360 Gallon In-Wall (~450 Gallon System) & Fish Room Build

[Sticks And Stones]

Hi All,

After many years of saltwater/reefkeeping experience, and several years of dreaming of a large reef system, the time has come for me to build that dream. I have gathered so much from reading others build threads, the great advice offered by others and watching people's systems grow and mature. In this thread, I hope to share my journey with you and would appreciate all the helpful input and advice you'd like to share.

The livestock will be primarily SPS (all will start as frags), a school or two of anthias, a select few tangs and a few other splashes of interest (All TBD later).

The currently planned equipment:

Main Tank: A 360 gallon (86"L x 32"D x 30"H) acrylic tank built by American Aquariums
Sump: 100 gallon pvc/acrylic hybrid sump built by Advanced Acrylics
Lighting: Orphek Atlantik V4 fixtures (x4)
Skimmer: TBD
Heaters: 500 Watt Finnex Titanium Heaters (x3)
Flow: Maxpect Gyre XF280 (x2)
Return/Filtration Pumps: Several Jebao DC Pumps (in redundancy)
Controller: GHL Profilux 4
Dosing: GHL Doser 2.1 (x2)
ATO/AWC System: Genesis Renew/Storm PRO
Misc: GHL KH Director, GHL Flow Sensors, GEO Reef Calcium and Kalk Reactors

To get started, here are a couple pictures of the basement fish room and tank location. The tank should arrive this Tuesday...

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Congrats on the 360 gallon! This sounds like a great build in the making!

 

[lolgranny]

Congrats! Always exciting when you get a massive tank coming into the house

 

[JBKReef]

Was the room origionally a bathroom you converted to a fish room? Or how did you manage to get the floor drain? Jealous. Looking forward to the progress!

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Nice!!

 

[Sticks And Stones]

Congrats on the 360 gallon! This sounds like a great build in the making!

Congrats! Always exciting when you get a massive tank coming into the house

Nice!!

Thanks!

Was the room origionally a bathroom you converted to a fish room? Or how did you manage to get the floor drain? Jealous. Looking forward to the progress!

When I finished my basement, I specifically built this room to be a fish room and included the drain.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

How long before we see the tank sitting in that empty hole?

 

[Sticks And Stones]

Yesterday, I picked up the tank and got it moved into place.

Here are a few pictures from moving the tank.







Most of the other equipment is here (pictures to come) Now, I've got to order a lot of plumbing components...

P.S. - I know some others on the forum have asked about American Aquariums. The aquarium they built for me looks well built and very solid. Adam was very responsive and easy to work with - I'll get some more detail pictures here soon too.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

That's what I'm talking about!!! Nice!

 

[Oberst Hajj]

A ~300 in wall is my ultimate goal. Following along to see all the details.

 

[ccombs]

Excited to see how this progresses!

 

[Sticks And Stones]

That's what I'm talking about!!! Nice!

Thanks!

A ~300 in wall is my ultimate goal. Following along to see all the details.

Excited to see how this progresses!

Welcome aboard!

 

[Sticks And Stones]

As promised, here are some detailed pictures of the tank...

 

[Paul1961]

Think about this - a restaurant size and grade sink and wash board. My nice size home brewery sink/wash board set up is excellent for tank items.

 

[Sticks And Stones]

Think about this - a restaurant size and grade sink and wash board. My nice size home brewery sink/wash board set up is excellent for tank items.

Paul - That is a good idea and it would be nice to have a larger sink in the space, but installing another sink in that room now would be difficult given the planned equipment and layout. The sink that's there is a deep laundry tub sink and will hopefully accommodate most of my needs.

 

[Sticks And Stones]

Since boxed equipment pictures are near obligatory on these build threads, I thought I'd include one for completeness...



This weekend I plan to work on a light rack for the Orphek fixtures. I'm currently taking some inspiration from you guys that build the ones that slide back from the tank for access. If anyone has any light rack experience they wish to share, I'd like to hear it.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

The tank looks really good man. Is the overflow cut into the tank, so that the back wall is completely flat? I've thought about something vary similar for my in wall "dream" tank. Any reason you did not go with a longer overflow since you have all that real estate back there?

 

[Sticks And Stones]

The tank looks really good man. Is the overflow cut into the tank, so that the back wall is completely flat? I've thought about something vary similar for my in wall "dream" tank. Any reason you did not go with a longer overflow since you have all that real estate back there?

Thanks Oberst Hajj. Yes, the external overflow takes no real-estate inside the tank. I went with a centered external overflow for a couple of reasons:
1) I would not have been able to get the tank through my house with a coast-to-coast overflow.
2) The back of the tank is at the edge of the doorway into the room and I did not want to obstruct the walkway.

 

[Captain Quint]

Epic beauty. I'm stoked for you.

 

[lolgranny]

As promised, here are some detailed pictures of the tank...

Enjoy this. It will never look this clean again. [emoji23]