Brad's 150G In-Wall Build

B

Badbrad8500

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I've finally been convinced to start one of these build logs. I've learned so much from reading others' logs and I hope others will learn (mostly of what not to do) through mine : )

I started this hobby about a year and a half ago with a 30gal, then progressed to a 55g, then to my current tank (which I love, and will hate to sell), a DAS 115g. The 115g has been running for approximately a year, but is taking up around a quarter of my office room and is getting quite full of fish.

I spotted a steal of a deal here on DFWmas for a 150g and bought it. The 6ft tank wasn't going to fit in my other tank's space and I've always wanted an in-wall, so I figured I'd go for it.

Here it is!
 
I picked up the tank the middle of June. My friend Saul (Caenis) graciously loaned me a truck and trailer and we hauled the 200+ tank/stand/canopy to my garage.

Side note, enroute to the tank seller's home, we stopped for gas and our trailer was hit TWICE in literally 10 seconds by different vehicles in the parking lot. We were stationary, a huge pickup truck hit the left side, then while we were discussing the dent in the truck, I felt something push me from behind (I was standing near the dent in back of the trailer) INTO the trailer. I slid sideways and we heard a CRUNCH. An SUV had backed up into sidelight side of the trailer, luckily at an angle, otherwise I'd be missing a leg. Idiots.

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I filled the tank with vinegar water and started looking for people to put a large hole in my wall. Finding a few leads but no commitments for the price range I wanted, I decided to just go at it myself. I spent hours and hours researching other in-wall builds and consulting others who've out similar holes in their homes. It can't be that hard, right?

I decided the tank would sit in my office closet (barely room, but measurements work), and would be seen from the living room. My house is tiny and not well planned, so the 6ft tank is going to look relatively huge.

The hardest part is the first hole in the wall...no going back now! I pulled out the drywall VERY carefully, which was good because I found an electrical wire and a phone cable.

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Removing drywall sucks, not because it's hard, but because it seems to be made of talcum powder that gets everywhere...eyes, nose, throat. I finally got it done after starting and stopping through a couple days to clean out the closet floor. Now what?

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Phone line

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Closet de-drywalled
 
After staring at the naked wall for about a week, I figured I needed to do something. I noticed those 3 2x4's clumped together and figured I'd be dealing with a load-bearing wall, so I consulted YouTube for more instruction. YouTube said to make a beam and install it across the hole after making supports and holding up both sides of the load bearing part of the wall. My living room has a high ceiling with a beam that goes across the roof, that one was fun to make a support for...the other side of the wall in the closet, I just copied YouTube instructions; several upright 2x4's with one laying across on the top supporting the ceiling and one diagonal across the upright ones for stability.

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The big support in the living room.
 
Saul came over to help me cut the hole in the wall, install the beam, and most importantly; to catch footage of my roof collapsing on his cell phone. The 2x4's that were to hold the 6ft beam in place (the beam was made from 2 2x8's joined together with plywood in the middle for filler) were cut and installed next to the last 2x4's on either side of the future hole. The beam was tough to install, we had to modify the upright 2x4's several times and only when we hammered the beam with a 25lb axe/hammer would it go into its spot.

Saul did most of the cutting, he did a good job and we got to keep the front part of the wall.

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The beam in place
 
Some idiot decided that he could fit the stand through the closet doors (it didn't work)
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Actually, it did work, but it only fits on its end, upright...not the right way.
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I had the tv on for sound, don't judge me.
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After some re-thought and proper planning, Saul figured out that we could cut a bit more of the drywall above the hole and shove the stand through the front (same as the tank). The only issue with this was that we had to accommodate the stand's trim which stuck out an inch or so. That meant we had cut into the 2x4's that were supporting that big beam. We did and the roof still held, mission accomplished. The tank went into place after some additional minor cuts to those 2x4's.

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Not much room to work in! Will change after 115g is sold.

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Next, for the wife's sake, I had to make that wall pretty again.

I added a plank to cover the additional hole that we cut previously to get the stand in.
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Then I used some of the drywall plus that drywall mud stuff to fill in the gaps. Wife helped.
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Then came the texturing and painting. Painting obviously is not a big deal providing you have the right match of color, which we did, but texturing sucked. I tried several different texturing products, and after texturing, painting, and then cursing and sanding off the 4hrs of work I just did TWICE, third time was the charm/I gave up.
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Paint's drying
 
I then went to Home Depot to pick the trim with Katie (Wife). We really wanted a wood trim with a rope pattern, but due to my previous inability to make frames that had right angles, we decided an easier trim was best. I think it came out alright, but I still wish we could have used the other rope patterned trim.

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Here's how it came out. The brown bottom wood of the tank has since been hidden by white trim.
 
On to plumbing! Luckily, plumbing came with the tank, so I test fit everything and then installed the bulkheads. The water test was next (just in the overflows) and 3 of the 4 leaked. After some Teflon tape tweaking, only 1 still leaked. As a guy, I figured the bulkhead was just too loose, it needed more tightening!

That's why this happened:
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A day later I picked up a new bulkhead at Fish2Morow (those guys are great, they always spare time to give you advice), and plumbed the rest of the PVC. I water tested the returns (normal clear vinyl tubing) and everything worked great.

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The next day I noticed water pooling under a ball valve for the drain....not good.

I unscrewed the ball valves from the piping and put on more Teflon tape onto the threads, then screwed the valves on TIGHT.

That was yesterday and I work until Weds night, so hopefully Thurs I can test the drain piping again.
 
So that where I am right now. I have days off starting Sunday, so I'm hoping to get everything into the tank and running on Monday.

A couple things I forgot:

I had to move the electrical outlet in the closet and am currently trying to install a GFCI outlet in its place. The original outlet was 15A and I bought a 20A. I wired the GFCI in and it didn't work. Could the amps rating difference prevent the GFCI from working? Or did I probably just wire the GFCI wrong?

My acrylic sump (Thanks BrianG!) was siliconed with those cheap acrylic sheets from Home Depot....they gave way (at the silicone seams) during water testing. Should I just re-silicone them? Or use something else to secure them?

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I've decided to do PVC rock-stacking for half of the rockscape, and then just stack the rest. This pic is with a 48" T5 fixture that I'm selling.

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Here is my to-do list for the tank when I get back. Please comment if I've left anything important out.

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Here is current plan for the sump. Critiques?
 
Also, one more thing I'm concerned with. People have stated that LEDs seem to really bring out scratches and etched surfaces on tanks. I've filled the tank and these etchings seem to go away and they're hardly visible under that T5 light, but I won't know if they're really bad under LEDs until I move my current LED fixture over. Ideas?

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@Badbrad8500 wrote:
I had to move the electrical outlet in the closet and am currently trying to install a GFCI outlet in its place. The original outlet was 15A and I bought a 20A. I wired the GFCI in and it didn't work. Could the amps rating difference prevent the GFCI from working? Or did I probably just wire the GFCI wrong? said:
Wow, quite the home DIY project! I would think tearing down a wall would be fun [smilie=wink.gif]

The GFCI's I installed required the supply and load lines go to specific inputs and outputs on the GFCI outlets I bought. Did you just get the standard Leviton outlets from Home Depot or a similar place? How many cables and wires do you have in your outlet box? Did you try resetting it with a load in place?

The higher current rating of the outlet wouldn't cause problems with your GFCI not turning on. It also won't get you extra power to the outlet if your breaker and wiring is limited to 15A to begin with at the breaker box. To be on the safe side, you should match the outlets to the wiring and breaker in your home in case someone did something squirrely with the wiring.
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@MBSL55 wrote:
[I]@Badbrad8500 wrote:[/I][quote=" I had to move the electrical outlet in the closet and am currently trying to install a GFCI outlet in its place. The original outlet was 15A and I bought a 20A. I wired the GFCI in and it didn't work. Could the amps rating difference prevent the GFCI from working? Or did I probably just wire the GFCI wrong? said:
Wow, quite the home DIY project! I would think tearing down a wall would be fun [smilie=wink.gif]

The GFCI's I installed required the supply and load lines go to specific inputs and outputs on the GFCI outlets I bought. Did you just get the standard Leviton outlets from Home Depot or a similar place? How many cables and wires do you have in your outlet box? Did you try resetting it with a load in place?

The higher current rating of the outlet wouldn't cause problems with your GFCI not turning on. It also won't get you extra power to the outlet if your breaker and wiring is limited to 15A to begin with at the breaker box. To be on the safe side, you should match the outlets to the wiring and breaker in your home in case someone did something squirrely with the wiring."]

Lol, it's only fun when it's not your wall : )

There are 3 small wires inside the bigger wire: copper, white, and black. I tried to match the places I put the wires with the old outlet (5 holes). I think it's a standard GFCI. I think I will try to get the 15A version and match the wires to the new outlet more carefully. I didn't try resetting, I'll try that with the new outlet when I get home. Appreciate the help!
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@Badbrad8500 wrote:
There are 3 small wires inside the bigger wire: copper said:
That should be easy enough to wire-up. If your GFCI has a separate supply and load connectors, you will need to connect to the supply connectors.

Do your usual safety checks and turn off the breaker to that outlet, test for voltage with a meter and ensure power is off, etc.

If wired correctly, black is hot, white is neutral, green or bare open wire is ground. Sometimes people think AC wiring is counter intuitive as black is hot but they do that so it still stands out if it gets some white paint or something like that on it (or at least that's what I was taught).

Once you've wired it all up and got it back in the wall, put a light load on it like a lamp or something, make sure the lamp is on, and when you re-energize the circuit, reset the GFCI and all should be good.

I like the Leviton GFCI outlets that give you an option to supply other outlets down the chain and also have a built-in LED to indicate whether there is power going to the circuit.
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