135 in-wall build

[jjk82901]

well i'm upgrading to a 135 from a 72 bowfront in order to move my aquarium from the upstairs living room to in-wall in the downstairs living room. the utility room will be the fish room. i intend to keep most of my equipment the same, just add another return pump and circ. pump.
here's a pic of my current tank.

i know i need to scrape.

 

[jjk82901]

here's the wall where the madness begins.

i have most of the destruction/rebuild complete this has been the sequence.

 

[jjk82901]

that's the lucky lady that MADE me upgrade and stick a tank in the wall....right.
here's the tank

the has been drilled yesterday and i will be setting up a calflo style overflow.

 

[jjk82901]

this is where i sit now. i will keep this uptodate as possible. next step is to tape and mud. install bullnose trim, overflow, make stand, and level it up. equipment should arrive shortly.
thanks for any advise in advance.

 

[thor32766]

great job so far good luck.

 

[SSalty]

Sweet. I am looking forward to your updates.

 

[jjk82901]

update time. just completed mudding, which i hate immensely, the stand, and the overflow. need to texture and paint then its time to rock. here's the photoshow.

 

[jjk82901]

tonight i'm texturing and painting and hopefully by friday and this weekend i'll have the tank moved.
any questions or comments and more than welcome. thanks

 

[jjk82901]

update time. finished painting, put the tank in the wall and started filling. started plumbing, got the sump together and started some finish work. almost time to transfer the rock and fishes.

 

[mg426]

Nice looking work !!!

 

[jcpatella]

That looks really nice. Subscribed.

 

[SVTour]

Nice progress...I see you didn't care to access from the front at all. Do you think that will create an issue in trying to clean the front glass?

Also, are you running any ventilation in the room at all?

 

[spider86]

Looks great! Will be following. I have the same calfo, Very nice setup.

What skimmer will you be running?

 

[jjk82901]

i have a ASM g1-x rated to 150. will be recirc modding it. the room also has my hot water heater and furnace, so it also has ventilation so we don't have radon problems.
I have a solution to the cleaning the front glass problem. a kent super long scraper. the tank actually doesn't sit too far into the wall (2") because of the recessed feature. basically the only thing that is being covered is the black trim, so i don't see to many issues with access. i will be putting my lights on a pulley system to get them out of the way also.
jk

 

[jjk82901]

ok sorry for the delay, it takes awhile to fill 135 gal and a 45 gal sump, and get the salt in and what have you. anyway, i transfered everything, just sort of threw it in, now i have to aquascape (monday), get all the electrical under control (as you will see) and introduce my new friends that will arrive on tuesday. here's a couple pics of the progress. oh yeah i devised a system to get the lights high enough off the water so i can work. i simply bought some light gauge chain and am using hanging hooks in the ceiling. works well enough for me.

 

[jjk82901]

full tank shot of current lay out. put the heaters on front glass during the mixing of the salt. will move to the back or sump depending how well i can hide them.

here's my sailfin that i rescued from petco after it got beat up by a large angel. she's about 5 inches now.

before shot when i first adopted her, about 2 inches and 1 year ago. poor thing has always had scars from hlle, but i keep her feed with algea and spirulina mysis w/ selcon.

before and afters of my coral. the purple montipora was broken in half when i moved from an apartment to my house. could only imagine how big it would be if it didn't break. oh and i still have the clam and is doing well just forgot to take a pic.

now

here's the overflow with some snail defenses.

 

[jjk82901]

this is the electrical situation i was talking about earlier, looking into solutions but it'll work out in the wash.

here's the fuge. it was well established with millions of copapods, but needed a clean out. so back to the beginning.

and my skimmer doing what it does best.

feel free to comment about whatever, please give any advises as i always learn from others.
will post my new creatures wednesday after they settle for a night.
thanks for looking

 

[jjk82901]

i forgot my favorite fish. our buddy blenny.

and here's a pic of the before shot of the salomen digitata, after is at the top of the thread in the 72 shot.

 

[jjk82901]

I decided to add a thin layer of coarse sand mixed with crushed coral. i rinse and rinse and still get the lovely sand storm. aquascaping is complete at this point.

my two sets of goodie bags

my three-way acclimation system. this works really well for the guy/gal that hates to watch a clock and add water every 5 minutes.

 

[jjk82901]

first i added this little beauty.

i'm so glad i spent the extra cash on the gbta. it absolutely pops under actinics.

i then added a royal gramma basslet, that then proceeded to hide in the rockwork. i hope to see the little fella again.

i then added 4 more blue-green chromis, to make a total of 8.

then i added my favorite fish.

the powder brown tang has always called out to me. after a short scuffle the two tangs have accepted each other and are getting along.