180 Gallon In Wall Tank

revhtree · Mar 28, 2017

Nice decision on taking out that wall! Gonna be awesome!

knowen87 · Mar 28, 2017

Thanks, we love it. Taking out the wall opened up the house so much and gave us the perfect place for the fish tank. The contractor just got done with the drywall so we are one step closer getting the tank started. In fact, we just got the tank! I will have to take some pictures of it. I have a hole saw coming in from BRS on Friday and I will drill the tank this weekend. I chose to go with a standard instead of the predrilled tank because I dont like to have the holes on the bottom of the tank. I had a bulk head fail on me one time and it was one of the biggest headaches that I have dealt with. I have never drilled a tank before but I have two 33 longs that I will practice on first.

Foxy-88 · Mar 28, 2017

knowen87 said:
Thanks, we love it. Taking out the wall opened up the house so much and gave us the perfect place for the fish tank. The contractor just got done with the drywall so we are one step closer getting the tank started. In fact, we just got the tank! I will have to take some pictures of it. I have a hole saw coming in from BRS on Friday and I will drill the tank this weekend. I chose to go with a standard instead of the predrilled tank because I dont like to have the holes on the bottom of the tank. I had a bulk head fail on me one time and it was one of the biggest headaches that I have dealt with. I have never drilled a tank before but I have two 33 longs that I will practice on first.

My 75 was the first tank I ever drilled. One of the easiest things ever to do. Granted it wasn't my first time using a hole saw. The worst part is getting the hole started but after that it's easy. Let the drill do the work and don't press down on the drill.

knowen87 · Mar 31, 2017

I got some time to work on the fish room last night. I made most of the stand for the qt and species tanks. They are 33 long and I think that they will be really cool. I will also be running a sink over to the work table. My wife says that if I have a fish room I need to have a fish sink too. It is a small bar sink but it should be perfect for cleaning out the skimmer cup. This weekend will be a big one for the tank. I got the tank, now I just need to drill it. Then it can go into the stand. I am hoping to move the tank over in two weeks.

ithk21620 · Mar 31, 2017

knowen87 said:

I love the mountain view out that window. I travel to Utah and Idaho every other week for work and the views of the mountains is the best part!

knowen87 · Mar 31, 2017

Thanks, we love it here too! The living room has a big picture window that looks out on this view. The fish tank will be on the other side of the living room so it may be hard to decide what to look at.

najer · Mar 31, 2017

Great build, hope all goes to plan for you.

Fishfinder · Mar 31, 2017

Your view is amazing. Good luck with the build, I'm following this. We are almost doing the same thing

knowen87 · Apr 3, 2017

I was able to get all of the holes drilled in the fish tanks this weekend. I started on the 2 33 long tanks just to practice and it went well. I drilled 3 holes in in the 180 and glued on the CPR overflow that I got from BRS. I got my brothers and a neighbor to come and help me lift it into place. It went in perfect.
It looks great I can't wait to fill it up and get started.

tape and water with putty dam

Tank is in the wall

Foxy-88 · Apr 3, 2017

knowen87 said:
I was able to get all of the holes drilled in the fish tanks this weekend. I started on the 2 33 long tanks just to practice and it went well. I drilled 3 holes in in the 180 and glued on the CPR overflow that I got from BRS. I got my brothers and a neighbor to come and help me lift it into place. It went in perfect.
It looks great I can't wait to fill it up and get started.

tape and water with putty dam

Tank is in the wall

That looks awesome! Great to hear that the drilling went well. I'm amazed you didn't go with the synergy shadow overflow haha.

knowen87 · Apr 3, 2017

I thought a lot about the ghost overflow but in the end I went with the CPR because it was less.

Foxy-88 · Apr 3, 2017

knowen87 said:
I thought a lot about the ghost overflow but in the end I went with the CPR because it was less.

Understandable. I've got the ghost on my 75. It sucks though because they came out with the shadow like 4 months later and it's all casted as opposed to the ghost so less likely to leak plus the bean animal is alright setup inside the box

knowen87 · Apr 4, 2017

I got the species/qt stand painted and the sink in and hooked up to the plumbing. I also got the plumbing started for the overflow. The drains are all 1 1/4" they will go down to the stand level and connect into a 1 1/2" manifold. It is a process but it is coming along nicely.

I think that I got the bean animal overflow set up right. Durso top, Herbie in the midddle, and emergency at the bottom of the picture

prsnlty · Apr 4, 2017

Looking great!

ithk21620 · Apr 4, 2017

I didn't notice it earlier but you may want to add some additional support to the bottom of your species/qt stand. The way you have the legs they don't have any horizontal support and when you add the weight of the water in the two tanks they are going to want to shear from the weight.

prsnlty · Apr 4, 2017

ithk21620 said:
I didn't notice it earlier but you may want to add some additional support to the bottom of your species/qt stand. The way you have the legs they don't have any horizontal support and when you add the weight of the water in the two tanks they are going to want to shear from the weight.

Good catch... I agree. Those 2x that run lengthwise are on the flat lending them to bowing. If you shore it up from underneath on their side that should be sufficient.

ithk21620 · Apr 4, 2017

prsnlty said:
Good catch... I agree. Those 2x that run lengthwise are on the flat lending them to bowing. If you shore it up from underneath on their side that should be sufficient.

Yes the 2x's laying flat are going to bow but I am talking about the shear loading on the legs. The screws on the top of the legs are not going to provide enough strength to stop any horizontal movement. Some 2x's should be added horizontally to the legs towards the bottom. Something like this:

prsnlty · Apr 4, 2017

ithk21620 said:
Yes the 2x's laying flat are going to bow but I am talking about the shear loading on the legs. The screws on the top of the legs are not going to provide enough strength to stop any horizontal movement. Some 2x's should be added horizontally to the legs towards the bottom. Something like this:

Yep and maybe add another the same way under the counter section

knowen87 · Apr 11, 2017

Thanks for the suggestions. I would like to keep the bottom open so that I can put a chair at the table. I have thought about it and I think that I will put in a diagonal brace at the back. As far as support goes for the counter there are (2) 2x4 that run under the counter near the back right under the tank. You can see the 2x4's in this shot

knowen87 · Apr 11, 2017

I added the braces last weekend under the tank. It was pretty minor stuff. It is perfect because the tank sits right above a room full of storage racks so it was easy to do. I did add a beam to support one joists because it will be holding one leg of the stand, the sump and the 70g water storage tank. I checked it in the software at work and it said it would be at 85% capacity without the beam so I just added a (2)2x6 beam for good measure.