Ultimate Fish Room designs/locations

[bigmac]

Update:

A new house it is!

I've got some very early discussions going with Kevin at Red Coral about designs for the new tank (possibly an 8' with a divider in the middle for two different views of the ocean-corals/reef safe fish and the other side for non reef safe fish and inverts) or 1 full 8' so that I can explore (guilt free) the Tang world.

I'm stoked to say the least; so many options.

I'll definetly start a tank build thread on this one; as I didn't do it on my current 100 gallon.

[monocus]

if you are worried about the hardwood in the dining room-use a tile floor that looks like hardwood-i am almost completed my fishroom in the basement and am using black granite as a border,then white/grey marble,with a black/brown marble in the center-this way if there are any spills i don't have to worry about the floor

[bigmac]

I have decided to put this tank in the basement as an inwall and it's own dedicated fish room.

We have decided that the basement will be finished; therefore I made the decision that a basement application will work for me. I have it in my head that temperature issues will be less than on main floor applications (which may or may not be the case- but my brain has made the choice).

[andestang]

That was going to be one of my thoughts for you. I have mine in the basement mostly for that reason. Our basement is also developed so it only made sense. In our other house I had to run a chiller with the tank on the main floor and when we moved here it is now not required and I run 400w MH's and so on. And yes a sink is a must

Originally Posted by bigmac

We have decided that the basement will be finished; therefore I made the decision that a basement application will work for me. I have it in my head that temperature issues will be less than on main floor applications (which may or may not be the case- but my brain has made the choice).

[no_bs]

Well we are in the midst of building our fish room with inwall tanks(total 1000g+) and a small games room under our sundeck. This will be in an area where we go in and out quite frequently to the back yard and to sit in complete solitude. It is so cold under the deck even with the sun beating down on the deck, tank temp never gets above 78F. I couldn't see putting 450g+ on the main floor, plumbing it all to the basment in the fish room(60' away). Heat is such a big factor, insulation, humidity and so on. It would be so nice to have it on display in the living room, but prying eyes and not such a good neighbour hood has made me put it down stairs. Plus in the event of a mishap, all the water will be contained to the fishroom. A well planed setup is well worth the planning. So much time and money invested in this hobby, any and all contingencies plans must be delt with before hand. This has been 2 years in the making for us and it will not be finished till everything is perfect. The only advise i can give is, be patient, do research and make sure if you want to ever upgrade, make sure you don't have to change to much to make the upgrade work.

[bigmac]

Update:
So I've just signed off on the house plans which gives me a large fish room in the basement complete with a window for ventilation, moving one of the teleposts so that an 8 foot tank can fit (yeehaw), utility sink with hot and cold water and a dedicated floor drain. I'll run all the GFCI wiring myself. So it appears that I've got a good headstart on my ultimate fish room.

It sure helps to have been in this hobby for almost 4 years (learning what I could have done differently, etc.); however it's been great to draw on everyone elses' experience on this site. Kudos to Canreef!

[monocus]

use hardy board instead of aqua board-better for moisture-you could also tile onto the hardy board with just a taping joint