My 240, My 240/Basement Fish Room, My 240/Basement Fish Room/built into a full wall bookcase and focal point of house addition.

[JGT]

I had mine on a linear actuator and pulley system that moved it up and down. Originally it was for sunrise, sunset with the halides and for maintenance. I moved to LEDs and really have no need to move the lights, so scrapped the lift frame. Always interested to see how people setup their light movers though.

That was my original plan. Was going to use a couple of linear actuators with like 150 pound capacity for the pair.
Then was following a build thread of an R2R member @kenchilada who was doing the tubular shade motor and I loved the idea. I also loved the fact that I could control it from either a keypad or my phone/iPad. Built the frame from 80/20 extruded aluminum and used m5 stainless screws to mount the Radions to the rack. The heads fit perfectly in the slots so I can slide the Radions anywhere I want along the rack. And as I said, I use it quite regularly. Plus it adds the Wow factor for guests. Some care more about controlling the lights from my phone then the tank. Here’s a video but will only be able to view it from a PC. Gotta post it up on YT.

 

[Digitalfirex]

Another nutmegger, what town you in?

Norwalk currently. But I grew up in Stamford.

 

[Digitalfirex]

Probably not. As you can see, I’m not exactly in need of more coral.

In fact I have the opposite problem. My corals grow like crazy and having to manage their growth is a constant battle. It’s probably my biggest headache with the tank. I know…good problem to have but it it time consuming and I hate fragging my corals cause I wind up chucking them and then there’s the period where they go though the semi-ugly phase as they grow back.

Definitely don't throw them away... just hit me up

 

[JGT]

Norwalk currently. But I grew up in Stamford.

I’m in Redding about 20 mins north of you. Frequent Washington Street fairly regularly for its bars and restaurants. Cool place.

 

[JGT]

Definitely don't throw them away... just hit me up

Here’s the thing..I have an 80 gallon lowboy in the basement fish room that I planned to setup and had dreams of retiring on all the frags I’d sell. But unless you are willing to ship, it’s tough to get enough interest locally for pickups. So the tank is empty and my frags go in the garbage.
I also don’t want to run separate filtration for it. I want to be able to use DT water but the layout down there makes it a bit of a challenge. I will post it here eventually and look for you guys to help me think it through.

 

[fltt]

Here’s the thing..I have an 80 gallon lowboy in the basement fish room that I planned to setup and had dreams of retiring on all the frags I’d sell. But unless you are willing to ship, it’s tough to get enough interest locally for pickups. So the tank is empty and my frags go in the garbage.
I also don’t want to run separate filtration for it. I want to be able to use DT water but the layout down there makes it a bit of a challenge. I will post it here eventually and look for you guys to help me think it through

Just an idea.... What if you had a few people that were interested in corals come over and help frag them and in return they get free frags and you have help trimming up your display. Always a daunting task by yourself but there is always extra motivation with help...

 

[JGT]

So continuing onwards…I always had plans to do an home addition and as I was doing the design I thought, what a great place and time to setup the big tank. So without getting into all the building plans, designs and pics since this isn’t a home building forum, I planned for the tank to be up against the wall on the left hand side of the double doors leading to a new office. So that was my plan and I started to move forward with it after I finished the addition.

I wanted the tank to have more of a presence in the room so I built a platform to mount the stand to. This would raise it up 8” or so and get the bottom of the tank above the backs of the sofas so it could be seen from anywhere in the room.

While the stand was solid and well built, I figured why not add a little extra muscle to it. I had some reconstituted 4x4’s and old decking that I cut to size and glued/screwed into key support areas of the stand. I painted the whole stand with a primer and several coats of white latex semi gloss-both inside and out.

The tank was in decent shape but it had a few scratches so I got my drill, a buffer pad and several grades of acrylic polish and buffed it to perfection-both inside and out.

I’ve included a few pics detailing the layout and some early work on the stand and tank.

So continuing on….stand is completed. Tank is all buffed out and sitting against the wall where I intend to put it.

I'm sitting on the couch and looking at it and something feels off. On the left is this tank which is a focal point, but on the right side is a blank wall. Too asymmetrical. So then I start thinking how can I fix that issue?

Boom, immediately a bookcase comes to mind. But then as I start to think that through, I realize that the tank is 24” deep where the bookcase will only be 12” deep so it will look like 2 separate objects. I want it to look like 1 cohesive piece. The only way to do that is bump out the bookcase 12”+ inches to have the front line up with the tank. But then I’ ll have this 12”+ void in the back of the bookcase which would look ridiculous. Then I got the wonderful idea of doing a hidden door on it and using it as a closet. Void problem solved.

Since I wanted both sides to be symmetrical, this would mean removing the double French doors to my office, walling up one of the openings and installing a single French door. I loved the double doors but a small price to pay to make the whole bookcase built ins work.

Rather than build the bookcase from scratch, I found premade ones that when combined covered the section of wall perfectly. All I had to do was to add some moldings and trim and it would make things go a lot quicker. I’d save the hidden door for last. Time to get to work.

 

[JGT]

Just an idea.... What if you had a few people that were interested in corals come over and help frag them and in return they get free frags and you have help trimming up your display. Always a daunting task by yourself but there is always extra motivation with help...

Not a bad idea but I’d have people over my house every week. And while I like you guys….you get where I’m going with this.

 

[JGT]

My Maxima looking particularly cute this evening…

 

[JGT]

An example of a coral I need to trim. Jedi mind trick plating out and growing around a Sarmensis. Under it is a Raja Rampage getting shaded but also plating.

 

[JGT]

Luckily, these are all branching euphys so fragging is easier than if they were walls. But most can’t be removed to frag so that becomes a problem. Don’t like to use bone cutters on euphys. Too much blunt force trauma that can sometimes shatter the skeleton. Prefer to use my Dremel with diamond cutting wheel but only out of the tank obviously.

 

[JGT]

This guy’s an enigma. Pretty, grows like crazy, easy to frag with sharp scissors but ever since it’s gotten bigger, it seems to have lost its long polyps. See current, when it was smaller and when I first got it as a baby.

 

[JGT]

Some wicked PE….9-10”

 

[JGT]

Spicy lemon favia and sunset monti fighting it out. Midas blenny taking it all in.

 

[X-37B]

Throwback Tuesday…1990’s reef tank. Still have this tank, stand, hood, wet/dry filter sitting empty in basement.

That brings back some 90's memories for me. Love the new system! I dont have any 90's pics but I still have a late 80's book.

 

[JGT]

That brings back some 90's memories for me. Love the new system! I dont have any 90's pics but I still have a late 80's book.

Thank you. Ah good ‘ol’ Albert Thiel. Pioneer in the Berlin method. Him and Sprung were da men back then. That book might be worth a frag or 2.

 

[nuxx]

Wow great looking tank! Really make me miss my old one

 

[JGT]

Wow great looking tank! Really make me miss my old one

Thanks. What happened to yours?

 

[JGT]

Couple FTS from last week.

 

[JGT]

So continuing the story….I realized I had an unused space in the basement that would serve as a great fish room so I decided to put all the equipment down there.
I built a table for my sump and ato and built a structure to hold my RODI and FSW 50 gallon pails. I reused some decking boards that I had when I converted my decks to Trex. I painted them with some leftover paint.
The floor was completely concrete which tended to be cold in the winter, so I installed some PVC perforated garage flooring in a blue/grey check board style. The perforated floor allowed any spills to fall through keeping my feet dry.
Finally, I ordered a utility sink off of eBay. I ran copper to the room, I decided to only run cold as I figured hot wouldn’t be necessary. I tied in my RODI filter to this for source water.
There was no tie in to a sewer or septic so I ran PVC from the sink outside and buried it under ground. I ran it off into the woods so all waste water would exit there in a small dry well. This turned out to be indispensable in the day to day use of the room.
Added my sump and all that goes in it, along with Phyto/pods setup.
I decided to use flexible PVC as it would give softer turns so would have less impact on the flow.
Ran plumbing and pumps that allow me to pump 45 gallons from my sump into the sink and then pump water from the FSW pail back into the sump in like 15 mins. Makes WC fast and easy. Pics are below.
The beauty of the fish room is that my DT is completely silent. Adds to the ambiance of the room.