The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[Sparkss]

This is Bigred's old 380 that we are finally to a point where visible progress is being made (Finally !! ). It will be going inwall, with the tank being in the garage.


First task was to cut in the header (since it was/is a load bearing wall). We chose a 14" LVL header beam to span the 78" openening required for the tank. Due to the sizes and our house studs being on 16" centers we had to extend the header out 1 additional stud width to ensure that the support studs for the header had an existing stud for the backer to sister the new header support studs to.

Here is the wall pretty much ready to go, with 3 bottle jacks to support the wall (and the second story) while we were cutting in the header.

and here it is with the header already cut in and secured

You can't really see from these pictures, but we did add some studs under the header to frame out the openeing for the tank. I will try to take some better pictures tomorrow, after we pour the pad... speaking of that, onto the pad

 

[Sparkss]

we decided to pour a concrete pad for the tank and stand to sit on for 2 reasons. The first being that the garage elevation and the house slab elevation had a difference of approximately 4". Secondly, all garages are graded to drain towards the center and towards the front. To counter the floor height difference and the floor grade and give us a level base for the stand to rest on we formed and are getting ready to pour a pad.

Here it is all formed up and ready to pour. First thing in the morning it will get it's fair share of wet concrete

Since it would be supporting so much weight I wanted to be sure that it would be a solid foundation for the tank, so I sunk a couple of dowels and tied them together and added some remesh on top (for good measure).

The white spaflex is the drain and return from our current tank, inside the house. The old sump used to be located where we are getting ready to pour the pad. Moving all of that equipment out of the way was a slow going task, especially since we needed to keep it all hooked up and running to support our existing tank.

The 3" ABS drain riser will be relocated after the pad is cured sufficiently for me to walk/work on it. I had the stand designed in such a way as to "work around" this drain (well, work around it after I get it relocated off to the right a couple of feet).

 

[Sparkss]

The tank is 6.5' X 4' X 2'. The stand is being built by SoCal Creations and is currently at the powder coaters getting coated. We expect to have it delivered by this time next week/next weekend (which means I need to be sure to get the pad poured tomorrow so that it can at least cure enough for the stand to set on it.. but likely won't be ready for the tank until later the next week.. going to have to play that one by ear I think)

Here are some pictures of the stand that SoCal Creations provided.


The back

The front

I had them build the front without a piece connecting the bottom ofthe legs together. This was so that I did not have to completely rip out the existing wall, but can now slid the stand in between the existing studs (that are left under the tank opening). Once the stand is in place I alrady have plywood ready to face the back of the studs with, to give that half wall a little more strength.

The outside left and right pairs of legs also lack a bottom piece tying them together, this was for how I planned to re-run the ABS drain pipe on the right (and wanted both sides to match, so the left got the same treatment).

 

[xinumaster]

Congratulations Tom. Your project finally started. I can't wait to see how it would look once completed. If you need help let me know.

 

[Sparkss]

Thanks Perry.. header is in, pad poured, stand on it's way, now it is just a waiting game (for both the pad to cure and the stand to arrive), then things pick up again, what with sheetrocking and the like . I will try to take some picts of the poured pad later on... I am pretty beat right now.

 

[Bax]

Wow! That is some undertaking!

It's nice to see this tank getting another chance, BigRed did a great job with it and I am sure you will too. Good Luck!

 

[Sparkss]

Yea, it has taken us a while to get to this point because of all of the work involved, I didn't really go into much detail on the sump and prop tank relocation is support of this new tank setup (and that was a several month project).

We have a lot to live up to since Bigred did such an awesome job with it originally. I only hope I can do near as good a job as he did.

I sprayed curing compound on the pad yesterday afternoon and it is coming along nicely so far. I will try to take some pictures of the pad and better pictures of the wall where we added the studs later today, but I have a ton of other house projects that I am going to try to gain some ground on today, including moving the last piece of furniture off of the wall that the tank opening will be in.

 

[xinumaster]

Are you setting up the tank BB or DSB?

 

[Sparkss]

neither.. going with a shallow sand bed.

Been reading up on the new zeolith products by Faunamarine and am considering using it on the new tank, but the jury is still out here on that

 

[Sparkss]

Some more construction photos (the stand won't be here until at least this weekend, possibly next week sometime).

Here is me backing up the Ready Mix concrete, which was an interesting task, seeing that I was working solo that day (my wife prefers to not be around when I am working like this.. all of the noise and such.. and that is just my yelling and cursing ). I still managed to thread the needle and get it in, and by some stroke of luck I got it in 1 shot backing it up (no, don't ask me to repeat that feat ).

This was taken last Friday (Sorry for the delay in downloading the camera and uploading the pictures).

I went ahead and took the forms off this afternoon. I still have alot of clean up to do, but the pad is pretty much level. I will still likely need to shim the stand legs a little, but it is a whole lot more level than the original garage floor.

It is 4 1/2 " tall at the far right corner. 4" at the far left corner, over 5 1/2" tall on the close right corner and 5" at the close left corner. So the pad had alot of grade to take up, so being half a bubble out in any direction is livable for the pad for me (the bubble is still in the lines on a high end 5' level, just more to one side than the other)

 

[Sparkss]

Here is the picture that better represents how the header was cut in longer than the opening for the tank, so as to provide adequate sistering support for the new studs.

While I still have not cut out the opening in the sheetrock you can get an idea of the opening by noting where the insulation is, and isn't. I want to wait until I have the stand here so that I am not guessing at any measurements.

 

[mflamb]

Where's the BIG hammer!!!

 

[Sparkss]

hehehehe... going to use a router and sawsall to cut the opening in the sheetrock.. no hammers will be anywhere in the vicinity . I am doing my level best to salvage as much of the wall on the other side as I can (aside from the part where the tank will be peeking through, of course ).

 

[enemec1]

come on it's been a week and your not done yet!

Looking good so far keep the photos coming.

 

[Sparkss]

Hahahaha, sounds like a repeat of posts from another large tank build thread. It has actually been more like 6 months since we started this, but a combination of LOTs of prep work and real life and paying work obligations have stretched it out this long.

Here is what that wall used to look like (back the beginning of this year)

Then we built a larger sump and moved all of the equipment out of the way. Here is the thread for that endeavor :

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=835341


That was for putting a smaller tank that we already had in wall before this 380 tank came up for sale. So we actually had to yet again move the new prop tank and new sump, but this time it was only a few feet to the right down their new wall. That was to accomodate the space requirements of the 380 (and was not as easy as it might sound ).

 

[jnarowe]

makes me think back to when I ripped out my load-bearing wall...I can't believe what I did! And I didn't have any fancy bottle jacks either!

 

[Sparkss]

fancy borrowed bottle jacks, no less

Saw your comment about the pad pour in the other thread. Thanks for the compliment. Owing to the various grade issues we had to deal with I didn't see any complete solution outside of pouring a pad to "level the playing field" a bit

 

[xinumaster]

How about a picture of the other tank? Have you sold the lemar thank yet?

 

[xinumaster]

Hi Tom, what is your experience with sequence barracuda pump? Is it too loud?

 

[Sparkss]

never actaully hooked up the barracudas (and we have 2). Our return pump currently is a 4200 with SW seals, and it is pretty mich dead silent (the water fall is way louder than the pump).

The other tank wasn't a leemar, it was just a custom 180, 3 sides starfire, and no, not yet, but there is a sale pending.

Well, the shipping company called a short bit ago, the stand is already here, so I am scrambling to find a trailer to rent to go pick it up. The sad part is work this past week was soo heavy that I am not really ready for the stand yet.. I needed another day to finish up a few items (grind down any high spots on the pad, finish up the ceiling over the pad, re-route that drain pipe, etc).. oh well, I will just have to find space for it in the garage until I am ready to put it up onto the pad.

Hopefully after this weekend I will have lots more pictures and optimistically will be able to get the tank up onto the stand the first of next week.. I just need to plan it out and coordinate some help.