Tek's Formal Fish Room (^_^)

[tektite]

So I've finally decided its time for a chronicle – looking back it would have been cool to start one in August with the beginnings of my tank.

BUT – its a good time to start now – I just bought a house and will be moving the fish tank there hopefully sometime soon. I've taken one of the downstairs rooms of the house that the previous owners jokingly called their formal playroom and I'm turning it into my formal fish room

I'm trying to get everything done in it ASAP so I can move my tank from the apartment and we can ditch that monthly rent (will be a nice feeling!).

List of things to be done (the very boring part, it will get much better I promise!):

Run lots more power to the room:
The current main breaker for the whole house is only 100 amps, with most rooms on 15 amp breakers wired with 14 gage wire so I can't switch those breakers to 20 amp without rewiring. GRRR! So, while I'm at it, I'll be running 3 20 amp circuits to the fish room (can't wait to see my electrical bill in the future, LOL!!!). That hopefully will be sufficient for any fish tanks I'll get in the future.

Tear up carpet (I hate carpet with a passion):
I've had enough with carpet in the apartment. Its bad enough just with people – when you add 2 pets and an extremely large body of water carpet gets downright evil Thankfully with this first floor room right under the carpet is the slab.
DONE!

Tear up baseboard in prep for tile being laid:
DONE!

Get tile laid:
DONE!

Scrape paint off the walls:
When I was tearing the baseboard up, it was taking some paint with it. Turns out when the house was built over 20 years ago, when the first coat of primer was applied over the sheet rock, they didn't clean the sheet rock AT ALL. Every layer of paint ever applied is coming right off the walls so I figure its better to take it off now and apply paint the right way.
MOSTLY DONE!

Repaint:
Getting there.

Build built-in fish tank stands around the room:
In the designing stage. Lots of people helped me iron out my preliminary design for the main wall.
Here's my thread with that design

At this point, I'll be able to move my fish tank and get rid of the apartment

Tonight I'll add some pics of the progress so far

[PEMfish]

I'll hold ya to it.

[sneaks03]

Don't disappoint us!

[tektite]

Don't have pics of the actual room ready yet, but here's some models (I'm having fun with Google SketchUp )

The room in general to get an idea of what the built-ins will look like -
there's two windows and two entries I'll be working around:


A = 125 gallon reef tank
B = 75 gallon macroalgae tank
A and B will share water volume, I figure it will benefit both - the macro tank will essentially be one giant refugium if I plumb them right.

C = 65 gallon FOWLR or non-photosynthetic tank, haven't decided which
D = 125 anemonarium (love that word )

Both X's are 20 amp circuits-to-be locations
Both x's are one shared 20 amp circuit-to-be

The guts of the stands (thanks to all who helped me iron out my design)
Slightly expanded from my DIY thread


The room from the opposite side:




And an exploded view - though with the size it's getting pretty confusing when shown in 2D:


Fun times building it!! I'm hoping one marathon weekend will have it done.

For anyone interested - that frame will consist of approximately:
255 feet of 2x8's
220 feet of 2x6's
150 feet of 2x4's

[tektite]

I guess I should introduce my fish tank. I don't think I really have till now.

Its a 125 gallon reef, started with Tampa Bay Saltwater liverock. Its been up and running for over 3 months now.

Equipment list:
125 gallon tank, 30 gallon sump (WAY too small for my taste, but live and learn....it'll be upgraded when I move)
Aquactinics Constellation T5 light
Various Koralias

AquaC EV-120 protein skimmer w/ mag 5
Visitherm Stealth heaters
Small sump light


Mag 18 return pump
3 gallon skimmer collection jug (works great )
small fan to keep air circulating
UPS for return pump and some Koralias if power goes out - won't last long but its something


1/4 hp Arctica chiller


Current FTS as of tonight




Right now my tank is fairly empty. I've known I'll be moving so I haven't bought much.

Stuff in tank right now, all came from TBS:
Lots of awesome macro algae that came on the liverock - couple types of Halymenia, couple types of Nemastoma, blue and brown Dictyota (I like 'em so far, though I am watching to see if they start to become pests), several types of red Gracillaria, Ulva, Botryocladia...
3 Gorgonians - large polyped, blade, ???
3 rock anemones - I know my tank is really young, they were included with my rock as a surprise. They do appear to be doing ok though, all have nice coloration and eat well (very sticky)
2 tiger gobies - one as a surprise with my live rock, one as a hitchhiker
50 million gorilla crabs that I haven't gotten around to pulling out yet
lots of Astrea snails and Mexican red-legged hermits
2 or 3 serpent stars
3 peppermint shrimp
and lots of other random hitchhikers - porcelain crabs, sponges, clams, barnacles - something new pops up every day.

And my little baby: an itsy-bitsy elegance coral. It actually ate some tiny pieces of shrimp today for the first time, I was so happy!!!

I can't wait to move and be able to add more to my tank. Its been awesome just watching my liverock grow - can't wait for corals

[tektite]

On to the work in progress -

Didn't take too many pics before we did anything to the room - so here's one after we tore the carpet up:


New floor in, much better



And now taking the paint off:



Some rough panoramas showing both sides of the room now:



Progress will continue!

[SeahorseBT]

WOW! That live rock rocks! I wish my seahorse tank looked like that!

[tektite]

Originally Posted by SeahorseBT

WOW! That live rock rocks! I wish my seahorse tank looked like that!

Yours and Basile's tanks were an inspiration for me to culture as much macro algae in my tank as possible. I've always admired macro tanks. How's that cool Nemastoma of yours doing?

[D3monic]

Looks like its coming along great. Very detailed drawings. I cannot wait to see everything once you get it up and going.

[SeahorseBT]

Originally Posted by tektite

Yours and Basile's tanks were an inspiration for me to culture as much macro algae in my tank as possible. I've always admired macro tanks. How's that cool Nemastoma of yours doing?

Wow, I'm an inspiration. Thanks for the kind words. I lost the nemastoma. It just wouldn't stay anchored so it all drifted off the rock and got lost in the system. Such a shame....I love those gorgonians!

[squiers007]

Looks like you have a great plan there. Out of curiosity where did you get those gorgonians? They are awesome I would love to have some. Keep up the good work!

[PEMfish]

My problem with the room design is, its like a museum, theirs no where to sit for a few hours and enjoy the tanks.

[tektite]

Originally Posted by SeahorseBT

Wow, I'm an inspiration. Thanks for the kind words. I lost the nemastoma. It just wouldn't stay anchored so it all drifted off the rock and got lost in the system. Such a shame....I love those gorgonians!

Sorry to hear that My Nemastoma bush is very fragile too, seems like if I look at it wrong it breaks off and goes floating.

Originally Posted by squiers007

Looks like you have a great plan there. Out of curiosity where did you get those gorgonians? They are awesome I would love to have some. Keep up the good work!

Thanks! I got the gorgonians with the second half of my liverock from Tampa Bay Saltwater. He included them free as a surprise. I've become attached to them as well I believe I've also seem similar types for sale on liveaquaria.

[tektite]

Originally Posted by PEMfish

My problem with the room design is, its like a museum, theirs no where to sit for a few hours and enjoy the tanks.

Seating will be the last element - haven't quite figured out how to do it yet but I don't intend to stand all the time I want the stands high so it'll be easy to look at them standing up, but I don't intend to do that all the time...I'm thinking I'll make the seating elevated to compensate for the height of the stand...something like an island in the middle of the room with seating all around so you can migrate and see everything

[tektite]

Wow, I'm tired...spent the time after work till 10:30 getting the ball rolling on the stand design. Lumber time! Decided to get the lumber for all the legs ready, since they'll need to sit while they're gluing together - a good beginning point.

In-laws can be good resources - especially when they have big vehicles, a trailer, and lots of woodworking tools

Ready to go


The fun of finding straight boards:






The weapon of choice for tonight:


The result:


Those are all the pieces to all the legs in my design - now I get to assemble them all - great fun...It's nice to begin the actual process of building the stands though and move past just designs