What I'd do differently next time.

[Psyire]

I would have went with no sand just HDPE/Starboard. This is my biggest regret in setting up my 180g.

[Buccaneer]

Pretty much no choice as far as only viewing from the gym ... the only time we will be in the theater will be to watch the projector and the time of day will almost always coincide with when the lights on the tank are on. Initially I really wanted for it to be viewable from both sides but acoustic treatment planned for the theater would negate that as a possibility. On the other hand I will have 4 feet to the side where the sink is and I plan to have access on the gym side above and below the tank.

[Pescador]

Our in wall faces to our home theater which is also front projection.
(a Sony VPL-HS51, Brightness:1200 ANSI lumen's, Contrast:6000:1)
The tank lights have a four stage dusk that starts at about movie time in the evening. We always planned to have a curtain for it but haven't needed it.
Just curious how do you know what acoustic treatment your room needs before everything is set up and you know how it sounds? We wanted our room to be more multi-function than dedicated theater so we just tried to keep a mix of hard and soft surfaces.

What I'd do differently next time? Not too much, better ventilation for the lights, R/O output lines roughed in, more room around the back sides of the tank. Even with having to do some demo to get a 36" wide tank down the stairs it turned out pretty good.

Best things we did? Structured wiring, access to the back side of all the home theater electronics, combining a fish room and hobby room, roughed in water lines for R/O D/I, laundry sink, lots of blocking to attach equipment to walls and ceiling.

[surgeonfish]

I would keep the tank shallow (24-30"). My tank is 48" deep and I need to go swimming to reach the back corners. Also be careful for overheating if you add 4 x 400 MH lights. Prefare for lots of fans, air circulation and possibly a chiller. Hopefully being in the basement will also help prefent heating problems. Also consider using LED lighting.
Good luck and keep us updated.

[Buccaneer]

Just curious how do you know what acoustic treatment your room needs before everything is set up and you know how it sounds?

@ Brian ... maybe this will help



proggy available here ... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=822273

it is a first reflection program where you can input the room size, screen size, speaker size & location, seating height etc etc ... when you run the program it spits out your first reflection points in the room ... the green rectangles are the ear height locations for the chairs ... 2 rows of 4 chairs with the back row on a 17" riser

The problem is that the tank would be right where the first reflection point for the right speaker

The theater room will be a dedicated theater and the gym side will be more of a multi-functional room ... it will also have a projector for the kids to watch TV and play PS3 and Wii but I am not as concerned for lighting on that side as I am for the theater side

[Buccaneer]

@ Shane ... the advice for air circulation is well noted ... my 4 X 400W MH hood is from my old 330G tank in my last house and it DID generate quite a bit of heat ... I had a 6" fan that I rigged up from Princess auto and it did a pretty good job. Because this tank will be in a more enclosed space I planned to rig up a exhaust fan to a humidistat ... also all the walls will be aquaboard or equivalent waterproof drywall with a epoxy coated paint ... seperate dedicated circuits for electrical for the tank, theater and gym

At one point I did consider LED but from what I have read we are still about 2 years away from PAR that is inline or better than that of MH. ( and the solaris hoods are stupid expensive )

One thing I did consider is that there was a european tank that I saw a while back that was run exclusively with T5's and it was absolutely beautiful ... I may consider going that way and supplement with a couple low power MH ( maybe 175W ) to add the " shimmer " as I dont think I could own a SW tank and not see that shimmer effect on the sand.