180gal room divider?

zippyjr · 08-22-2008, 01:59 PM

Hi. I don't know if this is the right place to post this. We are thinking of making the tank a room divider,so we would be able to see the front,back and 1 side of the tank. I don't have the tank yet will have to order it still,but I have no idea what would be the best way to do the plumbing. Also has anyone seen it done before and if anyone knows how to go about setting it up.
Thank you
Rose

Jnicho · 08-22-2008, 03:03 PM

Do some searches on this and other boards and you will find some build threads where people have done what you are suggesting and you can get some ideas. I know I've seen some out there, but I don't have links for them with out doing the search myself, LOL!

crvz · 08-22-2008, 03:14 PM

room divider or peninsula, I've heard them called the same thing. A lot of times folks will put the overflow end on the unseen end, and then running plumbing either up through the canopy, or through a closed loop through to floor of the tank. Both are a bit unique, but can be done pretty successfully.

aquawolf · 08-22-2008, 05:05 PM

Welcome to TRT!

zippyjr · 08-23-2008, 07:48 AM

Thanks I'll search the web. So all the plumbing can be done on 1 side of the tank, What about the water flow? Do you think there would be enough of it so that the other side would have some water movement? I guess I could add some power heads but kinda don't want alot of them hanging all around the tank like I have on my 55 which is not drilled.
thanks again

crvz · 08-23-2008, 09:45 AM

Well, what I've seen is people plumb the return so that it goes up the side with the overflow, then angles through the canopy to the other side of the tank, and then plops the pipes just down to flow water. That way water kind of flows from one side of the tank to the other.

Loverotties · 08-23-2008, 10:21 AM

Welcome to TRT!

yep three sided view of the tank,and one of the side area into the wall and projecting out!

zippyjr · 08-24-2008, 10:50 AM

Just wanted to tell everyone thank you:0)
well my husband was thinking and now he wants to build the tank it would still be a 180 or so. He was thinking of go with an acrylic tank, now we have dead space along this 1 wall so he was thinking 120x20x18 which would take up most of the wall space. My question is how hard is this to do? he wants to build the sump also.I can't find any where here in Florida to get the cell cast acrylic. Homedepot has acrylic sheets but they don't know if its cell cast and they really don't look like very strong sheets. You do have to use cell cast right? For the sump and the tank ? or would a glass tank be better? I like the way acrylic looks. Well any help on this would be great :0) thanks again Rose

crvz · 08-24-2008, 04:46 PM

This may give you tons of ideas for that tank, it seems to be very similar in size.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1399104

If you have experience with acrylic, it's not terribly challenging, but if this is a first time build making it show-worthy can be a challenge. getting clean seams takes a bit of experience. Acrylic would be a good solution for such a long tank, but of course is more prone to scratching. I would highly recommend quality products, so keep looking for good acrylic (nothing that's sold at the hardware store would suffice in most cases). I usually get my acrylic from http://www.professionalplastics.com/contact, but there's a local storefront here. I imagine shipping would kill for what you're looking for, so ask around for plastics shops and look in the yellowpages.

Tasher80 · 08-28-2008, 04:07 PM

I drew this up for a friend. He wanted a peninsula unit as well. He was going to have a closet on the plumbing side so he could have everything hidden. Nevermind the dimensions but the idea is the same. I made the plumbing divider transparent in the picture so you could see it but it would really be black. I told him to build the tank so the plumbing section was actually in the closet so you wouldn't even see the sides of it.
If you are worried about water flow do a closed loop system and have a few returns go through the top wall or top canopy whatever you are doing and do two returns through the bottom of the tank. I ran two CLS returns through the bottom of my tank and 4 through the top. I do have two on each side but mine is totaly built into the wall not a peninsula.

zippyjr · 08-28-2008, 09:06 PM

Thank you. Ok here is another idea we were thinking of 120x20x19 it will hold around 210 gal or so but we could put it up against the long wall we have. we are thinking of making it out of acrylic, we are trying to find where to get all the items needed. homedepot nor lowes carries cell cast acrylic sheets here.It will be a saltwater tank. I have a 55 gal right now which i'm starting to run out of room. thank you all again :0)

Tasher80 · 08-29-2008, 12:34 AM

Look in the yellow pages or in yahoo for local plasics places. They can even cut things to size for you for a small charge. It was easy for me to make the sump and have them oversize some of the pieces so I could router them to what I needed. It was easier than getting one LARGE sheet and cutting it myself.