In-Wall 180 Project

[jarhed]

Well, it was a little hot the past couple days because the AC is dead, so while I'm waiting, I'm going to do a few things late tonight and tomorrow night. I bought some plexiglass to put dividers in my 60gal sump. All I have to do is cut out the pieces.

I plan on drilling the sump this weekend too, but I want to make sure I know what size holes to drill. I'm going to have a Korrallin 1502 Calcium reactor, a feed for the beckett skimmer and a feed for the return pump. So, all I have to do is figure out what size holes, then go to HD and get the hole saws. I'm searching RC now for ideas.

I did pickup some wire for the two circuits that will be dedicated to the room, and two outlet boxes and 20A outlets. Those two will feed a board filled with most likely the American DJ switches and outlets for each switch. Just gotta go get the breakers, run the wire, order the American DJ switches, and get the boxes and outlets. I have plenty of plywood laying around to attach to the wall.

If I can get all that done overnight tomorrow, I'll just relocate the RO/DI unit Sunday night. Then I have to design my autotopoff. I'm thinking something about 10 gallons, plastic (easy to cut a hole for a small bulkhead), then a shutoff float for the DI feed, then a float to gravity feed the sump the kalk water mix that will be in the 10gallon. The 10gallon will be a pseudo kalk reactor. There will always be kalk sitting in there and a small pump kicking on every now and again to saturate the new DI water.

 

[jarhed]

Ok folks,

I had an epiphany last night. Obviously, never having built a stand before, I tend to want to overbuild the one for my 180. So, I fell asleep for about 15 minutes, then as usual, I woke up (chronic insomniac). I had this picture in my mind of what would make me not worry about that stand.

Since the stand is 32" deep and the tank only about 25", I put two joists (seen as the brown vertical lines in the picture) across from the front to back, sitting on joist hangers and screwed into the frame. I figured since the plywood is obviously warped, showing a mini-gap between the frame and the plywood, I'd change things around.

If you look at the picture, it represents looking at the tank and stand from the top down. The tank is outlined in blue, the current stand outlined in black. The wood squares are where the 2x4 posts are, doubled in the middle and underneath the rear corners of the tank, and tripled on the corners. You'll also see the existing two 2x4 joists going from front to back.

What I want to do is remove the two 2x4 joists, and install two sandwiched 2x4's across the span of the tank underneath the rear frame since the rear frame currently has no direct support except the corners and joists. The new doubled beam would be bolted together and held up on each end by doubled 2x4 posts. The new beam is shown in RED.

To whit:

If I can get that up tonight, there will no longer be ANY need to worry at all about any sagging in the plywood or non-support of the rear frame. That doubled beam will support much more than I intend it to be used for, even though it's span is going to be about 66" (62" total unsupported between the new posts).

Look good?

 

[Bax]

jarhed, you are a true wako, get some sleep!


But it sounds like you'd be getting a lot more sleep with a stiffer structure under your tank, so if U can make the change without ripin out sheet rock, go for it.

 

[jarhed]

jarhed, you are a true wako, get some sleep!


But it sounds like you'd be getting a lot more sleep with a stiffer structure under your tank, so if U can make the change without ripin out sheet rock, go for it.

HAHAHAHA:lol: :lol: :lol:

Sleep? Nah! Sleep is overrated!!! Got too many things to do ya know. Part of my master plan to take over the world. :strooper:

Yep, all I have to do is put the 2x4's together, put them underneath the tank and raise them up. Almost a non-issue. About an hour of effort. THEN maybe I can get some sleep.

On another note, I did manage to finish all of the outside drywall. Still a little sanding to do in some areas that were still drying yesterday, but I skim coated and sanded about 98% of the entire exterior wall. Please remind me next time to NEVER skim coat a section of drywall again! After two showers last night, I still found dust in my ears this morning!! It was EVERYwhere. Including in the sump area of my 40gallon! Water change happens tonight.

I think I had to pull apart and clean the filter in my vacuum three times yesterday. What a mess. And I'm still not done cleaning up.

Also managed to get two baffles in the sump. It's going to be very simple. Just like the tiny sump I have underneath the 40gal now:

BTW, in an acrylic sump/tank, if I put in the baffles using regular aquarium silicone, will the baffle manage to hold the tank walls together so they dont pull apart during the normal bowing? I put huge pavers on the back of the tank to flatten the bowed back when I glued the baffles in. I have some Weld-on, but wonder if the silicone would be enough to hold the front and back together.

 

[Bax]

I don't think silcone does as good a job of holding to acrylic as a cement like weldon does. Silcone is better for glass, but if you got bowing glass you got bigger trouble!

Maybe you should use the weldon maybe even with some extra stays for strength and then silocone the seams after it dries.

 

[jarhed]

Kewl,

I did one of the two baffles with Weld-On. I could always cutout the first one and use Weld-On to put it back. I'm also going to cake some more weld-on around the sides of the second baffle to make sure it's in there good. Only have two more baffles to go after that, then some holes to drill. I'm assuming holes for a 1" bulkhead for both the return pump and skimmer pump.

 

[jarhed]

Kewl,

Done with the beam. It's HUGE and very strong. Took all but an hour and a half. Now I definitely need to find something to brace it, probably some small 2x4 sections. It's like two table legs. Wants to fall either way theoretically, even though I have it shimmed real tight.

Maybe this is overkill or whatever, but that tank aint goin nowhere! NOW I can sleep peacefully knowing that if I fill the tank, I wont wake up to an ocean on the floor of my house.

 

[jarhed]

duplicate, mods kill this double post?

 

[TheCoralReef731]

Can't wait to see more updates. (=

 

[jarhed]

I'll get some new pics asap

 

[Bax]

Get some sleep first

 

[jarhed]

Get some sleep first

:lol: :lol:

Well, I cant be productive when I'm being a lazy sleeping bum. I get a couple hours every night. Enough to keep me from seeing things.... except for that G.I. Joe climbing the wall here in my office, and those miniature geese flying in formation around my head....:eek2:

Ya know, my Sr. Drill Instructor at Parris Island told us: "Good Marines NEVER get tired!!!" Not sure why, but I still remember just about everything they said.

 

[jarhed]

Went to the post office today to pickup my package. In it were the following:

Korallin 1502 Calcium Reactor (with busted pipes up top, Eheim works GREAT!),

10# CO2 tank

Regulator with selenoid.

$300.00

Feeling like I stole an expensive piece of equipment: Priceless!

Have to pay for both the inlet and outlet assembly (around $60) and beg someone for instructions since it came with none, but I'm happy! What a deal!

Tested my lights tonight. Replaced two VERY bright VHO's with Actinics (I got about 7 replacement VHO's and three MH's with the deal: $450 total - Browsing the selling forum is WORTH it!)

The MH's worked beautifully. MAN it's hot though! I have to rig up some sort of shield as the closed light box has an inlet and outlet fan, and the outlet blows directly against the inside of the drywall. I'm thinking a sheet or two of galvanized steel. Thoughts?

Get my AC installed tomorrow, including an extra duct, and should go pickup my ceiling vent fan (gonna need it) this weekend.

 

[jarhed]

Hi folks!

New pics!

Spent Saturday finishing drywall sanding and getting some primer on the wall. Here it is finally done. Just needs paint, some trim around the tank, and the carpet reattached:

I cut out the two joists underneath the tank and replaced them with one huge double 2x4 that spans the length of the tank. I think I'll sleep better now. It is located directly under the tank frame:

Finished painting the back of the tank and got all my plumbing ready. Should finish that in a couple days. The sump is complete, all baffles glued in also. That will be in a later pic:

Also got the RO/DI lines ran. From the garage where the unit is, through the attic, and down the back wall. The white tube will be for the tank, the yellow goes through the wall, directly into the refrigerator in the kitchen. No more cloudy stinky tap water and stinking ice from the ice maker. Woohoo!!!

More later! :smokin:

 

[Bax]

Sweet!

 

[chriscobb]

Looks good anymore pics

 

[jarhed]

More coming, Chris.

I'll take pics of the completed sump tonight (60gallon acrylic tank, partitioned into intake, refugium, return chambers).

I also picked up a 32 gallon Brute for my water changes. That will be crammed into the back corner of the room and will use a rio 2100 for mixing and sump refill via a hose. Simple setup. I'll build a stand over that to put my Sterilite 20gallon container (Walmart $3.50) that will be the topoff reservoir. I'll dump a container of kalk in there, possibly use an old Rio 600 to periodically stir the ro/kalk mix, and an aqualifter on a float switch to refill the sump when level gets low. The aqualifter is working fine now on my 40gallon. No rushing home to check the sump water level anymore to see if my siphon drip of kalk has kept up with the evap or if kalk deposits have completely closed the airvalve. :rolleye1:

Nice thing is I have the aqualifter pulling water from a 5-gallon jug that I fill maybe once per week, rather than the 2.5gallon jug that I was dripping/siphoning kalk from. Sometimes it quit dripping, sometimes it dripped to fast, lowering salinity to dangerous levels. Auto-topoff folks, it's worth it!

 

[jarhed]

More pics!!!

Closed loop (dry fit):

60Gal Sump/Refugium with GenX PCX40 return pump:

 

[qwuintus]

unions?

 

[AcroSteve]

And valves