I like the way you think Tony
After having fixed a few grow ops in my time, I knew I wanted to vent my fishroom. A $20 bathroom fan and some 3" PVC did the trick. I've wired the fan to a plug (not hard wired) so that I could use a timer and because it was easier overall.
Yes, the wiring is exposed! Like a lot of this project I am roughing things in and then going back to finish and refine. I want to get it up and running so I can start cycling the tank. I plan to build a housing around the fan to cover the wiring and to add some rigid cable guard to cover the wiring to the outlet. The fan is controlled by a $5 timer I bought at IKEA and it is set to turn on for 5 minutes every hour. Here's a blurry pic
Most of the flora and fauna I'm interested in keeping is non photosynthetic (not light dependant) so lighting is not as important as in a tropical reef. The main purpose of lighting in a coldwater tank is for viewing and effect.
With this in mind I went all out and installed a cheap IKEA pendant and a Coralife 50/50 screw in CF. (the PVC is a temporary return line for a pump I'm switching out).
One plant that is photosynthetic is eel grass, which I plan to incorporate into the system. For this I will use better lighting but I haven't decided whether I'm planting it in the main display or a plumbed in auxiliary tank so I've left more lighting out for now.
I know that someone, somewhere is probably laughing right now but the measuring stick I am using for this project is not the cost, but the effect. Here's a video of the lighting (the video is pretty rough and doesn't totally capture the shimmer effect. I'll try to take a better one later).
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=100_2625.flv