Marc`s DIY 900g Inwall System

[Fudge]

Hello all,

Just wanted to start a thread to share the progress of my System.

Its a plywood fiberglass/epoxy tank 525 gal, with a 370g fiberglass/epoxy sump.
It has 3/4" laminated Starphire front and (1) side panes.

Pretty much everything is DIY Including the tank, sump, skimmer, reactor , reseviour and canopy...oh and the fish room..

Youll have to bear with me as im a little computer illiterate, and have yet to learn to use my webspace to post all the construction.

The tank is 100"x 48" x 30", but the veiwable depth is 40" as there is a 8" wide full length external overflow that serves as the back of the tanks perimeter brace.

I havent got many pics of the face or side yet, being only about 4 months young, there isnt a whole lot to see...but ill post a few when i can get some more updated and uploaded.

But, heres a few of behind the scenes.

Heres the back of the tank and overflows, there are two 4-way Om`s on closed loops, each fed with its own Sequence SEQ-23 (6000gph) that run back up through the overflows to keep em tidy and out of my way:




Heres one of a Quad Beckett skimmer....thats been a serious project of its own..lol.


One of the sump, its kinda hard to get a good pic, its in pretty cramped quarters :


One of the water change reseviour/mixing tank 215g. :



The canopy is all Aluminum using 2" square tubing and sheet, it slides through the fishroom wall into my shop when i need to work on the tank.

It has 3 x 400 w 10k ushio`s, 440w of uri and 03 actinic, and 4x 65 w of 50/50 pc.

Here it is semi-retracted:



I have a few hundred other pics of each piece`s construction, lol so ill have to get a photo bucket account to show you.

All in all its been a fun and humbling project, and pretty daunting with so much DIY, it was one done in sync with a good freind Jamie cross and his DIY system, and it helped to build 2 at once.
We have banged heads together through this whole 2 yr ordeal, and doing that made the project a little more feasable.
It sure helped to have different views, and was interesting how they both came out in the end.

Feel free to post any questions you all may have, and ill update with more photo`s.

Cheers,


Marc.

[elephen]

Wow. Talk about a project. More pics!

[SHOmuchFUN]

What kind of lighting? How many?



Tease

[Dr. Chek]

keep 'em comin'

[skabimini]

shaweeeeet!!

[barleychown]

Wow! What a huge project!

[alten78]

Feed me Seymore feed me! Can't wait to see more details

[143gadgets]

Please more PICS, PICS, PICS, and PICS......

Did I say PICS.

[rjwilson37]

Very nice, but where is a picture from the front of the tank?

[Lordhelmet]

More info please. and we need a front picture.

[jacmyoung]

Would love to see the front of the tank with the surroundings, even if the tank is still bare. How did you frame the tank on the wall?

[fella1320]

tagin along i gotta see this thing it seems amazing so far well well done fudgie hahaha

[Hop]

Very Very impressive so far! After you get some more pics up, I think I may have some ?s

[Lordhelmet]

one question, we all know just about what a system like that would run if you bought all new equipment. how much did you save doing most of the big budget items DIY.

[Mr. Eko]

We need a frontal pic now=-)
Looks great

[Fudge]

Thanks All,

Id love to show you all some pics of the face, but that room is still being finished.

Maybe i could tie you up with a few more pics of construction.... for a week or so while i finish sanding the mud and priming and....

There was so much DIY in this project that ill have to start on one item at a time...

Ill start with the sump, it was the easy one

This was a wood cutout that i had done to match the inside profile of the sump, then i coated it in wax so i could use it as a mould to shape the first baffle.


then it was simply pulled out and back to be used again on the second...


ready for sanding and epoxy...


Then that was pretty much it for that part, it was finish coated and put aside until the rest of it all was done.

Onto a bit of the tank construction,

The tank was built of 3/4 exterior grade ply, and stainless steel screws, and about 1.5 gallons of exterior grade glue.
It was only doubled up on the face, as that was the weakest link in the design.
It has a full perimeter brace, so i could avoid any cross bracing.
The back was excluded, because the bottom of the overflow does the bracing there.
The 2x4 perimeter brace was added for peace of mind, at the cost of a fair sized sill in the viewing area, i figured this to be a small cost all things considered.

1.5" Canstripping was added to the inside of tank seams, and 1" inside of overflow seams...another peace of mind addition.



The overflow was done top to bottom, and then later cut out and flush trimmed.


The notches for the overflows being cut out...



Uploading a few more...

[Fudge]

And...

Top was mounted, all sanded, holes drilled in perimeter brace to allow for om returns and fiberglassed.
Then i had mounted some fiberglass tabs in the tank at different intervals....there was considerable forethought on these, for reasons youll soon see.
I think jamie thought i had finally succumed to the resin fumes...





Some gelcoats and epoxies being applied to it all...


Off to upload a few more for ya ...

[Fudge]

Finishing final coats..


Then it was onto the next phase :

Skipping a few hundred hours of reframing it all in, fishroom being closed in, dedicated electrical circuits being ran, extra headers being installed on structural wall....

The skimmer and reactor were also completed, and can be shown, but ill leave it until a little later.

Onto the framing of the View openings:

I wanted it to have the feeling that you were peeking into their world, instead of them being in ours, aswell I wanted this system to be a little different for viewing, in that its always a squared opening.

So far it seems that those whove seen it, either love it, or they hate it...owell, I love it
Feel free to tell me exactly what you think.

I was willing to lose a little in viewing to do this, and so heres a pic of the begginings of the ideas i had for this.





You can see the end view was also rounded for almost a porthole look.

All the drywall was then removed, to be replaced with MDF, so that a profile could be routered where the seam of the opening met the wall, it was mudded and taped and i left it at that so i could move onto the fun part...

More to come...

[143gadgets]

WOW!!! I am lost for words...

[Fudge]

And finally heres why i mounted those tabs.

I actually had to do my best to draw the rockwork as i wanted it, BEFORE the tank was finished being fiberglassed and epoxied so those tabs were in the right areas...that was a little confusing for me.

Speaking of confusing...



Heres another with some goodies put on it



Heres one top down with the canopy slid out of the way, you can get a better idea of the openess to it.


Cheers, Marc.

[agfahy]

Heres my porthole nano tank.
Smaller scale but same idea.
Yours looks great! Good luck.

[ohioreef]

I love the way you have the viewing windows!! Can't wait to see it with the tank in place.

[danferd2002]

That aquascaping in awsome.

[ohioreef]

Originally posted by agfahy
Heres my porthole nano tank.
Smaller scale but same idea.
Yours looks great! Good luck.

That's really cool!!

[stevedola]

Very nice project. Cant wait to see all the pics-