boilermaker1
New member
Well, I just got every fish guy's dream... a brand new house, with a non-load bearing wall in the basement separating the finished and non-finished part, and a wife who is totally ok with cutting a big hole in a brand new wall :celeb1:
What's going in the wall is my existing system (standard dimension 180G w/ 75G sump). I'm going to replumb everything because I wont be putting the sump under the tank now that I've got lots of room to work with.
So all that being said, I need a little help. This will be my first fish room project, and I've got a question about almost everything. This little adventure just started (we just signed the papers last thursday), but I'm a little short on planning time because of the construction schedule, especially on finalizing the electrical.
I'm having them add a water line and drain in the room, as well as a dedicated exhaust fan for the room to blow the humidity out of the room. For the moment, the space is shared with the HVAC and water heater, but I'll ultimately build another wall to close in the utility space.
I can add circuits to the panel while the house is being built, and as many outlets wherever I want them. I think 1 20A circuit is enough (tank is running on a single 15A in my rental right now, but its probably pretty close to capacity). I'm wondering if I should be running a 2nd dedicated circuit as well, just for redundancy, and how many outlets I'll probably need (all will be GFI).
Just for a full electrical profile I have:
3x250W Galaxy ballasts
1 Reeflo Snapper
1 Reeflo Dart
1 OM 4-way
2x150W heaters
Octopus Pro 300 skimmer (Askoll 1500 pump)
A couple maxijets for ATO and media reactors
I just got a reefkeeper lite, so now I can do a little better job running things than a couple standard light timers.
As far as the structure goes... since the wall is already framed, life is (seems) a little easier. I'm planning on cutting a hole in the wall, and tying all the studs together with 2x4s to frame out the hole. I plan on leaving enough room above the tank for front access to the top of the tank. I'd like to have the tank be flush to the back of the drywall (so the last 3" of the tank would be over the wall framing). I know not to support the tank on the wall framing, I just dont know if I need to tie the stand into the footer for the wall, or leave the stand totally separate and just build a lip on the front of the stand to support the tank.
I've already built a couple stands without issue, so I'm not worried about the tank support or the plumbing for the tank itself.
As far as waterproofing the room, Its a concrete floor, which is good, but do I need to put down plastic underneath the stand (its going to be wood) to keep the moisture from the floor out of it? I also thought about epoxying the floor (the garage floor coating stuff). I was planning on sheeting the walls and ceiling around the tank with blueboard (the mold/mildew resistant stuff) and paint it with Kilz primer, and like I said above, there's going to be dedicated ventilation built into the house.
Last thing... I had the thought to add a drink shelf in front of the tank (like a 1' wide countertop)... does anyone know how that gets tied into the wall? If I can do it as a floating countertop that would be perfect.
I know thats a lot of questions, so thanks for any answers I get, but I'm really excited to get started with this. House is due in late april, and I've got about a month to get this done and move the tank and fish over before my lease ends.
Thanks guys
What's going in the wall is my existing system (standard dimension 180G w/ 75G sump). I'm going to replumb everything because I wont be putting the sump under the tank now that I've got lots of room to work with.
So all that being said, I need a little help. This will be my first fish room project, and I've got a question about almost everything. This little adventure just started (we just signed the papers last thursday), but I'm a little short on planning time because of the construction schedule, especially on finalizing the electrical.
I'm having them add a water line and drain in the room, as well as a dedicated exhaust fan for the room to blow the humidity out of the room. For the moment, the space is shared with the HVAC and water heater, but I'll ultimately build another wall to close in the utility space.
I can add circuits to the panel while the house is being built, and as many outlets wherever I want them. I think 1 20A circuit is enough (tank is running on a single 15A in my rental right now, but its probably pretty close to capacity). I'm wondering if I should be running a 2nd dedicated circuit as well, just for redundancy, and how many outlets I'll probably need (all will be GFI).
Just for a full electrical profile I have:
3x250W Galaxy ballasts
1 Reeflo Snapper
1 Reeflo Dart
1 OM 4-way
2x150W heaters
Octopus Pro 300 skimmer (Askoll 1500 pump)
A couple maxijets for ATO and media reactors
I just got a reefkeeper lite, so now I can do a little better job running things than a couple standard light timers.
As far as the structure goes... since the wall is already framed, life is (seems) a little easier. I'm planning on cutting a hole in the wall, and tying all the studs together with 2x4s to frame out the hole. I plan on leaving enough room above the tank for front access to the top of the tank. I'd like to have the tank be flush to the back of the drywall (so the last 3" of the tank would be over the wall framing). I know not to support the tank on the wall framing, I just dont know if I need to tie the stand into the footer for the wall, or leave the stand totally separate and just build a lip on the front of the stand to support the tank.
I've already built a couple stands without issue, so I'm not worried about the tank support or the plumbing for the tank itself.
As far as waterproofing the room, Its a concrete floor, which is good, but do I need to put down plastic underneath the stand (its going to be wood) to keep the moisture from the floor out of it? I also thought about epoxying the floor (the garage floor coating stuff). I was planning on sheeting the walls and ceiling around the tank with blueboard (the mold/mildew resistant stuff) and paint it with Kilz primer, and like I said above, there's going to be dedicated ventilation built into the house.
Last thing... I had the thought to add a drink shelf in front of the tank (like a 1' wide countertop)... does anyone know how that gets tied into the wall? If I can do it as a floating countertop that would be perfect.
I know thats a lot of questions, so thanks for any answers I get, but I'm really excited to get started with this. House is due in late april, and I've got about a month to get this done and move the tank and fish over before my lease ends.
Thanks guys
