Building a house around my reef tank
 

I have decided to have a new home built and want to design a set up in the wall between my office and family room. I am planning all the equipment to be in the basement and want to design the entire set up properly the first time.

Any volunteers want to share their knowledge and help me with the design, from overflows to water movement (no powerheads), plumbing, etc, etc?

I am not moving until December, but I need to find the best tank builder and ensure that I have enough time to have it built.

The opening in the wall will be 5' x 2' and all the upper and lower cabinets will be custom built on site. I want to hide the view of the overflows and am thinking about external overflows. I have a thousand questions and not enough answers.

I know some of the Calgary people have enough experience to help me through some of the pitfalls so I don't make any mistakes.

I will buy the beer at the pub !!! :biggrin:

Jim

You are welcome to bounce ideas off me Jim ... I am building a house also and a new tank for it :wink:

I know a guy that can build any custom tanks, (i.e. holes drilled, overflows, etc.)

good prices.

He's done alot of them.

PM If you need his #

Feel free to bounce ideas off of me as well.
Feel free to also come by and check out my inwall 230/tank room setup. Many people have got some ideas from my setup.

cheers.

Check out this site. www.sjwilson.net/reef . this lady has a 120 gallon reef tank and everything is plumbed downstair may give you a good idea. Really nice tank she i planning a 300 gallon tank.

Hi Jonathan,

I will be down south this afternoon (Sat) around 5 PM. Any chance I can pop over and see your setup?

If so, leave your address for me.

Thanks,

Jim

Hey Jim. I don't get off work till about 5:45pm and am usually home by 6:30pm. Little later than 5:00pm. :confused:

house around a tank
 

Jim I have been thinking about your tank question.

I did not build this house. One thing that has caused me quite a bit of grief is drainage. Both my SW tank and indoor pond have overflowed at least once. In a finished basement that is a bad thing.

If I was building from scratch I would have an integeral drain as part of the tank. I also would have a 2-4" recess in the floor around the tank to catch water. Essentially I would design it so that if the tank failed, most of the water would be captured in the recess and drained away. This also has the added advantage of allowing for taller stuff under your tank...like skimers and the like. I would also have a water line in the floor to deliver water to the tank. This line could go to a utility room and connect to an RODI unit...or it could go to a tank of saltwater that you use for water changes. If you plan it right you would never have to lift any water...run hoses... It is so easy to put in when you are building the house .... but after is very dificult.

As resale is also a consideration, you can fill in dips in the floor if need be.

This is likely the most boring answer ever...but us engineers are kinda that way :rolleyes:

Drop Perodogo (Rico) a PM. He had his tank built in while his house was being built I am sure he can give you some pointers as well. His tank is a 500g 10 feet long, I was other there last Thursday, very very sweet setup Everything he needs is in the room.

(much like my Fish room in my basement, all I need to do now is my in wall tank, sloped floor, in floor drain, since, etc.


Jim

I used to have flooding problems and it was solved by building a dam around the sumps base with 2x2s they were siliconed to the floor (also edge beaded like a tank) and led water towards the drain it worked very well......Just a cheaper thought than messing with the cement.