In-wall 72 G bowfront and fish room

Doberman13

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Now that the stand is built and the tank is in place I figured it is about time to start the thread. I first have to say please don't mind my organized chaos haha.
I have had this 120g planted tank in place for 3 years and had many smaller tanks behind it.
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This area is an odd cutout in my living room that used to be a laundry room before the previous owners added an addition to the garage. It has outlets four feet off the ground and a drywalled box that has h/c water and a drain. Perfect for a small fish room. I plan on installing a small wet bar with a sink along the back wall to use as storage and fragging. After getting the 120 broken down. I was left with a little 5 gallon as my only freshwater tank not counting the 375 g aquaponics tank in the backyard.
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Some of you may recognize this tank from visiting @Steve Burton. Huge thanks to him for giving this tank away for free, its members like him that make this club a community.
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After getting the tank cleaned it was time to start building a new stand. I have built quite a few tank stands but this was my first bowfront. It wasn't hard at all. I used the top of the old canopy as the base for the sump. This picture was before the extra braces went in.
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I then ripped a 1x12 to make the upper wall studs and bowed horizontal supports. I originally had planned to make the side wall studs out of 2x4s but realized the magnets from the jebao gyres would get in the way. So I ripped them in half with the table saw and did half stud supports.
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Now that everything was roughly mocked up I went to lowes and bought fake reclaimed wood sheets. They are thin and JUST flexible enough to make the bow on the tank. Once the sheets were cut I busted out the finish nailer and tacked everything down. My 6 day old baby girl was on the otherside of the house and still was not a fan!
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I am now in the process of painting the back of the wall and stand. I really don't Iike painting...
I am debating on putting baseboard on the bottom and maybe trim on the sides. I still need to find a suitable way of hiding the gaps on the left and right sides of the tank.

Soon we will have the tank plumbed and ready for water!
 
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Is the backwall of the tank drilled for the return? If so, can you just remove the internal overflow and put a piece of glass to cover it and make it external? After getting my external overflow tank, I would never go back. So much extra real estate.
 
In addition to the two drains on the bottom there are two returns and an extra drain drilled into the back. I am not sure how I could go about getting an external overflow to work. I do like where your heads at though, I've always loved the look of the external overflow
 
Forgot to add the picture. I know my painting skills are not great but that it what multiple coats are for lol
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That's a good amount of workspace behind the tank. Nicely done. I see a frag tank maybe fitting back there in the future.

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That's a good amount of workspace behind the tank. Nicely done. I see a frag tank maybe fitting back there in the future.

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Thanks! I have my current 22 gallon tank system(20g sump) that will go back there to serve as a frag tank. Theres plenty of space for a nice big low boy though ;)
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After working on the return plumbing for the past week I think I've got it all figured out. I have not glued anything yet. I want to make sure there is nothing else I need to change
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I need to find a way to hang this 36" 4 bulb fixture. After helping @Reefchef hang his lights I would like to do the same wire kits that come with the noopsyche hybrids.
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Before I start putting corals in this tank I want to add 2 noopsyches on the ends and maybe a 48" led strip on the side. I plan on running 3 blue plus bulbs and one coral plus bulb.
 
Thank you, I ordered them. I saw those on Amazon but did not realize they were adjustable. I still will need to come up with a bracket to be able to hang from. I have some brackets that came with a TV mount I just put up that might work.

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Thank you, I ordered them. I saw those on Amazon but did not realize they were adjustable. I still will need to come up with a bracket to be able to hang from. I have some brackets that came with a TV mount I just put up that might work.

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See, we hang on to things for a reason. People just want to call us packrats.

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Thank you, I ordered them. I saw those on Amazon but did not realize they were adjustable. I still will need to come up with a bracket to be able to hang from. I have some brackets that came with a TV mount I just put up that might work.

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Can you open up the case and see if you can get enough clearance to get an a nut/washer between the case and the internal components to drill for an eye bolt?
 
I took out those two bolts bought longer ones and used the L angle from Lowe’s like these to hang my old light when I had a frag tank.


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The sump that I had on the old 120 gallon freshwater tank works great for this build but only if I reverse the direction of flow. I turned it around and added another wall to the left because the bubble trap was now backwards. I then did my first bit of acrylic joining and made a filter sock tray.
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Unfortunately my hole saw was exactly 4" and the filter socks look like they require a 3.75" hole. I will have to find something reef safe to fill the gap around it. I thought about the car door edge protector strips. I'll see if I can find one without adhesive.
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