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MillerTime 180 gal Build

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by MillerTimeISU, Jul 30, 2017.

  1. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    Finishing the basement off and decided I needed a new hobby. In wall 180 gal 72"x24"x24" is what I landed on. I have never had saltwater tanks but been researching for several months. Haven't landed on the which company to order my tank from or the equipment below.

    I am roughing in 10 outlets near the base of the stand and 4 outlets up high for the lights. I am pulling two dedicated 20 amp circuits to this area. The stand is framed into the wall and display will be flush to the entertainment room. Pictures below were taken today and I have about 1 more day on addition framing detail and finish the stand supports / top and bottom infill wood base.

    Look forward to any thoughts on tank and equipment selection.

    upload_2017-7-30_15-39-8.png



    upload_2017-7-30_15-39-27.png



    upload_2017-7-30_15-39-56.png



    upload_2017-7-30_15-40-31.png



    upload_2017-7-30_15-40-48.png
     
  2. cowdust9

    cowdust9 Well-Known ReefKeeper

    999
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Hey, that looks like its going to be a fun build! Just wondering if the stand will be able to hold the weight of the tank? I don't know much about that stuff but the sand looks kind of tall so was not sure if it would buckle or be good.
     
  3. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    @cowdust9@cowdust9 The stand pictures is still in progress. I should have it complete by tonight. Adding more support all around to handle the tank + rock + saltwater.
     
  4. Roman Experienced Reefkeeper

    Cedar Rapids, IA
    Ratings:
    +321 / 3 / -0
    Are you going to have enough space where the steps are to put lights and have access to that side?
     
  5. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,814 / 14 / -0
    Dang talk about burning rubber right out of the gate with an in-wall build, nice!

    Is that 180 glass or acrylic? The in-wall stand should be great even even the way you have it, normally I'd point you to the RC thread for the DIY tank stands, but you won't have a racking issue with it being tied into the wall studs like that.

    I saw your username and thought @MillerTime@MillerTime had created a new account lol

    180 is a great size, the 24" depth is about the ideal one. Just ask @Dave@Dave how he liked having a deeper one...so you're on the right track IMO!

    Welcome to the forum!
     
  6. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    I would like to go with Glass 72"x 24" x 24" with drilled overflows off the back. Still trying to figure out which tank manufacturer to go with and also how I am going to plumbing the overflows behind the wall to still give me access to the sump below.
     
  7. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    Yes I will have access above for lights and about 3'-4' to the side for access
     
  8. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,814 / 14 / -0
    Should be pretty straight forward plumbing wise. I would go with a BeanAnimal style overflow for sure, the Synergy Reef Shadow overflow should do the trick.

    I have designed and built many acrylic sumps, that is a very important thing to plan out well ahead of time.

    From my experience, don't bank on using return flow to drive the random flow in the tank - you can get yourself into a situation where you are locked in to what you have, which may not work. I did it once. Once...running a Reeflo dart/snapper on a 144 with ~3000GPH return flow to a plenum with like 15 nozzles, as it turns out, none of the nozzles really put out a lot of flow individually, another member told me "that's not really going to work well" and he was right.

    It's possible I suppose with less jets and maybe a SCWD or two, but having it designed for a moderate amount of flow through the sump (the right amount of turnover for the filtration system you are running) is all you really need, and the rest in the tank can be via power heads. This gives you flexibility.

    Planning out the flow rates and sump volume is important too, because you want to make sure you have enough free space in the sump to account for draw down on power outage (sump filling up). Then I always throw in the fudge factor of the ATO bucket pump sticking on and dumping the whole bucket into the system right before a power outage, that's the worst-case scenario for max sump volume (another reason to run a limited ATO size, or at least a monitored ATO system that does not allow the pump to run more than X minutes, etc)
     
  9. Peter

    Peter

    23
    Ratings:
    +4 / 0 / -0
    Ive done an inwall before we moved to Iowa I had an issue with the wall. My stand was apart of the wall and when I filled it up after time the sheet rock bowed out a bit. If I ever do it again I will make the stand separate from the wall and make it more of a picture frame look
     
  10. Peter

    Peter

    23
    Ratings:
    +4 / 0 / -0
    I guess just make sure the wall part of the stand is well supported
     
  11. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    Good call. Do you have any pictures of your plumbing you did from tank to sumps from your in wall build?

    Sent from my Nexus 6P via App
     
  12. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    This is what the plumbing looks like on my current in wall...

    IMG_20170312_205216.jpg

    About as simple as it gets. The overflows drain into the left refugium chamber and the return pump is on the right chamber. It just tees off and goes back to the return plumbing in the overflows. There's an additional pipe in the last chamber which goes to my external skimmer.

    And this is what my plumbing looked like on my old 180g in wall. I wanted the sump out from under the stand so I could have more space to operate. It just drained into one end of the 55g sump and the return pump was on the end. I couldn't find any pictures of this during the 5 years it was running. But I did have a skimmer in there.

    2011-07-21_23-09-55_144.jpg
     
  13. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,814 / 14 / -0
    There's a lot of value in this - one thing that some don't think about is skimmer height and/or other equipment. I had a great conversation on the phone with the owner of Lifereef about how most people get themselves locked in to a setup by not planning things out far in advance...

    BTW if you want to know everything you ever wanted to know about the entire Protein Skimmer industry, go to his site and read, read, read...after talking to him, I'll never buy another brand of skimmer....
     
  14. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    +1 Jeff at LifeReef is awesome. I'm rocking a 76" skimmer from him on my 400g.
     
  15. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    Have you thought about the trim details yet? I assume you're going to put trim around the tank and make it look like a picture frame? Note that you don't want the front edge of your tank resting on dry wall so you need some kind of return trim to cover up the edge of the drywall. For my first in-wall the builder already had the trim done and I simply pushed the tank up to the completed trim. For my second in-wall I got the tank positioned behind the drywall cutout first and then had to figure out the trim after the tank was already there... this resulted in a lengthy quest to get everything matched up perfectly and wasn't completed until about 9 months after the tank was running.

    The benefit of the second approach was it allowed me to make sure I had the trim covering things like the edges of the tank and the gap at the top above the water line. I had light bleeding through on my first in-wall and it always bugged me. In the pic below you can see the waterline and the edges of the aquarium..

    IMG_20140406_192704802.jpg


    Didn't make that mistake in the second build... no light peaking through.

    IMG_20170728_113821.jpg


    But it looked like this for a long time...

    tank wall.jpg
     
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  16. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    I have the stand framed in wall flush with studs and plan to set it 1/2" shy of the drywall so when I put up the drywall I plan to l bead and use test away and fly the drywall around the display tank so no trim is needs. That way the tank doesn't bear in the drywall since it float up around the opening to cover up the light gap and any black plastic trim on bottom and sides of tank

    Sent from my Nexus 6P via App
     
  17. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    Thanks for the heads up I called and spoke with Jeff, he is putting together an equipment proposal based on our conversation

    Sent from my Nexus 6P via App
     
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  18. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0

    Mixing Diagram.JPG



    Plumbing rough-in is taking place tomorrow. I am going to create my saltwater mixing station in the garage which is a floor about my in wall display tank in the basement. I would like to automate the water changes and ATO. Can anyone guide me on what the best solution for getting the mixed saltwater from the garage to the tank a floor below. I assume either gravity or a pump. What controls existing to make this process as automated as possible?

    The critical thing is I want to make sure I get whatever water lines roughed in the wall to the garage I need.
     
  19. MillerTimeISU

    30
    Waukee
    Ratings:
    +14 / 0 / -0
    Also to avoid getting a chiller I was thinking about setting the sump directly on the basement concrete floor under the tank rather than installing a floor on my tank. The basement slab is always cool. Is this effective?
     
  20. Millertime,
    Love the setup. That's a nearly identical setup to what I have. I echo the comments about trim. The only difference is I handle my automated water changes from a mixing station kept offline. I use a spectrapure ATO pump system. I do keep my auto-top off RO water inline though right from the RODI as you have in the proposal. I just chose to keep it offline for the ability to clean it out easier when the inevitable gunk builds up in it. Either way. Love the proposed build. The pics here aren't great as they just are from my archive but if you need/want anything specific just let me know. Looks like our setups will be similar all said and done. Good luck!
    (Hey - only FYI, no sales pitch. I just got online today to post a 72in rack of 5 AI sol blue's) They are came off my tank yesterday and work flawlessly. Going to sell them cheap as I already have 5 others and just don't need 10 at this point. I won't take them off the rack if anyone wants to buy them set up. The post will have more info)


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