Dane's 175 Gal in-Wall Tank Build

More steady progress. Lower cabinet is widened out, just waiting on the doors to arrive. Protein skimmer and Auto Top Off (ATO) have also arrived.


Dry rock has also arrived. Everywhere I read said to get ~1 pound per gallon of water. I ordered a mix of Pukani, reef saver, tonga plates and branches totaling ~200 pounds. There is no way 2/3 of this is fitting in the tank!


Made a cutout of my aquarium's footprint with some masking tape on cardboard. Will use this to let the aquascape ideas flow!


I guess the next idea is to clean the rocks?
 
Agree about check valves I find they restrict flow and are not necessary as long as enough room in sump for back siphon after return pumps is off. Check valves can also fail. Do not count in them to not overflow your sump in power outage. Better off not heaving enough volume in your tank to overflow sump.

You can also add a Apex aquacontroller for added safety and fail safes and shut offs on top of controlling everything in your tank. Easily the best purchase I have every made. Highly recommended
 
once you start stacking the rocks get used up quick.. I just love your set up ... some day it will happen in our home.. just to pick out where :)
 
Interesting build! I admire your efforts to recycle this tank.

I worry you don't have much access to the sump. I'd rework the case work so there is no supports (stiles). At most, I'd have one in the center. All it takes is properly structuring the top rail of the cabinet.

What's room is on the other side of the tank? That might also be an access point.

If you haven't already, find and join your local aquarium club. You'd be amazed how much knowledge, experience and skill is hiding there. It's invaluable to have experienced 'eyes on' a project.

Another suggestion! :) You might want to post this in the 'DIY' thread. It's the RC place to go for unique solutions to retrofits!
 
Great feedback everyone. Thanks! Gave me some good ideas to ponder further. :reading:

I finished thoroughly rinsing the rocks last night. I did pull a decent amount of organic matter out of the nooks & crannies of the Pukani rocks, particularly the larger ones. Wow, that was an all day effort. I still think I'll be stunned if my aquascape uses 2/3 of this rock. Definitely going to join the local aquarium club as I imagine I'll be unloading the extra. :bounce3:



Going to use black pond foam, fiberglass rods, and zip ties to put all this together.
 
Aquascaping: I'm set on doing two large "mountains" with shelves & branches protruding from and around each mountain. Only thing left to decide is how to accomplish this. Here is one setup I like so far (not permanent: all held together with gravity only):





Other side which will also be visible:


So two questions:

1) from this setup I think I can attach everything with a combination of only gravity & pond foam. Would this be wise? :worried:

2) should I permanently attach what I can outside the aquarium first? Or should I glue & use the spray foam inside the aquarium? :hmm4:
 
Looking great. And yeah looks like you ordered a LOT of rock.

I really like the aquascape well done for viewable from both sides.

+1 on the comment of sump access... I would see if you can get rid of the support on the left. Having access on the other side would also be a bonus... you can NEVER have too much access.

Keep up the good work and pictures!
 
Awesome feedback. Thank you, everyone. :)

Unfortunately, further improvements to sump access would most likely be hazardous to my health. If I push back painting even one more day, the Ms. would have my head. It's possible I'll regret it later, however the added room thus far makes working in the sump infinitely easier (top is prior, bottom two are today):


I also was able to answer my own question as it relates to using pond foam inside or outside the aquarium. It will have to be done inside. The rocks are just too heavy to glue together outside and then try and move. First 'island mountain' is built though (not yet foamed/glued), and I think it looks pretty good: :artist:



The top of that 'island mountain' looks like it will be about 1/4" above the water line. Should I be worried?
 
TulaneDane said:
Awesome feedback. Thank you, everyone. :)

Unfortunately, further improvements to sump access would most likely be hazardous to my health. If I push back painting even one more day, the Ms. would have my head. It's possible I'll regret it later, however the added room thus far makes working in the sump infinitely easier (top is prior, bottom two are today):

The top of that 'island mountain' looks like it will be about 1/4" above the water line. Should I be worried?
Click to expand...

You'll find reefkeeping much more enjoyable with a head! Time to move on. We all understand!

Are you going to put any corals on top of the mountain? If so, it should be shorter. Hard to visualize but things really GROW! :)
 
Aquascaping coming along nicely, I believe. Right 'mountain' in first picture is locked in place with foam. Other one is just gravity at this point. Will foam in place tonight.



Plan is to place corals on the four shelves protruding from each 'mountain'. The tops of the 'mountains' will be about 1" over the waterline. A screen top should still be OK as the tops of the rock piles are not over the top of the aquarium.



Any other reason I should be worried about the rocks being over the waterline? :worried:
 
I have to say I completely love your rock work! Great job! Did you use anything to hold the rocks together or is it just placed on top of one another?
 
Thank you much. Only thing I plan on using to hold the rocks together is gravity and waterfall pond foam.

I purchased fiberglass rods as well with the intention of drilling the rocks and sliding the rods through the holes for added stability. However, after seeing how stable everything was with just gravity and the right amount of patience to find a 'fit', I decided this wasn't necessary.

Eggcrate on the bottom of the tank helps hold the bottom rocks in place. The bottom rocks of each 'mountain' are three reef saver rocks (heavier) formed in a triangle. I then fit the largest Pukani rocks into the gap between these three. Then on top of the large Pukani is a medium sized Pukani. This stack combination on each 'mountain' is about 60" tall.

I then used the spacing between these stacks to hold the Tonga shelves. It's painstakingly time consuming, but if you have the vision and patience, anything can be done. :D
 
Love the two room 'look through' aspect of this. Normally not a fan of 'in wall' because you only get one window into the tank, but this is great!
I have the same basic QT tank and it works well. Consider getting an air pump driven sponge filter instead of the hang on though. You can leave a sponge in your sump all the time and have it bio ready for a quick QT or hospital tank any time.
Great work so far!
 
Took me about a week of intermittent effort, but have the second 'island mountain' glued in with pond foam:

Man, that was quite the effort! With the second one, I couldn't climb into the aquarium, so my reach & visibility was significantly reduced. I had to call in a 'spotter' to help guide my hand as I sprayed the foam into the needed cracks I couldn't see from above. It was quite the circus involving flashlights, laser pointers, iPhones on FaceTime, and barking of orders... :twitch:

My plan was to then coat this black pond foam with epoxy and then cover the epoxy-coated foam with sand from my yet to be installed substrate:


The idea being to disguise the black foam. However, first even reaching all these areas to simply coat them with epoxy is going to be a monumental effort. Second, then covering this epoxy with sand before it dries will take it to even another level.

So here's my question: From what I've read, it seems that coralline algae will eventually cover the rocks and foam anyway, disguising the black pond foam bonds. Anyone have any regrets or suggestions otherwise for me simply forgoing the effort of covering the black pond foam with sand?
 
don_chuwish said:
Love the two room 'look through' aspect of this. Normally not a fan of 'in wall' because you only get one window into the tank, but this is great!
I have the same basic QT tank and it works well. Consider getting an air pump driven sponge filter instead of the hang on though. You can leave a sponge in your sump all the time and have it bio ready for a quick QT or hospital tank any time.
Great work so far!
Click to expand...
Realized I completely overlooked this! It's funny, I kept reading about sponge filters in QT setups. However, for whatever reason wasn't able to narrow down exactly what they were until post QT cycle. Duly noted, thank you! :hmm4:

It was an absolute mess: :headwally:


But new cabinets are installed and painted: :celeb3:



Also realized I misspoke in my earlier note, the islands are 30" high, not 60"!


Unfortunately (or fortunately, maybe) I discovered Cerium Oxide during this downtime. As a result, I've dumped countless more hours into buffing out the remaining oxidation and etching from the old tank. 3/4 of one side is done. :headwallblue:
 
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