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My Odyssey- Building a 100G Tank into my Living Room Wall

56K views 241 replies 29 participants last post by  CITADELGRAD87 
#1 ·
I have been keeping Africans for about 8 years, always in a 50G acrylic with an Emperor 400 and an Eheim classic canister. To my, that was a perfect sized tank. In the office, I ran an Artica chiller because of no AC during summer Sundays and the 95 degree air temp.
Recently, when repiping our house after a plumbing issue, I decided to open a false wall and build in my 50g. For about 5 seconds, then I looked at the wall, and instantly decided to put a 5 foot tank in the wall, visible in the living room. The great thing for me is that the space inside the wall is so large (approximately 4 feet by 5.5 feet) , I will have a fish room, with water supply, a drain, and room for all my stuff to be together, food, chemicals, etc.
Even though I have run several threads on minor parts of this, now that we are getting serious, I thought it might be better for anyone who cares to use this as a reference to have it together in a properly titled thread.

Here's an establishing shot of the living room wall, this spot has been covered by the TV for years, the TV is going up on the opposite side of the fireplace.


So I started haunting Craig's List, I was at a bit of disadvantage, because I have just over 5 feet of wall space, and I did not want a 46 inch tank. I scored this ex saltwater tank, 100G Visio glass with a single overflow box, a stand which I have been using to work out plumbing issues, and will later sell, a small SW sump with a Mag 12, a skimmer that I am not sure if it works, and a ton of salt crust and general saltwater nastiness and stank. I plan to sell the stand, the sump, and the skimmer on CL when I get a chance. It cleaned up WAY better than I thought it would.


I decided early on to use a sump, and in cleaning up this one, even though it was smaller than I wanted at 24 gallons, I hooked it up and gave it a try. The problem I was having is that with the Mag 12, I needed to keep the pump totally submerged to keep it from sucking air, then, when I unplugged it, to check what would happen for a power outage, it came to within about an inch of the tank rim, too close for comfort, especially coming off some non fish tank water damage to our floor. During this phase, my wife came to look at it in the garage an immediately mentioned that the rushing whitewater noise was far too loud, so I built a Durso standpipe with about $5 worth of plumbing parts. It works as advertised, my only contribution to that system is the ability to tell you if you need to offset it, 2 45 degree elbows do not affect operation.

Back to Craigs list, where I found a 60G acrylic that was only $40, so I picked that up. I briefly flirted with a bucket setup, but for a variety of reasons abandoned that in favor of a built in bio ball chamber, my first work with acrylic. I made a single wall to hold the bio balls in, and added ¼ acrylic rod to hold up the egg crate and drip tray, and I made a top plate to attach the hose to the top of the sump, and filled it all with 10G bio balls, which sources tell me is good for 300G or so of water.
[/img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-17252-1317528063574.jpg[/img]





With the batting on the top of the drip tray, I get a nice, quite sprinkle of water over the entire bio chamber.
 
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#127 ·
Inurocker, yes, mundane things have greatly delayed the completion of this project.

Well, I've said it before, but I think we are on the home stretch, here's an appropriate movie still I snapped Sunday night:



Last night, I finished painting in the family room side of things, other than any touch ups (I hate painting at night but always seem to do it that way), I just need to hook up the stereo and HALF of the project is finished, here's what it looked like last night and a couple this morning:







My wife decided to darken the center portion of the fireplace wall, I think it nicely calls attention to the fireplace without screaming.

Here are the jets mid painting:



I thought I took some shots of the newly black tank back, but I don't see any, I will snap some tonight when I pull the newspaper masking off. I also need to clean up the trim edges with a razor where the paint crept under the tape, tuoch up type work.

Then, it's on to finishing the door/room interior. I beleive I can start cycling this weekend. I need to sort out mounting the light as well.

Keep your fingers crossed.
 
#128 ·
Everything is looking really nice. I'm kind of jealous. I don't have that kind of space anymore after the kids moved out we down sized to a smaller home left my big tank in the old house. It'll all come together soon then you will be looking for another project to get in to. Can't be as bad as Major Kong (Slim Pickens) riding the H-bomb in. I love that bit funny stuff.
 
#129 ·
Thanks, I appreciate it. It does seem to be home stretch at this point. Today I picked up the mounting system for the lights, I was going to try to make my own, but with the metric sizing, and the need for eye bolts, it was actually cheaper to just grab the company version. I can't wait to hang the lights, but I do need a way to make the height adjustible.

I am thinking about mounting the system to a 2x4, then have the 2x4 adjustible via a couple pulleys so I can raise the whole deal when I need to. Sort of pirating part of clekchao's system for my own evil purposes.
 
#130 ·
With Thanksgiving & now Christmas stuff going on over the past few weeks I haven't had much time to check in on the site lately myself, but it looks like you've got quite a bit done since the last time I saw it a few weeks ago. Looking good.

Also the wife has a good eye for colors, I think the darker center section does a nice job of highlighting the fireplace without calling too much attention to it :thumb:
 
#132 ·
Thanks, Steve, Hi Brady, as a matter of fact, yes, I did work a bit this weekend. I reinstalled the newly gloss black jets and Durso, and then dumped about 85 lbs of Tahitian Black Moon sand, my fist not buff colored sand substrate.

After that, I was on a roll, I put the final finishing touches on the plumbing, specifically, I glued the threaded hose end connectors to the pump and the line, so everything is glued up and watertight now.

I also suspended the light fixture, it's a 60 inch Aquaticlife 4 bulb T5HO with moon LEDs, the freshwater one. It came with 2 6500 or so white bulbs, and a couple that glow blue, they do not have a number printed on them, just a finky name that I cannot recall, but they are the stock bulbs, and 4 pretty bright LEDs. The system has a single timer, you just set the time and it is pre pregrammed to cycle through the variations of white and blue on for high noon, blue is am and pm, and the LEDS come on at night. It's pretty cool, I can play with the program, but I am letting the factory program run for now. It's nice to still be able to see the fish even though the main lights are not on. Here's a married man's testimonial as to how cool this light is: my wife STILL has not asked how much it cost, but has complimented the look several times.

The Aquaticlife mounting system is pretty cool, I found that has a very functional locking mechanism, meaning that I can raise and lower the whole light, or just half of it, at will, very easy to work and it seems pretty sturdy and strong.

Then I had my wife help me from the dry front, distribute the moon sand. I did not rinse the first bag, but I did rinse the next 3, simply by sticking a hose into the bag and letting water run out for a couple seconds. The water was a bit cloudy for the first day, and is still not super clear, but it looks good to me for now.

I also hooked up the finnex 300w Titanium heater and controller, I checked teh water at 55 degrees about 5 last night when I filled it, now it's over 80 and climbing, not bad, I undersized the heater and was worried it would take forever to warm it up. Not so!

Then it was finally time to throw the switch and start the pump for real, nol more test run, I am nearly ready to cycle. SO I threw the switch, and was greeted with the unmistakable sound of water, LOTS of water, hitting the concrete floor if the fish room. Not a leak, a torrent. WHAT!>!>! So I turned it back off, nd much to my relief, there was no plumbing problem, there was simply operator error. I had left the 1" drain line valve open, so the 1" line was tossing 2400 GPH on my floor. I managed to smuggle 4 large garage towels INTO the fish room, but getting them out was out of the question, I had to get a trash bag to save the floor. Luckily, I was able to get the dirty wet mess out into the garage.

So it's been running for about 30 hours now, it is VERY quiet with the new mouse pad/sponge isolator, and the temp is climbing nicely.

The only thing I did not get done this weekend was get rocks, the local rock yard is closed on weekends, which seems goofy to me. I did do some more work on the hidden door, I am really happy with how that is coming out, but no pictures yet.

Here are the photos of the lighting and newly added sand

Here's a shot of the controller



Here's the FULL effect, 2 white and 2 blue bulbs on, high noon



Here's just the blue, still plenty bright, looks differnt to the nekkid eye,



Here's the moon lights





Back shot from inside the fish room



Here's the heater controller,



Well, I am going to hold off cycling until I get some rocks, hopefully this week.

As Porky says, that's all (for now) Folks!

Thanks to everyone for following, weighing in, commenting, suggesting, brain storming, etc.
 
#133 ·
I had left the 1" drain line valve open, so the 1" line was tossing 2400 GPH on my floor.
:eek: :eek: Oh boy! I beat that got your heart rate up in a hurry when you heard the splashing. Glad it was just a simple valve and nothing major.

It's looking really good. I've always been partial to white sand but that black sand does look great with the color of your BG. Real nice look.

I've had my build up on hold for the past couple weeks but looking at yours is making me get the itch to make time to do some more on mine done soon.
 
#135 ·
I am going to add both java moss and anubias once I finish the cycle, I don't want to worry about them slowing the cycle or being burned by the ammonia.

I haven't found any rocks yet, the rock place was closed this weekend, but beleive it or not, I decided to go with a random colored background so that I would not have to match the rocks too carefully, I think that a large cross section of rocks will look like they belong, mostly roundish ones, though.
 
#136 ·
I ran out with the wife before work today to a local stone yard and grabbed 30 or so nice rocks, tried to match the consistency, shape, and random colors of the background.

I was thinking about taking a side trip to a local rocky area, but the stone yard had nice buckets with small, medium and large in a variety of sizes.

I snapped a couple pictures before I dunked them in bleach water buckets to get rid of any oil or unwanted hitchhikers





How long should these fellows soak before I can let them air dry?
 
#137 ·
None of those are very porous as rocks go and having been around the lanscape yard they will not have any surviving snails or eggs so it won't take a long time. Any surface oils will react with the chlorine almost immediately . I would think a couple hours would be plenty if in a hurry. If not, overnight is always nice. Odds are good that they are safe as they are but after all the work you've put into the tank and setup, who wants to gamble?
 
#138 ·
Thanks. I am in zero hurry to rush this. I have held off on cycling, and actualy didn't even treat the water in the tank, it's been up for about 4 days, pump is quiet, temp is 87 for cycling, but I didn't want to start before the rocks are all in place.

Then, when the cycle is finished, I will add plants and fish.
 
#140 ·
Thanks, guys.

This AM, I dragged my butt out on the porch, dumped the bleach water, rinsed both buckets twice with tap water, then put the rocks out on the porch to dry. They are pretty dense rocks, I sniffed a couple that were still wet and could not smell the bleach, but of course I will let them dry today while I am at work and smell them again tonight. it's kind of chilly for CA, 60s, so no blasting direct sunlight to bake the bleach off today.
 
#142 ·
Steve C said:
it's kind of chilly for CA, 60s,
It got up to 45 today here in Michigan and I was about ready to go dig out some shorts :lol:

Those rocks look like they will match your BG perfectly.
My mom's family was from the UP, outside Grayling. I almost qualified to say it's not cold to me, just cooler than normal.

My wife always teases me because I maintain that it does not GET cold here, and refuse to wear a jacket unless it is pouring rain.

In the local mountains, I relent and wear a flannel shirt. You should see how natives bundle up here when it's 50 outside.
 
#143 ·
outside Grayling.
Small world, I spend a ton of time in the Grayling area every spring/summer. I'm a HUGELY addicted fly fisherman and have a cabin on the Au Sable river and fish the Grayling/Mio area all the time. Beautiful part of the state :thumb:
 
#145 ·
So enough of the previews, on to the main event. Although I still have a tiny bit of drywall left to finish, I need to extend the step the full length of the tank, and finish the outside of the door, the tank is done. I got rocks from a local yard and piled them in.

I decided it was time to cycle this baby. Last night, 12/17, I tested water parameters. Ph is between 7.8 and 8. Always. Tested it anyway. Ammonia was between 0 and. 25ppm. Its yellow (api kit, only about 2 months old) with a hint of green. I tested the water straight from the tap and got the same result, so I tested my 50s water that I had just done a 25% water change, that appears 0.0.

Since I was just running tap water for water plumbing testing, I dosed the tank with a heavy amount of dechlor.

I cleaned the 50 yesterday, so I removed about a golf ball sized amount of the eheim sintered glass and put it in a media bag, and was able to sit it right in the middle of the bio balls on top. While I was at it, I changed the filter floss over the drip tray, because I plan to let that sit for 45 days minimum.

I dosed with 3 teaspoons of pure ammonia from Ace Hardware. Twenty minutes later we were sitting on 4.0 ppm.

I am also going to put an emperor filter pad in the sump, I need to change one but didn't want to mess with the emp on the same day I broke down the eheim.

So I think I am on my way. Anyone have any insight into the tap water ammonia? Seems strange.
 
#147 ·
I've been up for an hour and a half reading this thread!!!! Awesome build!!!! U got my mind going a mile a minute now...lol somehow I think my girlfriend is gna wanna strangle me in the next week or so lol......can't wait to see everything done...those moonlights are incredible BTW....great job
 
#148 ·
Thanks, guys, for the first time, I am REALLY seeing how nice this turned out. I thought it would, but in a long, dusty project, there's always the thought that you are making compromises, or that it won't look the way it did in your mind, but I am super happy with the part that's finished. Now to just get the rest done while it cycles.

Yesterdays numbers: Ammonia, 4.0. No change in first 24h.
 
#149 ·
No new photos. Sorry, the lights are out and I am in bed typing this on my phone.

First things first, ammonia is 4 ppm, no change from initial dose and second day testing.

Today I made some more progress, I extended what was a step down to the concrete floor to become a full width shelf so I can easily reach the bottom of the tank on the extreme left side.

I also drywalled the back of the hidden door to protect the fragile and wooley sound board from damage. I installed magnet catches top and bottom, and the door stays shut and the panelling is flush using magnets alone, superquiet and I overlapped the paneling so there's no light leakage even without weather sealing, which would have complicated the overall fit and function of the door.

Tomorrow I will snap some pictures, and I hope to put up some trim and at least prime the panels. I am still playing with the reveal at the hinge side of the door, I had to brainstorm a way to get a single strip wide piece of panel out of the way so the door can move, but without an unsightly gap. I hope it works.

I also have some small drywall bits to hang, I will try to use up the remaining insulation and soundboard by putting it up at the fireplace wall, I hate to throw stuff away. I also need to add a melamine shelf to the right of the door for food and chemicals.

More later. Guys, I really want to thank you for the kind words, the encouragement, and the advice. A handful of friends have seen it and the reactions are amazing. It really looks nice in our house, I can't wait for fish!

More to come.
 
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