In Wall - going for it! - seeking your ideas/feedback/advice

[class clown]

Hi gang,

Those of you who know me know I've been talking about doing an in wall for years. I figure it's about time to put some muscle behind that talk, so I'm working on developing a plan and could really use your suggestions and feedback.

This will be my first in wall and I want to do it "right" the first time. I know from experience with my current 55 that any time I spend learning from other's mistakes/feedback before i dive in, will save me a lot of time, effort, and $$ in the long run. So please.. speak your mind, share your lessons learned and opinions freely.

Duane (Trido) will be helping me with the construction. He's a former GC, all around good guy, and owns just about every tool known to man and enough experience to build my entire house, so I'm lucky he's on board. He came over yesterday and we looked at a couple different scenarios of what could be. He's got an in wall himself that's amazingly inspiring(check out his thread)

Tank Size & Type: So here is where you come in. My first challenge is to determine tank size & type. Two requirements:

1. I'd like to do glass this time (I think)
2. It's has to be 48" long (any bigger and I'd have to mess with moving the furnace and a drain pipe for the upstairs toilet that's buried in the wall and that's just not a headache I want to mess with on this house)

Other than that, the sky is the limit. What do you think about width, height, brand, size, etc?

Here's a couple options I was thinking about:

• A standard off the shelf 120g AGA - 48"L x 24"W x 24"H.
• Oceanic makes a 140g - 48"L x 24"W x 30"H
• I could try to maybe get something custom built at 48" x 30" (or 36") x 24" (or 30")

Thoughts? other options? feelings? inclinations? words of caution?

Photo caption: Here is what a 48" by 24" would look like positioned on the wall. The inner square is the outline of the tank. and I was thinking I'd put some nice thick white trim around the exterior to dress it up.

Note: The small black square to the right is where I was thinking about doing a little bilt in for my Aquacontroller- wife wasn't crazy about that Idea, but I though it would be cool to have so I could hide my wires.

 

[class clown]

Here are some rough sketches of what the back side of that wall could look like. It shares the wall with the garage.

in the first pic, I've outlined in brown dotted line where the drain pipe for the upstairs toilet runs. We could move it, but it would mean a lot more work and I don't really want to get into that.

in this second pic, I tried to show how the stand might look. Since the garage is a good couple feet below the rest of the house, the stand is going to have to be pretty tall - anyone have experience with tall stands like this?. In order to get some good access to the tank, I was thinking I'd try to build a big step all around the tank. Anyone ever done this before?

 

[Paul B]

The only problem I see is it's going to be hell aquascaping and cleaning the front glass without an opening in the front above the tank. You will have to do everything from the rear. My 100 gallon is in a wall but I have a door above it that matches the wall. My lights also swing out of the way for tank maintenance.
Paul

This is it with the front panel open. When closed the hinges and all hardware are concealed. Of course It is in my finished bsmt, and the panel blends in so you really can't see it. Good luck

 

[szidls]

Hey Ben glad to see ya doing the inwall. First off I know moving the furnace/water heater would be a pita but are you sure in the long run that might not be the way to go? Maybe have one of those tankless water heaters that mount on the wall and just move the furnace. I really think you will wish there was 6' of swim room for your fish. As far as tank height. 24" is pretty deep to work in. I would go for at least 30" to 36" of depth so you really have room for aquascaping. I'm sure I will have to come over and check out your progress as it comes along.
Scott

 

[spongebob lover]

that's awesome you're doing it !!
hmm i don't know dood i kind of agree with Paul about aquascaping or even placing corals in there as you won't have to much room to move around.
how about putting it where your fish tank is right now?

140 gal sounds good even though i think 240 would be even better .

 

[spongebob lover]

As far as tank height. 24" is pretty deep to work in.

he wants to go swimming dood, what's wrong with that :lol:

 

[szidls]

he wants to go swimming dood, what's wrong with that :lol:

Nothing wrong with 24" deep. My old 150 was 24 deep and I could just touch the tank bottom. I don't know if I would ever want a deeper tank unless it had a sand bed of course......:lol:
Scott

 

[spongebob lover]

hmm may be a couple inches of sand wouldn't be a bad idea .

Nothing wrong with 24" deep. My old 150 was 24 deep and I could just touch the tank bottom.

woouu dood ....if it was me ...i'd still need to go for a swim :lol:

 

[DonW]

My advice. Cut the hole quick before your better half changes her mind.

Don

 

[Jan]

Ben, your garage diagram is very neat.

My .02 is that if it were me, I would go for a tank width of 30" to 36", even if that meant a custom build or an expensive Elos tank. This way you could really plan for some expansive SPS layout and lots of swimming room. That's my biggest disappointment with my 20" wide tank. I feel like I have a rock wall with limited top area for growing the light-loving corals. Next tank will be much wider....

P.S. I agree with the comments above that 24" tall is just tall enough to be uncomfortable. I'd go with 20" tall if I could....

 

[dailydriven911]

Congrats! Keep us updated I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[matts125]

Hey Ben, you will love it!
I am a contractor as you know just give me a call for some help...

Matt
253-273-7383

 

[spongebob lover]

Matt
253-273-7383

kewl !! who's ready for some prank calls :shock: :lol: ...j/k

 

[jezzeaepi]

Id probably go with a 48 inch long by 30 inch wide by 24 inch tall. I agree with the others about 24 inches being the upper practical limit if you want to be able to reach the bottom(which is a good thing for you since you like to drop frags all over the place =P). With the in walls, I think the deeper the better, like Steve Weast's tank(RIP tank =().

 

[class clown]

Awesome guys.. all excellent points.

So I solidified that I'm not going a higher than 24". That'll be a step up from my 55 gallon which is only 18". I'm happy with that b/c it means I don't have to upgrade my existing MH 250s (but I will try to get some luminarcs for better penetration)

Scott - I hear ya on the bigger is better part. Trust me. I was pretty dissapointed to learn it could only be 48", but it would be a really big project if I decided to go bigger. it'd be a pretty big renovation which means big $$ too. If i stayed at 48", I could literally just cut a notch in the wall, add some bracing for support and call 'er good.

For the width, I really like deep tanks, I'm telling ya. I think what people are able to do with them aquascaping wise totally rocks! Jesse - steve's tank also ame to mine - although there is no way mine could be like that.

It sounds like a lot of folks are thinking 48" x 24" x 30" (or 36"_ would be a good bet. I also totally agree it would be awesom, however, I'm also going to play devils advocate. Here are a couple points against going a wide tank.

1) cost - guaranteed to be more expensive
2) cost - guaranteed to be more expense (yep -said that twice - would probably have to upgrade my skimmer vs. modding it, may need to add some more lights, more electricity, etc.)
3) ability to turn around and sell in a couple years probably won't be as good with a custom size tank - my guess is we'll move from this house in another 2-4 years and you better beleive I'll be looking for a house that meets my fish tankin needs ;-)​

but boy I would love to have one deep hmmm...

so where does this leave me.. searching for a nice odd shaped used one perhaps..

 

[class clown]

Having a front access panel is another huge issue.. Paul - you hit the nail on the head.

My wife is all about aesthetics. I admittedly so lean that way too. I want this to look like a stealth install. But I know that trying to aquascape from the back is going to be super challenging. here are a couple ideas I was thinking about to combat that.

1. Weld my rockwork together with pegs so they don't move around and I don't have to deal with rock slides every other week. i can arrange them outside of the tank and then as long as i remember which peg goes in what whole, I'll hopefully be able to get it done with minimal effort.
2. Instead of painting the sides and back, I was thinking about trying to stick some black or blue acrylic to them that could be removable. This way when i drop somethign (yes Jesse - thank you for pointing this out), i can get it easily.
3. building/buying a viewing box so i can aquascape looking from the top down
4. investing in a bunch of good tongs.

think this is enough or do you still think I'm crazy for not doing an access panel. the problem with my access panel is that I don't have the foggiest idea how i could get it to look nice and be functional at the same time with my painted drywall (Paul - that woodboard you have looks good)

PRO access panel
*easier to acces

 

[spongebob lover]

well you could always do it like you want it but may be just have fish only ??

 

[class clown]

that's a thought, but I'm a coral type of guy at heart... Maybe someone out there has a really nice, stealth way to do it. Keep your eyes peeled for me if you come across one.

 

[class clown]

Ben, your garage diagram is very neat.

My .02 is that if it were me, I would go for a tank width of 30" to 36", even if that meant a custom build or an expensive Elos tank. This way you could really plan for some expansive SPS layout and lots of swimming room. That's my biggest disappointment with my 20" wide tank. I feel like I have a rock wall with limited top area for growing the light-loving corals. Next tank will be much wider....

P.S. I agree with the comments above that 24" tall is just tall enough to be uncomfortable. I'd go with 20" tall if I could....

Jan - you got me thinking. Reached out to Cy at BR to see if they even sell the Elos's seperately and to my surprise they do. He's going to work on finding me a price on their 120xl and i should hear back soon(47,24 x 31,49 x 19,69 h inch) - cost is an issue though. As is, I'm about $500 over my budget :doubt: and I doubt this is going to help any.

And for kicks, wanted to see what the 160xl would run (63 x 31,5 x 23,6 h inch.), just in case I decide to go bigger and move the furnace and re-route the crapper pipe. We'll see... hey, I can dream right?

 

[spongebob lover]

dood who cares if you go over budget, we all go through that ... just do it !!! .
i think in the long run you'll be happy with the Elos tank ( or at least i think that way )