Wes's "Raleighwood" 250g In-Wall Build

[cali_reef]

You should consider putting the chiller outside, have your GC built you a vented enclosure to keep it out of sun and rain while you have them there. Pumping the heat taken out of the tank into the garage is not efficient at all.

You will need some type of exhaust fan above the tank, otherwise you'll end up with mini rain maker on that ceiling when the air temp and dew point gets close. I would not go with a dehumidifier for a garage space, that sucker will run for hours each time you open the big door.

On the heater, you can go with few rancos or few of these. Have you consider doing maybe three 500W heaters? have them set at .3 deg apart with the controller(s), you'll have the same or better redundancy rate with three heaters. 1,000w heat elements scares me, both the huge power draw and damages it can do when a controller fails.

 

[Dace]

Nice Wes..I like the way it looks so far.

 

[Wes]

Thanks Dave.

Cali, thanks for the suggestions. Right now I am over the budget I promised the wife. So come summer time I will look into making a few of your suggested upgrades ie exhaust fan and outside chiller house. I can prob do that work myself.

Wes

 

[Wes]

some new pics taken tonight.

 

[Wes]

 

[Wes]

 

[Klewis]

Looks like its going to be a great build. I'm jealous I don't have room to put a big hole in the wall. I'm curious; have you figured how you're going to get the tank up that high. I know how hard it is to move a 120 and put it on a stand 3 feet off the ground, I can't imagine how heavy that tank is going to be. Best of luck.

 

[Wes]

Looks like its going to be a great build. I'm jealous I don't have room to put a big hole in the wall. I'm curious; have you figured how you're going to get the tank up that high. I know how hard it is to move a 120 and put it on a stand 3 feet off the ground, I can't imagine how heavy that tank is going to be. Best of luck.

The three guys working on the carpentry work and I are putting it on the stand tommorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes. I am thinking the best way is to bring the tank inside and slide it through the hole.

 

[Klewis]

The three guys working on the carpentry work and I are putting it on the stand tommorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes. I am thinking the best way is to bring the tank inside and slide it through the hole.

Hehehe, you should set up a video camera to catch your faces when you lift the tank up and go to slide it in, only to realize the hole is a half inch too small. lol :tongue1:

 

[rickytsui]

your setup gonna be sweet dude

 

[Wes]

ive been busy painting all weekend. I never imagined how much time i would be spending on the painting part of this project. I also took down all the christmas decorations/lights outside and made a trip to the dump to get rid a bunch of junk that was cluttering the garage.

This is the area under the stand. I applied 2 coats of the special paint called "Watertight" It is water proof and mold resistant. It is very thick and kind of a PITA to apply. It's not cheap either @ $30/gallon. Went thru 2 gallons and need to get some more. I am going to apply several coats on the garage walls around the tank also.

IT might be overkill but i think moisture protection is a good thing.

The paint even fills/coats cynder block well. You can hardly notice the block in this pic

 

[Wes]

I had to repaint the interior wall because so my wife decided to paint it a slightly different color and make it an "accent" wall. I like how it turned out.

This weekend I am hoping to finish up the painting and get started on the plumbing, etc. I'll keep you updated.

Wes

 

[jackson6745]

I'm loving it so far

 

[emmanuel]

it looks great but it's going to be a PITA to do anything in the tank A look down box will help for maintenance and placing stuff

 

[masterswimmer]

Wes, when looking at the tank from inside the living room, how are you going to reach the front left corner for any maintenance? From the pix it doesn't appear that you have any 'catwalk' room on that side, it seems like a real far reach to get to that corner.

 

[Wes]

Wes, when looking at the tank from inside the living room, how are you going to reach the front left corner for any maintenance? From the pix it doesn't appear that you have any 'catwalk' room on that side, it seems like a real far reach to get to that corner.

It doesnt look like it in that pic but there is about 6 inches on that side. Enough to get a leg in. I can reach any spot in the tank pretty easily.

 

[jackson6745]

I almost wish that I couldn't reach inside of my tank I have an obsessive compulsive coral touching disorder. That left side will grow like a weed Wes

 

[Wes]

ok sorry for the lack of updates...been too busy to take pictures and I only work on the tank on weekends.

I had acrylic pieces cut to cover the part of the tank that is underneath the wall. Sorry about the dust, I cleaned them before i put them in. I siliconed these in so no water can get in the wall.

Return plumbing

More return plumbing and flourescent light installed.

 

[Wes]

Finally finished plumbing. I probably killed alot of braincells w/ PVC primer and glue. I hope it doesnt leak.

Painted boards for lighting.

Aquaillumination 1x80w T5 HO retro w/ ATI blue plus bulb. R2 Extreme LED moonlights.

Installed

 

[Wes]

Ballast/Control board installed and cable hider stuff installed. You can also see the board on the ceiling where the MH pendants will hang. I forgot S hooks and didnt want to go back to the hardware store today...AGAIN.

Also got new garage shelves from Lowes and put it together and tried to clean up the garage a bit.

Thats it for this weekend. Next weekend i hope to fill her up and do a leak test.