Ok what would you have done different

[Tau2301]

After having seen Jon and Rasta's in wall tanks I am now considering one.

The question about resale has also come to mind. It would be like having a swimming pool, you would have to find that 1% of buyers that would want to put up with the hassle of owning one.

I have a bungalow with a sunken family room. Below, in the basement I don't have a crawl space, but a sunken basement/family room. This is where I currently have my home theater (insert laughter here).

Behind one wall is a work room and storage area which also houses the main plumbing core. This area is abot 30" above the floor in the TV room.

I could build my in wall system there. The tank could sit on the conrete ledge so thoughtfully provided by the builder.

I would also have room for a sump and refugium.

My big problem is getting enough power to that part of the basement.


With this arrangement it would be easy to fill in the hole in the wall to return thing to the way they were.

[Buccaneer]

As a lot of comments have revolved around what to do if you sell the house ... the way I see it is this ...

Lights / sump / plumbing / skimmer / calcium reactor / refugium / corals / fish etc all come with me if I " ever " move

as far as the tank goes it would be too large to get out of my basement anyway so I would dissasemble and rebuild a even bigger one in the new house

Cheers

[Samw]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Ok this is kinda of a research post for me.. I am looking to build a large take into the wall of my new house but befor I start hacking down walls and such I want to hear from others who have done a "InWall" tank and see what you like and what you regreat about some of the methods and ideas you had.

Steve

Hi Steve.
Not much to add unfortunately. What I like was the look. There were no regets. My tank is above the fireplace as you know. What I would have liked is to add a mantel or small bar table above the fireplace so I can sit and drink in front of a warm fish tank on a cold cold evening.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Rasta

I would then look at closed loops for circulation from below then ( as you can tell I am not a big fan of plumbing being viewable )

Are you building the tank yourself or are you having it built ?

Cheers

I was thinking of using the ends for all my plumbing but I have to decide if I should put the returns on one end and creat a large currant accross the tank or if I chould have returns on both ends ect..

as for the tank I am going to see how much IA will charge for what I want and I will also concider building it myself. I need to figure out how large of glass I have to go to so I can go "Braceless" also.

Steve

[Canadian Man]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

I was thinking of using the ends for all my plumbing but I have to decide if I should put the returns on one end and creat a large currant accross the tank or if I chould have returns on both ends ect..

as for the tank I am going to see how much IA will charge for what I want and I will also concider building it myself. I need to figure out how large of glass I have to go to so I can go "Braceless" also.

Steve

Regarding the glass thing with IA steve. You have to remember that Starphire only comes as thick as 1/2" If you have funky dimensions on your tank or want to go braceless then the price goes up huge. the reason for this is not the price of the starphire but it's the fact that they have to laminate two 1/2" pieces together to make the right size glass. I have been to their shop and the laminating is goergous but it's just the cost to have it done.. they don't do it themselves. Now I know you have yet to mention starphire but I though I would bring up this little tidbit of knowledge.

I found this out because I wanted a 30" high tank and 30 to 36" wide but it's not possible without going up with your glass size and therefore increasing the cost huge of the the tank.

ciao

[kari]

Jonathan

Old news but, the deeper you go with the tank the more juice you need for lighting and the longer of a snorkle you will need to get air for yourself

Kari

[Michael]

I was thinking of doing the same thing....but then I ran into the problem of a load bearing wall. You can't really hack away at those load bearing supports.
I am not sure if you have thought about that or not...I know when I was thinking of doing it I was focused on the aquarium aspects of it...not the architectural things.
-
-Hopefully you are not planning this for a load bearing wall.
-
-good luck, and I hope it works for you.

Michael

[Doug]

No big deal fixin the wall. Done that before. Hauling the tank out is another story.

I have had both front flip door and the present no door. The present looks much better with the full frame, but all the work has to be from the back. Working in the tank is fine. Scraping the front glass is a PITA. And mine is only 24 wide.

The 30in. depth is much nicer looking for a picture, than my previous 25in.

Pu a Eurobrace/splash lip on any wall. I have a 3in. across the front.

[Skimmerking]

i would put a bigger holes in the bulks i have 1" i like to have 1.5 bulks .i have a bulk head of 1.5 oh well
i love the wqy mine is Doug cqan preview on that one .......

i like the 30" deep but PITA for getting at the front of thet tank. for cleaning the glass..
i hate having the height of the tank...

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Rasta

Would still have built the rest of tank in wood/epoxy as I did this time ... dont have to rely on anyone else/expense for drilling closed loops etc

Do you have pics of how you made this? and also would it be hard to make both sides viewable on a tank like this?

I had been thinking of trying one of these for a long time but I had a few questions I couldent get answered.
1, could it be made "braceless" with out having it look to bulky?
2, could you use fiberglass resin to seal it up or is the epoxy better?
3, how big of a wood lip did you have to leave around your glass? could you get away with say a 2" overlap to maximize viewing area?
4, anyother tips/hints on wood tanks would be great.

Steve