Post by Pokahpolice on Mar 2, 2015 10:53:47 GMT -5
I already shared a pic of the new frag tank but we've decided to make this our fish room. I figured I'd start a build thread.
The Room - This room is in my parents home and has been a computer room / large closet since I was a kid (no, I don't live with my parents
...I just don't have the right space in my home to do this). I first had the idea when after setting up my father's 57 rimless tank. I was adding a dosing pump and trying to figure out a good spot for it. As you all know there is never enough room in the stand. I decided the best spot was in the room behind the tank. After a lot of convincing for my mom to allow us drill a hole in the wall we set it up nicely. We immediately started talking about making this a fish room. We got the green light from the boss (Mom) a few weeks back.
We started cleaning stuff out and when we moved the computer desk I noticed a pipe in the floor that I had kicked thousands of times while playing my favorite PC games as a kid. Lo and behold, it's a floor drain piped into the room during construction and then just capped off. We uncapped it and tested to see if it would take water...it did. We then went on a mission to get a slop sink and water line plumbed in. This weekend I found an open line near the main water line and ran PEX from that to the room. Drop ceilings made it pretty easy.
We also added a heavy duty shelving unit next to the sink. Each shelf is rated for 800lbs plus I replaced the planks to make sure they will hold the weight of 2 - 29 gallon tanks. These tanks will hold R/O and Saltwater Mix. I'm also plumbing each tank with an overflow safety drain to the sink so we can never have a flood. I don't trust float switches alone. We will also use a dosing unit to do automatic water changes (AWC).
The System - A few months back I set up a 57 gallon rimless tank in the kitchen (pics below). This is the display tank and is up and running independently with all plumbing and equipment in the sump under the stand. A few weeks ago I ordered a 48"x24"x12" frag tank and stand from Easy Aquariums (pic below). The frag tank is going into the fish room which sits behind the wall of the display tank.
Existing Sump
The existing sump will be shut down but stay under the DT because we can't get it out without draining the tank. It only fits in the stand by feeding it in from the top. It's kind of too bad because it's a very nice professionally made glass sump but I'm not willing to do a complete drain and move to get a sump tank. Good news is that just meant we had to order a new nicer sump
. I decided on the Trigger Ruby Elite 36 which came in last week but had a small crack in one of the baffles so had to go back. Jason actually decided to keep it and is going to use it on his frag system in the new shop. Mine should be in any day now. I will then plumb the DT tank thru the wall into the sump under the frag tank. The frag tank will also be plumbed into the same sump.
Lighting over the frag tank is going to be Metal Halide/T5. I'm really not interested in starting a debate thread, RC has plenty of them if you're interested, but personally I may be done with LEDs. The DT does and will continue to have LEDs. I'll be doing some testing on growth under each light but until I'm convinced otherwise, I won't invest in LEDs again. I'll just deal with the cost and the heat to run what I consider the best lighting.
The Room - This room is in my parents home and has been a computer room / large closet since I was a kid (no, I don't live with my parents
...I just don't have the right space in my home to do this). I first had the idea when after setting up my father's 57 rimless tank. I was adding a dosing pump and trying to figure out a good spot for it. As you all know there is never enough room in the stand. I decided the best spot was in the room behind the tank. After a lot of convincing for my mom to allow us drill a hole in the wall we set it up nicely. We immediately started talking about making this a fish room. We got the green light from the boss (Mom) a few weeks back. We started cleaning stuff out and when we moved the computer desk I noticed a pipe in the floor that I had kicked thousands of times while playing my favorite PC games as a kid. Lo and behold, it's a floor drain piped into the room during construction and then just capped off. We uncapped it and tested to see if it would take water...it did. We then went on a mission to get a slop sink and water line plumbed in. This weekend I found an open line near the main water line and ran PEX from that to the room. Drop ceilings made it pretty easy.
We also added a heavy duty shelving unit next to the sink. Each shelf is rated for 800lbs plus I replaced the planks to make sure they will hold the weight of 2 - 29 gallon tanks. These tanks will hold R/O and Saltwater Mix. I'm also plumbing each tank with an overflow safety drain to the sink so we can never have a flood. I don't trust float switches alone. We will also use a dosing unit to do automatic water changes (AWC).
The System - A few months back I set up a 57 gallon rimless tank in the kitchen (pics below). This is the display tank and is up and running independently with all plumbing and equipment in the sump under the stand. A few weeks ago I ordered a 48"x24"x12" frag tank and stand from Easy Aquariums (pic below). The frag tank is going into the fish room which sits behind the wall of the display tank.
Existing Sump
The existing sump will be shut down but stay under the DT because we can't get it out without draining the tank. It only fits in the stand by feeding it in from the top. It's kind of too bad because it's a very nice professionally made glass sump but I'm not willing to do a complete drain and move to get a sump tank. Good news is that just meant we had to order a new nicer sump
. I decided on the Trigger Ruby Elite 36 which came in last week but had a small crack in one of the baffles so had to go back. Jason actually decided to keep it and is going to use it on his frag system in the new shop. Mine should be in any day now. I will then plumb the DT tank thru the wall into the sump under the frag tank. The frag tank will also be plumbed into the same sump.Lighting over the frag tank is going to be Metal Halide/T5. I'm really not interested in starting a debate thread, RC has plenty of them if you're interested, but personally I may be done with LEDs. The DT does and will continue to have LEDs. I'll be doing some testing on growth under each light but until I'm convinced otherwise, I won't invest in LEDs again. I'll just deal with the cost and the heat to run what I consider the best lighting.
