280g Inwall

[Delphinus]

The first thing that struck me (you can't really see this in the photo) was that I had to have the furnace and HRV ductwork redone. There were three enormous pipes overhead that were going to interfere with the canopy and wall, so I called the place that installed the HRV and asked what options I had.

One pipe was HRV and two were furnace outlets. It turned out that the furnace outputs could be combined into one stepped up pipe. As it turns out, the HRV had been installed incorrectly when it was first installed (two years ago) so when they came by to give me an estimate, they noticed this, and told me that it was incorrect and they wanted to fix it free of charge. I was pretty happy with that. I had no idea it was incorrect, but I am happier with the way things are now because the pipework is far less intrusive around the furnace area now.

I don't really have any "before" pictures but I will show a picture of the piping in my next post.

I used "Air Pro Heating" for my HRV and these guys are top-notch. They were recommended to me by another Canreefer (Monza, we don't see him online too much anymore, bummer - great guy). They did an analysis based on how much air turnover and how much floor space and air volume I had, to rectify the problem of excessive humidity based on the tanks. Anyhow, anyone in Calgary considering a tank room, or even building a new house - I very highly recommend talking to these guys about an HRV.

[Delphinus]

Anyhow, more pictures!

Next up was to build some wall framing and hang a door for access into the tank room.

Seems that maybe not going about things the easiest way, but, I want walls to be flush, or near to flush with the tank, as opposed to having the walls a 2x4 thickess out from the tank.

Also, I wanted to avoid the usual "picture frame" look to a typical inwall tank because my favourite tanks are those that can be looked at from multiple angles. Ideally, if I had had the space, I would have made three sides viewable, but unfortunately I just don't have enough space to pull it off ... so the end result is the best compromise I could do, a "front and right-hand side viewable" tank.





As you can see, I haven't bothered draining the tank yet from my "verify the tank is level" step. That's some skanky water now, but I'm leaving it for now because I'll use it to test my plumbing when I have that ready (hopefully soon). Seems to me there's no need to waste 280g of water in the meantime.

Here's a close up of the furnace piping. "If I knew then what I know now", I'd have sprung for 9' ceilings in the basement. With 8', there are definitely a lot of low spots to work around due to things like this.

[Delphinus]

Currently, I'm at a bit of a standstill because the joists have more flex to them than I anticipated. I only have 1/2" of clearance between the framing and the top of the tank, and it appears that if someone walking in the living room directly above, hits the "sweet spot", there is about 1/2" of flex in the whole joists. This means the framing actually can contact the tank. Not good.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to solve this. The drywall should take out some of the flex but I'm not sure I want to rely on the drywall to prevent my tank becoming a "load bearing wall."

I might try some cross-bracing, or, I might end up putting a corner post on the right. This second option should work well but it would involve some creativity on the finish to keep it looking good. My main hope is to avoid it looking like an afterthought (even if it IS an afterthought).

[Myka]

Bummer...not picturing what is happening though...

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Currently, I'm at a bit of a standstill because the joists have more flex to them than I anticipated. I only have 1/2" of clearance between the framing and the top of the tank, and it appears that if someone walking in the living room directly above, hits the "sweet spot", there is about 1/2" of flex in the whole joists. This means the framing actually can contact the tank. Not good.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to solve this. The drywall should take out some of the flex but I'm not sure I want to rely on the drywall to prevent my tank becoming a "load bearing wall."

I might try some cross-bracing, or, I might end up putting a corner post on the right. This second option should work well but it would involve some creativity on the finish to keep it looking good. My main hope is to avoid it looking like an afterthought (even if it IS an afterthought).

Put a big red X on the Sweet spot and make everyone who enters your abode sign a disclaimer form. Sheesh some people make things so difficult.

[wickedfrags]

Hey Tony,

Looks great so far - and ya that is taking your time. One thing I woud recommend is not using that rubbermaid container as a sump. I did this myself initially and was ultimately not pleased with it. Pick-up a used sump, or ever make one yourself either with a new stock tank or a used tank. Dave

[Skimmerking]

looks goof there Tony. I like the way that you framed in the tank.

[Gools]

Yah I'm building my tank in wall right now to. Just saw how you did yours, now I want to change it and build it like you did. Seeing down the sides is a really cool feature, especially on in wall tanks.

Did you ever consider having access from the front of the tank? With that depth and height it is going to be fun reaching from the back.

[J.Lloy]

What where you planning on for return flow? Is there a link for info on Herbie overflow, I hadn't heard of one till just a few days ago?

[Delphinus]

The dream is alive and so maybe should this thread have injected a little life.

This won't look like much of an update but it does represent a major milestone for me. Tomorrow, Monday, is inspection day for the permits and so the wall framing is complete, the plumbing is complete, and the electrical rough-in is complete.

It doesn't sound like a lot, and won't look like a lot, but .. it has been an indescribably immense amount of work to get to this point. I divided my work out for myself into tasks that would take roughly 2-3 hours each, and there has been somewhere in the order of 80 to 100 of those since December - so you can well imagine I have sunk somewhere between 180 to 200 hours to get things to this point. Plus, that's not taking into account that with many tasks I estimate "2 to 3 hours" that ended up being "4 to 8 hours".

I took a week off from work the first week of February and that made a HUGE dent into things. Ever since then it's been "2-3 hours here, 2-3 hours there" and a lot of late nights.

So, it is with a HUGE sigh of relief that I say "things are ready for inspection." Once passed inspection, or any deficiencies found during inspection are remediated, drywall can go up in the tank room and then I can concentrate on an actual tank build, and not so much a basement build. In fact, the rest of the basement will take a back seat to the tank project at that point. I am looking forward to that phase.

What's left at this point, the plugs in use and light switches have to be pulled out before inspection time and I will do that before going to bed tonight so that it's all ready for tomorrow.

I have been existing on 4 hours of sleep for the past few months and this is taking a toll on me physically. So after inspections tomorrow, I am not doing a single thing on the construction project all week. Not one thing all week! The following week the family & I are off to a beach vacation, and when we're back from that the drywalling will commence! I can't wait.

This is the view into the basement looking in from the bottom of the stairs. On the right is a hallway that skirts in behind the 2-piece bathroom/"powder room" that leads into the furnace room/utility room.


A few steps forward and a turn to the left in the L-shaped hallway and that enters into the main rumpus area. The 280 is just ahead and to the left of the view point. You can see the existing 115g cube in the back there and the 40g carpet anemone tank is behind that.


The next two photos show the mini-kitchen area - there will be a mini fridge here, microwave and a sink. I had to do a drop down for the ceiling there to work around the furnace and HRV vents. I extended this across the whole basement mainly for looks and also so I'd have somewhere to run the bathroom fan ("fart fan") ducting.




And last the tank room itself. There's a preview of what the electrical will look like (I have to take it all apart now for inspection, oh well. )


And this is where the work sink goes. I took the sink out so the inspectors can get in there and see it all. My personal favourite feature is the pot light that will illuminate the sink when I'm working there.



As for the concrete issue, I ended up chipping out all the distressed concrete. Once it all dried out it wasn't as bad as I thought. There is about a 3' diameter section of floor where it's all chipped out, but there are no structural concerns. So I'm leaving it be.

Thanks for looking..