Bloke's 180g - It was bound to happen...

[Bloke]

Well, who am I kidding? It was bound to happen so why resist?

Over the last few months the wife and I have talked about what would be my summer project this year since she knows that I HAVE to have something to occupy my time otherwise insanity sets in. I told her that my plan was to teach a few online courses, travel to Washington DC in June, and spend money on fish (both keeping and catching).

She asked if I had given any thought to finishing the basement. Since we have a quad-level home, the majority of the house is finished with the exception of two rooms. I told her that when I do that I wanted to put in a larger system downstairs and she, quite suprisingly, responded that I did NOT need another fish tank and in fact, the tank next to the TV is quite imposing.

So I told her, that my actual plan was to pull the other tanks down and combine them into a larger singular system. All of the sudden, she was all for it! She starting talking about where we'd put furniture and perhaps a built in bar, etc. I was excited and her excitement - like most men usually are.

So, it didn't long after that conversation, that a few days later I was at Star Lumber making an order for some wood to be delivered. Of couse, she wanted to see what I had planned, so it was down to the computer I sat for a few days digging my way through Google's SketchUp once again (I LOVE that program).

This is what I showed her:

There is only one window downstairs so that naturally will be a bedroom as seen on the left. In order to put this system in the wall, I am going to frame a wall 5' from the foundation. Therefore, with a 72x24x24 tank I will still have ~3' of room behind the system for walking/working, etc. Access to this 5'x15' space will be via an extra door within this new guest room shown here:

 

[Bloke]

My other plans for the system are to run a 100g Rubbermaid tub and place it on the far wall perpendicular to the tank. I will combine both drain lines into a single larger line and within the tub hold a 15g long tank (24x12x12) for a fuge (My current refugium section of my sump ironically has these same dimensions).

Additionally, I plan to drill the back of this 180g RR tank to run a closed loop and avoid ANY internal components within the tank. For lighting, I plan to use the 3x250 MH I already have coupled with 4x54w T5 HO for actinic supplementation. I would like to build a light rack so that the lights can be slid to the side when needing access to the system and I also will run Lumenarc (Lumenbright) mini reflectors as well.

I plan to run a DIY Becket skimmer, but may look into a needle-wheel; I am certainly going to run external pumps and I plan to build (or enlist the help of good friends) a second chamber to the reactor just completed for the upstairs tank.

So, I think I have a good plan and a whole lot of gumption. Further, I will have quite a bit of equipment for sale (sumps, tanks, stands, powerheads, etc.) I'll take pics and keep this thread updated. Thanks for following!

 

[danno14]

Nice write up..... so the room behind the tank will leave you with 15x3, not including the area under or on either side fo the stand?
What is the intent of the narrow walkway between the other wall and the foundation? D

 

[Bloke]

Well, the room behind will be about 5' by 15'. Of course, 24" of that will be taken up by fish tank. So, I will have a 3' walkway directly behind the tank, but a total of 5' on either side of the tank where on one side I plan to keep barrels of freshwater/saltwater and on the other the skimmer, reactor, sump, etc.

I will also build a few shelves for a small QT and frag tank as well as shelves for supplements, salt, etc. It wont be the biggest room, but it'll keep everything for the system centrally located and within reach.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I took some final measurements and got to work. I wanted to start with the more complicated wall first. The interior wall seperating the bedroom from this new den was where I chose because it joins with a wall at a 45 degree angle, it will contain two doors, has multiple required nailers beyond the mere 16" studs, etc.

The outer walls for this room will go very fast, but this wall took a little bit more time for all the reasons stated above as well as due to headers, door placement, proper measurement, running parallel to the floor joists, etc. Tomorrow I will get more accomplished, but for today, not a bad start at all when you're working solo.

 

[trido]

I just finished my 6x8 tank room and am working on a 5x9 room for someone else. It will be small but plenty functional. If you dont have plumbing in that room make sure to get water to and from it before you seal those walls in.. It can be as simple as the 1/4" RO/DI line to it and a 1" line to a plumbing drain from it. Your going to have a nice system. Make sure your not carrying buckets of water through your house.

 

[Bloke]

Yeah - I already have a tank upstairs right above this new system so I will just drop those water lines down for this tank when I take that one down.

Many people have commented on the size of the room thinking it might not be big enough, but the bigger I make the "fish" room, the smaller the finished room becomes and that's not cool with the wife. So we're looking for room as well as functionality.

 

[trido]

It only has to be large enough for you to hide from your wife while doing your tank chores or some fragging. It definately wont be a place for a social event. I wish I had 15 feet of wall for all of my behind the scenes stuff. Take a look at my 210 build in my sig and you'll see what I mean. Nevertheless, Im happy to have a tank room thats not part of my laundry room or something else. I can spill as much water as I want without a care. You'll see. You'll be in fish tank heaven.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I did manage to get the bedroom completely framed in without issue. I do need to add a few nailers in the corners.

But finally... the wall I'd been waiting for; the tank wall. It ended up being about 13 feet long and I will attempt to get the tank as close to center as possible.

After getting the basic wall laid out, I decided to run 2x6 for the horizontals as well as put the adjoining 2x4 on their face as well to limit the space taken up by the wood once the tank is in place. If the studs run parallel to the front of the tank I only lose about 1.5" versus 3.5" and hopefully this will help in cleaning etc. I figured a height of about 41" for the tank. This will keep it high enough that walking to it, I almost look directly in. Let's avoid backaches if possible.

You can see the temporary nails in the 2x4 above the 2x6 showing 24" distance. This would be the top of the tank.

 

[Bloke]

Here's a shot showing the stand 90% complete. There's a few more things I need to do including lag bolts and a few 2x6 runners along the bottom to stabalize it. Believe it or not it's darn near perfectly level. I checked it at the front, the back, the right side, middle, and left, and I am not so sure professionals could've done a better job. (The pride of a weekend warrior)

Finally, a great view of the space I'll have behind the tank. It's right at 34.5" because I added an extra 2x6 to the front framing of the stand which took up the other 1.5". No problem. I am walking around behind it without absolutely NO trouble or restriction.

The project is moving along fairly nicely. I hope to have all the framing done by this weekend (including any additional nailers) so that I can start the electrical wiring and call in the drywall people. (I don't do drywall.)

 

[trido]

Dont forget to put a nice (super quiet) bath fan controlled with either a coolingstat or dehumidistat in the tank room before you call in those sheetrockers.

 

[Bloke]

Yeah, I thought about that. I will NOT be sheet-rocking behind this wall, but I will be installing a fan. I don't know were to find one that quiet though. I am sure Home Depot and Lowes fans are not very quiet.

Any ideas? How about ideas on where to find a coolingstat or dehumidistat?

 

[Bloke]

Okey dokey... I have finally finished framing!

However, I do still have to frame the header for the tank. I picked up the tank and it's currently sitting in the family room awaiting a cleaning and final placement. I did not want to put to frame the header without getting an accurate measurement.

I will pick up the stuff for the electrical tomorrow and begin that monster. On a side note, I have had four different estimates on drywall and each time it gets a little lower, but they're still talking crazy. These gas prices are a b&^tch!

 

[dieden]

Wow, I love it and thee still isn't even a tank!!! Hey, after seeing your specs I decided to download that google program. When I open it, the program loads completely but shortly thereafter it no longer responds..... every time Do you know if this is VISTA compatible. I know, why Vista...... should've have known not to get it

 

[matts125]

Sweet build!!!

Cant wait to see more..

Where in KS are you located??
I am originally from Great Bend...

Matt

 

[Bloke]

...Do you know if this is VISTA compatible. I know, why Vista...... should've have known not to get it

Hmm - no clue. I had problem having both SketchUp and Google Earth on the computer. I got rin of Google Earth

Where in KS are you located??
I am originally from Great Bend...

I live outside of east Wichita, not very close at all to Great Bend.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I found a pretty good deal on a Sequence (Reeflo) Dart pump (3600gph) and an Oceans Motions 4-way on ReefCentral. So, I was wondering if this setup would work:

As you can see, I will pull from the sump and then "T" the return sending part of it through 4 return lines to the tank and part to the skimmer. Anyone see a problem with this setup? Anyone notice any difficulties this will cause?

The skimmer is a DIY becket model which should require between 1200-1500gph. The Dart has a max head pressure of 12' and has a decreased flow to 2820gph at 4' of pressure.

Since this is NOT a high pressure pump, I may still be required to buy another pump like a Gen X PCX 40 (1200gph with max head pressure 22') to run the skimmer effecetively.

IMO, the kink is in the skimmer. Becket skimmers require pressure rated pumps and this Dart will provide flow, but not pressure which may result in underskimming. Of course, if I decide to go with a needle-wheel skimmer, this setup may be perfect.

Ideas?

 

[Scooterman]

IMO!
Use the pump as they are designed to, recirculate water using the OM 4-way as in a CL, not from the sump.
Use something else for that, like a pan-world, Iwki or Eheim for the sump return.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=168239&postcount=119

I built a header system, I have a SQ 4200 (a dart with larger Impeller, More GPH, 4200)
With a 180 Glass as your getting, I would suggest more flow as I'm thinking I may even add more to my tank.
With the OM it supplies water to only one Outlet at a time, My design with the MBV It switches headers. So you have one outlet with high pressure through a 3/4" outlet. Nothing wrong with that, the Dart would hook up nice to it but I would add an additional over the top CL on your tank. I would probably only drill outlet holes for HD 3/4 BH's & go with two 1 1/2" suctions for the 2" required to get all that flow in the first place or still go with two 1 1/2" suction one for each CL pump & still make (4) for 3/4" holes for the OM CL outlets & go over the top with the other CL & just have water squirting out in every direction, using Joe's water outlets he posted about this morning on his Showcase thread. (WavySea Plus)

 

[Scooterman]

LOL did I just screw up your thoughts on all this?

 

[Bloke]

YES! And I am not even sure I understand what you're suggesting. Obviously, I understand the over-the-top closed loop, and the suggestion of getting another pump to run as a return, but what are you suggesting I drill?

Are you suggesting I drill two 1 1/2" holes for intakes into the 2" Dart intake and then four 3/4" holes for the OM return? If I drill then why over-the-top? HUH?