Addiction wins, 450 gallon system begins

[Hop]

I'm looking for a up and running date by the end of september or begining of october. I'm sure the few fish, shrimp and crab I have crammed in my 125 will be looking forward to streching their fins/legs/claws soon

Due to an ever-growing shrinking of funds, the stand may not be completed (IE finished and stained), but it will be holding water and funtional.... I hope

 

[jnarowe]

Money, time, money...what a fun cycle! Since I own a retail store that sells marine items, I can get some things at cost. I just ordered in West Sytem Epoxy resin, hardener etc. to coat my stand and keep water damage down. I am hoping to buy other stuff that way too. I sell a lot of pumps but unfortunately they are all 12V or 24V and not AC...total bummer on that one.

Now I need to get a 6" x 18" x 9' header for my tank window, because of course, the wall I want to put my tank in is a load bearing wall. Does that sound like trouble to anyone???--J

 

[Hop]

OK pictures are back up. Something about exceeding the sites monthy bandwidth limit. If this happens again I may have to change sites to host my pics... Or just quit posting pics

Well the last two hours I've been tearing the crate apart that the tank came in. at last count, there were over 250 screws. Whew.

jnarowe: When I put my 125 in the wall, I stood there for like 2 hours debating about putting up the new header. In the end it really wasn't that bad, just a little scary

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah, well we're talking about an 8 foot span in the ONLY load bearing wall in the lower floor which is 15'. Turns out that I can get a 5-1/2" x 18" x 10' that will only deflect 1/16" under the load, so that's not too bad. I wonder whether this is really a DIY part of the job though!!! Imagine my wife gets home and our 4,100' house is only 2,750' after I drop the top floor... Is that grounds for divorce??? LOL--Jonathan

 

[Hop]

Is that grounds for divorce???

Nah I just had mine help. My wife was a great coach (LMAO). I ran a temporary header with a few braces and then did the cutting and fitting. Mine was 7 feet... So I was close. LOL

 

[jnarowe]

My wife specifically counted herself out of any involvement with the tank. Besides, she's running our store while I recover from my stroke!

Tell me about the temporary header...how did you do that, and did you put the new header at the top of the wall, or lower? Did you leave roomm for a front access panel?--J

 

[Hop]

Oh man I'm sorry to hear about your stroke.. It all makes sense now, the conversations we've had and your Occupation. Hope things are on the rebound for you!

As far as the temp header goes, I nailed two scrap 2X10s together and then pressed them against the ceiling/perpendicular to the floor joists on the second floor. I then ran 2 4x4s on the sides. The temp header was wider then the new header I was installing on order to facilitate working around. It then took me about 2 hours to get the new header installed. I did have to get a building inspection after that because the code where I live states "any modification to a weight bearing wall". So the next day I had the inspection done and got things finished!

 

[Hop]

Ok, today is THE day (pending work lets me have my 4 days off). I'm tearing down my 110 and ripping apart the office. The goal is to have the framework done for the new tank by Thursday morning. I have some friends coming over thursday to help get the tank in it's place. Once that's done I will be able to "tinker" at my own pace to get things done. That and I'm a little scared to run anything around the tank in the garage right now, so things came to a hault out there!

 

[jnarowe]

Thanks for the info. My tank is in the back yard collecting rain water...welll it would if there weren't so many damn holes in it! Rock is holding well, and I am in the middle of transfering a FW Planted 29g Tall into a 70g Tall. Once that is squared away, it will be header time.

How much larger than your opening did you make the header? Technically I guess that 6" on either side to accept braces is all I need but I am think about making it longer. Say 10' for an 8' tank.--J

 

[Hop]

Hmmm. If I remember correctly I made the opening a little over a foot wider than the hole. I just measured the width of the tank and started there with my first support, then nailed a total of three together on each side and got them in then placed the header and then capped the header with one final vertical support on the end. I had to do the three plus one in this application due to the bath tub for the master bedroom being directly over the header.

These are the only pics I have..Not too great...

Well the 110 is 1/3 drained and then time for the rodeo of catching and moving fish. They are going in the 55 quar. until I can get the current tank up and running and contents of the 125 inside it. Could be 1-2 months I'm not certain all my plants are goin to fit in the 55... May have to donate some to my neighbor.

 

[jnarowe]

Nice molding work. I am going to cover a few inches of the tank on all sides of the face, so I am not sure how to place it. I may just plant it on its stand and build a window casing for viewing. That way none of the tank weight is on the wall. It may look a little strange, but I have seen others done like that. What do you think? Most of the in-walls I have seen are flush mounted and look sleek.--J

 

[Hop]

Thanks jnarowe... Personally I like the flush mount, but a casing would be nice too. It would most likely give the tank some depth.

Ok on with the progress. I got the 110 tore down, the fish in their temporary home and the 110 moved to a friends house, who is going to tank sit. I don't want three tanks, so he's going to take care of the 110 for me.

Then I got the baseboard removed, the entertainment center torn down and all the wires rolled up. Tomorrow I'll be cutting carpet and getting the skeleton of the stand finished. My goal is to have the tank on the stand by thursday at the latest Then it'll be time for more plumbing, lighting and ...... and .....

 

[jnarowe]

Thursday... I doubt I'll even have my wood by then. I need to get a glue-lam, green-board, insulation, just to start.

Any thoughts on alternatives to green board? I checked out plastic garage board but it is $30/sheet and you can't really fasten anything to it.--J

 

[Hop]

jnarowe,

Is there a price issue with the green board or are you just looking at an alternative. I think I spent $3.50 per 2 4'X8' boards. I have a friend that works at a lumber yard and I got everything at cost. total price for wood, screws, greenboard, mud, calk, etc. to do the wet room was $212.00. The only thing that I couldn't get at cost was the electrical stuff.

I do like the plastic sheeting you were speaking of for a clean look, but as you mentioned you have to secure everything via extraordinary means... Would be a nice install though

 

[ohioreef]

Looking good Hop!!!

 

[mcdonaldtj]

Looking good, I wish I owned my house then I could do the 240 in-wall that I want.

 

[jnarowe]

Price issue? Not really, but the green boards are $11 ea for 4 x 8. I am just interested in alternatives. The room already has regular sheet rock, which I could coat with a marine barrier and be done with it, but I want to add insulation for sound control so I have to wreck it all out anyway. Maybe I could find some kind of spray-in insulation instead. I certainly have to wreck out the wall I need to put the header in.--J

 

[george1098]

verry cool!

 

[Hop]

Yeah... Progress

Yeah... Progress

george1098: Thanks, I hope it all works out. It could be the single most expensive oops I've ever made

jnarowe: You know I skipped the green board where I didn't have to. I just used a water barrier primer I got at Lowes and kitchen and bath paint. I really doubt that the humidity can be any worse then having my previous (3) discus tanks going at 81 degrees I guess I'll find out for sure come November

mcdonaldtj & ohioreefer: Thanks for helping keep me ontrack guys!

OK on with the progress. I got everything in the room moved this morning and out of the way for today.

First here is the soon to be new home for what my wife calls the college education that the kids could have had
:rollface:

And here we are with the carpet removed, begining the start of the framework:

The height figured and the begining of the framing:

Starting to take some shape:

To be cont.....

 

[Hop]

Finally over half way there:

Almost done for the day:

And time for an adult beverage!!!:beer:

I was really suprised at how the stand went together. It did take two hours longer than I had planned, but no real errors.

On the left side of the tank, the stand will go all the way to the ceiling with an access panel to all the plumbing and Aquacontroller ETC. Then there will be a canopy built completely to the ceiling just to give you a rough idea of where it's going from here.