Equipment Rooms, Closets and Spaces....You know you want one!

[Shawn Blevins]

Some photos of my progress

 

[Shawn Blevins]

Try again

 

[Greaps]

Well, skimmer gets rid of physical fish poop and mucus. Carbon doesn’t. Filter cup does, but then it’s a nutrient source if you don’t change it out enough. The fuge takes up nutrients released by the decaying matter.

Personally, I get rid of the bulk stuff with the skimmer, and deal with dissolved nutrients by feeding macro in the fuge.

Don’t run a reactor off the return. It’s a pain to dial the pump in and out if you want to keep the overflow constant.

I have a fuge manifold off my return and I can’t do anything in the fuge without it affecting my overflow. I’m about to rip it out and put the fuge on a 500gph pump out of the return chamber.

I run 2 reactors off a mini manifold with its own pump. Little $15 400gph thing. Far easier and less hassle to run it like that.

Makes sense I didn't consider how the media would impact the overflow over time maybe media bag in a baffle would be better. Great advice.

I may have different idea's for the system design than some because I'm particularly sensitive to the idea of fire and flooding when leaving a tank unattended with a tank sitter for 3-4 weeks at a time. Perhaps fire concerns are not well supported given I am acquiring higher end gear, but it still concerns me. In my mind, having less equipment / system design on the tank reduces some risk. Which goes against the idea of equipment closet / room in general.

 

[JCOLE]

I have a dedicated room, called "Backwoods Lab", aka shipping container. Instead of moonshine, we're trying to raise NPS softies. It's in the boonies. Hot as heck out there. .....heeeeee

That's awesome. Gotta do what you gotta do!!

 

[Rick Mathew]

What field you in? I’m in gene therapy/therapeutic RNAi/theranostic imaging .

In my past life (pre-retirement) I was a CTO of a muti-national company---Responsible for several analytical and testing labs....Now I am a Reef Junkie...Grandpa...and an industry consultant----When I feel like it

 

[Manthanol]

It's my wife's dream... and she really hates all the frozen fish food I have in the freezer

 

[User]

Makes sense I didn't consider how the media would impact the overflow over time maybe media bag in a baffle would be better. Great advice.

I may have different idea's for the system design than some because I'm particularly sensitive to the idea of fire and flooding when leaving a tank unattended with a tank sitter for 3-4 weeks at a time. Perhaps fire concerns are not well supported given I am acquiring higher end gear, but it still concerns me. In my mind, having less equipment / system design on the tank reduces some risk. Which goes against the idea of equipment closet / room in general.

Go with a small reactor and a power head. Like an mj600 or mj1200 or something. More efficient than a bag plus controllable

Personally think fire risk is low if you use good equipment and ‘drip loops’ etc.

Flooding is easily managed with redundant drains and proper placement of float switches and controller for example.

But regardless of how fool proof you make it, at some point it’s going to throw you a curve ball. I personally think having more space to spread things out makes it a little easier on a tank sitter, despite the initial ‘daunting’ feeling of seeing a big room full of equipment.

 

[Braves Fan]

That's the one thing I regret about my house ,, its was built back in the day before I got into the hobby ,,,

 

[ca1ore]

I've had a dedicated basement fish/sump room for decades. Once you go 'separate' you never go back. Mine is CRAZY - not even remotely possible to have all this stuff under the stand . Would like to have a floor drain, just in case; but absent that …. slop sink.

 

[mygsris2slo4u]

I’ll play...

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Love the fish rooms here! I do have a lofty goal to eventually have a warehouse space dedicated to fish and corals.

 

[atoll]

A dedicated room for equipment yes a dedicated room for the tank similar to a cinema room no. Why? I want my tank where I spend most of my time in the evening in my living room. I don't want a room where I have to go in just to view it. A dedicated equipment room would be nice with plenty of space in there.

 

[427HISS]

I am pretty confident in what I am about to say and if I am wrong let me know. Here goes. It is a reefers dream to have a dedicated "room" or "space" for all the aquarium gear!

So how did I do? Yes or no? VOTE in the poll above! Anyway let's talk about it.

If you don't have a dedicated equipment room you'll want to stay tuned in!

So for me, on my latest dream build, a room behind my tank for the sump, equipment and more was a must. I had never had a dedicated space and I was finally going to get it done. But how do I do it and where do I start? Seems pretty simple until you really start getting into the details. I mean if you're going to put this much time, money and effort into something like this you don't want to make mistakes. But mistakes will be made!

Side note I'll be on a LIVE broadcast with Ryan of BRS in Minnesota coming up on Sept. 19th talking about some of this stuff!

For me I really "leaned" on information I could find here and the answers I got as the build progressed. As I gathered info I would formulate a plan and relay that to whoever needed to know! In the first phase it was the contractors who we're building in the room in the basement behind where the tank was going to be placed. But as I went along and finished certain phases I realized that I missed something or I messed something up. Educating myself and researching sure mitigated a lot of problems but inevitably there were going to be mistakes.

This is where you come in to either help educate others or learn for yourself. So I really want to hear from all of you that do have these dedicated spaces. Here goes the question.

What are some mistakes you made or things you wish you would have done when building in your dedicated tank room?

BONUS: Let's see your equipment rooms!

This was shortly after I got the tank set up and most everything done. Some things have changed and some things are still glaring at me in the photo. I'll post some of my mistakes as we go along!

Wow buddy, it all looks awesome. Can you say what company made the R2R neon sign ? Way cool. I have quite the amount of neon clock's and a lot of "man cave", stuff to put in my garage when it's done.

 

[krash7172]

Converted a closet that involved framing for built-in tank and moved the door to the side.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Converted a closet that involved framing for built-in tank and moved the door to the side.

I'm jealous

 

[Useful_Idiot]

Wish I did a floor print like one of these under clear epoxy

 

[User]

Wow buddy, it all looks awesome. Can you say what company made the R2R neon sign ? Way cool. I have quite the amount of neon clock's and a lot of "man cave", stuff to put in my garage when it's done.

That sign was made by a member here- but I forget who... I wish I knew because I’ve wanted to pick his brains about fabbing it for months now.

I do know it’s in a build thread somewhere, tucked in real good.

 

[BeejReef]

It's my wife's dream... and she really hates all the frozen fish food I have in the freezer

True that!

I mean, I appreciate the water mix setup in the basement and having a few drawers in the big hutch thingie next to the fish tank. Still, my "dream" is for my wife to understand that the alkalinity checker does indeed belong on the dining room table next to the salt and pepper, where I don't have to dig for it

 

[flsalty]

I want a dedicated house.

 

[Shawn Blevins]

I would really like to add a utility sink to my laundry room, it is where my mixing station is. The problem is there is no drain except the one for the washing machine. Has anyone ever tapped into that as the drain for a sink? Any issues to be aware of? Thanks!

Cut the Sheetrock back and installed a t with proper drain fittings for sink. Need to check and make sure a vent pipe is installed on you washing machine drain. Installed mine as stated above and been fine for years.