So I had this awesome idea. I was going to make my freshwater 120 Gal. tank into a reef tank, 4' x 2' x 2' with a stand and canopy in my family room. My mom was talking to me about it on saturday, when I mentioned that I really don't like the location.

Then, a new idea came to our minds! (Literally at the same time). Let's build it into a wall! So, what was going to be a reef tank in our living room has been pushed off for a bigger project. To build it into the wall of our entry-way, extending into the den/computer room where the equipment will be. Here's some pics of the wall in which it will be placed. (Yes, the glass table with my sister's paintings will be moved. Ha! Now she can't be the center of the attention anymore! )

View straight on:


View from dining room:


Wall that it will be in: I'll get exact measurements soon.


The tank will sit into the drywall about 5", to give the tank extra depth.

It will extend about 18" into our den, which is not a problem because there is a desk there now that extends even more than 18" so changing for the tank won't be a problem.

For the stand I'll look into a steel stand (if I can find any) or i'll modify the stand I have now a few inches shorter.

Lighting, i honestly have no idea what to do. Turn my current canopy backwards and Retro-fit the lights into it? I can't hang them, it'd put too much glare on the computer screens.

Speaking of lighting, my current FW set-up has 250 watts of 10,000k PC's, and If I just add another fixture with Two 65 watt 10,000K and two 65 watt True Actinic 03 Blue, i'd would be sufficient, it's just that PC's are old school.

Got any ideas on what I could do for lighting instead that would be cost efficient or should I stick with this for now?

More info and a LOT of pictures coming soon so stay tuned!

__________________
120 Gal. Reef tank coming this june. This is going to be awesome.

Just build a new stand into the wall instead of trying to get your old one to fit. Some 4x4's properly placed and built will hold it fine.
Its good you have 18" left, as you said, it'll make things easy. Make sure you have enough room over the top in the back to reach wherever you need to in the aquarium.
You actually can hang those lights. Just build a tilt up upper canopy to hang over the backside where your computers are. Just lift it to get to anything. Otherwise, you could custom build a LED system to fit in there and with the correct optics, you wont have much if any glare going anywhere but into the aquarium. These would use less power and you wouldnt have to put as large of an air flow through your canopy for heat dispursion.

Hope it all works out! if you post more pics of your current set up and maybe draw up some ideas for it, we could help you even more. There are some people here that probalby have done something similar so they'll be quite helpful.

Thanks! As of now i'll go with my PC's and hope for the best. I'll post some renders of the current set up and the to-be set up soon.

__________________
120 Gal. Reef tank coming this june. This is going to be awesome.

I would recommend some t5s. they are great!

I might do T5's, or just spend the extra money and get a pair of LED fixtures. What T5 fixtures would you recommend for my tank? (4' x 2' x 2')

__________________
120 Gal. Reef tank coming this june. This is going to be awesome.

i would seriously recommend leds. they lower your electricity bill by a ton, you dont have to replace the bulbs every 10-12 months, and they run way cooler so you dont have to cool your house/room as much. I'm sure your mom would love a lower electricity bill. For you 120, it would be a significant investment at the start, but then its bare minimum power usage after. And you can get one fixture at a time and spread the cost over several months or a year. (birthday/xmas/etc lol). Just add coral to the sections underneath the fixture. For your tank, i would look at getting about 96 3 watt LEDs. Possibly more depending on your depth. If you want to learn some circuitry, you could wire it up for about 50-70% the cost of buying a premade setup and then you can spread them out over the tank and add more when you get it.

hi everyone I need some help my tetra is losing its skin I am treating tank for ick it is a 55 gal tank and I have 3 tetras in there

can someone help
thank you

yeah, I agree on the fact that the LEDs last longer and have a lot lower power consumption. If you have the money for something like that, then go for it. I just know that it is really expensive and for some, t5s are a lot better option.