Inwall tank build with corals that "Sway"!

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I’ve been in the hobby for about 6yrs now and I’ve had the option of setting up different soft and hard corals tanks. I've really enjoyed both, but now I’m wanting to setup a new tank that's easy to maintain and just looks nice in the wall. The main obstacle of this setup was convincing the my wife to let me cut a hole in the wall and after few debates she's finally approved, but has given me two stipulations:

1. She wants a tank that “sways”. ( That means a lot of soft corals!)
2. I can only put a tank in the wall if I build in a wine rack in the pantry behind the tank and make it look nice!

Since I’m always up for a challenge I started the whole DIY process about 5 months ago and it’s still a work in process. To get everyone up to speed I’ll just start from the beginning.

First up the demolition of the pantry!

 

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Header and footer installation with the tank frame.

A smiling wife is always a good thing!

 

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Cabinet work begins!

 

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Cabinet doors installed...

 

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After 5 trips to the paint store and Lowes we finally found a stain to match the wood floors in the house!

Here's a pic of the viewing window in the tank/wine room:

More...

 

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The next step after getting the cabinets done was to start on the aquascaping. I did a lot of research on RC about the DIY rock and with some input from the infamous Mr. Wilson I purchased the BASF Emaco s88 ci marine cement to create rock walls to cover the overflows.

 

[sullyfish]

That has got to be the fanciest fish equipment room I have seen. Very Nice !! Also love the rockwork

 

[blide]

Thanks for the comments Sully!

I think this thread is going to be fun. The RC soft coral forum is a quiet place where people just stop by every once and a while because most hobbiest start with soft corals and hey it's neat to see what's going on in "softie" land. That's one reason I'm really excited about the tank because it feel's like I'm going back to my roots of the hobby.

Here's some pic's of the rock before aquascaping (I used bleach to kill off the living organisms and an acid dip using HCL to free up the phosphates):

Don't forget your PPE when using this stuff (Nerd Alert)

20 min acid bath during:

Acid after the bath:

 

[Jadams]

Excellent build! Cant wait to see more progress :thumbsup:

 

[GhostCon1]

This looks extremely clean and thought out. I'm trying to picture the fish room and getting confused - looks like there isn't that much space... is it just the pic or just my brain? lol

 

[blide]

The space isn't large by any means, but I'm able to wheel my 33g brute trash cans down the middle. I had originally planned to do a custom tank (130g) to have a little more room, but the cost was out of site! So I decided to go with a standard AGA 150g tank because I wanted the fish to be able to swim out of the viewing window in the front (didn't want them to look like they're in a box). Plus, now I have an area that's viewable on the other side where I can put low light corals and etc.

 

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The aquascaping for the tank is now complete. I actually tried to put a lot of thought into the way it looked. I've always like how planted tanks have a very balanced look to them, so I did a lot of reading on what those hobbiest use to accomplish their overall look. Here's some links to their articles:

http://kb.marinedepot.com/article.aspx?id=10549
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/library/12051-golden-ratio.html
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_aquascaping.php
http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/aquascapingprinc/aquascaping101.html

I ended up using the calcultions for the "Golden Ratio" method and taped off the lines to stay in the boundaries. There's a horizon line in the back and the vertical tape is the ratio 1:1.618 (Focal Point).

Here's a pic of the guidelines:

 

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Some rock installation pics:

 

[SCUBASTEVE3610]

Very nice!!!!! I can't wait to see how your build turns out

 

[blide]

I've finished the plumbing, but had to replace all of the hard lined return plumbing over to 1' spa flex because the pump was causing a loud humming noise through the hole system. I'm using an ATB 1500 Flowstar for a return pump and wow it's strong. I've actually had to slow down the flow with an added return back to the skimmer section.

Here's a short video of the plumbing.

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[JaMan]

glad to see a nice build thread in the softy section, it does get a bit stale here at times. After years of keeping most types of coral, softies make a great less challenging reef tank to maintain and always look great. So far it looks wonderful, love the wine rack, can't wait to see more, GOOD LUCK!

 

[evsalty]

Very nice build.

 

[ToXIc69]

where did you but the cement? online or did you find some locally...

 

[brgmini]

wow. Great build idea. I am sure my wife would love for me to include a wine rack some how into my next build. Tagging along.

 

[joejoe1055]

very nice