[pogodzib]

Here's a few pics of my new tank and fish room. My new tank is a 220 gal in-wall reef tank with a 55 gal sump. The fish room behind it is a 14'x11.5' room with the front corner cut off at a 45 degree angle.

220 Display tank w/ 55 gal sump. I've never realized how small a 55 gal tank can really look.


Here's the beginnings of the wall that the fish tank is built into.


And here's the tank on the stand. I sure am glad that I have a 6" ledge around the sides and back of the tank to stand on. The tank is really high and a 30" tall tank is tough to reach the bottom. BTW- The tank height is built so high since was are planning on our future bar to be installed in built of it.


Here's a pic of me starting to fill the tank with goodies. Notice how small the standard 55 gal tank that is being used as the sump looks.

[pogodzib]

Here's a couple pics of the tank after my 14.5 hour tank move on Thursday. There is plastic wrapped all around the tank and fish room to keep dust and fumes out of the tank. The pics don't show how awesome the tank currently looks since the plastic looks way more fuzzy in the pics than it does in person. I can't wait for the area to become dust free so I can remove the plastic sheet.




BTW - So far, my only casualty is one small blue chromis that looked weak prior to the move and I thought was going to die a week or two anyway.

[thelastmucci]

wow...thats amazing...if I ever move into a house I would love to have a bar/fish tank as my centerpiece.....it just looks amazing.

[e_baer]

i am speechless. that is so amazingly nice.

so, did you build everything yourslef? (the walls etc.)

If you did, good job!

[pogodzib]

I've been helping the contractor out whenever I can find the time. The wall that the tank is built into was built by my contractor and myself on Tuesday night using the headlights from my truck since my halogen light burnt out about 5 minutes into the build. I built the stand that the tank is set on by myself the day before everything was moved over. The day of the move is when the room finally had the outlets installed. There are three dedicated circuits in the room. Two circuits are protected by GFCI and one circuit isn't. On each side of the tank, there is a GFCI outlet near the top of the sump elevation and a GFCI outlet near the top of the tank. I plan on probably needing to add additional outlets later once I figure out where exactly they will be needed. That will make it much easier to connect equipment without using a bunch of extension cords of power strips. A ceiling fan with a humidistat and thermostat controller was also hooked up to control the room's humidity and temperature. Talk about having everything getting done at the last minute. We would have built everything sooner, but the rest of the interior walls had to be built of the plumbers/electricians/HVAC guys to to their things and all of the windows and exterior doors had to be installed to make the house lockable.

[e_baer]

wow, definately keep us informed on everything, it will be very neat to watch the rest of the wall come together and have the tank like a picture on the wall!

[mattpenn]

keep us posted it looks great

[pogodzib]

Here's a couple pics from inside of the fish room

[e_baer]

you could set up your 120 as a nice cheato tank! and then sell it on ebay.

or a frag tank.

[pogodzib]

Don't get me started thinking about using my 125 as a frag tank. Looking at the pics from inside of the fish room I could find space to put it in there and even plumb it into the same system to get over 400 gallon of water with only one tank housing fish.

[e_baer]

more water = better!

im just saaaaayyyyiiiing

[thelastmucci]

are those PVC pipes for the RO unit is it if for tank plumbing (I'm a real dummy when it comes to fish plumbing, not a DIY kinda guy you know)

[cappy290]

Wow thats going to look insane when its done...

[pogodzib]

Well, I had my first local reef club member visit my new house and fish room last night and I got a

The PVC pies along the wall are for the house's waste water and my fish room sink. The pic has some flexible plastic lines hanging from the ceiling that are going to feed the sink and RO/DI unit. The RO/DI unit will be installed by the sink and then I'll run a 3/8" line with a valve on it to a water storage container (44 Gal Brute container). I use an elevated 5 gal bucket with a float valve for my top off water so I don't need to worry about having the float valve fail and flood the house or kill all of my corals or fish. BTW - PVC pipe is reef safe.

[e_baer]

not only is it reef safe, but the coraline algae LOVES it!

[Tonz of fun]

Did you test the 2x4s to see how much weight it would hold? We are doing the same thing but we made the in wall stand out of welded metal...

[pogodzib]

The stand is actually built out of 2x6 studs spaced 16" o.c. I did run a couple quick calculations to see if the stand could hold the weight. Knowing that it is not uncommon for a typical house to have a combined (dead and live) loads well in excess of 1,000 Lb/lineal ft on bearing walls and in many cases, those bearing walls are 2x4 studs, I wasn't worried about the weight of the tank. My tank, which weights in at around 2200 Lbs full, has its weight distributed out onto 14 lineal feet of support, although the weight on the studs at the end of the tank is not as much as the studs in the middle of the stand. I computed that the max load any stud carries is only 490 Lbs. My main concern was the deflection of the support under the back side of the tank since I wanted to have a 4' clear span where I could swap out the sump if needed and have a place to work under the tank. I could go into the deflection calcs for the 2x6 stud and 2x4 platform with bracing as well, but ultimately, a 2x6 stub placed flat with a 2x6 stub placed vertically underneath it was way stronger than I needed and allows me to have a place to stand on the backside of the stand. You can trust me when I say that the stand is built to withhold anything and is way stronger than any pre-manufactured stand.

[pogodzib]

As an update, everything is still doing good. I now have a sink and my Spectrapure 180gpd RO/DI unit installed, along with a cabinet in the fish room. Here's a pic

[e_baer]

looks good, I wish I had my own "fish room"

[jvharding]

Awesome Build out so far! What is the estimated move in date?

[pogodzib]

Hopefully three weeks, but I doubt that it will really be that fast. They should begin the mudding and tapping later on this week.

[thelastmucci]

Hope the move goes well...and to ditto e_baer I wish I had a fish room too LOL.

[pogodzib]

Well, it's been a little while since I posted any pics and I now have my q-tank setup.

[aquasalt]

You know you're addicted when...you have your tanks set up before construction on the house is finished. Oh wait, wrong thread. Nice work, Brian! Looks awesome!

[pogodzib]

Originally Posted by aquasalt

You know you're addicted when...you have your tanks set up before construction on the house is finished. Oh wait, wrong thread. Nice work, Brian! Looks awesome!

When you push the plumber and electrician to hurry up and get the fish room all wired and plumbed so the tank can be setup a full month before all of the drywalling will be completed.

BTW - There are only 5 active lights in the house and 3 of them are in the fish room, 6 live outlets and 4 of them are in the fish room. Now I need to get more outlets installed so I don't need to have 5 power strips plugged in.