Cliff's In Wall Reef

[Cliff]

So I finally gotten around to starting my renovation on my garage. The garage is approximately 30 feet long by 20 feet wide. My wife is graciously giving me 7 feet of the end of the garage for fish room. But in order to get the fish room it has been a very long process lol. When I find clean the garage out we discovered that the floor was unusable. It had a couple of cracks and there was a good one inch height difference in parts of the garage. So we had to rip out the concrete floor and poor new pad. This was good because we were able to put in in floor hydronic heating.

Here r some demo pics





In floor heat.






New floor

 

[Cliff]

Now that I got all the flooring down the fun starts. I had to frame the walls thicker. They were originally 2 x 4 walls so I scabbed two by threes on them to get full insulation



Next step was to remove the garage door and frame in a large front window




Now onto the fish stuff LOL. 7 feet out I built the wall that will hold the fish tank in it

 

[heath]

wow, what a job but it will be so worth it when its finished.. love the aqua scape on the back wall of the tank.. it will be beautiful when finished...

 

[Cliff]

I was thinking today I might remake my stand. The steel stand keeps me back about 4" from the front of the wall. I might make a wood stand and make it part of the wall so that the tank will b flush with front of the wall. What u guys think?

 

[heath]

personally, I think the in wall tank are very nice...very clean look..

 

[Nonuser]

I think you missed a perfect opportunity to put a tank in the floor and have sharks with freakin lasers

 

[Cliff]

Hahaha

 

[Cliff]

Ok so I ran short of electrical supply's so I figured I would make the stand tonight. This stand will become part of the wall so the tank will sit right at the front flush with the wall. So here it is

 

[unibob]

Very nice looking. Excited to see this build unfold.


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[Cliff]

OK so I am almost finished electrical I have two circuits in the room devoted to the tank at 15 A each both of them will b hooked to the automatic generator. and I have one general circuit that is shared with part of the rec room. I think that will be enough. What do you think?

 

[TORX]

OK so I am almost finished electrical I have two circuits in the room devoted to the tank at 15 A each both of them will b hooked to the automatic generator. and I have one general circuit that is shared with part of the rec room. I think that will be enough. What do you think?

My entire system at 100% with all my heaters ON even is only running at 5.4A. So you should probably be good.

 

[unibob]

My entire system at 100% with all my heaters ON even is only running at 5.4A. So you should probably be good.

For me it was more of a make thing easy aspect...beside my panel I have the 2 GFCI plugs being fed from panel, and then fed plugs in room from there. So I have 2 circuits, but 4 outlets in room dedicated to fishroom. I also have an additional 2 outlets that are shared with room (mounted in ceiling for quick hook ups of things...like shop vac, fan, and/or additional pumps like MJ and the sort) this way I don't have to unplug any of tank stuff at all.


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[Cliff]

So I am done with electrical in the fish room. I have one outlet over top of what will be my bench


Then that same circuit runs to one plug over top of my sump.


The other plug shown there in that picture is on a separate circuit and after will go up on top of the tank to two plugs that will run my lights and accessories




I also remembered to run my network cable for my Apex. I almost forgot that one LOL

 

[Cliff]

Here is a picture of behind the wall this will be the fish room



Here is the new stand and the flip up access panel I am making for the front of the tank.


I did make this stand quite a bit taller. I think at this height it'll be far easier to view the tank so far I am happy with it being taller

 

[jroovers]

Quite the build. I like the way you planned out your electrical, if I understand correctly your two dedicated fish room circuits will be backed up by your generator in case of a power outage? Would it not be a good idea to add a couple more outlets while you're at it- there won't be any draw if you don't use them, and the load will be divided across two circuits (not all loaded up on a single 15A), and it always seems like you can use another plug or two for things like Jerry noted even if you are using a controller like an Apex?

Edit: I'm electrically pretty dumb so take what I say with a grain of salt

 

[EricTMah]

Nice.
What size is that tank? Hard to tell with just open space around it

 

[Cliff]

I did think of that and it is possible to add more circuits if I need them. I am running everything off my Apex so they will be on power bars. In the basement where I have my fish tank now I ran all external wiring so if I do find I need more circuits or more outlets I can run them in PCV tubing and externally I just don't like having sockets close to a water. I knew for sure that the sockets would not be beside or under a tank that's why put them there. I may regret it later I don't know LOL

 

[Cliff]

As for tank size it is a 135 long

I wanted to go bigger but I do love the Rockwall and I didn't want to spend all the time to make a new one in a new tank

 

[jeffopentax]

How did you make the rock wall? I tried years ago using foam and concrete. It looked awesome, but was far too buoyant to stay put!


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[Nonuser]

Will you be using cement board around the tank?