The ever expanding build

[customcolor]

i have ben planning on doing this for like the past 4 months...there have ben many nights where i just sit and stair at the walls out in my shop part of my large garage! so just to warn ya...this will take most of the winter to finish to get water in it but even longer to finish befor im super happy with the lay out...GOD I HOPE I GET THIS RIGHT ON THE FIRST TRY


reasons for doing this...well if i put all this in the basement where what i have already is...well..the humidity will kill our 80 year old house even faster. plus for those of you that have come over tom my house to just take a peek or pick up some coral and are over the 6' tall mark...you know that my basement is not made for tall people!!! another reason for this....my wife works 3rd shift and my currant system sits right under our bedroom...and you know me...i talk to much and there where some days where the wife heard me my wife needs her sleep and i have always asked people that came over if we all could be on the quite side. and i guess i have one more reason...our dogs love to bark and mine likes to jump on people when they come over...so i would like to avoid it at all possable

ok on with the build.....



well since i have heat out there already ...i guess i need to get some water out there too!!! that would help things!

in order for me to get the water out there i needed to dig...sorry no pics of a hole in the ground!

i dug a trench from the garage ..under the sidewalk...to the basement wall. i had to cut a hole in the floor of the garage to let the water in and also i had to put a hole in the basement wall..trust me in saying that putting a hole in a basement wall that the concrete is 80 years old is a big chore!! took me 6 hours to go 8" x 4". what i used was a battery powered hammer drill (make mental note...use a corded one next time!!), a regular drill with an old hole saw for glass, 3lb maul, and a cement hole chisel. yep i broke a sweat doing this!! digging the darn hole was much easier!!

what i put in the holes and in the ditch was a 3" pvc pipe to act as a guide to run pex tubing and a drain line and maybe a internet line, and a intercom line so the kids can holler for me if they need any thing.

here is the aftermath after i put some post hole cement in around the pipe to seal it in...

basement wall part...i know but for now its just dirty

and in the shop floor it comes in the hole is about a foot and a half from one of the walls and 3'+ from the other i did that for 3 reasons...hoppinng to keep the concrete from cracking in the shop...frost...and so i can put a hot water heater by it and still have room...(more on that later )

well now so i can still build and tinker and put coral out there i needed to cut my shop in half...my shop was 30' x 15' now i will have 2 halfs....this was the first REAL wall i have built since high school shop class (almost 20 years ago!!)

yeah the garage is a mess!! you should have seen it befor i went to work with 2 truck fulls of dumpster stuff and also 2 large pickups at home on garbage day!!! if you didnt know..i used to paint cars in here!!! there was a ton of stuff to toss

and a quick walk around...

i had to pull off the sheet rock since it would not handle the humid air to well...i just dont need it to fall in to the water that will be under it!!

over on this wall i plan on having a sink and a acclamation tank and hopping to put a small fragging station here too

here is the rest of the wall i added..i forgot to mention that i had to take the deviding garage door down so i could do this too..ill put it back up on the other half but it will be cut down to fit the new opening.

see all my test sprays

stay tuned of coarse more to come!!!

 

[skinz78]

WOW really getting involved with the build there! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[customcolor]

it may take a wile so stay tuned

 

[Reef Pets]

Looks like you have one heck of a job ahead of you. Looking good, can't wait to see more photos!

 

[customcolor]

thanks gary!! this will be fun...i have wanted to do a big thing in the shop part of the garage for a few years now....just didnt know what i wanted to do till now :)


well i have ben busy buying some things that i just couldnt pass up that i will need or make my live easier!

first off i hit up craigs list for an out of season buy...this 14,000 btu with remote ac unit was a steal at $60!!

next on the list....

i first got some plastic from menards to cover up the walls...but when i unrolled it i saw it was really clear!! i didnt like that cuz most of the insulation in the walls is brown paper...ewwwww...

i looked on lowe's web site to gauge prices..$45 for a 8x100' 4 mil black plastic...not bad!

BUT....

I then hit up ebay and boy did i score on this one!! i now have 16'x100'x 3mil for only $37 SHIPPED!!!! more than enough than what i need!

next on the list...well to some unfortunate event of another reefer i was able to grab these 2 4'x2'x15" poly tubs from him.

now tonight i will be hopping to get most of the plastic up on 2 walls and some electrical ran too!!! now its getting fun!!!!

 

[customcolor]

last night and day was fun...not!!

here is the befor shots

the part that wasnt fun was cutting down that pole on the other side of the window...i didnt grab any sawz allz blades for metal so i had to use my grinder that had a diamond wheel on it for tile....GOD WAS THAT LOUD!! MY EARS ARE STILL RINGING....

well later last night i made the opening in the wall for the 14,000 btu ac unit....well i made the hole the same size of the ac unit sleeve...well that made it a pain...

i should have given a 1/16 at least....took me 45 min to just get the sleeve in :p but once in it was nice...i stuck in 14 screws all around the sleeve to spread out the weight a bit on the frame i made for it.....these next pics show you the frame i made to hold it in and final result...

looks nice and that ac will kick but in this little room.


just gota finish moving outlets and putting new ones in on 2 walls for pumps...lighting outlets are up in the air on placement yet

 

[Reef Pets]

Looks like its coming along nice! Since you have direct access to your roof above your shop have you considered using solar tubes to light our tanks? A solar tube is cheaper than a complete light and of course costs zero electricity. Just a thought..

 

[customcolor]

there are some larger trees to the south of the garage :( and they are not mine to cut......

 

[customcolor]

oooohhh...i think we need a little update here :) sorry for the long delays..i work on this little each night.

well i got the built wall insulated with plastic wrapped insulation on the long side and left overs on the short side..the plastic wrapped stuff is perfect. i love it...no vapor barrier needed...even though im putting up plastic anyway :D

i also got all the walls all wrapped up with the 3 mil black plastic that i grabbed off ebay. i only stapled on the very top and the very bottom. that way i can cover the staples with trim board so they dont rust out. i didnt want to poke holes where they are really not needed.
the arrows in the pics below show where the old outlets where and where the new ones will be (higher up)..and the heater is being supported by a 2x4 fram and is not on the wall any more...it will be moved and out of here soon..i hope :p

 

[customcolor]

since all my craziness is done for a wile i decided to kick some butt in the shop!

first off..the electric...i had it done for about a month now but didnt see the need to update here just to say that since i was moving so darn slow for a wile !

all the electric is done on the outside of the plastic...that way if i want to add onto it later it will be lots easier than drilling moe holes in the darn wall. i did use gfci's where needed and the new style outside covers for electric....they are like $14 each so i had to lay this out in my head many...many times so i could buy less and still get what i want and need.

in these first two pics i put a switch inline with the outlets..reason for this is because the outlets here are for power heads that will be in the tubs. im doing top down looking tanks so less water action on the surface will help out alot! now all i gota do is remember to turn them back on every time :P

the switch box is a good coat hanger...lol

i think 8 outlets should be enough for the sump area...i hope..

the main thing that was holding me up for a wile is ...well...i ran out of nails and i was 3 boards shy of finishing the floor!!! it was close though! but not close enough...but i had some time to grab the things i needed and away i went...

i used the same insulation in the floor as i did in the walls...going to try to keep the cement dry this way i hope. being this sealed will also help keep the shop warmer in the winter too..we will see next year. i raised up the floor with 2x6 lumber...that way i can keep a gap of air over the concrete so it can still breath a little.
to get wood home in the van i needed to have the 8x4 sheets cut in half. no big deal though...made them much easier to handle by myself..on top of the wood pile is one of 2 100' rolls of pex that im going to put under the ply between the 2x6's to heat the shop. the pex will also run into one of my sumps here in the shop to heat the water first then go through the floor...that will be one of the later things im going to worry about...it almost spring time...finally!!!

THIS IS SO FUN WITH NO HELP!!

the pex on its way to the sump area....twisty turvy!! i notched the 2x6's to where i needed to cross over..i chould have sovered the notches with metal so i wouldnt screw into the pex but thats ok...i measured!

poking out and waiting for the sump....this was harder than you think to do!! this was the first sheet to go down too..had to make shure it was square so the rest of them would be good to go.

i was so happy to get this many down and strait!! one row of 4 down!

but i didnt stop there..i put row 2 down and then i stoped

befor

after

 

[customcolor]

well be for i start the ceiling i decided to do the electrical for the lighting outlets.
i am down grading the 30amp breaker to a 20amp breaker so i can put regular outlets in for the lights.....cheaper that way :) reason for 20amp is because i feel that the lights will draw more power than all the pumps that ill be using for flow. i can run 1600 watts of lighting if i wanted too and still be in the 80% max draw limit.

2 over here

and 2 over here

now the next spot is where the magic will happen

there is a set of wires coming from each set of outlets and one coming from the 20amp source. you may be wondering..."are you putting a light switch in there??"
well....NOPE. ill be putting in a strange outlet that will act as a jumper plug in that will be coming from a 20amp solid state relay that will be running off a timer/controler.

i marked what side the power is coming from on this guy.....

more on this later..

 

[customcolor]

ok ...here we go again...another boost to keep you going...


since the floor is down and painted with grey porch paint ( i mixed some sand in the paint for the walking area) i decided to start on the ceiling and get that buttoned up....finally!!!!

to make life easier i decided to Prime the ceiling with killz befor it became a ceiling.

Where the lights where in the shop where not going to work...and the bulbs just sucked!!! i needed to move 2...delete one...and just leave one be. But i did change them to all plug in outlets instead of screw in so that i can add as much light for the shop main lights that i want and where ever i want also. im going to use t8 shop lights for shop lighting...

even though i didnt run power to it yet...i still needed to put it up...exhaust fan that is...

and since my lines where nice and strait.......yeah...right!!!

i filled all the gaps of my crappy ceiling work with paintable window silicone. this was done to seal the sides of all the wood on the ceiling...then a painting away i went to give it all the same color!

 

[customcolor]

BUSY BUSY BUSY...
besides getting ready for a swap in Mn...i have ben hard at work !! my brain is getting fried!! thinking on how i wanna run the pluming is whats doing it too!

but let me show ya what i ben up to the past few weeks!

first off...here is how i did the lighting (not for the tanks) i gota tie up the hanging cords so i dont hit my head on them...lol! i have 3 of them hung up and they are plugged into the ceiling outlets that a light switch is running.

next...this is a big one!!!

I CAN SEE OUT THE WINDOW AGAIN!! that took me 45 min to get all the paint off the frame and window from spraying cars in here! it was nasty!

and guess what..the floor is clean too!!

off to the tanks! now this is just a start ...i plan on having a bunch of tubs housing clean up crews too...

tub 1

tank 2 (which should have water in it in the next week or 2) and sump 1 (sump 2 will be connected to #1 via 2" pvc and will be sitting in the corner that is in the pic)

one of 2 frag tubs along this wall

tub 2 along this wall (blue arrow) and a 30 gal breeder (red arrow) that will be blacked out completely and used only for a temperature tank for when i get new coral in...ill be setting the bags in this tank so that they will not be sitting on top of other coral or in the sump where they could get lost. it may also act as a cryptic fuge too...never know.

 

[_Alex_]

wow very nice!!! this is going to be sweet when its all done!! i take it your not painting cars anymore? lol

 

[customcolor]

hech no...car customers were pickier than coral customers..

 

[_Alex_]

LOL i know what you mean i was a engine mechanic for 5 years... and did it on the side. still do for a selet few but man people are crazy!! even when your saving them some money!

lol anyway awesome build!!

 

[RUGDOG]

lookin great! looks ike a lot of fun.

 

[customcolor]

LOL i know what you mean i was a engine mechanic for 5 years... and did it on the side. still do for a selet few but man people are crazy!! even when your saving them some money!

lol anyway awesome build!!

i know...when i did a couple of cars for $700 they where expecting a $3000 fit and finish look

 

[BigFeesh]

Sick build thread ! I tagged along for the ride! How big will the display be?

 

[MoneyPit]

Sweet !!!