AquariumAdam
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2017
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 16
- What state or country do you live in
- Virginia
I’ve been fish keeping for about 20 years, with varying degrees of success along that journey. It started off in high school, keeping freshwater fish in a 20-long. In college, that progressed to a small saltwater setup that, if I’m being honest with myself, was destined for failure. My method was largely trial-and-error, with an emphasis on error.
Most recently I started a 120 gallon reef tank, but as soon as I got things set up and water flowing, my wife and I received some life changing news. We sold our house and moved across town, into a larger house. Rather than moving all my equipment, I tore it down and sold it. It was just bad timing. We couldn’t have known that our circumstances were going to change.
The new house we bought had an unfinished basement. We had the basement finished into a family room, guest bedroom, and guest bathroom. There’s also a large utility room that shares a wall with the family room. You see where this is going.
For this build, I have three specific goals. The first is, I want to build this system to minimize visible plumbing and electrical components from the front view of the tank. Obviously, if you get up next to it, and look behind it you’re going to see some pipes and wires. But from the front, I want it to look like… impossible. If that makes sense.
The second goal, is I want this system to be as easy to maintain as possible. Hence, the wide-open sump, and the dedicated fish room. I plan to implement an auto water change system, and to keep things as simple as possible.
The third goal is, I want to keep a copper banded butterfly in this system at some point.
I purchased a 142-gallon Fiji Cube rimless tank, and all the components to build a custom extruded aluminum stand. The tank is 5-foot long, 2-feet deep, and 2-feet front to back. I plan to plumb the system through the wall, into the utility room, and pair it with a horse trough style sump. Here’s the space the tank is going to go:
And here’s the utility room, from now on to be called the fish laboratory:
Last weekend I built a racking system out of unistrut to hold an RODI filter, and to support a water spigot that I installed so I have running water in there. I plan to mount the aquarium’s drain and return piping to this strut as well. I’ll add a utility sink too at some point in the future, as this room also has a pre-installed auxiliary drain.
This week the aluminum stand material arrived, and the tank arrived. I got the aluminum all cut up and assembled. A couple friends came over and we got the tank into the family room.
Today I built a simple light racking system, using a section of 7/8” Unistrut. I lagged the strut to the ceiling, but I did it with some custom stand-off hardware I made, so the strut floats below the ceiling about an inch. This creates a cool visual effect.
I like this system of mounting suspended lights because it allows you to mount the strut to multiple joists behind the drywall, while also allowing for infinitely adjustable mounting points for the light hangers. You can get the lights hung exactly where you want them, while the whole system is rock solid, mounted to actual structure.
In an effort to minimize cords, I’m going to pass the cords from the lights through the wall and into the fish laboratory, so the only cord you will see from each fixture is a small length from the top of each light, to the wall directly behind it.
I forgot to mention, I have all my rock cycling in the front of the fish laboratory in a spare 120, and I got a stainless steel work bench for the fish laboratory. I have a maroon clown going through a new specimen treatment (medicated quarantine) while I build all of this.
Any feedback would be appreciated. I’m looking forward to making more progress on this. It’s going to be a long journey.
Most recently I started a 120 gallon reef tank, but as soon as I got things set up and water flowing, my wife and I received some life changing news. We sold our house and moved across town, into a larger house. Rather than moving all my equipment, I tore it down and sold it. It was just bad timing. We couldn’t have known that our circumstances were going to change.
The new house we bought had an unfinished basement. We had the basement finished into a family room, guest bedroom, and guest bathroom. There’s also a large utility room that shares a wall with the family room. You see where this is going.
For this build, I have three specific goals. The first is, I want to build this system to minimize visible plumbing and electrical components from the front view of the tank. Obviously, if you get up next to it, and look behind it you’re going to see some pipes and wires. But from the front, I want it to look like… impossible. If that makes sense.
The second goal, is I want this system to be as easy to maintain as possible. Hence, the wide-open sump, and the dedicated fish room. I plan to implement an auto water change system, and to keep things as simple as possible.
The third goal is, I want to keep a copper banded butterfly in this system at some point.
I purchased a 142-gallon Fiji Cube rimless tank, and all the components to build a custom extruded aluminum stand. The tank is 5-foot long, 2-feet deep, and 2-feet front to back. I plan to plumb the system through the wall, into the utility room, and pair it with a horse trough style sump. Here’s the space the tank is going to go:
And here’s the utility room, from now on to be called the fish laboratory:
Last weekend I built a racking system out of unistrut to hold an RODI filter, and to support a water spigot that I installed so I have running water in there. I plan to mount the aquarium’s drain and return piping to this strut as well. I’ll add a utility sink too at some point in the future, as this room also has a pre-installed auxiliary drain.
This week the aluminum stand material arrived, and the tank arrived. I got the aluminum all cut up and assembled. A couple friends came over and we got the tank into the family room.
Today I built a simple light racking system, using a section of 7/8” Unistrut. I lagged the strut to the ceiling, but I did it with some custom stand-off hardware I made, so the strut floats below the ceiling about an inch. This creates a cool visual effect.
I like this system of mounting suspended lights because it allows you to mount the strut to multiple joists behind the drywall, while also allowing for infinitely adjustable mounting points for the light hangers. You can get the lights hung exactly where you want them, while the whole system is rock solid, mounted to actual structure.
In an effort to minimize cords, I’m going to pass the cords from the lights through the wall and into the fish laboratory, so the only cord you will see from each fixture is a small length from the top of each light, to the wall directly behind it.
I forgot to mention, I have all my rock cycling in the front of the fish laboratory in a spare 120, and I got a stainless steel work bench for the fish laboratory. I have a maroon clown going through a new specimen treatment (medicated quarantine) while I build all of this.
Any feedback would be appreciated. I’m looking forward to making more progress on this. It’s going to be a long journey.
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