The door isnt... yet. The tank and all of its componets will be though. If you look close at the floor in the last pic you can see the yellow angle. That is where the wall of the room will be. it will go from right beside the garage door opener out the that mark and then all the way back to the wall out of veiw. about a 12' by 4' room. I will insulate this and tap into the duct work of the living room line and feed it with heat and a/c. I also have a small a/c just incase the summer gets really hot. I am still working out exactly the layout of where the doors will be and all but I have a while to wait. I should have enough room between the tank/stand and the other wall to put things like a quarentine tank and my RODI tub and stuff... It will house everything fish related.
I know.. I keep changing everything up... I can never stick to a plan. I have to think and think and go over it and over it and change everything at the last min. Usually to the better though.
I never think that far ahead. I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda guy. I never plan anything cause I change in mid project to much
I have definatly changed how the stand is going to be. Its just going to be a box like the guys in the link I posted. I like that overall for access. I think my access area will be turned and on the right side of the tank looking at it from behind though. That way its inside the room and I can enclose everything but ehh... I am liable to change my mind by the time I wake up in the morning.. LOL
WOW! this tank is going to be awsome! im following this build for sure. let me know if you need a hand on anything i love building crap. and im only about 15 min away will
saw this today wile dreaming. thought you may be interested. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-03/totm/index.php
Ok I have to put my two cents in. Tank in the wall is very cool, and i would do it again if i was to have to do it over. Now for the the things you are going to have to deal with. one is that you are going to loose about 5" of lighting at the front of your tank. you are not going to be able to pile rocks up aginst the back of the tank because you need to be able to keep it clean for viewing. You cant see form the top because of how high it is and the current in the water. temp is a major prob. i had to go to a controler. and you will have to do the duct work like you were talking about, i had to do the same. were the prob comes in is when outside temp is around the same as the inside, you dont get new air from your ac. so your lights start cooking the tank. something has to save it. another leasson i had this summer is insects. there is way more insects in ones garage than inside the house. they will put a lot of bio load in your tank, and then comes green hair, we all love green hair,. i will say it is a real pain not haveing access to the front of the tank, but its worth it for that clean finished look when your done. cleaning and careing for the front is very difficult. LOTS of running back and forth. Good luck with it its worth it Greg my cell is 501 940 3713, your welcome to stop by an see what i have done Â
Got off work early so I tackled the drywall... Fairly easy job. I have been debating whether to putty and tape this thing. You will not be able to see it unless you are in the room and by then there will be so much other stuff going on in there that it seems like a waste. Depends on how I feel tomorrow I guess.
You make some pretty interesting points about the bugs... Never really thought about it I guess.. Only thing that we have are water beatles that like our garage for the cool temps during the summer and I would think that the fish would like the protien packed mothes.. LOL I am deffinatly going to have to look into sealing it a lil better than I thought I guess. The temp in my garage doesnt varry much. Its snowing out and yet you can stand in it out there with nothing but a long sleeve shirt on.. Same in the summer... Its usually one of the coolest rooms when the door is shut and the lights are off. I have thought a lot about air quality though. My home unit will supply most of the air but I have been thinking of a side unit that I use out there anyways when I am working. Its one of those stand up vent out the window things. I am looking into the posiblity of fans around the top, maybe just one good box type that I can cover when I am not using yet turn on and pull air out of the room if the humidity gets high or I think it just needs a refresher. The front of the tank... I know.. its going to take getting some used to. I have seen where the people that I am using for a reference are using acrylic boxes made for looking into the water when they are working from above.  My stand is going to have roughly six inches on each side with about a foot of space behind it... I may extend the six to a foot but that will be an on the fly call I guess. I shouldnt really have a problem with accessing the tank. The back panel is something that I dont think will be a problem either. I will leave about six inches to work there.. that is enough room to get my hand in with a small blade to scrape it. Its still a work in progress and I am sure I will keep making changes and problems arise.. Thanks for the heads up though. Any advise or problems that you know of before hand will make this WAY easier on me in the long run.
This guy is actually the one that inspired the guy that I started this off of. Steve also has a 750 that sits right next to this 500 on the other side of that door in the pics. Very cool and creative stuff. The guy is a master at LARGE systems. Deffinatly a model I am following.
Have you ever thought about installing cabinet doors on the inside of the house above the tank. You can make some good looking ones and that would give you access to the front of the tank. Just a thought.
nah sam... that isnt even an option with the woman of the house.. she wants a clean picture look. I may call ya tomorrow though and get your thoughts on a few things.. I have been meaning too... I was also out there thinking just a min ago about having a small get together of some of the club members to help me get the tank up on the stand... Just some thoughts but I will hit ya up about some things when I get to building the stand and the way the rest of the stuff is laied out.. the hole was nothing.. now comes the fun part.. LOL
The only hard thing about big tanks is getting the people over to lift the dang tank up on the stand. I'll help any way I can.
i noticed something you have already put sheetrock up on the bottom half of your wall, when i framed up my stand i tied it into the frameing of the wall. my tank sits on that wall to put the tank right up against the trim work, so the tank does sit on that bottom half. the thinkess of the wall is the 5" loss of lighting that i was talking about, the header will shadow the front of your tank just some more thaughts, good luck, this is why we call it a hobby. lol Â
This tank isnt going to be in the wall really. It will be set back the width of the wall. The GF likes the idea of the inset and thinks it will look better than a flush mount. (I kinda agree) I am going to tie the stand in with the wall too on the top and the sides. The stud that runs along the bottom of the opening will tie into the back joist of the stand and the sides there will be anchored to the back side as well. My thinkings is this stand is going to be around 82" long and about 42" wide of a stand. That behemoth of a stand should be able to support itself without any fear of it moving.   These two builds are where I am getting all of this and stealing ideas. If you want to know where I am headed with this these are the places to go. Only big difference is my tank will be enclosed and theirs is open. http://www.carolinafishtalk.com/forum/m ... build.html http://www.Oregonreef.com
I'll volunteer to help as well. When we build our house I plan on having a large in wall build, so I'll prolly pick your brain a little while I'm there! Phone number 501-339-4540 and email is koonescomps@gmail.com
Your doing a great job !!! Thanks for sharing !!! I just went through every page of the 250g In-Wall Build link you posted - your going to have a really cool tank !!!
I got the frame of this thing D.U.N done... LOL Just needs to be skinned out. I put on the rafters and plywood up top and got a chance to install the doors too. I am pleased. Its solid as a rock. Cant wait for the next leg of this journey.
