210 Gallon FOWLR in Wall Build (6 Years Late)

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

So I'm a little late to the Reef2Reef party. Back in 2014 I had recently moved from a condo and purchased a house. At the condo I had a 28 gallon JBJ AIO tank. It was first ever venture into saltwater and I believe I was pretty successful at least in the first year. I built my own sump and plumbed an CPR overflow to it. I ran a small skimmer, deep sand bed, and some macro algae in there. After having it setup for over a year we got hit by a bad storm and knocked our power out for over a week. Between work and a newborn at the time I lost almost everything I had in there. At the time I was ticked and devastated but after we moved I had the itch to go bigger, a lot bigger.

After moving into our house I decided to convert half of our garage to a laundry/mudroom and put in a 150 gallon fish tank I got from a guy who sells stuff from storage units like that show on TV. After planing everything out I decided a 150 gallon wasn't big enough. My LFS had a great deal on a 210 gallon so I purchased that and redid my plans around the tank. A friend of mine had a spare 75 gallon and I decided why not make that a refugium. As I stated before this was back in 2014 and my plan was to document it on here since that is where I got my ideas and inspiration. Well unfortunately I never started a build thread and have always regretted it. In the past few weeks I've been spending a lot of time on here and enjoy talking with others who love this hobby like I do. So I decided I'll just document it now, 6 years later and try to remember what I was thinking at the time. I'm not going to post everything at once but I'll try to get it all on here within the next few weeks. After I explain my journey to the present, I'd like to continue on as I add new things and hopefully someday go even bigger!

Billldg · Aug 4, 2020

Pictures are a must, LOL!!!

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

Here is the area I planned to place the tank. The door on the left takes you to the garage and the door in the back goes outside. I planed to put the tank where the closet is and put a computer desk behind the closet (Tank) and that's how you would access the mudroom.

Here is the walls knocked out and we had to put in a large beam.

This it my father holding my daughter on the stand. We build a floor in the garage to match the height of the room. I went completely over kill with this stand. It has two 2x6s that run the length. The sump is going to be in the garage so under the tank will be storage for toys and stuff. I did not want a center brace.

The plywood is overhanging slightly so I can get it flush with the drywall.

Billldg · Aug 4, 2020

First things, its never fair to include your daughter, we will always melt, lol!! ;Hilarious Look forward to seeing this come together.

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

When I did this build I painted everything with Kilz (I think this is the name) waterproofing paint. I'm not sure if I have pictures of the sump area but it completely flaked off of everything and made a complete mess. I will never use it again but maybe I did something wrong. The only place it hasn't been to bad is around the tank.

The Two pieces of wood that are painted on the left on the picture (back of the stand) are supports for the beam I had to put in. This support haunts me to this day and drives me crazy. Its just always in the way and I'm constantly slamming my head on it or my elbows.

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

My house backs up to a large field and I have a double gate in the back. My brother and I picked up the tank and backed it up right to my back porch. I don have any pictures of use bringing it in, but there was four of us and we didn't have to go far. I borrowed two friends and my brother who know nothing about fish or fish tanks. I didn't really tell anyone how big the the tank was and I remember them being shocked at the size. We used big ratchet straps to carry it and lift it into place.

My plan was to have two sides visible and then when you go into the mudroom you would have access to the entire back. In the photo below, to the right will be the door to the mudroom.

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

Here is another thing that I did that I have contemplated changing. I wanted a clean look in the front like the tank was flush with the wall. It came out pretty good but it is a complete pain for maintenance. Not being able to reach in from the front can really inhibit cleaning and maintenance at times. I constantly go back and forth with this.

Door to access the back of the tank and mudroom.

This is a look at the tank from inside the mudroom. You can see all the little wedges I put in there to level this tank perfectly. This drove me nuts and I wanted it to be perfect.

JReef85 · Aug 4, 2020

For the overflow I purchased a custom made one from ebay. It is 4 feet wide and has 2 two inch bulkheads. Drilling the tank was one of the most nerve racking things I've done. After it was finished, I've gone on to drill all sorts of tanks without any issues.

This is the original back it came with. I don't remember why but I wound up not liking this and built my own. The one I built is still on there, I'll take a current picture of that and post it on here.

Here is the drywall finished and my attempt at a "cleaner" look.

Gary Taylor · Aug 4, 2020

I did mine back in 2015 looks great keep up the good work.Here’s a pic of the finished tank

Dcal · Aug 4, 2020

Awesome work on stand and overflows and that's a great place to put it!

JReef85 · Aug 5, 2020

Here is the overflow installed behind the tank. Has three 1 1/2" bulkheads. For the back of the tank I purchased limo tint and tinted the back glass. Allows me to see perfectly in from here but if you are in the front you can't see through (unless its brighter behind the tank).

The three pipes go through the stand into elbows. From there I used spa flex pipe back to regular pvc that goes under the floor I built.

JReef85 · Aug 5, 2020

This is my half garage about 8 feet from the tank. For my sump I used two 40 breeders connected longways by two 1 1/2 bulkheads. The three drains come to a T and are plugged under the small stand for the sump tanks. The plugs were there for easy maintenance if i needed to drain the line.

Here is second tank which consists of the skimmer section and return.

Total overkill here but I designed this first section for 6 7" filter socks. Not long after this I covered the back three cause 6 was way to many.

My plan was two run two return pumps. I started off with 2 Jabeo DC12000 or whatever they were called back then. I later changed this as well and went to one return pump. A few years after this build I got solar and I wanted to cut as much electricity as possible so I wet down to one return pump. I kept the other one with a union in the same spot so I could quickly swap them for cleaning or failure.

JReef85 · Aug 5, 2020

Sand and rock in and ready for water. The rock is sitting on eggcrate that is buried under the sand.

Water going in straight from the RODI.

JReef85 · Aug 7, 2020

Water in and lights on. For lights I have two Hydra 26s and one Hydra 52 in the center. They are sitting on angle aluminium. The photos of the lights are current but nothing has changed there.