump from Kritter or try to pick up a prefabbed one.

2) Little leaks all over! I was SO careful about putting together the PVC, but I think I didn't work fast enough or use enough cement, because I have micro leaks in the return and drain lines. Like 1 drop every 30 seconds. Super annoying... I managed to fix all of the leaks in the return lines because I had unioned and valved everything. I ended up taking apart the manifold and using a pack of q-tips to layer 6-7 coats of medium bodied PVC glue to both the inside and outside of the joints. All fixed. The drain lines, however are leaking at the bulkheads. I don't have any expensive valves or anything worth saving on the drain lines, so I think I will end up just cutting the all out and redoing them. Sigh.

3) Must remember to drill siphon breaks in return lines prior to testing out pump! The first time I powered up the Snapper and powered it down, I forgot that I hadn't drilled siphon breaks so I managed to drain a ton of water into my stand. Thankfully the vinyl lining kept everything inside and I was able to use a maxijet to pump it all out.

4) Snapper is really quite loud. Those of you that have Reeflo Snappers/Darts... can you comment on how quiet it is? I know some of the hum is from the stand vibrating, despite the mousepad I have under the pump... but the thing is loud. I can definitely hear it in the family room on the other side of the wall. :(

On the bright side, I foamed and 'sand epoxied' little legs on a bunch of my base rock to keep them off the faux sand bed. Gonna go barebottom this time around. I also managed to drill 1/2" holes through most of the rock which will accomodate acrylic rods so that I can build columns and platforms.

Apparently my aquascaping skills >> My plumbing skills.
 
All this sounds so familiar... ;)

1. I hear the sump is too small story... I made my stand just large enough to hold my display tank... if I had to do it over again I'd make my stand much larger like Aldie did with his tank. To help with the large amount of flow from my one pump I have T's feeding my Calcium Reactor, Chiller, 3 different media reactors, my frag tank and one extra that returns directly to my sump again and acts as a maintenance hose to help me kick up ditritus and anything else that desides to settle in the sump, skimmer chamber areas. Still my return to the DT is more than I need.

2. I also found that despite my best efforts I had very small leaks here and there in the plumbing. After about a week though they all stopped and it has not been a problem since.

3. I love the vinyl lining... I did something similar with mine also. The syphon break was a must for me.... without it my sump would overflow by about 30 gallons ;)

4. You may want to consider building a vented sound box around your Snapper... I've seen a few people do it and it definantly cuts down on the sound.

Your build is looking great and your attention to detail tells me your tank is going to be top notch...
 
[quote author=Eight link=topic=6394.msg89821#msg89821 date=1237358785]

4) Snapper is really quite loud. Those of you that have Reeflo Snappers/Darts... can you comment on how quiet it is? I know some of the hum is from the stand vibrating, despite the mousepad I have under the pump... but the thing is loud. I can definitely hear it in the family room on the other side of the wall. :(

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My Dart is pretty quiet. I did try out both a Barracuda and a Hammerhead and they were loud as heck. Not sure where the snapper fits into the family. Do you have the foam pad under the pump itself? I found that it can help a bit.

BTW sometimes those bulkhead leaks only take like an 1/8 of a turn with a wrench to correct. In some other cases they will settle in and go away. that was my experience as i had some of the same problems. (I have 10 bulkhheads BTW 4 2" in the drains, 4 1 1/2" on the back and 2 1" on the back)

Should also have said it makes more sense to use union ballvalves vs just plain old ball valves. Makes getting to things and taking things apart a bit easier. Much more expensive though.
 
The tank looks great so far, I know about the plumbing problem, I think part of the issue is the PVC isn't rated for a high enough flow (at least the 1" I used) but once the salt creep gets in there it seels it up pretty nice.
 
Thanks guys for all the great comments. I'm sorta glad to hear that it isn't just me that has problems glueing PVC! From now on I am going to try to use threaded joints whenever possible. Ewing Irrigation supply (as recommended by Gresh) has incredible PVC selection and I picked up lots of double threaded risers, street elbows, etc and will redo the drain lines with thread tonight.

As for the Snapper, it's been running for 48 hours and the thing is still damn loud. It has a mousepad underneath it... I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the pump. Gonna try opening it up and checking the impellar/volute, etc...
 
Had a big night last night. Broke down and transferred about 70% of the rock and coral from my old tank to the new one. The remaining livestock, fish, acan frags, some SPS, etc are making the final move tonight.

Plumbing is 100% done and no leaks! I did end up redoing the drain lines with threaded bulkheads. Sump is still a bit small, but it will be fine for now with the Snapper throttled down.

I'm really happy with the aquascaping so far.

Pics coming tonight.

On a side note, I ordered a new 40 gallon breeder for a frag tank from King Aquarium for $62 out the door! They are having a crazy 35% below cost sale, ends at the end of April I think...
 
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