FishyFishy69
New member
Great looking build!! Mad jelly of the bar/billiard/aquarium area. Well designed.
Kirk's double in-wall 2 x's 400+ gallon fish room
- Thread starter kirkaz
- Start date
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
With the depreciation rate in this hobby being what it is, I would suggest going with 6 to start and if you want/feel you need two more later, buy them then.
Buying 8 and finding out you only needed 6 is a waste of money. Even NIB (never even mounted or unboxed), you'd be lucky to get 75%!of what you paid for them if you tried to sell them.
Plan your light rack/canopy so that you can easily mount 8 AI's at a later date if you need them.
Buying 8 and finding out you only needed 6 is a waste of money. Even NIB (never even mounted or unboxed), you'd be lucky to get 75%!of what you paid for them if you tried to sell them.
Plan your light rack/canopy so that you can easily mount 8 AI's at a later date if you need them.
Gagonzalez
Reef Fanatic
4 in back and 3 in front would dim the front corners enough for some moderate light LPS maybe? While still leaving the center front area bright enough for some nice Clams!!
Just a thought.
Nice build by the way.
Just a thought.
Nice build by the way.
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
In your first post you state the reef tank will only have one visible panel.
If this is the case, having more lights up front means no low light areas where they can be seen...meaning no low light corals where you can see them.
I'm not familiar with the AI's, but I assume they can be dialed up or down in intensity like the Radions and the Kessils?
I would honestly go with 6 to start, and aquascape such that the majority of the rock work was under the lighting with open sandy areas in the less lit sections of the tank. I'm thinking kinda like a bommie where there are rocky outcroppings covered in corals, and sandy flats surrounding.
This will cut down on the amount of rock you need, and on the lights you need as well.
Check out the minimalist aquascaping thread for ideas along this line.
kirkaz
Jade
Not much going on with the tanks the last 2 months, we start moving into the new house this week though, so it's time for some updates.
Fish stuff to come, I've enjoyed seeing some of the custom home updates I've seen, so thought I would throw in some on mine.
Here is a not so good picture of the layout of the house. It's 7,350 sq feet "livable space", throw in the covered patios and garage and just over 10,000 under roof. I'm not sure how this happened as it was supposed to be around 5,000 sq feet.:headwally:
view from the street
The color of the house is a bit different, I would call it a grayish toupe, we really like it, though we know our landscape will have to add a lot of color. We just couldn't do tan. Gray has a very modern feel to it which keeps with our overall taste.
From the backyard
From the covered patio off the game room....The big circular area in the lower left will be a fire pit with seating around and a citrus garden behind, above that is the small (550 sq ft) casita. The circle to the right of that is a splash pad, which doubles as a beautiful water feature and of course play area for kids, the concrete square to the right of that will be the basketball court, and the pool is of course below that.
Fish stuff to come, I've enjoyed seeing some of the custom home updates I've seen, so thought I would throw in some on mine.
Here is a not so good picture of the layout of the house. It's 7,350 sq feet "livable space", throw in the covered patios and garage and just over 10,000 under roof. I'm not sure how this happened as it was supposed to be around 5,000 sq feet.:headwally:
view from the street
The color of the house is a bit different, I would call it a grayish toupe, we really like it, though we know our landscape will have to add a lot of color. We just couldn't do tan. Gray has a very modern feel to it which keeps with our overall taste.
From the backyard
From the covered patio off the game room....The big circular area in the lower left will be a fire pit with seating around and a citrus garden behind, above that is the small (550 sq ft) casita. The circle to the right of that is a splash pad, which doubles as a beautiful water feature and of course play area for kids, the concrete square to the right of that will be the basketball court, and the pool is of course below that.
kirkaz
Jade
Kitchen connecting to dining room, then into family room
Kitchen, with dining room chandelier in foreground
We love the granite for the island
This powder bathroom we call the Buddha Bathroom, because of the lights. It will soon have a bamboo sink, the one wall is bamboo, and granite is called Rainforrest Green
Master bedroom is 2 story, sleeping area, bathroom, and closet below, with a spiral staircase leading to a sitting area overlooking the bed area.
Bed Area....The theme here (per my lovely wife) is Santorini Greece, the decor to come later will tie it together nicely.
The closest is bigger than our first apartment together.
bathroom with walkin shower
Kitchen, with dining room chandelier in foreground
We love the granite for the island
This powder bathroom we call the Buddha Bathroom, because of the lights. It will soon have a bamboo sink, the one wall is bamboo, and granite is called Rainforrest Green
Master bedroom is 2 story, sleeping area, bathroom, and closet below, with a spiral staircase leading to a sitting area overlooking the bed area.
Bed Area....The theme here (per my lovely wife) is Santorini Greece, the decor to come later will tie it together nicely.
The closest is bigger than our first apartment together.
bathroom with walkin shower
kirkaz
Jade
sitting area above
Hot tub outside master bedroom
Entry
Zen Garden/Inner courtyard
Hallway in from garage going to living room
Exact same spot, photo of hallway leading past courtyard to master bedroom
Barn doors in kids rooms going to their bathroom, my wife's idea, I was anti, but now admit they are awesome!
Oh, and this is our new dinner bell
Hot tub outside master bedroom
Entry
Zen Garden/Inner courtyard
Hallway in from garage going to living room
Exact same spot, photo of hallway leading past courtyard to master bedroom
Barn doors in kids rooms going to their bathroom, my wife's idea, I was anti, but now admit they are awesome!
Oh, and this is our new dinner bell
kirkaz
Jade
Enough with the house, here is the update on the tanks.
Cabinetry is done and looking AWESOME! Sam the cabinet man is really good and I can now access the tanks from the front.
Sorry for the glare. Anyway, you can see the bar is in, the wine cellar to the left, the pool table is coming tomorrow, and I hope to be putting water in the 5x5 tank by early next week so I can get my current fish in there
Another crappy picture shows the light over the pool table in foreground, the edge of the 5x5, and the theater room connected.
This even worse picture :headwally: does show the little bar rail I had them add to the front of the square tank.
The bar
And the service room
I have bought the 2 skimmers from LifeReef, the bigger one is still boxed, here is the 60 inch....This thing is a monster! Can't wait to see it perform.
Cabinetry is done and looking AWESOME! Sam the cabinet man is really good and I can now access the tanks from the front.
Sorry for the glare. Anyway, you can see the bar is in, the wine cellar to the left, the pool table is coming tomorrow, and I hope to be putting water in the 5x5 tank by early next week so I can get my current fish in there
Another crappy picture shows the light over the pool table in foreground, the edge of the 5x5, and the theater room connected.
This even worse picture :headwally: does show the little bar rail I had them add to the front of the square tank.
The bar
And the service room
I have bought the 2 skimmers from LifeReef, the bigger one is still boxed, here is the 60 inch....This thing is a monster! Can't wait to see it perform.
kirkaz
Jade
A fire pit, you say? Then you will definitely need one of these!
Dave.M
Damn Dave, I'm fairly certain my wife would've gone for that had we not already ordered one.....Not sure the HOA would approve though.
Kirk I am currently running 6 AI hydra 52s on my 300 DD and am very happy with it I would strongly suggest even on a mixed reef going with at least 8 hopefully I didn't miss anything on your final decision but with the depth of your tank your not going to get as big of a spread with them! I know it's a if chunk to bite off but down road this is going to save you so many headaches! Amazing build tho
kirkaz
Jade
I'm definitely doing 4 across the front, the question is weather I will do 3 or 4 in the back row, I'm leaning toward 8 total though.
kirkaz
Jade
Oh, and I have decided to do the Reefbreeders 60 inch photon W's on the FOWLR. I'm doing 3 of them, I was really going back and forth a ridiculous amount on this tank due to the odd dimensions, I'm confident this will be more than enough, and I've read enough good feedback on these lights to give them a try.
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