Hoopsdaddy's 8 foot built-in w/tank room

H

hoopsdaddy

Premium Member
Well, I guess it is time to start my build log....
History- I have been in this hobby for 7 years. When my wife and I married 7yrs ago I had a 75g FW tank and when we bought a house together after the wedding it just set dry in the garage. She wanted me to set it back up, but I was bored with freshwater and was looking for inspiration. I found it one day while checking out the saltwater section....a red Mandarin goby, and then i saw a blue hippo tang and I was hooked. [smilie=surprised.gif]
I upgraded a year later to a 165g and have really cut my teeth on this tank. I currently have a beautiful blue hippo tang, but I learned the hard way that Mandarin's can be tough to keep.
Fast forward--
I have been looking forward to this day for about 8 months. I bought this tank in April of this year. Around January my wife and I had been discussing a remodel of our kitchen and turning our garage into a dining room and laundry room. Our garage was more of a storage place for us than a real garage and mostly just wasted space. We had just finished a remodel of our living area and opening up the whole main part of the house. After we started discussing this she said I think when we do this remodel you need to put a huge fish tank in the dining room wall. I was pumped needless to say! [smilie=rofl.gif]
So I started on the process of turning our existing garage into a large dining room, laundry room, and a fish tank room in Sept. Now my own restrictions were that I wouldn't start on the fish tank room until last as I know that I would have just forgotten about all the rest of the projects if I started on it first. Also, we were having a bunch of friends over in October and then we were planning to host Thanksgiving at our home for the first time ever. So it has all come to pass and I have completed the remodel and Thanksgiving was the best ever and now I am plunging head first into the fish tank room and the tank build.
The tank is 96x24x27, and done as a build in. It will be primarily an SPS tank with a large variety of small fish and a couple of larger peaceful fish.
The basic plan is to accomplish a lot of the things I have always wanted to do with a fish tank room. Including but not limited to--
--a large sump that has open access. --
--large fuge for macro growth and hang out for bad fish--
--frag tank that is plumbed into the main tank--
--saltwater and top-off water station for quick water changes and top-off--
--large QT setup for supplying new and existing tank with a great place to watch and treat fish--
--walk way behind stand for ease of access to the display--
--and many more goodies to come--

Well, that is the basics. I hope that many of you will join in with me and help me make this the build of my dreams. I will post pictures soon of the remodel and the plans for the fish tank room.
 
Ok, gonna try and upload a few photos to get this thread started off properly.

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This is the dining room during remodel. Where the Sheetrock is stacked is where the table is now. You can see the wall is framed up for the fish tank when the time comes.


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This is an almost finished version of the dining room. The tank will go to the left of the door in the background.

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This is a finished shot of the dining room. The tank will go in the wall directly across from the dining room table.

It took me about 8 weeks to gut most of our kitchen, remove a load bearing wall, install new electrical panel for the whole house, run a sub panel to the tank room, new plumbing for the laundry room, new electrical throughout, and then do all the cosmetics that you see in the pictures. It has been fun and we are really enjoying it.

Next photos will be of the tank room to come.
 
Thanks to everyone. I will post some more picts today Galaxy14.

Titus- I figured you would like an 8' built in......
Pete- This is what I thought when my wife said, "big tank right there".
 
A couple more pictures tonight. These are of the fish room.
The first is of the tank room as soon as you walk in. The tank will fit in the opening on the left when I cut it out. Not much longer I hope!
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The next is the same shot with more of the sheet rock done.
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Tomorrow I will try to update all that I have accomplished in the room by the end of the day.
Thanks for all the kind words so far.
 
Here's a sign of a true reef geek --> I'm getting excited [smilie=lol.gif]

Wish you were closer to Southlake
 
Ok, some updates for today. I love it that for most of today we had very little going on so I got to play in the fish room some today.
Today I got the top for the stand cut, most of the stand primed, most of the sheet rock joints around the tank tape and bedded, and got the cover put on my sub panel. Cover for the sub panel took longer than it should have, because I realized that I had screwed the box even with the stud not where the sheet rock would be....haha. I try to make it a habit to do at least one thing stupid a day so hopefully that was it.

Well, I have about 95% of the electrical done. I ran 220v to the sub panel when I started the remodel in case I ever need to wire it up for a pump or something. I have put 21 plugs in the room so far and I may put one or two more. I have all the plugs sectioned off on their breaker. Meaning plugs under tank are on one breaker. Plugs over tank are one their own and so on....

I also go my BRS Pukani Rock in today. Looks like a few of the islands, "bommies", I am going with are already built. I really like this rock. I will post some pictures of the rock I got.
Well I will shut up and post some pictures cause that is what you would like to see anyway... [smilie=lol.gif]

First lets actually see a shot of the tank!!!
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Some shots of the BRS Pukani rock.
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This piece is about 27" long and 14" tall.

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No you can't have my Taz bucket!!! You know you want it!!

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This stuff was packed very well. As good as you may have already read. Very little rubble. Maybe 2-3lbs of ruble total.
 
A few more pictures.

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As you can see the stand has a large opening on the right side. I have a couple of cripples to put in there once I decide on my sump
configuration. Honestly they aren't necessary, but I will try to add at least one.
 
Looking great and well thought-out on the electrical end of things. Those outlets look like they are in great spots to help keep things organized and easy to access.
 
Thanks Mike, I hope that I have thought out the electrical as well as I think I have. Once I start placing everything I will find out. You know how it is,,,,there is never enough plug-ins!!! :)
Ashlar, currently it is not, but I do have the ability to do this fortunately and I plan on that happening long before I am fully ready to go. Having a good friend who is in HVAC is always a plus. He is supposed to help me install a vent in the dining room although it really doesn't need it, and a small vent for the fish room. I also am considering installing an exhaust vent much like the one Titus has in his build.
 
Got a few more things done in the fish room yesterday. I was sick"cough, cough, hmmm, hmmm" and took a sick day from work to stay home and work on the tank room.
Got the Ro/Di unit hard plumed to that area, did a little more on the electrical, and put up a little more sheetrock. Was a good day not at work, and hopefully I will have some more time to work on things this weekend.
I hope to get some more tape and bedding done this week, make sure the stand is level and ready to go, and it things go really well I will put the tank on the stand this weekend. We will see, cause once it is on the stand I may be out of friends that would help me move it......
 
Thanks K R R, I have been having a lot of fun with it. I'm not in any big hurry and just taking my time buying pieces for this monster. Thanks for the kind words.

Yesterday I tape and bedded a few more seams. Man I hate sheet rock work..... LOL
 
Thanks to all for the encouragement so far. I have been having fun with this build. The last couple of days I got the rest of the framing done for the tank room and got almost all the sheet rock up. Most of the tape and bedding is complete. I will have a little more ceiling work to do once I decide exact location of my return pump and sump. Also got the tank off the floor and onto the stand. Room is turning out nice. I will post some more pictures this afternoon.

Been trying to decide about a sump. Original plan was to use a 110g Rubbermaid stock tank as a sump. I have a 75g tank that I was going to use as my hospital setup. It is drill-able. I see that most people that have tanks my size use a 40g-55g tank as a hospital. What are your thoughts? Need some help here. I could use the 75g for the sump, and then just buy a 40g breeder for the hospital tank, or I could buy a 110g stock tank and use the 75g for a hospital tank.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?????
 
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