couple questions about custom/inwall setups

jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Active Member
My wife and I just bought some land, so that means the process of building our new home will be starting up soon. I want to do a custom/inwall setup in the basement for a large FO/FOWLR tank. I have a couple of questions though.
For those of you that have larger and/or inwall tanks... how do you clean the glass? I'd think those magnet cleaner things would be best, but what about scraping coraline? Hopefully in a FO I wouldn't have to worry about it since calcium isn't as important.
Any good websites that give approximations on costs for custom tanks? I'm not doing anything facny... just a large, rectangular tank - probably something in the 400-600g range (right now I'm thinking 8' long x 4' high x 3'ish deep. It's hard to find prices on large tanks.
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
I forgot, if you really wanna talk to the expert, Novice 150 has a 1700 gal in his basement. No that's not a typo.
He's usually in the agressive forum. Post a thread for him in there. He built it himself. Used to have his own step by step webpage, not sure if it's still up though
 
bigmac

bigmac

Member
Size doesn't matter:rolleyes: There's was a guy who did a 4000 gal tank in his basement a few years ago. I guess you could say it was "in wall".... Evaporation just about ruined his house. I don't think he had it up for more then a year or two.
I'm thinking about do an "in wall" tank but I can only go about 100 gals or so (48x20x23) My problem is venting the closet that all the equipment is going in.
 
stacyt

stacyt

Active Member
For my 240 in wall I keep a magnet in the tank for cleaning the glass. I keep one on the back, and one in the front. I also have a scraper, but havn't needed to use it. Just run the magnets over the glass every other day or so. Just make sure that you have easy access to the top of the tank. I have about 3.5' clearance between the top of the tank, and the ceiling. I use a step stool, and can pretty much get to anything inside the tank.
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Anyone have any more info on the person who had a 4000 gal tank in his basement?
Really curious what all damage the evaporation did. Anyone else ever have an evaporation problem on tanks 300 gallons or up?
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Active Member

Originally posted by StacyT
For my 240 in wall I keep a magnet in the tank for cleaning the glass. I keep one on the back, and one in the front. I also have a scraper, but havn't needed to use it. Just run the magnets over the glass every other day or so. Just make sure that you have easy access to the top of the tank. I have about 3.5' clearance between the top of the tank, and the ceiling. I use a step stool, and can pretty much get to anything inside the tank.
Great... you addressed most of my concerns. Just to be clear though... you can reach the center bottom of your tank? I just worry that for some reason I'd need to move a few rocks around in the center of the tank, or remove a sick/dead critter and not be able to reach.
 
stacyt

stacyt

Active Member
My 240 is 8'X2'X2' and I can reach anywhere in the tank. The center brace does make it a tad bit of a stretch to reach the center, but I can reach all the way down to the bottom. Just make sure to leave plenty of room from the top of the tank to the ceiling. A buddy of mine put his reef in the wall, and didn't leave enough head room. Makes it a pain to reach anything in his tank.
 
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