The inwall 380 starfire reborn
 

This is Bigred's old 380 that we are finally to a point where visible progress is being made (Finally !! :)). It will be going inwall, with the tank being in the garage.


First task was to cut in the header (since it was/is a load bearing wall). We chose a 14" LVL header beam to span the 78" openening required for the tank. Due to the sizes and our house studs being on 16" centers we had to extend the header out 1 additional stud width to ensure that the support studs for the header had an existing stud for the backer to sister the new header support studs to.

Here is the wall pretty much ready to go, with 3 bottle jacks to support the wall (and the second story) while we were cutting in the header.

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_002_1.jpg[/IMG]

and here it is with the header already cut in and secured

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_007.jpg[/IMG]


You can't really see from these pictures, but we did add some studs under the header to frame out the openeing for the tank. I will try to take some better pictures tomorrow, after we pour the pad... speaking of that, onto the pad :)

we decided to pour a concrete pad for the tank and stand to sit on for 2 reasons. The first being that the garage elevation and the house slab elevation had a difference of approximately 4". Secondly, all garages are graded to drain towards the center and towards the front. To counter the floor height difference and the floor grade and give us a level base for the stand to rest on we formed and are getting ready to pour a pad.

Here it is all formed up and ready to pour. First thing in the morning it will get it's fair share of wet concrete :)

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_012.jpg[/IMG]



Since it would be supporting so much weight I wanted to be sure that it would be a solid foundation for the tank, so I sunk a couple of dowels and tied them together and added some remesh on top (for good measure).

The white spaflex is the drain and return from our current tank, inside the house. The old sump used to be located where we are getting ready to pour the pad. Moving all of that equipment out of the way was a slow going task, especially since we needed to keep it all hooked up and running to support our existing tank.

The 3" ABS drain riser will be relocated after the pad is cured sufficiently for me to walk/work on it. I had the stand designed in such a way as to "work around" this drain (well, work around it after I get it relocated off to the right a couple of feet).

The tank is 6.5' X 4' X 2'. The stand is being built by SoCal Creations and is currently at the powder coaters getting coated. We expect to have it delivered by this time next week/next weekend (which means I need to be sure to get the pad poured tomorrow so that it can at least cure enough for the stand to set on it.. but likely won't be ready for the tank until later the next week.. going to have to play that one by ear I think)

Here are some pictures of the stand that SoCal Creations provided.


The back

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/stand1.jpg[/IMG]


The front

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/stand2.jpg[/IMG]

I had them build the front without a piece connecting the bottom ofthe legs together. This was so that I did not have to completely rip out the existing wall, but can now slid the stand in between the existing studs (that are left under the tank opening). Once the stand is in place I alrady have plywood ready to face the back of the studs with, to give that half wall a little more strength.

The outside left and right pairs of legs also lack a bottom piece tying them together, this was for how I planned to re-run the ABS drain pipe on the right (and wanted both sides to match, so the left got the same treatment).

Congratulations Tom. Your project finally started. I can't wait to see how it would look once completed. If you need help let me know.

Thanks Perry.. header is in, pad poured, stand on it's way, now it is just a waiting game (for both the pad to cure and the stand to arrive), then things pick up again, what with sheetrocking and the like :). I will try to take some picts of the poured pad later on... I am pretty beat right now. :)

Wow! That is some undertaking!

It's nice to see this tank getting another chance, BigRed did a great job with it and I am sure you will too. Good Luck!

Yea, it has taken us a while to get to this point because of all of the work involved, I didn't really go into much detail on the sump and prop tank relocation is support of this new tank setup (and that was a several month project).

We have a lot to live up to since Bigred did such an awesome job with it originally. I only hope I can do near as good a job as he did.

I sprayed curing compound on the pad yesterday afternoon and it is coming along nicely so far. I will try to take some pictures of the pad and better pictures of the wall where we added the studs later today, but I have a ton of other house projects that I am going to try to gain some ground on today, including moving the last piece of furniture off of the wall that the tank opening will be in.

Are you setting up the tank BB or DSB?

neither.. going with a shallow sand bed.

Been reading up on the new zeolith products by Faunamarine and am considering using it on the new tank, but the jury is still out here on that :)

Some more construction photos (the stand won't be here until at least this weekend, possibly next week sometime).

Here is me backing up the Ready Mix concrete, which was an interesting task, seeing that I was working solo that day (my wife prefers to not be around when I am working like this.. all of the noise and such.. and that is just my yelling and cursing :)). I still managed to thread the needle and get it in, and by some stroke of luck I got it in 1 shot backing it up (no, don't ask me to repeat that feat :D).

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_014_1.jpg[/IMG]

This was taken last Friday (Sorry for the delay in downloading the camera and uploading the pictures).

I went ahead and took the forms off this afternoon. I still have alot of clean up to do, but the pad is pretty much level. I will still likely need to shim the stand legs a little, but it is a whole lot more level than the original garage floor.

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_016.jpg[/IMG]


It is 4 1/2 " tall at the far right corner. 4" at the far left corner, over 5 1/2" tall on the close right corner and 5" at the close left corner. So the pad had alot of grade to take up, so being half a bubble out in any direction is livable for the pad for me (the bubble is still in the lines on a high end 5' level, just more to one side than the other)

Here is the picture that better represents how the header was cut in longer than the opening for the tank, so as to provide adequate sistering support for the new studs.

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_020.jpg[/IMG]

While I still have not cut out the opening in the sheetrock you can get an idea of the opening by noting where the insulation is, and isn't. I want to wait until I have the stand here so that I am not guessing at any measurements.

Where's the BIG hammer!!!

hehehehe... going to use a router and sawsall to cut the opening in the sheetrock.. no hammers will be anywhere in the vicinity :). I am doing my level best to salvage as much of the wall on the other side as I can (aside from the part where the tank will be peeking through, of course :)).

come on it's been a week and your not done yet!

Looking good so far keep the photos coming.

Hahahaha, sounds like a repeat of posts from another large tank build thread. It has actually been more like 6 months since we started this, but a combination of LOTs of prep work and real life and paying work obligations have stretched it out this long.

Here is what that wall used to look like (back the beginning of this year)

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/Equipment_001.jpg[/IMG]

Then we built a larger sump and moved all of the equipment out of the way. Here is the thread for that endeavor :

[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=835341[/url]


That was for putting a smaller tank that we already had in wall before this 380 tank came up for sale. So we actually had to yet again move the new prop tank and new sump, but this time it was only a few feet to the right down their new wall. That was to accomodate the space requirements of the 380 (and was not as easy as it might sound ;)).

makes me think back to when I ripped out my load-bearing wall...I can't believe what I did! And I didn't have any fancy bottle jacks either! :D

fancy [B]borrowed[/B] bottle jacks, no less :)

Saw your comment about the pad pour in the other thread. Thanks for the compliment. Owing to the various grade issues we had to deal with I didn't see any [i]complete[/i] solution outside of pouring a pad to "level the playing field" a bit :)

How about a picture of the other tank? Have you sold the lemar thank yet?

Hi Tom, what is your experience with sequence barracuda pump? Is it too loud?

never actaully hooked up the barracudas (and we have 2). Our return pump currently is a 4200 with SW seals, and it is pretty mich dead silent (the water fall is way louder than the pump).

The other tank wasn't a leemar, it was just a custom 180, 3 sides starfire, and no, not yet, but there is a sale pending.

Well, the shipping company called a short bit ago, the stand is already here, so I am scrambling to find a trailer to rent to go pick it up. The sad part is work this past week was soo heavy that I am not really ready for the stand yet.. I needed another day to finish up a few items (grind down any high spots on the pad, finish up the ceiling over the pad, re-route that drain pipe, etc).. oh well, I will just have to find space for it in the garage until I am ready to put it up onto the pad.

Hopefully after this weekend I will have lots more pictures :) and optimistically will be able to get the tank up onto the stand the first of next week.. I just need to plan it out and coordinate some help.

Ok, time for a bit of an update. The stand is in place, but not yet leveled. The epoxy that I used on the anchor bolts will take up to 72 hours to cure with the temperatures we have been having lately, so it looks like I won't be doing much more on the tank for a couple of days. As it was it would have been 36 hours before I was able to touch it again anyways, what with work and all.


Here is the stand in place, but not yet leveled. As I mentioned, the anchors are not ready to torque down yet, and the stand has a little bit of a bow from all of the welding, so until I can draw it down tight in the middle front, I can't begin to really level it. From what I am seeing, it is looking pretty close to level as it is (once I bring those front two middle legs back down).

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_001.jpg[/IMG]

You can see here some of the details of the wall, front anchors, drain I had to re-route, and other challenges that we had to design the stand around.

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_002.jpg[/IMG]

Here is basically where the opening will be cut (Eventually). It is starting to actually look like an in wall setup (finally). I won't cut the opening until I can get the stand leveled and anchored down in it's final resting place. Then I plan to use a router from the in house side, with a trim bit, and cut out the opening (using painting drop clothes to contain as much of the dust as possible, taping it off as much from top to bottom as I can).

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_004.jpg[/IMG]

I have insulation to go back in the wall under the stand, and 3/8" plywood to face it with (to tie it back in with the original, existing, full studs, for added strength), and 5/8" green board to go over top of that. But that also must wait until I can finish leveling the stand, since I will possibly need access to all the from legs to accomplish that task.


When I re-ran the drain, I went ahead and added a p-trap to the riser so that I could use it for a skimmer drain and/or water changes, etc.

[IMG]http://tomandjue.com/Gallery/albums/Equipment/InWall_003.jpg[/IMG]

MAN...and I thought mine was tough. Actually the hardest thing I had to do was write the check :D. Looks great so far.

Oh and GOOD LUCK with the containing that dust idea! ROTFLMAO. :lol:

yea, we had/have a couple of challenges in getting this tank up and running. So far we have been able to find solutions for most all of it (but the tank still isn't wet yet :)).

And yes, one of those challenges yet to come is containing all of that dust when I finally cut the opening in the wall *sigh* :(

Might I add that I did almost all of this solo, including putting the stand into place, loading/unloading, etc (my neighbor had to help lift the header into place since it was too heavy for me to lift by myself, but that was it so far). The biggest challenge for me is that before this project I had done just about none of the tasks involved, but I sure did learn alot along the way (mainly that I never want to have to do any of it again :D)

Tomorrow I am going to the paint store to get the highest rated waterproofing paint/covering and start sealing everything (header, stand top, etc).

The topic of lighting and circulation is yet still to be decided, aside from using LAIIIs with 250 bulbs (likely 10 K, supplemented with T5s running off of an IC 660). But the ballast is still up in the air.. I was originally planning to use IC eletronic ballasts w/ XM 10K bulbs. I put that configuration over our prop tank (in an LAIII mini) and liked the color, but had a bad outbreak of cyano that I am not sure is related to the lighting change or just coincidentally something else. I just put the PFO HQI ballast back on that tank tonight and will monitor if it has any affect on the cyano or not. If it does, then the IC ballasts/XM bulb combination will be out for me (both were brand new when I put them over the tank a little over a month ago).

Circulation I am leaning towards 4 Vortec pumps for in tank circulation. This is for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is they much touted, future promised controller, and all that it is supposed to be able to do. I had originally planned on a tunze wavebox and a CL using an OM 4 way and dart pump. I already have the dart and OM 4way (and a barracuda standing by if I needed the extra flow), but looking at the costs, and costs to run each configuration, I think that the vortecs make more sense. Especially since electricty is so expensive out here in Ca. :(

I also was considering the new zeolith based system from Faunamarine, but have not really been sold on it yet. The initial monetary outlay is around $500 (for reactor, media, startup supplements, etc). That is not the biggest concern, but the month;y maintenance costs are. For a setup our size it will run almost $100 per month for the various required supplements. Aquarium Obsessed was very gracious in offerring a pared down package, targetting the minimum of what we would need for our setup, and this helped get us down to the $100 per month mark. Before then it ran around $200 per month, based on our bio load (and I am not setting up a big tank to have it sit empty.. so I told them to expect a big bioload :)).

Well, those are the things I am bouncing around in my head right now. I know most would have already purchased these items, but I have an IC 660 and some endcaps, so I can throw VHO or T5s over the tank while it is cycling, just to help me setup the rockwork, etc. I have not decided if I will run it completely stand alone until jsut before we fully cut over (likely in February sometime), or connect it to the shared sump now and get it integrated into the main water body. I do plan to take a chunk of chaeto from the 'fuge and put it into the new tank to seed it with pods, etc, as well as a good portion of seed sand from our current tank, with all of it's microfauna (the new tank will have an SSB). We also have 50 - 100 pounds of LR in the sump, just waiting to go into the new tank to help seed.

Well, that is enough for one post (too much actually :), but I had realized that I had not talked at all about the tank equipment, so figured this was as good a time as any :)

The Vortech's are definately the way to go. I have 4 now, 2 on the 345 and 2 on the 120 which will be moved to the 345 after it's broken down. Who wants to cut holes in their tank...NOT me.