Dream House for Dream Tank

[JackDanielsFTW]

Sump room behind tank, or, in basement? Hi everyone, my wife and I are in the beginning stages of designing our forever home to be custom built. One thing we know we want is a large DT, somewhere in the 180-360 gallon range. Of course, the final determination of the size of the tank will be based somewhat on the available space for the tank. But, as we begin designing floor plan layouts to consider for our build, we had a discussion on the best location for a sump room. Since this will be our first large aquarium, we'd like to get opinions from the masses.

If you were in our shoes and had the choice, would you build a sump/equipment room on the main living floor in a room behind the DT, or, place it in a basement below the tank? Assume a basement will be dug out anyway, so there's no additional cost from that aspect.

Thank you in advance for all of your great thoughts and opinions.

 

[glb]

If you have the room, I’d put the sump room behind the tank. It seems to me that it would be easier to go back and forth between the sump area and the tank that way. Plus you wouldn’t have to buy pumps to get the water up and down an entire floor. Good luck!

 

[Bsully]

Tank/room same level.

Stairs suck.

When you retire they suck even more.

Any leg, back or bone issues into retirement are amplified greatly when using any staircase.
And you so much as sprain an ankle you're not seeing your basement or anything in it for a long few weeks

If it is indeed a "forever home" your not going to want any stairs anywhere, when you get older it will get to the point where both of you will dread stairs and then the arguing follows on who does the stairs to deal with the tank or laundry or anything basement related.

You will get to that age where stairs are no longer usable so your done using your forever home basement for anything and then the conversation will turn to Honey lets find a forever home with no stairs to retire in and enjoy our tank.........

Forever homes need to be planned for an entire life cycle not just where you're at in life now.
Plan for the unforeseen especially when it comes to crutches, walkers or wheelchairs or anything mobility related your not going to want any steps anywhere and you also don't want your home to become inaccessible to you in the event something happens and you need a house with no steps to recover in.
Good luck!

 

[MickeyCT]

Amen to that! I'm of that certain age and trying to decide if I should move my sump from under my stand to the basement. Definitely worried about stairs in the future as I've got some discomfort already in knees and ankles. But, getting down on my hands and knees to work in the sump or remove the skimmer cup for cleaning, etc. is also a big pain. Wish I had the room to move it behind my tank. Maybe I need to talk to hubby about finding a new forever home with no stairs and a fish room like Bsully says above.