Tanks in wall

[Holyreefer]

Ok i finally started the progress of my tank/fishroom & was wanting to know for those of you's who have the tanks in the wall do you use the stand that the tank comes with or do you build a subsequent stand that would be attached to the framing of the Wall?

I have a 220 & with my stand i have 58inches tall so i made the whole in the wall 59inches & the tank is 74 inches long with the stand so i made the whole in the wall 76 inches.

I tried to keep everything at least 1-2 inches because i didn't want to about the framing that i will be putting around the drywall once it's ready. Help would be appreciated.

Pics

http://public.fotki.com/qmonroe/pic/miscellaneous_005.html
http://public.fotki.com/qmonroe/pic/miscellaneous_006.html
http://public.fotki.com/qmonroe/pic/miscellaneous_007.html

[Holyreefer]

Anyone?

[mhurley]

My stand was built and kind of slides into the wall, the lip overhangs so the tank is flush with the outside drywall. There's diagrams on my website if you're interested.

Mike

[TYRYFIN]

What I did with my in wall tanks was to make the rough opening big enough to put treated wood on the rough opening. So if your tank is 72" long and 30" tall, I would make the rough opening 76.5" X 34.5. This would allow you to put a treated 2x6 on the bottom of the opening and treated 2x4's on the top and sides. I would then use treated 4x4's as posts and place them under the approx. 2" of over hang on the bottom of the opening in both corners. I would then use treated lumber to frame the rest of the platform and then use a piece of treated 3/8" plywood to set on top of the platform for the tank to sit on. You should have a 1/2" gap to slide the tank in.

[Holyreefer]

mhurley,
That's what i'm talking about, are those wooden post for a fence? & how did you know that it would hold the weight of your tank with the water in it? I mean i'm pretty sure i could put something together but i don't want it to fall or an thing like that at all!

Mike is you stand attached to your framing of the tank?

[mhurley]

My posts are 6x6's, total and complete overkill for this tank. I could land small aircract on this stand. I could easily have done it with 4x4's. Technically, I had no idea that 4x4's or 6x6's could handle the weight, that's why I went with the 6x6's...paranoia. I had an engineer friend design the stand and diagrams, he said the 4x4's would be fine but like I said, paranoia. All the wood is marine grade (the greenish stuff).

It's not really attached to the wall at all. Looking at your picture, imagine a stand built with a small lip (3 1/2") that sticks out the front edge and ends up resting right on the top of the stud that makes up the bottom of your "window". Basically, I could slide the entire thing out if I needed to (though that would be a bit difficult with 3000 pounds of sand an water!).

If I could do it all over again...I'd borrow a friend of mine that is a welder and do the entire thing in powder coated steel. Would have given me more space underneath.

Hope that helps.
Mike

[Holyreefer]

Mike,
Let me ask i'm currently on your site & based upon what the blueprints look like it seems that there is a possiblity that the tank could be sticking out? Or does the framing around tank "Kinda" resist that from happening. Also what did you use to keep the stand together?

[Holyreefer]

Mike let me ask do you think i would be able to use the org stand the tank came with?

[Holyreefer]

Mike, what's paul username?

[mhurley]

Paul Christopher = ltspd
http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=2075

Not sure what you mean by "sticking out". Technically, my tank does overhang the stand legs by about 2 or 3 inches. But it's on a 1" plywood base, so it's not unsupported. The tank is held together all with 3 or 4" screws with cross braces on the bottom to resist it shifting.

Sure you could use the original stand..why not? I just didn't have one for this monster. Plus there was no way I could have used a generic stand to do the overhang thing so I could make the tank flush to the outside wall.

[Holyreefer]

See that's the effect that i want the flush look. Can it be done with an orignal stand?

[Holyreefer]

Ok mike,
Last night i took a look at your stand & everything & i went home with the blueprints & decieded to go to home depot, the man's toy store.

I bought the 6x6's & boy those things are HEAVY! Tonight i am going to start to put it together. I'll let you know what comes of it.

[calihawker]

I'm in the process of setting up my 300 gal. in wall reef and trying to figure out how I should post my progress with pics to the group, but in the mean time, Qmonroe, PM me and I'll send you pics of how I got mine flush to the wall using my existing stand.

Steve