400 Gallon In wall Central TX

WaterSkiier

New member
Hello Everyone

I am building a nice new house at www.sanmarcosriverranch.com and should be done around January. Somehow I talked my wife into letting me build a tank into the house by taking a corner of the dining room that we wont really use and turning it into a tank room and having a false wall around the tank.

The tank will be ~400 gallons, and custom made with a starfire front. I have done a crude hand drawing of the position and a slightly less crude google sketch of the layout of the room. In the sketch we will be installing a door from the pantry for access to the fish room.

House Layout
TjKdc.jpg


In the room
nUF4i.png

Under the tank is the sump and refugium (which I think I will flip around) then on the stand is the frag tank up top. And a coral QT tank down below.

So the tank will be viewable only through that wall, and I will probably black out the back panels with something removable for working on the tank.
There will also be a water storage tank on the right side of that room which I hid in the drawing to make it easier to see the tank and where the pumps will sit on the right.

The tank will be 126"x25.5"x30" high with the overflow along the end and not visible from the front, it also will not have any powerheads visible I hope, which should be a nice appearance!

Equipment list
Code:
Pump		365	aquacave or marinedepot w 10% off could be 330	Dart Super Gold
CL Pump		365	aquacave or marinedepot w 10% off could be 330	Dart Super Gold
OM 4 way		499	oceans motion	
Powerheads				
	Tank	Unknown if needed		
	Sump	$49 	aquacave	Koralia EVOLUTION 750
	Refugium	$33 	aquacave	nano 240
	Frag Tank	220	ebay	MP10
	qt tank	$33 	aquacave	nano 240
Sump		$355 	glasscages	100 long
Frag Tank		165	Glasscages	36x12x12 rimless
Coral QT		15	LFS	10g standard
Lights Home made		$1,500 	DIY	
Tank		$2,900 	Glasscages	126x25.5x30
Water Tank		$152 	watertank.com	100g
RO System		$269 	airwaterice	EXTREME TYPHOON III 150 GPD
Autotopoff		$51 	autotopoff.com	dual switch sump controller
Carbon Reactor		$60 	bulk reef supply	dual media reactor
4 way dosing pump		490	marinedepot	aqua medic 4 way doser
ro solenoid valve		$25 	autotopoff.com	
Rocks		$1,299 	bulkreefsupply	500 lbs of fiji dry
Heaters		89	aquacave	2x finnex 500w
kalk stirrer		$249 	avastmarine	K2 kalk stirrer
Salt		$350 	drs fosters smith	5x tropic marin pro 200g
Plumbing		$500 	All over	
Tests		$142 	BRS	Salifert All
Carbon		$80 		5 gal pail
Dosing Supplies		$275 	BRS	Calc, alk, mag, kalk 5 gla pail of ea
Foods		$50 	allover	
PH Probe		$30 	BRS	BRS
Refractometer		$40 	BRS	BRS
Total		10650

Thoughts on the equipment list? I already have a controller and a SWC 2s skimmer from my last tank, but I will need to buy all of the above.

Cooling will be handled by a dedicated AC zone for the room, muuuuuuch cheaper then a chiller!

The tank will be set up with the water from the main system going to the sump through a beananimal drain system, then to the return pump which will send some of the water to the refugium, and some of it to the frag tank the rest through a hole in the bottom of the tank (after passing above tank level). Typing this made me realize I will need to raise the refugium.

The water changes will be automated by two of the channels of the doser, taking out around 7 gallons a day and replacing it from the 100g water reservoir. Every 2 weeks I just have to fill it up and add salt, and I guess I will have to leave a powerhead running in it. I am trying to make this as hands off as possible once it is running, thoughts on making it more automated?

I need to decide what to put on the bottom, are there any alternatives to starboard?

Should have the room framed in and have the glass in it in about 2 months. I will start making the LED's in around the same time, once ski season is over.

Anyone have thoughts on what the LED layout should be? I was thinking lots of 20w multichips? Somewhere around 24 with 60 degree lenses? Maybe since I have decided to go with 30" deep I will need to add a few 100w chips over the most heavily coraled areas, but I am worried about the light not being even.

Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Nice plan and tank location. It appears you will also be able to view the tank from the great room as well.
 
perhaps consider doing at least 30" deep(front to back). 30-36" is the new trend. Makes a world of difference for aquascaping, coral growth room, etc.
 
Tremelle: Of course, it is actually only going to be visible from the great room, it will be covered with something opaque on the back.

geaux xman I would love to, but if I do I would have to make the tank 5" or 12" shorter respectively, and the room will be that much smaller, AND the work room will be that much smaller again. AND the tank will be even more off center on the wall, it's arelady 4" one way. I have often thought about it though.
 
I'd definitely go for more space back to front unless you really like the look of long tanks.
I do not see any 45° walls in your house so the tank room could possibly cause more of an impact of the interior looks than you expect.
Did you consider all the square possibilities?
 
I'd definitely go for more space back to front unless you really like the look of long tanks.
I do not see any 45° walls in your house so the tank room could possibly cause more of an impact of the interior looks than you expect.
Did you consider all the square possibilities?

I ran it by the builder and the architect, they both didn't seem to mind it but I didnt ask that question, I will mention it.

I am not really allowed to have enough room to have a square tank, the dining room still has to be usable :(
 
After some thinking I think that I will get a 120x31.5x30.5" tank which would be 499 gallons, and probably nicer to aqua scape. It sure will be hard to reach the front of the tank though once it is on a ~40 inch stand.
 
For the back i would recomend using a product called FRP. You see it used as a wall covering in a lot of comercial kitchens. It's very simmialr to thick formika. One side it textured and one side is smooth.

If you look it is what we used as the wall covering as well.

108_1644.jpg


108_1494.jpg
 
I havent decided who will build the tank yet, it is looking like GC is at least $3000 cheaper then the local competitors, so that is making it hard.

I am located in Martindale, TX

That material looks good for a back of tank covering, I assume it will last a long time in a wet environment, I have not decided what I will use myself yet.
 
I've been seeing some work done by Planet Aquariums in around the Dallas area. Looks like they do good work with good pricing. You could look into them if you havent.
 
So I went to MACNA this weekend and saw some things including the LED's from our local supplier build your led.

I also got a deal on some equipment from salty supply who basically gave me 10% off the lowest price I could find online on a few things, one of those things that I hadn't planned on getting, but was convinced after seeing it at MACNA was a controller. I got an APEX system from salty and I will use it to dim my lights as well as control the pumps and monitor like a normal controller. We were really sold on the fact that it has phone based controlls and the built in 0-10v. I should be able to use it to control my lights, pump, ato, change from kalk or not depending on the pH, and run some water on floor sensors. Overall I am pretty happy with what it can do for me.

I also got a QT tank from Petsmart since they had one that was slightly damaged on sale, so now I have a 60g in the apartment living room with some salt and LR on the way so that I can start my rock cycling ASAP and have it as ready to go as possible when the tank can be started.

Lastly I am still not sure about what LED to get. I really like the BuildmyLED product and they are only a little more or maybe even less then i could do it for myself, and they have native apex controllability. The site isn't working so well yet though so I haven't been able to play around to get 100% of the color I want worked out. I hope they get that worked out.

A question: Where is the cheapest place to get 300 lbs of medium to coarse sand? Marco rocks coarse? Just get 9 bags of caribsea select?
 
So time for the updates to start again, on the less exciting news I returned the bubble magus dosers and I will get some BRS dosers so that I can control them from the Apex. I also received a CPR backpack skimmer for the QT after having to return the SWC since it was broken and their entire stock was broken.

On to more exciting news, the part of the house where the tank will go exists now and they are going to build the stand and the wall tomorrow, below is a picture of the space where the tank will be, it goes from just to the right of the hallway, to the narrow window on the right. The builder forgot to tell the framer to put a door in the pantry, but I think they are doing that tomorrow when the build the rest.

Notice the AC vent into the room area, they will install a exhaust fan too this weekend, and the AC control for that zone will be accessible from inside or outside the room and you will be able to control the AC with the controller I hope.

Area for the tank:
<a href="http://imgur.com/iiGyW"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/iiGyW.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Room the tank is in from the second story (since you can still see through the walls:
<a href="http://imgur.com/noKl4"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/noKl4.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

And roughly the view if you stand in front of the tank and look towards the sunset
<a href="http://imgur.com/sNm39"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/sNm39.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

More to follow this weekend when the tank room gets built!
Sunset
 
I think maybe the framers never came today, they still weren't there at noon plus then it poured rain, on the good side the tank is going to ship "sometime next week"
 
Looks like a good plan. I like your thoughtfulness and detail. I purchased a fair amount of supplies from Salty supply. Chris is top notch and you will enjoy the apex. BRS is my other favorite supplier.
 
Back
Top