asylumdown's in-wall 275

[asylumdown]

I've had a thread running over on the Canadian forum for just over a year now. I have been meaning to post it here, but have been a little nervous to show my plans to the wider reefing world. Now that this build is nearing fruition, I figure it's as good a time as any.

The house:
My fiancé and I bought an old bungalow in an inner city neighbourhood in July 2009. We tore it down and have been building our dream home on that lot ever since. It's nearly done, and being a dream house, it wouldn't be complete without a tank

This is my second tank, after running a 90 gallon 'learner' in our old condo for a year and a half. I learnt and read tons during that time, so with the opportunity to incorporate a tank right in to the house at build stage, I had a chance to get almost* exactly what I wanted from a maintenance and design perspective.

My wish list:
- near automated water changes. If I never siphon in to another bucket it will be too soon.
- extra width
- open on two sides
- fully enclosed and incorporated (my last tank was a rats nest of dangling, visible wires)
- High enough to see without bending over

My constraints:
- No fish room* (I said almost everything I wanted lol): my fiancé wasn't willing to go that far, as we may eventually sell our house. Plus our house design obligated us to put the furnace room directly below the tank, and the tank is in the middle of the main floor. Thus everything except a remote R/O reservoir had to be contained within the cabinet.

The problem - incorporating the capacity for semi-automated, 20% water changes in to the main sump.

The Solution - A novel, over-height sump design with a large, isolatable chamber that can be drained directly to the main sewer line of the house. This required an extra tall metal stand to provide necessary clearance for equipment and maintenance, which conveniently solved my viewing height requirement.

The tank:

Approx. dimensions: 72L X 34W X 27H.
Location: The wall separating the main dining room from the office
Glass: Starphire on the two exposed long sides (I think 3/4 inch), regular glass on the bottom and hidden sides

The sump:
Approx dimensions: 55L X 29W X 25H
With Baffles, will hold approximately 100 gallons when running. This will bring the total system volume in the range of 375 gallons.

Sump function:

Chamber 1 - skimmer chamber, water enters from aquarium. 18 inch water depth (the skimmer will be on a stand). Flows over an 18 inch baffle and is split between chambers 2 and 3 (the sump is perfectly level).
Chamber 2 - frag chamber, water exits frag chamber over a 17.5 inch high cut out the baffle near the top of the image in to chamber 3.
Chamber 3 - main water change/reactor chamber. Water exits over a 16.5" high baffle in to chamber 4.
Chamber 4 - first stage of the bubble trap, which sets the volume of chamber five with a 16" high baffle
Chamber 5 - final chamber before external return pump. Auto-top off sensor will be located here.
Chambers 6 - 4 built in dosing reservoirs

During a water change, I will turn a gate valve to divert the input from the tank away from chamber 1 and directly into chamber 4. This will bypass chambers 1, 2 and 3. A pump that sits inside chamber 3 will be activated, draining it directly to the main sewer line of the house. A second pump in the basement will fill chamber 3 with fresh R/O water, I'll add salt, and activate a Koralia to mix it. I'll likely keep the Koralia active when I'm not doing water changes as well to prevent any stagnant areas in chamber 3 from developing. Once the salt is mixed, I'll turn the gate valve again and bring chambers 1, 2 and 3 back online.

Another view (this thing is a beast):

The build:

I've condensed the entire build up to this point in to a a few pictures:

Dining room side looking in to the office.

There's an emergency drain on the floor, and the hook up to the main sewer is on the right.

Office side, looking in to the dining room/kitchen

Ginormo stand

Sump goes in

Sump installed, dining room side

Office side

The pictures are deceiving, we made sure there's more than enough clearance between the sump and stand to work and install equipment.

 

[asylumdown]

All boarded up to protect it during the build. In case anyone was tempted to try standing on the side of it, we left a handy note. Dining room side

Office side:

Dry wall. Finally. It felt like this day would never come! Dining room:

office (it got dark in there!):

A ventilation fan was also installed. It has since been position on the ceiling directly above the tank:

Flooring goes in. Months and months passed with no work on the tank while the rest of the house happened around it

Finally, construction on the enclosure began. Dining room:

Office:

The original piece of plywood that we were going to put the tank on top of was 3/4 inches thick. I wouldn't let the cabinet maker pierce the metal stand to add doors, so they had to site-manufacture a 3 inch piece of plywood to put on top of the stand and give them something to anchor the doors and frame to.

Inside the enclosure:

The stud spaces on either side are deep enough to house the dry sides of Vortech MP60s. Flow will be achieved with two MP60s and two MP40's, placed opposite, offset, and counter sync to each other to create a gyre effect. I got the idea from David00061s 500 build thread.

 

[asylumdown]

Frame nearly complete. Dining room:

Office:

A false panel was made (shown in place here) and left off of the office side so we could slide the tank in from that side.

The enclosure was made out of Medex, which is like a less toxic MDF. To prevent water damage issues, the entire inside of the enclosure was coated in an industrial grade rubberized poly sealant. They use this stuff to seal pools, ponds and truck beds. office:

The sealant was also applied to the back of the doors. This stuff is good enough that they could be indefinitely submerged with no damage. It feels like rubber.

A mock up of what the enclosure will look like with doors, office side:

There are small louvres cut in to the bottom left door so that when the fan is running, it will draw air from the floor in to the sump chamber, up either side of the tank through the studs and out via the ceiling. Hopefully this will avoid humidity issues.

In goes the tank! Not having to finish the edges saved some cash. office side.

Internal overflows were an unfortunate necessity to keep the width of the tank.

By only cutting two holes in each box, we were able to reduce their footprints though so they don't take up too much space. One overflow will have the return line from the sump, plus a Herbie drain pipe, the other box will have another Herbie drain pipe, plus an emergency drain.

Painting begins! Dining room:

Office:

 

[asylumdown]

And here's how it looks as of last night. Dining room:

The house is about 95% complete, and from the builders perspective, they are finished with the enclosure except for hanging the doors (which you can see behind the tank in the office), which they will do after we plumb everything.

I was a little shocked at how large and obtrusive the P-drain ended up being, so after I took this pic, I had them re-arrange it so it's not jutting out directly in to the cabinet space. Water, power, and ethernet hook-ups in the cabinet are now also complete. I'm really happy I chose Starphire, as from this pic it almost looks like the tank isn't even there.

Next steps: plumbing the tank begins (and hopefully finishes) on Saturday. Then the water test of the plumbing and the clean out of the tank, as it's filthy from the construction dust. After the house is inspected by the city, I'll fill it up 2 inches of sand and dry Marco rock (which will be 80% of my rock), fill it with R/O water, add salt, and begin the cycle. Once the cycle is complete, I'll add the remaining 20% of my rock as uncured live rock which I'm ordering directly from the distributor. Hopefully adding uncured rock to a pre-cycled tank will reduce the die off from the curing process, and ordering directly from the source will hopefully (fingers crossed) reduce my chances of catching aiptasia, which nearly destroyed my first tank.

Equipment that is either already in hand or on order:

Lighting: 8 Ecotech Marine Radions
Skimmer: Deltec SC2560
RO/DI: Vertex 100GPD
Return pump: "¦ lord, I forget. I'll post that when I get it
Circulation: 2 MP40s and 2 MP60s
Heater: TBD
Controller: TBD, possibly Apex, if I go with one
ATO: The top off system is currently under review. We've got it to two equally valid options, but in either case it will likely be performed by Tunze osmolator
Dosing: I have a Profilux standalone 4 pump doser from my last tank. That will do until I figure out what I'm doing with the controller.
Other pumps: I need one pump to bring R/O water up from the basement and one pump to empty Chamber 3 of the sump. Brands TBD

That's all for now, I'll try and update this thread as things progress.

 

[dizzyg]

Very neat! looking forward to see'ing some water in it! Congrats on the new house too!

 

[pgr11]

Very nice. New house and new tank at the same time. Wow that alot on your plate. Im looking.g forward to seeing it with water as well

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[asylumdown]

Thanks

You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to filling this thing up and moving in. The house was supposed to be done in September, so we sold our condo last August and have been jumping from one temporary accommodation to another since then. I am so bloody sick of moving... I keep telling myself "next time we do this we'll make sure we have a confirmed completion date before we sell". Then I slap myself for even thinking the phrase "next time". 3 years is more of a commitment than we were prepared for!

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

A job well done so far!

 

[pgr11]

Thanks

You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to filling this thing up and moving in. The house was supposed to be done in September, so we sold our condo last August and have been jumping from one temporary accommodation to another since then. I am so bloody sick of moving... I keep telling myself "next time we do this we'll make sure we have a confirmed completion date before we sell". Then I slap myself for even thinking the phrase "next time". 3 years is more of a commitment than we were prepared for!

When your house if finished it will feel like a dream. All that time and work and its finally done. You wont know what to do. I know sit back crack a cold one and enjoy the tank

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[asylumdown]

Does anyone have a good suggestion on a reactor for PO4x4? I've got a Reef Dynamics recirculating BP reactor on the way, but I haven't sorted out the reactor for the phosphate remover yet.

 

[TheFishTeen]

I LOVE the construction pics, and that 3" plywood piece could probably hold up 10 of your tank stacked onto of one another.

 

[captjab]

Can't wait to see the final product. It's looking amazing already.

 

[asylumdown]

Had to reschedule the plumbing to Monday, flooring guys need the house sealed up for the weekend to keep the dust off the hardwood. Had the cabinet guys hang the doors today instead!

Dining room

The windows in the family room make taking pictures a little difficult.

Office

 

[dorkymk3]

Good looking build. That's one crazy sump, like the multiple chambers for dosing.

 

[jmurr8484]

Subscribed. Cant wait to see the finished product. Too bad you couldnt get the fish room. At least you got the wife's approval for the tank.

 

[NMC]

Lovely. Congratulations on all the new things in your life.

 

[asylumdown]

Plumbing is almost done!

Took hours to get the tank and cabinet clean of all the construction dust, but I got it sparkling.

All sorts of plumbing, we went with 2"

Went with the Reeflo Dart. So far it's been whisper quiet and moves a tremendous amount of water. I'm very happy

Testing the host attachments:

Bulkheads go in

In order to get the water change system to work right, both overflows needed to be teed together, then fed through a huge 3 way valve. We put gate valves right under the overflow chambers to set up the herbies
(office side)

 

[asylumdown]

Dining room side:

whole cabinet. Everything is tight to the top of the cabinet, and runs right down the middle of the tank. This leaves lots of room to work under the cabinet, and doesn't interfere with the skimmer chamber at all.

And they meet! That's a monster 3 way switch for the water change system. When it's to the right, water from the tank flows in the chamber 1 (the skimmer chamber), and flows through the whole sump. When it's to the left, water flows directly in to chamber 4 and straight to the return pump, bypassing the sump and isolating the water change chamber.

Then for the return assembly, and to start filling the sump for a test

I was really nervous about the flow from the skimmer chamber that needs to split between the frag and WC chambers, but turns out it works perfectly.

After fixing a couple tiny leaks in the plumbing, it was time to fill the display! It took over an hour.

Then it was time for the moment of truth, running the entire system, and testing the water change system. There was a small problem, so it took a couple of days to sort everything out

 

[asylumdown]

Now, the problem:

During normal operation, the water enters chamber 1 (the skimmer chamber), and flows through the whole sump to the return in chamber 5. When it's time for a water change, I flip the three way switch and divert the water in to chamber 4 (the first stage of the bubble trap). What I didn't take in to account when I designed the sump however, was that diverting 100% of the flow of the tank in to such a small compartment actually caused the water level in chambers 4 and 5 to rise several inches above it's normal set level. Unfortunately, if there is the correct amount of water in the sump (i.e., the level I'll run it at under normal circumstances), that meant the water in chambers 4 and 5 would rise above the height of the baffle separating them from chamber 3 (the water change chamber). This is compounded by the fact that diverting the water in to chamber 4 changes the pipe length the overflow water travels, and for some fluid dynamic reason I don't understand, causes the level of water in the herbie overflow boxes to fall from it's normal set point, filling chambers 4 and 5 even further.

I thought I was hooped, and I was looking at hours and hours of frustrating sump modifications, but after all sorts of trial and error, I figured out that when I divert the flow to chamber 4, tightening the herbies up even further causes the overflow boxes in the tank to completely fill and then start to raise the water level in the display tank. If I did it just right, it was enough to drop the water level in chambers 4 and 5 low enough to isolate the water change chamber, but still not reach the emergency overflow standpipe. This allows me to use the sump the way I designed it, but leads to 30 freaking minutes of tweaking the herbies to get them back to where I want after after every water change. Huge PITA, and not really what I want to do on an ongoing basis.

So, I came upon a solution that I think is quite elegant. We're going to add a third gate valve to the pipe that feeds in to chamber 4, here:

Essentially, it will act like a herbie on the herbies. During normal operation, water from the tank will flow in to the skimmer chamber (chamber 1), and the two main herbie gate valves on the overflows will be set to the perfect spot and never touched. When I want to do a water change, I'll divert water in to the bubble trap/return chamber, and use the third gate valve to restrict the flow in to the sump even further. This way I can use that third gate valve to make the water in the return chamber set at whatever height I want. I'm sure with some playing, I can figure out exactly what setting it needs to be and leave it that way, so when I divert the water, the levels all just set themselves automatically. This will save me from having to fiddle around with the main overflow gate valves, plus, it puts the water change controls all on the same side of the tank, so I won't have to go running around in circle adjusting anything.

I was and am shocked at how much water moves through this sump. I was afraid my design wouldn't work at all, but other than one minor modification to the water change system, it works better than I expected. because the sump is so deep, I'm going to need to put a couple of koralias in the frag chamber and WC chamber to to prevent any dead spots, but I have a closet full of koralias from my first tank, and I'm not worried about that at all. The koralia in the WC chamber will serve double duty as the salt mixing pump!

And finally: a FTS from the office

I am happier and happier with the choice to go Starphire. It probably wouldn't have mattered if it was only open on one side, but the cumulative effect of looking through two panes made it soooo worth it. The bottom panel isn't Starphire, so it's reflecting a little green, but once the bottom is covered in white sand, the glass will be nearly invisible.

 

[asylumdown]

I LOVE the construction pics, and that 3" plywood piece could probably hold up 10 of your tank stacked onto of one another.

You should have seen the ordeal trying to make it perfectly flat...

Can't wait to see the final product. It's looking amazing already.

Thanks

Good looking build. That's one crazy sump, like the multiple chambers for dosing.

Thanks, I was really, really nervous about this. The sump isn't removable, so it was a big risk to design it this way.

Subscribed. Cant wait to see the finished product. Too bad you couldnt get the fish room. At least you got the wife's approval for the tank.

hehe, at least without a fish room I'll spend more time looking at the tank instead of hiding away in a small room

Lovely. Congratulations on all the new things in your life.

Thanks I don't know what we're going to do with ourselves when this is all done lol.