300g in-wall, eventual reef

[brobak]

Having secured permission from my wife, based primarily on the promise that that 'all my crap will now be in the garage from now on', I've begun taking steps in earnest to get this project rolling.

 

The Tank:

 

I'm looking at a 96Lx30Wx24H tank that will be located in my garage, and displayed flush on the other side of my wall facing the den. The glass  will sit just shy of the drywall (due to the trim), and will be framed like a picture.

 

In the attached pictures, you can see where I've taped off approximately where the tank will come through the wall (the tape lines are for 6 foot, 7 foot and 8 foot tank lengths [settled on the full 96 inches] and 24" and 30" heights), along with the floor plan of the den and furniture lay out, as well as some initial sketchup plans for the stand and tank.

 

I'm considering a 'notched' external overflow from glasscages.com, set back a bit towards the back of the tank so that it can clear the wall joists (as you can see in the sketchup), but I may still just simplify the whole thing and do a more standard shadow box style low profile internal overflow to save a ton of money. I want to keep the back length of the tank free of any permanent, hard-line plumbing so that I can use a small painters step ladder for maintenance in the tank more easily.

 

Front glass is planned to be low iron, with the other three sides being painted black.

 

Sump:

 

I'm looking at using a 100 long (72x18x20) for the sump. The only thing I've totally got nailed down about the sump at this point is the use of a roller mat filter vs socks (or nothing), and dual return pumps that will primarily come up along the left hand, short side of the tank.

 

Automation:

 

I have accumulated a significant amount of Apex controller gear over the years from various other tanks, and since this will be my end-stage tank, I'll be shutting down the 60g anemone cube I have the apex stuff running now, and pulling all the gear up to this tank to run the automation.

 

Infrastructure:

 

To the left of the tank, I'm having a drain and water supply put in, along with a 36" stainless steel utility sink, and there will be two, 20 amp 240v circuits put in on either side of the tank for electrical (the garage needs more outlets anyways, so while this may seem overkill, I'm actually having 6 more outlets put in around the garage for other purposes anyway, so whats one more circuit run).

 

The wall is non-load bearing, though early plans had me quite worried about having to put in a serious beam to carry the roof load across 8+ feet. Luckily, I have a flying-truss roof structure (who knew), and now it's just a framing/drywall job. 

 

Odds and Ends:

 

The garage is non-conditioned space, and there isn't sufficient length to the garage to allow me to build out a fully enclosed and insulated fish room, and another firm requirement for this tank is that it doesn't prevent my wife from parking her car in the garage upon completion.  With that in mind, I'm considering fitting removable insulating panels around the tank, fixed to the stand, floor and ceiling with a combination of magnets and 3d printed angle brackets to secure them. The two side panels will be mostly permanent, but the back panel will be removable for maintenance.  I'll be running lids on the tank to help hold heat and prevent humidity problems, but I'll still probably vent that room using either a few small computer fans through the insulating panels, or else using a ceiling mounted bathroom style fan, venting outside via dryer vent style outlet.

 

I will overspec both heating and cooling, and monitor how things go for a season, with eventual plans to condition the garage with a mini-split and an insulated garage door to further alleviate any issues.

 

Next Steps:

 

I have more contractors coming this month to quote me out on the plumbing and electrical work, and expect to have walls open in January of this year to get started on the work.

 

Next steps for me are to get the contractor quotes, and keep updating the sketchup as the plan refines.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by brobak

[howaboutme]

Looks great!

 

Like you already mentioned, I'd be concerned about the conditions an unconditioned garage will entail. Don't forget that the room you are cutting a hole through is going to loose the thermal barrier it used to have so the temps may feel different in that room. Since you are spending all of this money, how about insulating the garage walls (if not already) and getting an insulated garage door? This will help.

 

Looking forward to following the progress!

[YHSublime]

Might want to talk to @scott711

He did a garage/in wall build that's pretty insane(ly nice) 

[BowieReefer84]

Nice plans.
 

Building it in wall I would recommend not painting sides of tank black. It will make aquascaping and working in the tank doing anything at all very hard. Also, with water you’ll get 100% mirror reflection off the sides not being able to see through the sides from the viewing room at all. I did my recent build in wall and even with the sides clear I was walking back and forth a lot. 
 

Look at the avast auto feeder. It makes it nice not to walk back and forth to feed all the time. It’s a great product. 

 

consider putting your sump on its own stand for ease of maintenance. I wish I would have done this. You can also avoid needing as large a return pump bc you won’t have the head pressure. 
 

look forward to progress. 

[brobak]

@BowieReefer84: I have an avast on my 60g anemone tank now and it's been great. My only mistake was to put it on the main tank vs feeding into the return pump, since it tends to grow algae in the tube that needs to be cleaned decently frequently. Love it though, and will def use it on this tank.

 

Appreciate the thoughts on the painting of the sides. I can always take a look at it, and see if it does the mirror thing, and then if not, I can paint it afterwards easily enough after the first test-fill.

 

I have some space limitations that mean I won't be able to put the sump anywhere except under the stand. My current sump on another tank is on its own, in a separate fish room behind the display, and its been nice having it there. I'm hoping that the taller-than-usual height of this stand (over 52") will leave me a decent space to deal with the sump vs more normal 36" stands.

 

@YHSublime Scott is actually a good friend of mine. Been over to his place a bunch and played around with that tank. That thing is nuts being up so high heh. He's been consulting for me outside of the forums as much as I can bother him.

 

@howaboutme Long term, an insulated garage door is in the plans. The walls and ceiling are already insulated, and I'll eventually put a mini-split into the garage to condition it.  I plan to caulk the gaps around the tank, and caulk the trim to the front of the tank to help with air loss to the garage. I can also use some weather stripping under the trim framing to stop air leakage from the den into the garage. We'll see how that works. As I mentioned, I also plan to build a 'temporary' insulated room, effectively a cooler made out of 2" pink rigid insulation board that will go around the tank, flush on all sides, with the wall along the back of the tank removable via some magnets and 3d printed handles. I know it won't be air tight, but it should help somewhat while I work on affording the garage upgrades to conditioned space.

[brobak]

Just posting a quick update. The tank size and stand plans have changed a bit.

 

I measured the old plan, and found that I wouldn't be able to fit a sump tank wider than 14", which is very limiting. So...I've upgraded the tank to now 96Lx30Wx24H to get the extra under stand space for a reasonably wide sump @ 18".

 

I also changed the top of the stand to 2x12s so that I could delete one of the two front stand braces and get down to one, for better access to the sump.

 

Quotes are coming in for the plumbing and electrical, but since it's the holidays, I don't expect to have them all in until after the new year.

Edited December 26, 2023 by brobak

[brobak]

Cleaned out the garage over the holiday.  Still need to remove the cabinets, but they are ALMOST the right placement and size that the final tank will be.

 

Also, have the plumber coming in the first week of January to install the water and drain where that gray sink is sitting on the floor.

[brobak]

Some more updates and moving towards final forms of the stand.

 

I've decided to use  laminated plywood members for the top of the stand, along with pressure treated lumber for the bits that will touch the concrete. Spent a few hours today in sketchup to get the new stand laid out.

 

I've also removed the cabinets from the previous picture, and I expect the plumber this week to get the sink in place. Electrical is still pending more quotes.

[AlanM]

Looking great.