Fishroom Reality Check

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Breakdown continues

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Was in home despot today looking at storage solutions for our storage room and found a returned Husky 3 tier welded rack for 25% off. $120. I’d planned on building a wooden rack for my water station, but pricing it out I was coming up with $85 just for the lumber, and I also had to include labor and other consumables. So I grabbed the metal rack.

it fits almost the exact profile I had planned to build in and will give me capacity for 4 x 55g barrels in a 2/2 over/under configuration. Not as cool as some of the big white norwesco barrels, but I already have3 barrels and I have space.

I am going to have to completely redo the plumbing etc, but I’ll keep it going in a 1/1 configuration for a little while. Probably 4-5 months until I grab another barrel and make 100g at a time of both RODI and SW. at that volume, I’ll be able to do AWC at 3 gallons (1.35%) per day for a month

Of course, I’ll continue to do the automatic ATO top-off using the apex and the solenoid, and the 56” barrel height gives me enough head pressure that it’ll have no issue running around the room in 1/4” ro tubing.
Instead of hard plumbing to the sump for WC, I’ll just us 3/4” hose and a spigot, that way I can refill sump, and QT tanks using the same system.

I have movers helping me with the 189 and the 125 sump in Wednesday. A little pricey, but I don’t have friends to call on to help, and this’ll get it done.
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ooh that rack might be good for normal aquariums too.

edit: apparently windows 10 emojis get removed. and why is there no thinking emoji.
 
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ooh that rack might be good for normal aquariums too.

edit: apparently windows 10 emojis get removed. and why is there no thinking emoji.
Unfortunately, that rack, racks, when you don’t install all the shelves... even adding the back shelf support didn’t quite stiffen it up enough. It also needs way too much work to get it useable before next week, so I took it down. I’m going to stick with my original corner cabinet and 1/1 over/under config until I really need the extra capacity/ get time to mess with it.

I might return it and rebuy later, but I think I might end up going back to my custom built idea. Biggest issue is that once the 4 barrels and plumbing are installed, the barrels are directly over each other... so now you don’t have space to add salt.
Now-
 

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Got a few hours to screw together this tank stand for the dining room. Used the ultra-reliable, over engineered ‘RocketEngineer’ design. Sheath with 1/2” ply and add some trim to match the room and I’ll call it done

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Hi Guys

[changed title from Fishroom Reality Check after moved to Members Tanks]


I have an unfinished basement, and i was planning on taking one corner to build a 11x 8 fishroom to contain a 185 gallon sump system (2 x 29g + 125) to support an in wall 180g DT. For perspective- its a new to us home, needs other work, have a 2 year old and one on the way in august, so not a huge amount of free time. We decided to get a contractor to look at it and give us a quote, but we took a hit with a new boiler and fence and had to cut the budget- I need opinions on what i could potentially drop from the build to bring costs in line. Right now, hes coming in about $1000 more than we'd really like. Considering electrical and floors arent included, we'd like to find the savings so we can do those too.

The FloorPlan

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The Space

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The 2x 4 on the ground mark the new walls. The window with the black glass square will be covered from the inside but look intact from outside (HOA mandated). Id rather cover it for the insulation ability and the fact I dont want extra sunlight in the refugium/ sump. Thoughts on keeping/ losing the window? bare in mind im not hanging out here, just maintenance.

Plan is to do 2x4 walls, full R13 insulation in the walls. 1/2 inch XPS foam along the cinder block walls. 8 feet total height (7 feet 71/2 inches inside height- works for me) to give 18 inches space up top for small tote storage (id be losing storage space to build the room) and to run my plumbing over and set the fan on top. Outside walls will be drywall, inside walls will be 15/32" plywood sheathing painted with latex paint and seams sealed with silicone. I picked plywood for walls to allow me to run pipe hangers and shelves anywhere, and not have to worry about finding a stud.

Door to the room is a 22" door we have already from our reno. Quote included hanging this door in a specified position.

Environmental info-

Since we moved in in October, the basement hasnt dropped below 68oF. Thats including a winter in suburbs atlanta were we got 3 feet snow for a month and the ground froze. Its just hitting the mid 80's outside temp and the basement right this second is 68.5oF. No moisture penetration on floor or any of the walls. I painted the cinder block with 2 gallons of drylok paint to cover a bad attempt by the PO, and before i figured out to use this are for fishroom.

I had intended to run 1/2 inch XPS against the cinder block, and R13 in the walls for insulation. Given these environmental parameters for this room, is this overkill? Im in two minds- save $350-400 on insulation, which doesnt drop the price of the build down *that much, really*, or insulate and be happier that my heating costs are lower. But will they be, if i vent to outside anyway? im losing heat there, too.

Regardless, I think im also going to cover the sump glass with 2" xps anyway, to contain heat in the water, and do acrylic covers.

Thoughts

Having just written this out, i dont see anywhere i can cut to make it cost less. Materials cost is the cost- i might be able to cut the budget on labor, by doing some of it myself. Have the contractors do framing and hang the ceiling drywall, and tape and mud the outside walls (two person jobs and those requiring good finishing- i suck at drywall mud) but i hang the inside panels, seam, paint and hang the external drywall. Run ventilation and limited electrical myself.


Stuff not included in quote-


Ventilation will be an inline 6" fan venting to the outside (soffit space above window). Make up air will come in through an in wall chase to a vent near the floor- pulling air from the first floor. Actually running a 6" duct alongside my plumbing makes it easy. Not included in quote.

1 15 amp circuit in the wall to power a few receptacles, lights and the fan. 3 other 15 amp circuits will be in conduit on the walls acting as big 'extension cords' for the apex EB8's x 3. Electrical isnt in the quote, just giving you an idea. FIL is a licensed sparky.

Floor- self level compound to 1", then 2-part epoxy on floor. Not included in quote.

Stands- cinderblock, unistrut and plywood stands for the various tanks. Not included in quote.

Any opinions, thoughts, advice for trying to limit the budget? I think I need all the insulation I can squeeze in, but I may be wrong given how stable the basement is.


Thanks Guys!!

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That looks awesome, make sure you post pictures when it's done.
 
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I got the sump in position, and was able to tweak alignment of the two tanks to better fit my filter tube. This isn’t something I talked about before, but I’m excited to get it running so I can avoid detritus build up downstream of the settling tank. Turbulence from the overflow meant that only about 60-70% of the debris ever settled out, so not hugely effective. This should hopefully bring that up to 95% debris removal
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Last minute design change... put the rodi unit next to the barrels, instead of the sink. That actually saves me a trip to Lowe’s for a plywood panel, believe it or not. I’m going to be able to add mounting panels to the concrete wall using entirely reclaimed boards, which is making the new build more palatable.
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Assembled, painted and hung an equipment board for above the sink. I have two walls that are poured concrete foundation, and with lumber prices being so crazy, and not wanting a massive project right now- I’m not framing off those walls. Instead- concrete strike anchors will hold 0.75” thick, 3” wide wooden strips that I will use as screw boards, and I’ll hang 1/2” plywood (most of it reclaimed- yay!) on which I’ll hang plumbing, electrical conduit etc.

This is the first of 3 to go up-

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I got a hold of the specs of a handful of 4” long, 5/8” diameter wedge bolts I had in my tool box- 3200lb shear when set at 2.5” with 14ftlb torque.

think 4 of those will hold a shelf 4 feet off the floor for a 29g cryptic refugium?

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I got the sump in position, and was able to tweak alignment of the two tanks to better fit my filter tube. This isn’t something I talked about before, but I’m excited to get it running so I can avoid detritus build up downstream of the settling tank. Turbulence from the overflow meant that only about 60-70% of the debris ever settled out, so not hugely effective. This should hopefully bring that up to 95% debris removal
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Would you better explain these settling tanks and detritus removal system?

kudos to your gravity feed back to sump from cryptic refugium. I want to do that with a display refugium gravity feeding back to display tank.
 
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Would you better explain these settling tanks and detritus removal system?

kudos to your gravity feed back to sump from cryptic refugium. I want to do that with a display refugium gravity feeding back to display tank.
I love gravity feed. Free, and fail safe if a pump goes out

following info pertains to my ‘old’ system described earlier in my build thread, but I will be recreating it in this move:

sure- incoming water from the bean animal overflow comes into the 29g tank, and then overflows through a 1” bulkhead (with a valve sink can make it siphon) with a 1.5” bulkhead unrestricted backup- I think that’s Durso style) into the sump first chamber.
The idea was that the majority of the detritus would settle in the first tank and I’d have minimal build up in secondary sump chambers. That tank also is where I put my skimmer. In practice, turbulence keeps enough in suspension that it makes its way into the main sump- but it’s like a 70/20/10 ratio for the tank and first two sump chambers

there is also a 1” bulkhead at the bottom which has pvc straight to my drain- so a 29g water change can be done in a few minutes by opening the valve. I have a refill line from my water change station all the way back here- so a full water change of 29g takes 6 minutes and involves turning two valves.

I had intended on doing a ‘bypass’ with a few more valves, so I could flip them and have BA incoming go straight to main sump, then perform water change on the now isolated 29g while return pump was still running. But I never got to that stage

the filter tube is a 4” diameter clear pvc tube with grates in the end, get stuck on the siphon line from the settling tank to the sump. Fill it full of inexpensive filter floss and now I have a filter tube pulling whatever the first tank misses. It’s a variation of the ‘Rottertube’ found on YouTube.

The last 40g section of the sump was supposed to be a chaeto fuge- but I never get excess nutrients enough to grow it. In fact, I dose nitrate and phosphate and it’s a waste to grow something to mop up stuff I’m purposefully adding. So this next round I’m going to do a full planted display macro refugium with as many macro as I can fit. Make it pretty. It’ll be fed by a 400gph pump from the return section. I hate manifold off the main return/ too many valves and I like specificity of function and compartmentalization- If my main pump goes out, I’m not dealing with how to feed reactors or my fuges.
 
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My very first fungia plate met a cold end after a heater failure in QT 2 years ago- but I put it’s remaining skeleton in the display anyway

today- I counted 28 babies that has come from that one skeleton. Don’t throw away your fungia skeletons people!

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I moved a few to the sand lagoon portion of the temporary lowboy holding tank and they fill out nicely
 
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