Building House with Fish Room - looking for comments/suggestions

[FlyboySMB]

I am in the process of building a new home for our family (design stage from the ground up). I am designing a fish room & want to hear any comments (good or bad) from others who have done the same.

The tank will be a 160 gal reef tank. The dedicated fish room with tile floor & floor drain is currently about 8' x 8'. My initial thought is to house the tank & stand inside the fish room with the front of the tank flush with the wall on the other side of the fish room. Some questions I have about this approach are:

- What about the thickness of the wall, say it's a 2x4 stud wall. To make the tank flush with the finished/painted display side wall, the tank would have to beset "inside" the stud wall on the other side. Thus, no 2x4 studs in this area. If it was mounted flush with the finished wall on the fish room side, then the display side would be "inset" the thikness of the wall ~3.5-4 inches. Thoughts or experience with this???

- Another question is, I am used to cleaning my tanks from the front through the top of the tank (you can see what you are doing through the front of the tank). If the tank is in the fish room & the display side in the viewing room, there would be no access to the top of the tank from the viewing room & I would have to clean it from the fish room through the top. The plan would be for the front of the tank to be good (low iron) glass & the other 3 sides black. Will I have difficulties cleaning the tank well from the fish room, only seeing through the top of the tank? Again, thoughts or experience.

Any other comments, thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

I can only comment on access & cleaning from the rear, PITA, I hated those tanks I had to work on.
I would have a door over the top of the tank for easy access. Makes life so much easier.

 

[mx36]

My setup is flush to the front wall and has an inset on the side, with the area above the front of the tank that flips up on a piano hinge (will try to get photos of that tonight). When I had the house built I wanted to be able to view the side of the aquarium as well, but never thought about or new anything about load bearing walls. Turns out that wall ended up being load bearing that's why the side is like it is. If I would have know I probably would have had the support header extended about 3 feet with the support going down on the corner of the bar area to the floor so the entire side would be viewable.

 

[64Ivy]

If you mean keeping the glass clean from the front, I'd just go with a set of strong magnets. Cleaning a sandbed or blowing off the rockwork might be a bit more complicated. I have a large in-wall and sometimes need a family member positioned out front as an extra pair of eyes. Never underestimate the power of pizza.

 

[mx36]

Rechecked mine, its more flush with the studs and not the drywall.

 

[FlyboySMB]

Thanks for pix mx36! I see your tank is clear on all sides (not black as I think I am planning), does that create any viewing issues (ie seeing through the back of your tank into the fish room or lights/led displays etc visible through the tank? A friend that works behind the scenes at Monterey Bay Aquarium told me they use coral viewing boxes floating on the water surface to see to the bottom of the tank & cleaning is not a problem. I do like your piano hinge top too, it looks nice and certainly can't hurt to have extra access. What did you use for a tank stand?

 

[mx36]

The stand is steel painted with a diy truck bed liner. I have black plastic panels I stick on the back so you cant see through it.