questions for possible tank build

[wetone]

I have been tossing an idea around for a while, I want to upgrade my 75g to a bigger (8' 200g+) tank that would be built into the wall.
I live in a colonial style house where my attached 2 car garage has a back wall that is where my family room is. I was thinking about putting the tank in that wall and building a room in the garage to house the tank and its equipment. I have an attic over this area and when we put in the heat/AC trunk, we left a connector to put a vent into this planned fish room. One of my questions is your thoughts on keeping a reef in this type of a garage room here in CT (cold winters, humid summer!!).
My other question is if I have no front access to the tank, how much of a pain is it to aquascape and maintain everything looking down from the top/back??

 

[mcrist]

I personally think that you will need/want front access to the tank.

 

[psteeleb]

I know a couple people that built fish rooms into their garages. I know one for sure runs a seperate AC unit to keep the humidity out of his house unit, he just installed a window unit.

They both have access to the front

one of them is Melev here and on DFWMAS, the other is Servo, so you may want to look at their builds

I have a different setup that is in a hallway. I exhaust the humidity and heat into my attic , not my home central unit, again due to the excess humidity

I do not have access to the front of my tank and have to do everything up front with tongs and a mirror. It's a pain but I didn't have much choice in my build and keeping the tank high.

If you can, I'd try to work out a access panel in the front with some trim work.

If you want I can see if I can find their links - here's mine if you want to look at case with no front access.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1320654