Thank you all for the warm welcome and encouraging words in the meet and great forum (If I would only know how to reference that threat here....). So many of you suggested a build thread over there, that I have to oblige.... However, I didn’t really planned or even knew about build threats before I stumbled on R2R through my research. Thus don’t have all the picture of demolition, planning, build and progression (in no particular order and sometime simultaneous as the vision progressed). From now on, I will take more picture of the progression as I learned you all are lover of pictures more than the written word - fine by me ;-). But will try to layout retrospectively my thoughts and planning that went into it.
So lets start:
All started last fall, when my daughter started to talk about wanting an aquarium for her room. I will have to tell you that as a kid I wanted an aquarium too at the same age she ask for it. The next thing I remember my father was knee deep in the hobby and me standing on the sideline participating in the hobby, but not having a tank on my own till much later. But he is an awesome father and I learned a lot from him by watching over the shoulders of this wizard of handiness and knowledge. Mind you, that was 40+ years ago and he build his own aquarium controller out of “simple” IC chips from the ground up making his own circuit boards, display, control buttons and all - that controlled automatic water changes, CO2, temperature and lights. Build his own aquarium and stand and more. Wish I had some pictures of these. Yes all freshwater, but never the less. We even went on a trip to visit Tetra headquarters in Germany. The most memorable moment was seeing the founder of tetra in his German speedos with mask and snorkel in his massive indoor outdoor heated tank cutting back some of the plants in the tank greeting us. Remembering how awesome it would be having such thing in your own house...... I’m getting side tracked.
Yes my daughter got an aquarium for Christmas last year, just in case you wondered. I however, couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I wanted an aquarium too. Well even after 30+ years without a tank, and I had immediately a spot for it in my mind. Here is a picture of the basement walk in family room from when we bought our current house almost 10 years ago. Well it was stuck in the 80’s for sure...... lot’s have changed since then, the carpet is gone and we installed a slate tile floor, but we keep the original build in and wall paneling. Only later I figured out that the wall paneling is mahagoni 3/4 inch plywood. The wall to the right with the build in and mirrors is were I wanted a tank.
So lets start:
All started last fall, when my daughter started to talk about wanting an aquarium for her room. I will have to tell you that as a kid I wanted an aquarium too at the same age she ask for it. The next thing I remember my father was knee deep in the hobby and me standing on the sideline participating in the hobby, but not having a tank on my own till much later. But he is an awesome father and I learned a lot from him by watching over the shoulders of this wizard of handiness and knowledge. Mind you, that was 40+ years ago and he build his own aquarium controller out of “simple” IC chips from the ground up making his own circuit boards, display, control buttons and all - that controlled automatic water changes, CO2, temperature and lights. Build his own aquarium and stand and more. Wish I had some pictures of these. Yes all freshwater, but never the less. We even went on a trip to visit Tetra headquarters in Germany. The most memorable moment was seeing the founder of tetra in his German speedos with mask and snorkel in his massive indoor outdoor heated tank cutting back some of the plants in the tank greeting us. Remembering how awesome it would be having such thing in your own house...... I’m getting side tracked.
Yes my daughter got an aquarium for Christmas last year, just in case you wondered. I however, couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I wanted an aquarium too. Well even after 30+ years without a tank, and I had immediately a spot for it in my mind. Here is a picture of the basement walk in family room from when we bought our current house almost 10 years ago. Well it was stuck in the 80’s for sure...... lot’s have changed since then, the carpet is gone and we installed a slate tile floor, but we keep the original build in and wall paneling. Only later I figured out that the wall paneling is mahagoni 3/4 inch plywood. The wall to the right with the build in and mirrors is were I wanted a tank.
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