180 Gallon In Wall Tank

[knowen87]

Right now, I live in a small house near the Utah Idaho border. It is only 384sf or about 12ftx32ft but I have a 150 gallon in wall tank. We moved in to the home to save money and pay off debt but it is time to move. We just dont have any room left with two girls my wife and I and our 2 100lb dogs. In February we bought a house closer to town it is 8 times larger than our current home and we found a place that can support a fish room! I like the size of my 150 gallon but I wanted to go with a glass tank. I didnt want to go down to a 4ft tank so I decided to go to a 180 gallon aquarium. I have it ordered and we are getting the house ready for the new tank.

I love the way that an in wall tank looks, I think that it is nice to have all of the equipment and mess behind the wall. I also think that this is why my wife is ok with such a large tank too. The fish room will be right off of the main living area. The room is 8.5ftx12ft and it also serves as my wifes laundry room ( I guess we will see how that goes).

We are in the middle of construction right now but I have added a few pics to show how it is going

Tearing out Wall



Before


After Demo


Drywall Up



Before


After Demo


Drywall Up

 

[McMullen]

Very exciting!!

 

[Fishfinder]

Very nice!! It looks good. I want to watch this build. We are in the same steps of the process. Good job

 

[prsnlty]

Love it! Welcome to R2R and congratulations on the new home, tank and fishroom!

 

[vertigo01]

Welcome and congrats on the upgrades.

 

[knowen87]

Thanks everyone. I am excited to be a part of R2R. I have been looking for a good place to share my tank build.
I drew up a plan for the fish room. I would like to have the sump like two feet off of the ground and to the side of the tank. this will give me the most access to work on and clean the sump. I dont like bending over under the tank and trying to work with the skimmer. I also want to have a qt/ species tank. Let me know what you think/ if you have any suggestions. What would you do if you had an 8.5ftx12ft fish room?

 

[prsnlty]

Since I have a 180g I suggest a 20g ato tank. Might also consider a way to export heat from the fish/laundry room like a in wall or through the roof exhaust fan because of the dryer heat and humidity that will be in that room.

 

[knowen87]

Since I have a 180g I suggest a 20g ato tank. Might also consider a way to export heat from the fish/laundry room like a in wall or through the roof exhaust fan because of the dryer heat and humidity that will be in that room.

A 20g auto top off sounds good. How much ato water do you go through? I was thinking of putting in an exaust fan that runs based on humidity but i might want to check into temp as well.

 

[prsnlty]

A 20g auto top off sounds good. How much ato water do you go through? I was thinking of putting in an exaust fan that runs based on humidity but i might want to check into temp as well.

I go through for ATO about 20g in 7- 8 days depending on if I have the house open or not. Tank temp is 76.5-78 max however during ac season it is a steady 77 since my house stays at a consistent 73. I was just think8ng about how often you'd be filling up a 10g tank, I wouldn't want to [emoji12]

 

[Foxy-88]

This looks like a fun build. At some point I hope to either have an in wall tank or a fish room where my sump is easier to access then under a stand.

Also couldn't you plumb you rodi as your ato or have your rodi fill up your ato so if for someone reason something fails you aren't pumping straight rodi water in to your tank it'll just fill the ato. That is if you have a functioning floor drain in that room or redundancy set it place so it doesn't happen. Sounds like a lot but I thought I'd just mention it

 

[prsnlty]

This looks like a fun build. At some point I hope to either have an in wall tank or a fish room where my sump is easier to access then under a stand.

Also couldn't you plumb you rodi as your ato or have your rodi fill up your ato so if for someone reason something fails you aren't pumping straight rodi water in to your tank it'll just fill the ato. That is if you have a functioning floor drain in that room or redundancy set it place so it doesn't happen. Sounds like a lot but I thought I'd just mention it

I have had ato pumps fail to shut off because a float sensor got stuck. So I wouldn't trust doing this. I would prefer to take the chance to have up to 20g(worst case but when the float sticks it was usually around 2g) go in my system than to overflow and kill the tank. Just something to keep in mind [emoji6]

 

[Foxy-88]

I have had ato pumps fail to shut off because a float sensor got stuck. So I wouldn't trust doing this. I would prefer to take the chance to have up to 20g(worst case but when the float sticks it was usually around 2g) go in my system than to overflow and kill the tank. Just something to keep in mind [emoji6]

I was thinking the same thing. At that redindancywould get ridiculous to prevent it. I hand fill my 15 gallon every week haha

 

[Foxy-88]

I was thinking the same thing. At that redindancywould get ridiculous to prevent it. I hand fill my 15 gallon every week haha

Wow stupid phone redundancy.

 

[knowen87]

I think that the 20g sounds good. I will have to see how much water I will go through but filling up once a week doesn't sound as bad

 

[knowen87]

I took some pictures of the stand. I currently have it only partially built. I needed to get part of it done so that the contractor could come in and start the drywall. The front part of the stand is supported with 2x4s sistered next to the wall joists. I should have taken a close up picture but I didnt. I think that I will do a support in the middle. Maybe I will offset it to the side a little bit to allow more room under the stand. I also ran a dedicated line from the breaker panel for the tank. I put the outlets up on the wall and made sure that they were GFCI outlets too.

 

[knowen87]

I made and equipment list for the tank. I think that I got everything.
Equipment List:
-180 gallon Standard Tank
- (4) Kesil A160WE
- (1) 48" 2 bulb T5
- SWC 180 Skimmer
- Jecod CP-40
- Jebao RW60
- Apex Jr
- Apex DOS for Auto water changes
- BRS Dosers
- Tunze Osmilator ATO
- Mag 1200 return
- 40g Breeder sump
-BRS 5 stage RO, 2 media reactors

I have 10 fish right now. I am looking to get more for the new tank. I think that I will add another firefish. It is funny that they are some of the cheapest fish but I get a ton of comments about them. I think that i might want a wrasse or some anthias.
Livestock
- Hippo Tang
- Sailfin Tang
- Lamark Angel
- Yellow tang
- Flame Angelfish
- (2) Black Ice Snowflake Clowns
- 1 firefish
- chromis
- banggai cardinal
- lots red bubble tips (looking to thin them out a bit)

What other fish do you guys like?

 

[Foxy-88]

I like the light choice I'm making a t5 led hybrid right now with radion xr15s

 

[prsnlty]

Looks great! What bulbs were you planning for your t5s? Make sure you have a way to keep the mag return from back siphoning when power goes out. I quit using them for that reason and heat (but I live in the south). I changed mine out to a jebao dc12000 which runs 3 returns and 4 reactors on it, dead silent and very low power consumption (just in case you decide to change your pump in the future).

If you plan to have coral watch the angels they are generally nippers.
If you do wrasses get fairy wrasses. Otherwise pretty much all else will be the demise of your fire fish. Anthias are special care and require being fed at least 3x per day but great additions. The sailfin will grow to be enormous and may pick on others especially other tangs otherwise I would say orange shoulder and naso tangs are nice additions. As are kole and chevron tangs. I also thing 2 or 3 pyramid butterflies would be great and they would help keep aiptasia away.

Are those icicles I see outside your window? I miss seeing icicles

 

[knowen87]

Foxy-88 I like the t5 led combo too. I think that it is nice to fill in the gaps of the LEDs. I also like the simplicity of the kessils. The connection to the apex is super simple and they are great to just plug an play.

prsnlty - the bulbs that came with the unit are a 10k and a 15k bulb. I don't know what brand they are. I was thinking that I would replace them with 10ks or purple plus to combat the blue of the kessils during the day. The purpose of the t5s is to limit shading and help boost my peak light output. i think that the leds will do fine in the evenings. I almost bought a jebao DC return pump but it did not make the list. I will definitely make sure I have several unions that I can use to make swapping out a pump or adding a manifold in the future. As for heat, that is rarely an issue with leds, ac, and my northern climate. As far as siphoning goes, right now I just make sure that the returns are close to the surface so they only siphon a little but it is a good thing to remember. I have had the returns siphon 20 gal out of the tank and mostly onto the floor but I have also had a check valve fail too.
I love the pyramid butterfly fish idea, and the naso tang. I will update my list to add those

 

[prsnlty]

Foxy-88 I like the t5 led combo too. I think that it is nice to fill in the gaps of the LEDs. I also like the simplicity of the kessils. The connection to the apex is super simple and they are great to just plug an play.

prsnlty - the bulbs that came with the unit are a 10k and a 15k bulb. I don't know what brand they are. I was thinking that I would replace them with 10ks or purple plus to combat the blue of the kessils during the day. The purpose of the t5s is to limit shading and help boost my peak light output. i think that the leds will do fine in the evenings. I almost bought a jebao DC return pump but it did not make the list. I will definitely make sure I have several unions that I can use to make swapping out a pump or adding a manifold in the future. As for heat, that is rarely an issue with leds, ac, and my northern climate. As far as siphoning goes, right now I just make sure that the returns are close to the surface so they only siphon a little but it is a good thing to remember. I have had the returns siphon 20 gal out of the tank and mostly onto the floor but I have also had a check valve fail too.
I love the pyramid butterfly fish idea, and the naso tang. I will update my list to add those

For the t5s I would go with the ati coral+ & purple+