180 in wall rebuild.

[cilyjr]

So I'm the small guy here but this seems the best forum for this.
I've had a 180 6x2x2 standard tank in the wall for about 5 years now before that it was a 90 and before that a 46 bow front. Well things hadn't been doing well. I bought some new more powerful wave makers and they stirred up the sand bed pretty badly. That and a pretty hard core alk spike (9 to 11dkh) started an stn event. Then came dynos. All of my fish were fine and non coral inverts as well.
Some pics at its previous best.





I had added this foam cover for the overflow and will be building a new one for this makeover. I never covered it with epoxy and that was a mistake


The fishroom as it was. The rt side of the tank was difficult to access so that will be changed.
This room is a mess!



Well I'm taking it as an opportunity to update and change all the stuff in hated about the tank. I've completely taken it down and will be redoing the fishroom as well.

 

[cilyjr]

1st off was borrowing a 100g stock tank for a home for the fish while this is going on. Then a major cleaning. Thanks to my shop vac! But here's my temp fish home. It is a 100g tank with 2 20 tanks all plumbed the white tub with the lr is not added there is plenty in the other tanks. Fish coral and calm all seem fine , they've been thee a week

 

[cilyjr]

One goal is to get rid of some pumps. I'm using 3 feed pumps for various equipment and am going to run it off the main via a manifold. The main pump does about 3100gph and is dc so I'm hoping that will lighten the electric load. I modded my skimmer to a recirculation and would like a direct feed off the drain so that's built in as well.and I'm moving the electrical service I built to a more convent place. As it stands now it's too far and I'm using too many extension cords. And finally moving the utility sink in from the room around the corner is another biggie on the list.
Most of this is done at this point so I have some pics

 

[cilyjr]

Here's the new fish room layout. Moving the sink was a pita as I had to cut and redo some of the drain for the laundry/sewage.

Old


New the table with the white tubs is a move able work bench

 

[cilyjr]

Got the drain re plumbed this tome with unions so I can clean or replace pipe more easily it's a bean drain with a syphon, durso and E drain. The syphon drain will be a bit more challenging to tune in as it has 3 valves now as I want to feed the skimmer directly. We will see how it works . If poorly I will change the feed to the durso .

 

[cilyjr]

And the return going into a manifold to run ca reactor,maybe gfo ,kalk reactor. The line splits so I'll be able to easily pump waterm out to the drain for water changes (done by monthly) with automatic water changes done at 2 gallons a day.

 

[cilyjr]

Also moved electrical box. This box is made of 4 gang wall boxes mounted in a wooden frame. It runs off of 2 dedicated GFCI breakers. Each on opposing sides of my 200 electrical service. Each side of the box uses a different breaker so if on trips I'll not lose all electrical.


Neateded up with door on


I couldn't find panduit locally at a price I wanted to pay so I made a cable duct with 2 inch pvc pipe. I ripped a canal with a table saw and then with a chop saw I made cross sections. So for about 8 bucks I got this. Maybe not as pretty as panduit but a lot better then cables everywhere. And when I turn the groove toward the wall it blends in with the plumbing

 

[cilyjr]

I built a new foam cover for the overflow I used regular foam insulation and west system Maine epoxy.and enough rock so it won't float away. The arch is 100% foam and will float on its own but there are couplings in the anchors that lock it in place.the entire structure is about 35 inches with the main overfflow cover 24 inches. The rest of the rock will be stacked traditionally.on the advice of a couple of friends, I bought 3 bags of Tropic eden 3mm reef flakes and 2 bags of 2.7mm mesoflakes for sand it is much more coarse. It is definitely that! I like it and sand storms are much less likely.

 

[cilyjr]

While waiting for I to dry and cure I made a few little brackets of the acrylic scraps to hold probes and hoses from the reactors
I snapped a pic of the hose reactor one the probe holder is similar but longer to be under water.

 

[cilyjr]

well I'm up and running again. Everything is much better... I was able to remove 3 mj 1200, and a mag 5 and now all equipment is running off a dc return pump that can turn about 3100 gph for right around 100 watts. I hope that will save some electricity. also i can crank the powerheads with the Tropic Eden reefflake sand and no sand storm!. this makes me very happy as well. finally the other huge helper was getting the utility sink in the same room as the fishroom instead of 15 feet away in another room

 

[cilyjr]

Manifold works great. I've got an open slot still but I'm running carbon (empty in pic), uv, and the ca reactor which is getting a much steadier drip. That was an unplanned bonus