Mits' in wall fish room/home theater build thread.

Mits · Feb 18, 2019

Tonight I ended the barebottom experiment. I found that I just love the look and some of the critters that do better with sand. I went with about a 3/4" layer, not too much so I can siphon regularly. I found that there was a lot of snail poop rolling around the bottom even when I got rid of it with weekly water changes. I'd post a pic but the tank's still cloudy. It appears that I've rocked my clowns' world, they're really exploring the space like it's a whole new tank. At least they're going everywhere together so at this point I think it's safe to say they've bonded.

P-Dub · Feb 19, 2019

Mits said:
R2R Update: this was fun...I had to rip up the whole floor and redo it.
So there's been a setback. There was cracking in the floor that I had patched, and the thought was that the rust oleum floor coating wasn't adhering to the patch. I found out that this wasn't the case. It turns out that the self leveling concrete didn't adhere to the original concrete floor...like at all. I'm going to disassemble everything and rip up the floor. I have 2 more boxes of floor coating ready to go. At least this happened now when the only tank I have is a 29. I really like my aquascape though, I think I'll get some epoxy putty to lock it in place before I move it for the floor redo.

It's too late but you need to put a masonry bonding adhesive coat before pouring the leveling compound... I'm sure that you did that this time...

P-Dub · Feb 19, 2019

The man is serious about this project! I like it a lot. In it for the long haul.

Mits · Feb 19, 2019

P-Dub said:
It's too late but you need to put a masonry bonding adhesive coat before pouring the leveling compound... I'm sure that you did that this time...

In all honesty the floor was even worse after I used the compound so I didn't bother with it the 2nd time. The result was much better.

Mits · Mar 20, 2019

Wow, it's been over another month. Not a whole lot going on with the current tank but a few things have progressed. First, I finished the theater room ceiling (short of building more acoustic absorbers.) I wanted everything to match the metal of my sliding door so I used black stainless metallic paint and painted my new can light trim rings and old vents.

In the back of the room I added some canvas art:

I've started my big decorative project for the wall behind the TV. Remember, I use Philips Hue rope lights behind my TV so I want something that will work with the light. My first though was a light stacked stone wall, but when I priced it out I realized that it is money better spent elsewhere. I then saw a site where someone faked it with wood, so I thought I'd give that a shot but I just couldn't see a way to not make it look fake. Then while messing around in the garage I decided to try a couple things. I took a block I made and painted it with the black stainless paint, then rounded the corners and repeated. I think I'm going to try a wall made like this.

Here's an example with a few unpainted blocks:

Here are two with the paint. The bottom one is the look I'm going with and the distortion on the bottom left corner of that one is from the camera, not on the block:

It's going to take a lot of work but I think I'll like it.

As far as tanks, I got a free 38 gallon bowfront, rock, sand and misc. equipment from a friend. I'm not sure what to do with the tank but I know that size isn't the best for another reef tank. I'm leaning toward keeping a pair of seahorses in it, what do you think?