My 270 Gallon Build with remote garage fish room : 460 gallons of crazy

[Twitchy]

Hello R2R , I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I just felt others would like to follow this crazy "project" of mine.
I'm currently running a 6ft 125 gallon, but always felt something a bit bigger would allow me to have more of the fish I love, this combined with my desire to have a fish room is a recipe to blow all my spending money. I have tossed the idea of a larger tank/fish room around with my girlfriend a few times over the last year to less then stellar results... After checking out some used tanks from various sellers just to see whats out there, she really liked the height on a 36" tank we saw... at first I was not a fan, being my reach is about 33" if i'm lucky, and lighting corals gets a bit harder, but after some thought, I started to think "she likes a tank type... This is great news, and LPS / Softies are my coral of choice anyways!!" now to convince her on a fish room. At first I wanted to re-purpose one of the downstairs rooms... it just wasn't in the cards. then it came to me, the garage! My garage is a tinkers paradise that I built from the ground up to do anything I could ever think of in climate controlled comfort. It's the perfect place to section off an area the fish room... except it is not attached to the house...

After letting the thought die for a few months, a tank/stand came up on Facebook for $700, and they lived like 2 blocks from me. we checked it out, and determined this is the tank. It's a 72"L x 24"W x 36"H acrylic monster of a tank, and was a pain to get home. thankfully owning an old forklift paid off again for unloading.

once home I cleaned it out, and started the long process of polishing out the years of scratches.

to break up the monotony of tank prep and polishing I started on the process of getting plumbing to the garage... The current tank(which is where the new tank will go) shares a wall with the kitchen which is very close to the garage. I started thinking about how to get plumbing out under the house, and to the garage. After some thought I determined I would remove a cabinet and make a hole in the foundation under it, that way if we ever sell, or I get out of the hobby again, I can cap it off and no one is the wiser. This spot will allow me to put the cabinet back over the plumbing when I'm done, while passing everything through the wall to the new tank. holy cow this was a lot of work! but after a long day of digging I did it. I got my plumbing under the house. I went with 1" 1/2 PVC for my return line which will get split off to 2 x 3/4" lines on the tank, and 2" for my overflow, which gets split off to 2 x 1" lines. I wanted to go with 3" PVC for my overflow, but due to the location of my driveway, the 3" PVC would have been almost impossible to get under the house. I also ran some 10 conductor sprinkler wire along with my pipes, as I plan to run an Apex with everything, and will need it for light control, and other tank side goodies. I have such a loving girlfriend... when I told her the details of how I was going to pull off a garage sump, she let out a little sigh, and said "I love you, what can I do to help"

I also started to design a stand, as the wood one that came with the tank just wasn't going to suit our needs. After some calculations, a few talks with some engineering friends, and an order to Tnuntz I ordered the parts to make this, using a combination of 1530 and 1515 extruded aluminum. the math says she will hold, but I will be doing a water-filled deflection test before she goes into the house.

Stay tuned, the next steps are to finish the tank polishing, Painting the back of the tank black, and moving all my current stock to a garage tank, so that I can break down the 125. (which will become the future sump for this monster) and the fun part of building out my future fish room.

 

[Deep dive coral]

Amazing build. I will be following this for sure. Tnutz is an amazing place isn't it..

 

[Twitchy]

Amazing build. I will be following this for sure. Tnutz is an amazing place isn't it..

They are great(at least so far, I will know for sure once the parts arrive), I found them while browsing the "show us your T-slot Aluminium Stands!" thread, and checked them out. I wish they had more black extrusions, but for the price, the ease of ordering, and reasonable shipping, I'm now a fan.

 

[Jon Fishman]

No build is complete without a forklift

 

[Deep dive coral]

I wish I had a forklift for my build. I may have to rent one to get my new tank in place lol

 

[Deep dive coral]

As far as Tnutz make sure you go to the actual website on a computer and not just your phone. There is alot more stuff to choose from.

 

[Twitchy]

A little update Last night I removed my taped edges, and picked up some more PVC pipe from Home Depot. The polish, and painting turned out well. I started with some automotive compounds, but but wasn't happy with the results. I ended up using the Novus plastic polishing compounds, which worked very wonders.
for the back I went with black Plasti Dip. I taped off the sides, and bottom, as well as the very top part of the overflow(I figure its best to leave it unpainted due to frequent cleaning) I roughed the back up with some 600 grit, and wiped the back down with a little acetone to get a good surface for the Plasti Dip to bond to. I am really impressed at how well the finish turned out with the Plasti Dip.
Next up tonight is some more trench digging, and starting to move stuff around in the garage.

 

[Deep dive coral]

A little update Last night I removed my taped edges, and picked up some more PVC pipe from Home Depot. The polish, and painting turned out well. I started with some automotive compounds, but but wasn't happy with the results. I ended up using the Novus plastic polishing compounds, which worked very wonders.
for the back I went with black Plasti Dip. I taped off the sides, and bottom, as well as the very top part of the overflow(I figure its best to leave it unpainted due to frequent cleaning) I roughed the back up with some 600 grit, and wiped the back down with a little acetone to get a good surface for the Plasti Dip to bond to. I am really impressed at how well the finish turned out with the Plasti Dip.
Next up tonight is some more trench digging, and starting to move stuff around in the garage.

Did you paint the plastidip inside the tank? Not outside.?

 

[Twitchy]

Did you paint the plastidip inside the tank? Not outside.?

It's on the inside. Being opaque acrylic, I have to use something on the inside of the tank. After lots of research, there isn't much I can use on the inside short of epoxy resins or expensive food grade paint. The old krylon fusion seemed a good option, but it tended to flake after awhile in aquariums, and they recently changed up their recipe, making it a risky option. Plasti Dip is one of few coatings I could find that has some success in aquariums, as it drys to a non toxic thermoplastic rubber, and the only product where I have ever seen correspondence from the the manufacturer saying it would be suitable for aquarium use.

 

[Deep dive coral]

Wow that's awesome. Where did you order it from? I need to source some for my tanks

 

[Twitchy]

Wow that's awesome. Where did you order it from? I need to source some for my tanks

I know home depot carries the spray, as well as amazon.

 

[Deep dive coral]

I know home depot carries the spray, as well as amazon.

Really?! That's awesome.

 

[Twitchy]

Update time. This last week was a ton of plumbing. The lines to the tank, drain lines, water lines. so many pipe fittings!!
but the end result is the fish area now has running water, and a sink! I also ordered a Reeflo Hammerhead/Barracuda Gold today (thank you black Friday sales) I feel like that will be more then enough pump to get water all the back to the display, as well as run a few other future tanks in the system.

The pipes leaving the house to the garage- I ended up redoing the two 45s as they were originally DWV, and I didn't trust them underground, as I won't be able to see a leak if the fitting had one. so I went with a set of full depth 45s

Pipes going into the garage. I will need to paint these at some point to keep them from getting UV damaged over time.

installing the Inside pipes. the pressurized pipes I decided to tuck under the steel beam, just in case I get a little to careless with the forklift.

The sink! the sump will live just to the right, where the table is now. You can see the overflow pipe ready and waiting.
I plan to mount my RO/DI setup just above the sink to make filter/resin changes less of a pain.

 

[BMWZ4M08]

Looks like a great build, and I"ll be following along...

Just a suggestion..I'm a pond builder, and it looks like your in a warm climate so freezing probably isn't a consideration. I use Flex PVC, not only is it easier to work with but you would have basically two connections one at the start and one at the end. Also the fittings your using are for drainage...which some of those lines probably are for but I like to use pressure fittings, more gluing surface. my 2 cents...

 

[Deep dive coral]

So amazing job so far. I'm just concerned about your drain lines. They have to come back virtually to get to your sump. That is going to drastically affect the turnover rate to the sump. Now I live by the 3x an hour turnover to a sump but I'm just not seeing how you are going to be able to tune the drain and return.

 

[CasaReefer]

Thanks Twitchy.. Welcome to R2R... Awesome House.... Even Better Garage... Fascinating Build. This will be fun to watch..

 

[Twitchy]

Looks like a great build, and I"ll be following along...

Just a suggestion..I'm a pond builder, and it looks like your in a warm climate so freezing probably isn't a consideration. I use Flex PVC, not only is it easier to work with but you would have basically two connections one at the start and one at the end. Also the fittings your using are for drainage...which some of those lines probably are for but I like to use pressure fittings, more gluing surface. my 2 cents...

Ya, living in Florida has a couple of perks. I used drain fittings on the low pressure lines (overflow and sink drain) mostly due wanting to minimize restrictions at the 90s I ended up going back, and swapping out my 45s for pressure fittings, as they will be really hard to get to if I have a issue down the road, and I wasn't very happy with the original fit. Never thought about flex PVC, If I ever do it again totally going that route.

So amazing job so far. I'm just concerned about your drain lines. They have to come back virtually to get to your sump. That is going to drastically affect the turnover rate to the sump. Now I live by the 3x an hour turnover to a sump but I'm just not seeing how you are going to be able to tune the drain and return.

This is the part that will get interesting... It has been hard to get solid info, so a little experimentation is in order... the sump is about 50ft away from the tank, and about 3 feet lower. I ended up using a 2" line for the overflow pipe. the tank has 2 x 1" overflow pipes which will be set up Bean animal style, feeding into the 2" pipe, which should provide minimal restriction. I have a few tricks up my sleeve If more flow is required after testing...
I can increase the tank overflow plumbing size to 1.5" for the "full siphon" overflow line out of the tank, I can increase both overflow pipes diameter... (not even sure why they are only 1" I feel the original tank builder should have went a little bigger) I can lower the sump, and get about 4ft- 5ft of drop between the tank and sump (I want to avoid this, as not bending over to change filter socks just sounds like the stuff of dreams) I can relocate the sump to the front part of the garage, and shave about 20ft off of the length of the run (also want to avoid this as it will get in the way of other garaging projects, and would be hard to close off) or some combination of the above.

 

[Deep dive coral]

Ya, living in Florida has a couple of perks. I used drain fittings on the low pressure lines (overflow and sink drain) mostly due wanting to minimize restrictions at the 90s I ended up going back, and swapping out my 45s for pressure fittings, as they will be really hard to get to if I have a issue down the road, and I wasn't very happy with the original fit. Never thought about flex PVC, If I ever do it again totally going that route.



This is the part that will get interesting... It has been hard to get solid info, so a little experimentation is in order... the sump is about 50ft away from the tank, and about 3 feet lower. I ended up using a 2" line for the overflow pipe. the tank has 2 x 1" overflow pipes which will be set up Bean animal style, feeding into the 2" pipe, which should provide minimal restriction. I have a few tricks up my sleeve If more flow is required after testing...
I can increase the tank overflow plumbing size to 1.5" for the "full siphon" overflow line out of the tank, I can increase both overflow pipes diameter... (not even sure why they are only 1" I feel the original tank builder should have went a little bigger) I can lower the sump, and get about 4ft- 5ft of drop between the tank and sump (I want to avoid this, as not bending over to change filter socks just sounds like the stuff of dreams) I can relocate the sump to the front part of the garage, and shave about 20ft off of the length of the run (also want to avoid this as it will get in the way of other garaging projects, and would be hard to close off) or some combination of the above.

With that kind of drop you should be fine then. This is amazing ingenuity. I wish I had your temps all year long.

 

[Twitchy]

Update time! my order of plumbing for the under tank portion of plumbing came in. I know red on gray has been done so much, but it looks so cool! My stand parts also came in, so I went ahead, and started that process.

filling the tank on it's new stand for leak/deflection testing.

The filled tank on it's new stand... After a couple of days no measurable stand deflection, or unexpected leaks or cracks, I think she is ready to go in to the house. (As soon as I break down the display tank)
I actually came across a minor oddity. the previous stand was not perfectly level, which caused some high spots that concerned me a bit during the fill... Thankfully after a day or so the acrylic bottom flattened back out resting nicely on the stand. I'm so glad I added a drain plug for draining this thing.

I think I might clean the paper off the bottom of the tank when I have it back down, It's starting to bug me even though I should never see it once the tank has substrate.

Next up is moving everything from the display tank to a couple of tanks in the garage... this has me worried, as things are going awesome in the display .

 

[Deep dive coral]

Looks great.