230 Gallon In-Wall Acropora Build

[salt.and.sticks]

I've been in the hobby off-and-on since I graduated high school in 1999. After taking a long break, I wandered back into the hobby in 2021 as a "COVID Reefer". Working from home, I stared at a blank wall in the office and said "this wall in my office would be great for a reef tank!" My wife reluctantly agreed because I had an aquarium when we met. And so the 100G IM EXT was built. This was a very successful tank, with ups and downs, and was amazing at helping me re-learn how to keep reefs and level-up with SPS. I wanted to start here because it is part of the journey of the build process of the Planet 230 EXT built into our remodeled movie room that I will document here.

I started the process many months ago and documented progress along the way, but waited to post it. So this will be a reflection on the build as it happened over the past several months, but as we all know the build is never over!

The process started a year ago with the first demo of the existing movie room, slowly progressed to the room being finished months later, to life getting in the way and delaying the actual reef build, to today... at which point it has been running for 5 months.

Before we get into the build... I want to share what was torn down. This reef was a 100G Innovative Marine EXT, that was established for about 5 years.

Salt and Sticks Instagram

Salt and Sticks Youtube

 

[salt.and.sticks]

Room Remodel:

The room was built as a theater room, with a projector screen, surround sound, recliners, etc. I envisioned watching so many movies as a family in that room.... but we never used it. Additionally, our kids go to a private school where they are at home part of the time doing homework. So there was a desire to remodel that room and make it more functional for the family.

I had also always talked about my dream of a in-wall reef tank with a room that housed the tank and all the equipment. I never thought about it, but my amazing wife with her ability to design layouts recognized that 1: we needed to remodel the "movie room"; and 2: The garage was on the other side of the far wall. So she spoke the words, which she may or may not regret now, "You could cut a hole in that wall and put a tank there, and build in the room behind it in the garage"... Let's go. She's amazing, let's do it.

Here is the process of the room transition.