Shad Quill
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2017
- Messages
- 229
- Reaction score
- 157
This is my first build in 6 years.
My family was growing and renting a home was becoming more expensive due to the size of the rental we needed and it was time for us to buy our first home.
After a lot of shopping we found a 2500 square foot house built in 1900 that would more than accommodate us and have that old-school build quality to stand up to 5 children.
Fast forward 6 years and it's time to start another reef.
I chose a spot in the living room between two windows that is a great focal point. This obviously restricted the length of the display and also my filtration options. After a lot of back and for the with pros and cons, I decided on a 60 gallon cube and basement sump. I soon realized that most manufacturers anticipate a cube to be used in a corner and have the over flows set to rear left or right corner. This wasn't going to work so I had one built out of acrylic. Acrylic wasn't my first choice.. again I have 5 kids here and we all know how easily acrylic scratches.. but from day one I established the yellow line sort of speak around the DT.
Next I needed a room directly under the tank in the basement for my sump. This quickly turned into a large fish room with room to grow. I also needed my service panel upgraded to 200 amps and a few circuits pulled over and a sink installed.
Once the room was done I started installing and building my sump. I used a lot of miscellaneous equipment I had and over the years and bought what I didn't have in pieces... from start to the point I'm at now has been about a year and a half.
Here's a video of the build about a month ago and it gives you an idea of what's going on in the sump room. ... I have changed a few things since the video but over all it's the same.
My family was growing and renting a home was becoming more expensive due to the size of the rental we needed and it was time for us to buy our first home.
After a lot of shopping we found a 2500 square foot house built in 1900 that would more than accommodate us and have that old-school build quality to stand up to 5 children.
Fast forward 6 years and it's time to start another reef.
I chose a spot in the living room between two windows that is a great focal point. This obviously restricted the length of the display and also my filtration options. After a lot of back and for the with pros and cons, I decided on a 60 gallon cube and basement sump. I soon realized that most manufacturers anticipate a cube to be used in a corner and have the over flows set to rear left or right corner. This wasn't going to work so I had one built out of acrylic. Acrylic wasn't my first choice.. again I have 5 kids here and we all know how easily acrylic scratches.. but from day one I established the yellow line sort of speak around the DT.
Next I needed a room directly under the tank in the basement for my sump. This quickly turned into a large fish room with room to grow. I also needed my service panel upgraded to 200 amps and a few circuits pulled over and a sink installed.
Once the room was done I started installing and building my sump. I used a lot of miscellaneous equipment I had and over the years and bought what I didn't have in pieces... from start to the point I'm at now has been about a year and a half.
Here's a video of the build about a month ago and it gives you an idea of what's going on in the sump room. ... I have changed a few things since the video but over all it's the same.
