kitpoon0315
Community Member
Hi everyone!
My name is Kit and I'm from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. I've never done a build thread before but am so inspired by everyone else's thread that I thought I'd try my hand at one too!
Prior to the new tank, I had a 120g mixed reef which looks like this:
Wife said that was my final final tank upgrade ever. It was beautiful and I was content, but then came an exceptional heavy rain day in Edmonton and my basement got flooded in early August and we had to rip out a large amount of our carpet. Thank goodness for insurance! This was the resulting damage to the basement:
Nearly half of my basement was damaged from the flood. It was sad...BUT it gave me an in with the wife/boss to replace my existing tank as we had to replace ALL of the carpet in the basement and the only way we can do that is to move the fish tank...which means new tank! I always imagined a fish tank would look better embedded right into the wall coming down the stairs so I started planning. This picture kinda sucks (the damaged bookshelves are in the way!) but is the spot that I have been thinking about for a while. It used to be a bar, then a walled it up so I could use it as a fish stuff storage space, and now I could finally turn it into a proper fish room.
Of course, out comes the Sketchup (www.sketchup.com - free to use and easy to learn! Watch a 10 minute video and you can be an expert in no time!) to help me visualize the space (as well as hire a company to bring this together)
I imagined I would do:
150 gallon main display tank (5 x 2 x 2)
60 gallon sump (48" x 18" x 16")
Bean Animal Overflow
Return from Overflow box
Vortech Vectra M1 Pump (from my existing tank)
Vortech MP40 Quiet Drive (from my existing tank)
2 x Kessil AP9X + hanging kit
Vertex Omega 180 protein skimmer (from my existing tank)
3 x Kessil Tuna Blue A360WE for backup (from my existing tank)
Went to my LFS and discussed the plan, and they sent a guy over to look at the space and took some time to get a quote. Then I had to work with a contractor to build the fish room, all the while trying to manage the contractors from the insurance company. Essentially, I had to deal with a fish team, a fish room team, and a basement team and ensure they weren't stepping all over one another and staying socially distant. The tank took 9 weeks to arrive, but in the mean time, we demolished the space rebuilt the flooring to ensure it can handle a tank that size in addition to ensuring it's 100% level. 8 weeks after the flood, in the middle of October, we finally made some progress:
The plastic is there to protect the existing fish tank. The remainder of the basement is also getting renovated (I thought might as well since everything is getting ripped out anyways!). Here's another picture:
I went with a different product than tile because tiles are hard to level apparently and may be fragile (according to the fish room team). The laminate product is durable and easy to level. I thought about exposed concrete but was told saltwater would really flake off the concrete over time.
The tank finally arrives at the end of October! The fish room team immediately starts building the wall around the tank as soon as it arrives:
My name is Kit and I'm from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. I've never done a build thread before but am so inspired by everyone else's thread that I thought I'd try my hand at one too!
Prior to the new tank, I had a 120g mixed reef which looks like this:
Wife said that was my final final tank upgrade ever. It was beautiful and I was content, but then came an exceptional heavy rain day in Edmonton and my basement got flooded in early August and we had to rip out a large amount of our carpet. Thank goodness for insurance! This was the resulting damage to the basement:
Nearly half of my basement was damaged from the flood. It was sad...BUT it gave me an in with the wife/boss to replace my existing tank as we had to replace ALL of the carpet in the basement and the only way we can do that is to move the fish tank...which means new tank! I always imagined a fish tank would look better embedded right into the wall coming down the stairs so I started planning. This picture kinda sucks (the damaged bookshelves are in the way!) but is the spot that I have been thinking about for a while. It used to be a bar, then a walled it up so I could use it as a fish stuff storage space, and now I could finally turn it into a proper fish room.
Of course, out comes the Sketchup (www.sketchup.com - free to use and easy to learn! Watch a 10 minute video and you can be an expert in no time!) to help me visualize the space (as well as hire a company to bring this together)
I imagined I would do:
150 gallon main display tank (5 x 2 x 2)
60 gallon sump (48" x 18" x 16")
Bean Animal Overflow
Return from Overflow box
Vortech Vectra M1 Pump (from my existing tank)
Vortech MP40 Quiet Drive (from my existing tank)
2 x Kessil AP9X + hanging kit
Vertex Omega 180 protein skimmer (from my existing tank)
3 x Kessil Tuna Blue A360WE for backup (from my existing tank)
Went to my LFS and discussed the plan, and they sent a guy over to look at the space and took some time to get a quote. Then I had to work with a contractor to build the fish room, all the while trying to manage the contractors from the insurance company. Essentially, I had to deal with a fish team, a fish room team, and a basement team and ensure they weren't stepping all over one another and staying socially distant. The tank took 9 weeks to arrive, but in the mean time, we demolished the space rebuilt the flooring to ensure it can handle a tank that size in addition to ensuring it's 100% level. 8 weeks after the flood, in the middle of October, we finally made some progress:
The plastic is there to protect the existing fish tank. The remainder of the basement is also getting renovated (I thought might as well since everything is getting ripped out anyways!). Here's another picture:
I went with a different product than tile because tiles are hard to level apparently and may be fragile (according to the fish room team). The laminate product is durable and easy to level. I thought about exposed concrete but was told saltwater would really flake off the concrete over time.
The tank finally arrives at the end of October! The fish room team immediately starts building the wall around the tank as soon as it arrives:
