I finally pulled the trigger on my 220ish in-wall Display with basement equipment room

[Rappa]

Put my mixing station together. Continued with some more return plumbing, built a manifold off of my return line for some reason... maybe I'll use it someday, maybe not... who knows...

 

[Rappa]

This ended up being an awesome idea idea and recommend doing this if you can. While plumbing and installing equipment, I realized that I needed a drain for the Trident. I didn't want to run a hose into the sink, or into a jug. I cut a tee into the drain for the sink plumbing before the trap, and ran 1-1/2" PVC drain all the way behind my sump and over to my mixing station. I put an open tee under the trident for the discharge hose and ended up using it later for the skimmer drain. I don't have to empty the skimmer cup, I just open a ball valve and the sludge goes right down the drain. I pitched the drain upwards for obvious reasons, and ran it to the mixing station. My thinking was, "if I ever need to clean out the mixing station, or do an emergency water change, I could just insert a hose into the PVC pipe and pump water down the drain". I use this drain all the time and I'm so glad I did this. Running a hose into the sink drain can be a disaster if it falls out and onto the floor. I have since added plumbing from my return line to this drain, and I can do an emergency 50-60 gallon water change in 20-30 minutes using two ball valves and a small length of hose from my mixing station to the sump. It has been really awesome. Makes life easier, and it's helped to keep lot's of water off the floor as well...

 

[LeleganceCoral]

Keep me updated! This is gonna be sick! On a bit of a budget so im chilling with my lil 25 gal lol

 

[Rappa]

Installed Flow Meter and Installed the Neptune ATO. I am running the ATO pump right inside my R/O storage tank. I put a float fill/shutoff valve in the R/O tank that is fed from the R/O system pressure storage tanks, and also installed a Neptune Flow Solenoid that's controlled by the Apex, which only allows new R/O water into the 65 gallon storage tank for a couple hours only... in the middle of the night. My R/O storage tank is filled to the top every morning unless I make a full batch of salt water, using all 65 gallons of R/O. The reason I only let it run at night is because we use our R/O system for drinking/cooking upstairs, as well as ice and water to two fridge's and the pressure sometimes drops too much to make ice or get a drink of water if storage gets depleted. Also, in the event that the float valve should ever fail or get stuck, I should see water on the floor from only a slight over-fill, rather than it running and overflowing for entire day before I "might" catch it. The R/O water going upstairs does not go through the D/I canisters. It passes through a mineral filter, and an alkaline filter, coming from two 10-gallon pressure tanks that are stored under my sink and sump bench. The R/O water going into my 65 gallon storage tank also comes from the 2 pressure tanks, however, it passes through three D/I canisters on the way. TDS is always 0.000000

 

[Rappa]

TANK UPDATE! Glass cages sent me a build update on my tank along with this pic. I'm thinking "it won't be long now... I really need to get going!"

 

[Rappa]

OK... Time to get moving and start demo and building upstairs. But first, I figured it would be a good time to get some water cycled, break in my sump, establish some benefitial bacteria, and seed my old live rock that I had removed from my old system, that has been sitting in a tub of bleach. I bought this 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub. I threw in a DC pump and ran some temporary plumbing into my sump main drain, and removed the return pump that I had just drilled and plumbed on the opposite end of the sump, and ran a flex-PVC pipe to drain the water right back into the Rubbermaid. My good friend Domenic gave me a bio-brick from his well established OnPointCorals.com system to place into my refugium chamber! What a good friend! I'll let this water marinate the entire time I am upstairs building. I'll put some shrimp and feed it once in a while to get some ammonia going. This should give me a super head start on cycling the tank when it arrives.

 

[Rappa]

DEMO DAY! Upstairs where display tank will be. My least favorite part of building anything. I really hate demo work...

 

[saltienewb]

Dude you are moving quickly considering how much you have done. Love the step by step updates

 

[Rappa]

DEMO DAY continued... Wife went to work and came home to a different house. But, all cleaned up and somehow I managed to keep the dust to a minimum. Plastic covering was a good idea... I was coughing up drywall dust for couple days... yeah I wore a mask most of the day. Did I say I hate demo?

 

[Rappa]

 

[Rappa]

Dude you are moving quickly considering how much you have done. Love the step by step updates

Thanks Salty! It looks like I'm moving super fast, but it's only because I have most of this done already, and I'm really late doing this build thread. The tank is up and running at this point, but I can't give away the ending without writing the book first... I'm glad you like the details, sometimes I feel like I'm going overboard with them?

 

[thedon986]

I love demo day! We renovated our whole house and I did all the demo. Love going back to a blank slate to make it mine.

 

[Rappa]

I love demo day! We renovated our whole house and I did all the demo. Love going back to a blank slate to make it mine.

God love ya! I don't mind the demo to a blank slate, I just hate doing the actual demo MYSELF! haha I enjoy the building part and transformation.

 

[saltienewb]

Thanks Salty! It looks like I'm moving super fast, but it's only because I have most of this done already, and I'm really late doing this build thread. The tank is up and running at this point, but I can't give away the ending without writing the book first... I'm glad you like the details, sometimes I feel like I'm going overboard with them?

As someone who isn’t as detail oriented as most here, I like to see the process, especially something as semi-permanent as a large in-wall tank and sump room. One thing I’ve noticed with larger projects, and even with my own tank, is that I would rather have done something superfluous and not need it than fail to do something that would really be helpful. The easiest time to do this is before everything is set up.

I know some don’t want to hear about the labor pains and only want to see the baby, but I enjoy seeing it all.

 

[LeleganceCoral]

OK... Time to get moving and start demo and building upstairs. But first, I figured it would be a good time to get some water cycled, break in my sump, establish some benefitial bacteria, and seed my old live rock that I had removed from my old system, that has been sitting in a tub of bleach. I bought this 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub. I threw in a DC pump and ran some temporary plumbing into my sump main drain, and removed the return pump that I had just drilled and plumbed on the opposite end of the sump, and ran a flex-PVC pipe to drain the water right back into the Rubbermaid. My good friend Domenic gave me a bio-brick from his well established OnPointCorals.com system to place into my refugium chamber! What a good friend! I'll let this water marinate the entire time I am upstairs building. I'll put some shrimp and feed it once in a while to get some ammonia going. This should give me a super head start on cycling the tank when it arrives.

That sump looks sci-fi!

 

[LeleganceCoral]

DEMO DAY continued... Wife went to work and came home to a different house. But, all cleaned up and somehow I managed to keep the dust to a minimum. Plastic covering was a good idea... I was coughing up drywall dust for couple days... yeah I wore a mask most of the day. Did I say I hate demo?

Wife must have loved the massive hole in a wall

 

[Rappa]

Wife must have loved the massive hole in a wall

Yeah believe it or not, she's cool with it. We've been together since high school and married 15 years. By this point she knows she can't stop me once I'm in "go mode". Although she doesn't have pre-vision skills, she knows that the finished product will be good and she trusts my abilities, thankfully.

That sump looks sci-fi!

Right???? Synergy gives you a ton of color options. I ordered the sump with black colored back wall and interior dividers, clear see-thru front and sides, and "Atomic Green" for everything else. I love it. I have a blue led light that I leave on at night. I took the glowing pics in the dark with the blue led light on. Looks like a black light the atomic green is awesome.

 

[Rappa]

Before I go any further, I have been really concerned with the floor structure of the house, and whether it would be able to handle the weight of the tank and the water. I roughly figured the weight of the tank+water+rock+sand+stand & cabinetry = 2,600lbs estimated. I asked a few of my friends, who are in the construction business, and I got mixed results. Some said it would, or should be fine. Others said that I should definitely reinforce the floor. If you are reading this entire build thread, you may be able to tell that I am a tiny bit OCD when it comes to the details. I would rather error on the side of caution. That is a ton of weight "litterally" to be concentrated in a small span, even though it is somewhat close to the foundation of the house. This house was built in the 50's, and the floor joists are only 2x8's. They are dry, have some cracks, and not in the best of shape in my eyes. When the kids run around the house, you can tell it is a little bouncy. I decided that I would reinforce the floor...

 

[Rappa]

I really wanted to get this part done before I started building the stand for the tank because I knew that the floor level/height would probably be different when this is complete. I purchased six 2"x8" x 14' LVL beams. These LVL's are not forgiving, they are very straight (much straighter than the existing original 2x8's), and once they are in place it will definitely change the level of this 70 year old floor. Admittedly, this part of the build was not easy. There were plumbing pipes, heating system pipes, and electrical wires going through the area and directly in my way. I tried putting one up by myself, but the weight alone was a lot for me. This would be a tough job for me to do alone... I had to call in a friend for some help. He owns his own construction company. He came right over with an employee and we all worked together to get them up and in place. It took us about 3 hours. I had to pull all staples off electric wires to lower them, and remove all plumbing support hangers to allow the pipes to be moved a little bit. He brought a spare support beam that he had laying around and we installed the beam with two new lally columns for center support. I had a giant 1/2" thick steel plate outside that I inherited from an old job I had done. I broke out the cutting torches to cut it into square pieces, painted them real quick, and placed them under the Lally's so they wouldn't break through the concrete floor.

I am glad I chose to do this first, as we had to jack parts of the house up to get them in place over the foundation. It definitely raised the floor and straightened out the entire span where they are run. The floor is dead hard and there is no bounce left AT ALL. I ended up with some stress cracks in the ceilings, and some of the wood flooring raised and a few edges/seems are visible. It's really not that bad though and I'll fix everything. I am super confident now and can sleep well knowing that the house can probably handle 3X the weight of my tank. Now I can build my stand to match the new level of the house/floor.

 

[Rappa]

I'm trying to find some old pictures of my previous tank when it looked nice, but I can't remember where I stored them. I found some from a few years ago when it still looked decent. My Rose Tip Anemone went crazy and had babies (split) all over the tank. It was beautiful, but disastrous to most other corals.