Advice Needed for In-wall Corner Tank Build

Hello everyone, I am new here, but not new to the hobby. I have had a 75 Gallon reef tank up and running for the last 7 years and absolutely love it.

I just moved into a new house and have a very large closet in my bonus room that is screaming for a in-wall tank build. The closet sticks out into the bonus room and is pretty large, so there is plenty of room for a 75 gallon tank and still have 4 feet behind the tank for access and equipment. I want to build the tank into the corner of the closet so both the front and left side of the tank would be visible and exposed.

Just to give you a better understanding of what I am trying to do, I will try and make a basic sketch below... Hopefully this works:

__________________________________
| Wet .|..........................................|
|_Bar _|....................Closet..............|
|.........|______________...................|
|.........|......................|..................|
|.........|Tank goes Here_|___|Door|___|
|...................................... |......|.....|
|.....................................................|
|..................Bonus Room...................|
|.....................................................|


As I mentioned above, I want to build the the tank into the corner of the closet with both the front and left side exposed for viewing. I want to do this without any having any support beam visible on the front left corner of the tank. I am worried by cutting the corner out of the closet, that there will not be enough support to hold up the 2x4 frame and drywall on the walls above the tank. I did a search on the forum and found people who built tanks with 3 sides exposed or with a hole cut out to view the tank from the front only through the wall, but I could not find anyone who built a tank with only 2 sides exposed.

This is the closest I could find and it was in a commercial setting, but you can get an idea of what I am trying to do.
150 Gallon, Bent Corner, Reef Tank, Aquarium Design, Marine Aquariums and Coral Reef Aquarium Tank, Stand, Canopy, and Aquarium Filter System

I would love to hear from any builders or engineers that could tell me the best way to support that corner so it holds the load of the drywall without sagging or anyone that has done this before and has advice or pictures of what they have done. The bonus room is on the second floor and I have access to the attic above if it is possible to add extra support up there.
Thanks for your help

 

The first thing is to make sure that the wall of the closet isn't load bearing, it shouldn't be, but you never know. I think this shouldn't be too hard. I would just frame it up with some 2x4s. There should already be a plate in the ceiling where the closet wall hits the floor joists above, you can just demo that wall and rebuild it so the top wall only comes down the four feet or whatever it is you need it to. You can even pre-make the short pieces of wall and just screw them into the top plate. It's hard to explain in words, but it's a pretty easy concept to pull off.


Here's my best at a sketch.

Front facing wet bar

_____________________________________
l______________________________________
l l l l l
l l l l l
l l l l l
l_____ l_____ l______l_______l__
l
l
l
l door
_____________________________
l l l l l
l l l l l
l l l l l
l l l l l
The vertical line rep. studs, the top line is the top plate. You can do the same thing for the side. Then just drywall over the studs.

 

Well, that sketch drastically changed when I submitted this post, sorry.

 

Thanks for the reply,

The sketch changes once you post it, I figured out I had to put periods instead of spaces, then I just highlighted them and changed the font color to white before posting. If you hit preview before you post you can see what it is going to do.

First off, the wall is definitely not load bearing, so that will not be an issue.

I have a question about what you are saying. You are talking about taking down the existing wall above where the tank will be. Is there any reason I couldn't just take a reciprocating saw and cut out the hole where the tank will go then put a 2x4 base board at the bottom of those boards to hold them all together (right above the top of the tank).

The other thing I didn't quite understand was how you suggest I secured the frame to the top plate. Is there anything additional I would need to do to attach the top part of the wall to the rafters above so they will hold the weight of the partial wall above the tank? Do you think the rafters above will be strong enough to hold all of the weight of the 2x4's and drywall?
Thanks