New House with custom fish room - 180 in-wall

[TTrout]

Hello everyone, I have been watching most of your threads for some time now and impressed with all of the great ideas shown here. I have had everything from a 10gal to a 75gal reef tank. So, my wife and I have moved recently to Indiana and are building a new house. The house was custom engineered to include a fish room that will house a 180 gallon aquarium.

Here are a few photos of the fish room being constructed.

We are closing on the house February 14th 2007, in the mean time I will have plenty of questions and some updates of the fish room as they come.

 

[jmccown]

You might add more plug ins up near the top of the tank opening for your lights, etc. So you don't have cords running everywhere. Other than that, looks like a good start.

 

[TTrout]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9022697#post9022697 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmccown
You might add more plug ins up near the top of the tank opening for your lights, etc. So you don't have cords running everywhere. Other than that, looks like a good start.

jmccown: Thank you for your comments

I actually have on the other side of the room two dedicated 20 amp circuits that will be used for most of the lights and pumps. I am thinking of running pvc conduit to a custom power panel similar to what has been seen on this site. There are also the normal outlets at floor level around the room that can be used for smaller powered items.

Also, I forgot to mention that the room is pre-plumbed for a utility sink. I will tap in to this for RO/DI, cleaning, water changes.

 

[crescent1]

great job, more pics pls.

 

[BigReef]

Welcome to Indiana!
We have a great reef club located here in Central Indiana. Check us out on indmas.org. Dues are only $20 per year. The frag swaps are great, the meetings informative and the people are some of the best!

Looks good so far! Just a couple of suggestions.

I would make sure you take into account the humidity that your tank room will have. I would have them install duct work so you can pull some of the humidity out of the room. This is usually done with some type of fan, similar to the ones installed in bathrooms. It can be tied to a controller to turn on and off when the humidity gets to a set point.

I would also have a dedicated water source in the room to hook your ro/di to. Makes things a whole lot easier when it's water change time.

That leads me to my 3rd suggestion. It might be too late, but I would install some type of floor drain. It's usually not a matter of "if" something will flood, but "when"!

Lastly, like someone allready said. Make sure you have plenty of outlets!

Looking forward to meeting you at one of our swaps.

Tim

 

[TTrout]

Thanks Tim, I will definately check out the website.

The humidity is one of the questions that I had. I was thinking of puting some type of fan like you mentioned. However, I didn't want to have to turn it on and off manually. Can you point me in the direction of how something like that can be automated?

It is a bit late for a floor drain, however I do have a water and a drain for a utility sink pre-plumbed in to the house. I am wanting to plumb the sump very similarly to Oregonreef's setup just scaled down considerably! His setup has an overflow that will, in an emergancy, will drain the water to a storm drain.

Here is a photo of the pre-plumbed utility sink. This will also be used for the RO/DI hookup.

 

[BigReef]

Yeah, I figured it was too late for a floor drain! Might want to consider sealing the floor and baseboards so water won't wic up the drywall when it leaks.

I've seen people here on the boards use this to control the fans.
Do some research, there's tons of options when it comes to humidity control.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/cap-air1-temperature-humidity-control-p-361.html

Tim

 

[toastman]

Looks great, but you really should have used green board in your fish room, it is more moisture resistant than regular drywall, and you will have alot of humidity in that room, I would add an exhaust fan right out the side wall of your house to help with the humidity. I know it is probably too late in your mind to change to green board, but its a good idea, you wont regret the money spent to change it now, instead of dealing with alot of mold later on.....just my opinion

 

[TTrout]

I've seen people here on the boards use this to control the fans.
Do some research, there's tons of options when it comes to humidity control.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/cap-air1-temperature-humidity-control-p-361.html

Tim [/B]

Thanks, I'll take a look

 

[TTrout]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9033391#post9033391 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by toastman
Looks great, but you really should have used green board in your fish room, it is more moisture resistant than regular drywall, and you will have alot of humidity in that room.

Unfortunately, the builder will only do so much. I completely agree that the walls should be either the green or concrete board instead of drywall. So, I will be ripping out the drywall on at least the wall that the tank will be on if not all of them. Considering the minimal cost, I probably will do all the walls.

Thanks,

 

[sullyfish]

Looks great so far...for your Eq. room walls you might consider a good quality primer/sealer ( Kilz ) to go over your existing sheetrock, or they have water proof paneling that is pretty cheap that screws into existing sheetrock. Just an alternative to ripping out the sheetrock. However, If you do rip out the rock, be sure and put plenty of sound baffling insulation / cork panels in the walls if not there already.

keep the pics coming. I am working on a room similiar and will folow this thread with interest. Looks great so far

 

[TTrout]

Sullyfish: Thanks. That is a good idea with the kilz primer. I will keep that in mind. I may still use that over the green board. I did go in before they put the drywall up and put in insulation. I was hoping that I could swing my builder in to putting some green board in there, but he wouldn't go for it. Oh well.

 

[Goldleaf Reef]

Tha'ts kind of odd about the green Board, you could have bought the sheets from the local hardware supply and dropped them off at the house and had the drywallers install. Would have not cost the builder a single penny extra and it installs and finishes just like regular drywall. Plus they have to put it in the bathroom so I know the installers could handle it. It is however a pain to prime paint .

I would go with a coat of Kiltz, and the paneling mentioned before. I also saw tile board at lowes the other day that probably would work. And it looks nice. This It would save you the mess of ripping out drywall and having to reinstall Green board. Once the dust from the drywall mud get's to floating in the air you will regret ripping out the drywall.

my 2 pesos'

 

[TTrout]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9062355#post9062355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Goldleaf Reef
Tha'ts kind of odd about the green Board, you could have bought the sheets from the local hardware supply and dropped them off at the house and had the drywallers install. Would have not cost the builder a single penny extra and it installs and finishes just like regular drywall. Plus they have to put it in the bathroom so I know the installers could handle it. It is however a pain to prime paint .

I would go with a coat of Kiltz, and the paneling mentioned before. I also saw tile board at lowes the other day that probably would work. And it looks nice. This It would save you the mess of ripping out drywall and having to reinstall Green board. Once the dust from the drywall mud get's to floating in the air you will regret ripping out the drywall.

my 2 pesos'

It's not too big of a deal to pull out and put GB back in. So, at this point I am not too worried about that, especially since I close in less than 3 weeks.

 

[TTrout]

Now on to the fun stuff! Planning the setup of the equipment/fish room. I have a basic idea of how I want to setup the room as far as the tank, but that is about it. Here is a drawing of what I am currently thinking of.

Will the external overflow work ok on just the one side as illustrated? I do plan on doing a closed loop as well. I think I have decided that I would like to incorporate a OM 4 way in the CL, however my goal is to have high flow for SPS. So, my question would be what would be the best placement for this type of setup for the drain and returns of the closed loop. I have also been toying with the idea of trying to replicate something that Steve Weast has done in his tank with the racks and having Loc-line as the returns from the rack. Has anyone else tried doing this? One other thing I would like to mention is that I want to build this tank with no viewable electronics, plumbing, or man-made stuff.

Feel free to download this photo and mark it up if you want to demonstrate any ideas.

 

[20 20]

In the pic of the actual wall above, it looks like you've got a lot more room on the right side of the tank (looking from behind the tank) you could be using for the fish room. What are you going to be doing with that space?

 

[TTrout]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9069984#post9069984 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 20 20
In the pic of the actual wall above, it looks like you've got a lot more room on the right side of the tank (looking from behind the tank) you could be using for the fish room. What are you going to be doing with that space?

First, just so everyone knows (which may be obvious) is that is looking down on the fish room. So, if I understand the question, it's our first floor bathroom.

I just updated, the photo. You may need to refresh your browser to see the new "labeled" pic.

 

[20 20]

Ah, I get it now, need that bathroom!

 

[TTrout]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9071907#post9071907 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 20 20
Ah, I get it now, need that bathroom!

Although, I'm trying to convince the other half that we need a "port hole" in that wall between the toilet and the aquarium! But I think I am losing that battle...

 

[Goldleaf Reef]

Looks Great.. Quite Jealous to be exact..