In The Wall Tanks

[Reefland]

I continue to consider adding our tank into a wall in between our living room and a spare bedroom and during my considerations, try to think of things that may need to be covered/done different for tanks in the wall.

If you have a tank in the wall, share some of your best practices and things you wish you would have done differently.

Thanks,
Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Sure thing Scott...

My biggest thing I wish I would've done differently is put the tank about 3-4 inches higher, so the couch could fit below it without covering the bottom of the tank. But then the top of the tank is so high that you can't reach into it. As it is the top of my 135 is about level with my armpit so i can still reach to the bottom of the tank. Another HUGE advantage is the lighting doesn't have to look pretty on top of the tank no canopy needed as it doesn't matter what the backside of the tank looks like. Make sure to get one of the Kent pro scrapers the 24" at least thats the ONLY way you'll be able to scrape the front glass. Also the convience of having a WHOLE ROOM to put all teh supplys is awesome. I have my RO unit in the closet with 2 32 gallon trash cans one for Salt one for fresh water. So I always have at least 20 gallons of water ready to do a water change and 20 gallons of fresh for top off...

I'll post some pictures when I get home tonight of the "behind the scenes" room!!

Mike

[Reefland]

Hey Mike!

Our will bit a bit different than yours as it will be viewable from both sides. In the living room, it will be flush in the wall however the other room will be made into a sitting room and the tank will be built into a custom made wall cabinet system, similar to a TV Entertainment System. The wall cabinet will have doors on top and under the tank for lighting above and sump, skimmer, ca reactor, etc. below but plenty of shelves and other space on either side. I'll probably build it from Oak for strength and be sure to give it PLENTY of clear coat for protection.

Later,
Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

WOW!!!!

you ARE goping to have ISSUES !!!! Sounds like a plumbing nightmare to me, but I'm sure you can figure it out. Obviously the tank is drilled for both in and out... What size are you considering the tank you have now? or are you going to go with a 6ft tank? If it'll fit the 6 footer will give you more USABLE space in the cabinet for the pumps and such. But you have to talk the Mrs into that one I'm sure!!!

Also what about electrical devices in the tank those cords are going to be ugly no matter what. I'd make sure to do everything you can in the sump... heaters etc...

Anyway I did put some new pix of the work room in the gallery no sense wasting the thread space...

Mike

[DEE]

Hey Scott,

Your tank sounds like mine. The dinningroom side is flush. Just make sure you have some type of cabinet to access the glass otherwise cleaning it will be a nightmare I have one above it and should have put a fake matching one under it, but it was my father who did all the building and I hated to ask him to make two more cabinets. The familyroom side is built into a wall unit. The plumbing and and all the accessories are hidden in cabinets. The actually unit surrounding the tank is really just a frame with doors constructed of oak with shelving for display above the light cabinet. I kinda winged it when I designed it. My husband kept telling me between my father and I we would figure it out, and I guess we did. The only thing that you really have to be careful with is making sure you can access the bottom and the sides for cleaning. I can just reach the bottom but I have to stand on a chair but I wouldn't want it any lower. Jus play with it -draw it out. If I can do it you can!


~DEE~

[Reefland]

Poseidon,

We are going to use our current tank for this project as it is a better fit in this particular wall. The wall will fit a 4' tank nicely so if we did go with something different it would have to be a 120 or so and then the extra depth would make the cabinet on the opposite side that much deeper and when you get too deep, it would look funny.

So this leaves us with the 75 gallon that we have now however the cabinet doors on the bottom of the unit can extend further than 4'; I could make the whole unit 8' and the entire bottom half of it be closed cabinets with shelves up each side. This covers the useable space issue and gives us more than enough room for everything we need and want.

The plumbing won't be bad as that is already covered with the overflow in the tank, no issues there. The electrical cords propose a small problem but since the we'll be working to cover an overflow box on the side with the cabinet, they should be easily concealed behind the wood.

I have done plenty of cabinetry work in my time so that doesn't concern me. What does is things like access to the tank, cleaning the front glass, etc.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Thats cool Scott...

I wish I had the cabnetry experience!!! Are you going to try and keep BOTH front and back glass clean and stack all the live rock in the center? THat would look AWESOME but you better put in a TON of snails!!! And get a really good magnetic scraper, I think it was MAgnavore that I heard good things about... YOu'll have to post pix, once you start...

Mike

[Reefland]

Thats cool Scott...

I wish I had the cabnetry experience!!! Are you going to try and keep BOTH front and back glass clean and stack all the live rock in the center? THat would look AWESOME but you better put in a TON of snails!!! And get a really good magnetic scraper, I think it was MAgnavore that I heard good things about... YOu'll have to post pix, once you start...

Mike

Hey Mike!

Yeah the plan is to have it viewable from both sides. The side in the sitting room won't be bad since we'll be able to use our Tunze magnet; the side facing the living room will be the problem and will have to be done with a plastic scraper. THose things aren't the best but I guess as long as we do it every couple of days we should be fine.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

I really like the Kent... it has a LONG handle and if the tank is Glass you can get a METAL blade that works very well

For acrylic the plastic scraper is much less aggresive and does not work as well

Mike

[Michelle]

The thought of cutting a whole in the wall still scares me to death, but I have the utmost faith in Scott and his abilities. I know it is really going to look incredible after he is finished with it, looks like this will be our after Christmas project!


Michelle

[Reefland]

Isn't she the best!

We'll be able to work on this and our other inside projects and hopefully have them all done by late spring when it's time to open up that pool again.

For those of you that have tanks in the wall, have you noticed any problems with the sheet rock from the moisture?

Regards,
Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

Nope... hers a cool trick MAtt and I both did to our walls... PACKING TAPE!!! when you expose an edge of the drywall all the Gypsum powder is exposed. We took a REALLY long piece of packing tape and stuck it to the exposed section of the board and folded it up to go up each side by about an inch. This is then covered by the trim and can't be seen. But you end up with a plastic seal to keep the "powder" from falling into the tank AND a vapor barrier to keep the powder from absorbing any water it does come in contact with!!

Mike

[Reefland]

That's a pretty cool liitle trick. Have you noticed at any time the moisture from the tank causing the packing tape to come loose?

[Poseidon]

Nope I think once it sticks it pretty much stays there. Water VAPOR is much less likely to interfere with the bond between the tape and the wall, but if you pour water over the area then I think the adhesive would come loose...