Serk's 300 Gallon In Wall Build

[Serk]

Nothing's set in stone yet, but we put an offer in on a house the other day. IF the offer is eventually accepted, one of the way's the spousal unit talked me into this is that there is a room next to the living room that #1 shares a 10' wall WITH the living room, and #2 she's willing to let me have the entirety of said room as a fish room.

So, still thinking high level, but working out details of what I'll want to do here before moving anything.

#1. Planning on yanking out the carpet and laying down pondliner over the entire room, going 6" up the walls. Ideas? Is this a good idea, or incredibly stupid?

#2. Planning on keeping most of my current system, and keeping it along the walls, and as time permits, and helpers are able to come help, punching a hole in the 10' wall and setting up a new tank (6' or 8', as deep as I can get it) in there. Of course, knowing me, it'll all be one system, but planning on turning my current 150 into a predator tank (I've ALWAYS wanted a Clown Trigger!) with LR and softies. The new tank will be LPS and SPS ONLY. I'm sick of dealing with invasive softies. Yes, I'm aware of the nutrient load a predator tank plumbed into a reef will create...

So... As I said, this is all still theoretical at this point, we don't know if we're going to get the new house or not, but if we do, we've set aside a decent budget for prepping the room/moving the system, etc.

Another concern I've been mulling over. This room is on the 1st floor of a 2 story house. It has doors leading outside, but I don't recall any windows. I.E. It'd be difficult to put a window unit A/C in it. And seeing that it's got another floor above it, putting a vent in the ceiling would be difficult as well. Any thoughts/ideas as to how to deal with the humidity in this situation?

Anyway, as I said, still in the theoretical stages, but figured I'd go ahead and start a thread and start bouncing ideas out there... Even if we don't get THIS house, the other half is determined to move soon to take advantage of the depressed prices on McMansions... :roll:


(Edit by Serk - Changed the subject, since this ain't theoretical anymore!)

 

[Wes]

@Serk wrote:

woot! good luck! hope it all works out.

i guess it could work out, but what happens if your wife goes in there when an emergency does happen and in a frantic ends up slipping on the slippery, wet plastic and gets hurt? i put the liner along the bottom of my sump and did it up a couple inches. maybe instead of the whole room, maybe frame up a border around the tanks and confine it there, not the whole room.

not that this would necesarily be the way for you or how you would want to do it or even work, just an idea. But...couldnt you help in reducing its impact by using filter socks on the drains from the aggressive tank? you would still catch some good things like you can from your reef, but there would be more negative than positive with these messy, big fish. do i hear volcano skimmer anyone?

simplist way is just a large dehumidifier like the LFS use. Another would be a window unit in the door. i know it sounds odd, but it would work. if there are two then make one permanant and use if for this. another drastic change would be to add a window.

lookin forward to helpin if its needed, even way in your side of the world

 

[extinguishfire]

I think the pond liner is a great idea. I did it at my house in my 4 x 11 fish closet and it has already come in handy. While filling up my water change vat I forgot to turn it off at the right time. The pond liner kept prob. 20 gallons from going to surrounding rooms and causing issues. Especially with the wife. I also put pond line on walls around tank to protect them from splashes.

 

[Ashlar]

Agreed on nixing the pond liner.. how abour laying a drain in the center and building up a cement sloped bed and tile the floor and first six inches of wall? Make a lip that you have to step over at the door.. one big shower stall.

 

[Wes]

@Ashlar wrote:

hmmm...interesting...

 

[Serk]

Hmmm... The tile idea does sound nicer, but sounds like a lot more work/money. I'm not TOO rushed, but I will be under the gun to get my current tanks moved before TOO much times passes... We're planning on keeping our current house and turning it into a rental until the housing market turns around, we we're budgeting to be making payments on both houses for a while, but do wanna vacate the current one so it can be cleaned up and put on the rental market as quickly as possible...

I do like the idea though, just not sure how practical it'd be...

Still mulling over ideas...

Prefer to avoid a large dedicated de-humifidier due to the high costs of those things. Also don't like filter socks being used permanently due to the nitrate factory aspect of one...

(Not shooting ANYTHING down at this point, as I said, still doing high level planning in my head... )

 

[newtofish]

As for the pond liner idea.....I have thought a lot about but not tried. My son is only a year from leaving on his own and I get his room as fishroom.

Pulling up the flooring and installing six inches of blue board as baseboard and using the Garage floor sealant on the entire area.

http://www.garagesealers.com/

Just an idea but if you try it now Serk you would basically take the Research and Development out of my way :roll:

 

[Wes]

how about a combined design on the floor. build a slightly angled raised floor that drains from the tank to the back wall. at the wall end, have a long grate covered drain and have that lead to a single pipe through the outside wall. doesnt have to be big, just slightly raised enough for the drain and could be a sinmple 2x4 and plywood like platform. then, cover this with the grit like garage sealer...the one that appears to have sand or something in it to give you grip. this way, it would be sealed off so water wont go anywhere but the drain. dont know, alot of work for something that may not work so well, but just thinking out loud. i personally want an actually floor drain in my next house and subsequent fish room

 

[fperkins]

Have the concrete polished, stained, and a pattern "grooved" towards a drain hole cut into the floor. Grooves can be cut at a slight down pitch, don't need to be all that deep.

Use a sump pump in the drain hole.

Watch the Habitat Outlet (http://dallas-habitat.org/outlet/index.php) for tile or preferably longer sections of marble bathtub liner. Will go up quicker.

Install a pocket door replacement on the interior door so you can build up a knee knocker like on ships.

 

[debdp]

As far as AC, you could consider a portable AC unit. You would only need to vent a 4" hole.

 

[hegi]

I like Scott's drain idea, you could even make a lip that slopes on both sides near the door so you wouldn't have to worry as much about tripping over it.

 

[melev]

I would seal the concrete floor with epoxy resin, then silicone the baseboard both at the base where it touches the concrete and along the top of the baseboard.

If that room because submerged, any external pumps would be submerged as well. That won't be good. If they could be put in containers that are even taller, they would stay dry but then you have the issue of a pump sitting in trapped heat.

The doorway will need something to keep the water in the room, and that means something to step over or trip on, including each and every guest.

For A/C and humidity, it would have to be a portable unit as others suggested. It definitely needs it, based on what I've seen in my own fish room.

 

[TRITON1]

Ditto on the epoxy resin approach. I cant imagine pond liner looking nice and finished.

A predator tank doesnt seem like it should add too much to the bioload assuming your not adding too many large fish. Seems like it would be just like adding a large tang. After all, along with the fish in there is 125g of extra water. BTW clown triggers are definately one of the coolest fish around, its a shame they are not reef safe. Heres my old one:

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As far as A/C is concered, you could replace the door with a wall and put the A/C unit there, or you could cut a hole in the wall for a unit (depeneding on what space is available) You would just have to patch it up when you move again.

 

[Serk]

Well, you'd think I'd know better than to put the cart before the horse... Someone else got an offer in before us and their offer was accepted...

So... The specifics of this particular room are out. However, the high level discussion is still good, we're still looking for a new/bigger house, preferably with something that can be turned into a fishroom with a shared wall with the living room, so we'll see what happens...

 

[Guest]

Hi, This is a link to an ebay auction for a cool ac unit. It doesn't require a window. You only need a 3" hole in the wall. I thought about one of these if I ever have a fish room. [http://cgi.ebay.com/DC-INVERTER-DUCTLESS-MINI-SPLIT-AIR-CONDITIONER-AC-HEAT_W0QQitemZ150262914036QQihZ005QQcategoryZ20711QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]

 

[Wes]

ok, so is this counter offer thing on the house you were expecting and mentioning here or a different one?

 

[Serk]

@Wes wrote:

The house we just signed a contract for is a different one from the one I was originally mentioning in this thread...

However, the one we're currently under contract with does have a 12x6 hobby room that shares a wall with the dining room. So the inwall indea may have legs afterall...

I need to find out if that wall is load bearing or not. If it is load bearing, I'm leaning towards just putting the tank in the dining room in a traditional stand, and putting holes in the wall for plumbing and electrical, so I can at least keep the equipment in the fish room.

The more I look at current tanks, the more I'm leaning towards keeping me current circa 2000 Oceanic 150 Reef Ready instead of getting a new tank. I'm just not liking the build quality on most newly built tanks.

But, we'll see... I probably won't have room to do the original idea of a predator tank with my current 150 in this setup... Still tossing ideas around in my head...

 

[DaveJ]

Brian,

I would look at putting in an industrial style epoxy or high impact anti-slip synthetic tile floor with splash guard around the room. It would be ideal to have a drain the floor too, but that can be very pricey to put in afterwards... but I would suggest you at least get a shop style sink installed with water and drain lines, similar to how the washer and dryers are plumbed out. You could plumb in the water change plumbing into that.. some sort of drain will be very useful as will the source of water for RO/DI etc.

Start planning the stand, I would go metal with powder coating or something like that, then build the stand and 'dressing' around that on both sides.

Good luck!

 

[Serk]

We're still several weeks from closing, but IF things go through, this would be the view of the in-wall tank... The tank would be on the wall with the mirror on it...

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The room through the door in this pic would be the fish room, and where the tank itself would live, as well as all equipment... The left wall of that room is the same wall with the mirror on it in the first pic...

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The washer/dryer are right outside that room, so it should be trivial to run a drain and water supply line over and set up a shop-sink in the fish room too...

View of the inside of the potential fishroom-to-be:

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Not getting my hopes up TOO high yet, there are still a billion things that could go wrong, but..... 8)

 

[Guest]

if you want another 150 rr oceanic i will have one ready to go by end of the month...needs a new centerbrace and top trim you can have it for free..only catch is i want to keep the stand. this is an offer to serk only so nobody pm for the tank :twisted: