in wall tank..

[bobberwobber]

well since redoing the whole house, the tank that was in the wall in living room is being relocated. it was too hard to maintain equipment in the tight space and one flooded living room and then leak in plumbing, decided enough was enough. after much running around with tape measure, we decided, bedroom it was.
it is going to cut the corner between bedroom and dressing room. tank is ideal since it has angled corners, not square. all plumbing and filtration is to be in the basement, hopefully only thing in the tank will be 2 pipes, one for out and one for in, rest be downstairs, with easy access, eliminate most noise in bedroom and clean up tank.
i finally made the plunge and cut the stud to make way for it.. being a load bearing wall, this took some nerves and plenty of coffee before ifinally cut (dont worry all those structural engineers reading, i have added a new stud to replace one i cut, just moved it over a bit.)

pics so far.... now plumbing into basement, will post more as progress is made. fish like new place, dont have a cat in their face every morning now (she hasnt found them yet, sure she will) not sure if to use 10 gallon baffle filter or turn the spare 55gal into a filter/refugium. undecided as of yet

 

[Mitchell0605]

Looking good. Keep us updated. Is it gonna be SW or FW?

 

[BigJim]

You should really add a header over the top of the opening. It'll help with the relocated studs.

 

[bobberwobber]

it is a sw tank, FOWLR already established, everything was relocated to a spare 55g during the move, and then 1/2 water was pumped back into this tank and everything put back again. everything survived and seems to be ok.

in reality, the stud was only actually moved about 4 inches but i am adding a header behind the drywall, cant see it easily in pics.. the ones you can see cut, second pic, arnt load bearing, just framing for drywall. new stud is the one in the corner. ill box it in and make some kind of feature out of it. hides the wires for the wall switch that will turn light on.
oh anyone know if can get HO strip lights? i searched lowes etc, they sell bulbs but not fixtures... i dont need a fancy hood light or anything, basic shop light will work as you cant see it. just cant find one that is HO.

off to lowes for yet more plumbing..

 

[Etunes]

Ya, looks cool. I want to tag along for this 1.

 

[Sonomakid]

this is a neat diy, excellent work!

 

[bobberwobber]

well think i have it plumbed. i made my own syphon tube, looking at a few designs online.. the 3/4 isnt going to keep up with my pump, so i have used 1". initial tests showed it could keep up, unfortunately, i set it too high and would raise the waterlevel in tank too high, so i have modified it lower. yet to test this, but this way, i can adjust the height using chocks under the pipe, thus adjust the tank water level if need be.
cut slots in the pick up tube, so takes water from different levels in the tank.. in the end, i glued in a bio ball, so i dont suck up a fishie. all i had as a screen at time, seems to work well though..
for now i got a check valve in the air tube, to keep the syphon, but when i replace my protein skimmer and get rid of this rubbish visi-jet, ill use the powerhead and hook the air straight to that. that way any air that does build up will be sucked straight back out again, hopefully reducing the risk of the syphon failing...dont see how air could really get up in there, but never know..o

ill get some pics of the rest, once i got it working perfect...

 

[bobberwobber]

lil bit well placed coral, hides the return pipe mostly, but allows flow behind it. no leaks.. let it run for the weekend, to be sure, then time to start drywalling.. ugh i hate drywall.
the HOB bio wheel filter only temp, it was a standin while the new one got going although it actually done very well...

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice, keep it up.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Very nice, I remember putting my 90g salt in the wall. that was a weekend project, end results were phenominal, sorry this was way pre digi cam and doubt I have any pics left to scan.

We built a 4x4 stand for the tank itself behind the wall and wrapped it with the cement board, at top we did have to put in a new header and this worked quite well with a 4x4 and a 2 1/4 ton floor jack able to get it up in there and wedge it , then just used the same trim as the rest of the house painted to match, had a 40B basement sump.

I am trying to talk to wife into putting a 90+ gallon in the wall between the gathering room and my new fish room.

 

[bobberwobber]

ok.. need second opinion here.. had to take care of some othr things, but now about ready to start finishing this project. im a little torn on how to finish the area in front of the tank. im down to 3 options. 1 is cheap and easy. 1 is easy but not so cheap. 1 is hard and eh, moderate cheapness.
first idea is to use drywall, painted to match the wall. cheapest and easiest, but i worry about damage from cats exploring or whatever. shouldnt get wet, as all access will be from back, but never know.
second is using 1/4" birch ply wood, maybe stained, then urathaned. probably look nicest i think and is what im leaning towards.
3rd is mirrored. yes, mirrors. top and bottom of the opening. i figure will give it depth. fairly cheap, as can just buy plate mirrors from lowes or something. but cutting around that stud would be hard, and also, although looked ok in practice and on paper, not sure how would look finished. might be over kill....

i personally, leaning towards option 2. lady of the house is option 3, wallet likes option 1. hmmm open to suggestions..

 

[Mitchell0605]

Can we have an updated pic please? It would help me. I think the mirror idea would look cool though.

 

[jimmy c]

what is the rest of the room? drywall? panelboard? cinderblocks? :S

 

[bobberwobber]

ill have to take some new pics, with a better camera when i can, but it hasnt changed since the previous pics really. its the 'shelf' area in front of the tank.

the room is currently being remodelled (well whole house is) but it is drywall. unpainted as of yet. probably be a wood floor in there. i plan on raising the shelf area up, so what ever goes on, will be above the plastic trim of the tank, so you wont see the plastic trim, just the glass. (may be a bit awkward if tank ever developed a leak mind you..)

 

[Mitchell0605]

Well in that case I definately reckon the glass. The way the glass would reflect your aquarium would look incredable.

 

[autylea]

I think the wood would look nicest.

 

[bobberwobber]

i do too, unfortunately, my vote was vito'd by the higher authority.... so going with mirror.. i got some mirror tiles and after cutting them all to fit nice.. cat decided to check it out, jumped up and knocked half onto the floor.... alas, got to cut more but been called back to work so not had time to do much to it... once wasted all this time with mirrors will see, im right, but until then.... one downside seeing already is, mirrors show up every little scratch and blemish in the glass... this is an old tank that had coral in it before, glass has a fair few scratches from where it was broken down and so forth...

 

[Mitchell0605]

Any pics? I'm sure it looks great regardless.

cat decided to check it out, jumped up and knocked half onto the floor

Trust the animals to go screw you over right?

 

[bobberwobber]

no pics yet.. ill get some once i get the mirrors in place.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Sounds good.