In-wall 72 G bowfront and fish room

[Doberman13]

We've got water! The system has been running for about 5 days with just one tiny leak that I fixed today. This week I will work on the rock structure. I have a bunch of rock that has been cycling in a heated brute trash can in the garage for 3 months. I want to build some structures outside of the bin/tank without ruining the bacteria. Any tips would be appreciated.

Tomorrow I'll work on the electronics wall and do something about the mess of wiring.

 

[Doberman13]

Rockscape and the sand are in. I will probably end up making small adjustments and add some more live rock from my small tank once the parameters are stable.

I only put in 50 lbs of sand in but it looks like it may have been too much. We'll see what it looks like when it is more leveled out.

 

[Trizzino]

Rockscape and the sand are in. I will probably end up making small adjustments and add some more live rock from my small tank once the parameters are stable. View attachment 36446

I only put in 50 lbs of sand in but it looks like it may have been too much. We'll see what it looks like when it is more leveled out.

Looks good! It's coming along!

 

[Doberman13]

Looks good! It's coming along!

Thanks again for the input on the rockscape! I'm loving it but the sand covered a lot up. I'm wondering if I should pull the pieces towards the center out of the sand a little bit.

I'll probably let it play out and see how I like it. I'll probably never be 100 percent happy because I always want to tinker.

 

[Trizzino]

What are your thoughts on this? BTW if you can't tell I am an expert at Paint.

 

[Doberman13]

That's a great idea! I have a few pieces of rock that I will be taking out of the 22g once everything's ready for corals.

The rock with the Duncan and superman mushrooms will probably go where the left gray mark is. I think I'll put the rock with the forest fire digi, seasons greetings and "Aquaman(?)" acro on the top. I need to take the pocillopora and hydnapora off of that rock and put somewhere else.
Can you tell I need more room?

 

[Doberman13]

Still working on the rockscape. I leveled out the sandbed. I was jealous of @Rickdareefa 's new diy rock tower so I added the small shelf on the structure to the left. I also moved some of the rocks around on the right, thanks to @trizzino for helping me make the structures conducive to future growth.

 

[Doberman13]

I got an older skimmer from @trizzino that is working pretty well already. I got lucky tuning it low. The wiring has been cleaned up a little since this photo.

I took my time working on the equipment wall. Of course the plugs for my fan and heaters were a little short to make the span. I ended up putting the inkbird underneath the tank. This week I'll wire a dedicated circuit with 4 outlets at the top of the equipment wall. That will allow me to hide the ugly white wires.

In true Diy fashion I used scrap pvc siding and aluminum garage door gasket channels I had left over. The extra room gives me plenty of space for the Apex and other goodies.

 

[NanCrab]

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
View attachment 35361

I just special ordered one and it is ready Fr pickup. DM me if you want to know where you can get one at a great price.

 

[Trizzino]

I got an older skimmer from @trizzino that is working pretty well already. I got lucky tuning it low. The wiring has been cleaned up a little since this photo.
View attachment 37900
I took my time working on the equipment wall. Of course the plugs for my fan and heaters were a little short to make the span. I ended up putting the inkbird underneath the tank. This week I'll wire a dedicated circuit with 4 outlets at the top of the equipment wall. That will allow me to hide the ugly white wires.
View attachment 37901
In true Diy fashion I used scrap pvc siding and aluminum garage door gasket channels I had left over. The extra room gives me plenty of space for the Apex and other goodies.

I am glad the skimmer fit in there. It’s not a fancy skimmer but it works.

 

[46cobraguy]

Never seen a bow front used for an in wall.. looks fantastic so far!!

 

[Doberman13]

I have really been slacking on this build thread. Progress has been slower than I had expected, I'm blaming it on my one year old. In the past 11 months I still have not fully stocked this tank mostly due to not wanting to set up another QT system. I have started to move some corals over from my smaller system. I lost a decent sized piece of Kung Pao monti that I wasn't too thrilled about.


I added a large piece of rockwork in the center to add more caves and spots for coral. It was a lot of fun designing a piece of rock outside of the tank rather than just stacking pieces of rock inside the tank.


I had some scrap acrylic sitting around so I made a 5g tank that fits perfectly inbetween the tank and the wall. It is plumbed into the sump of the main display. It now has a jebao sw-4 which is a pretty small wavemaker that has some impressive power. Set to the lowest setting is perfect for this little frag tank.

I have gone through 4 different lighting options for this tank (the other three are still sitting in the garage.) I settled on 2 noopsyches and a single 36" 420 t5. I may eventually put a kessil towards the center at an angle due to the brace.

The sink! I can't believe I didn't update this thread when I put it in. Having a sink in the fish room is incredibly convenient. I just installed the cabinets that have made a huge difference in organization, basically, there is now some organization.

I finally got around to setting up the apex I got from @Adam. There is still a lot to learn. Eventually I would like to add a pm2 salinity module.

There are a lot of plans for this tank coming this year. I will try to keep this thread updated.