GREAt !Great build thread! We are purchasing a house (closing June 13!) and the basement will eventually be finished with the tanks (180 reef and 75 FOWLR) built into the plan.
Did you have a hard time explaining to the builders what you wanted as far as building the stand into the plans? I'm concerned that when we hire a contractor they might balk at this. I don't have any idea how to build a stand strong enough to hold a 180 gal tank, much less explain it to a non-reefing contractor.
just let me know if you have any questions as there is a bunch of details that i wish i would have done different or tweaked..
I used a metal stand from manufacturer but it would be easy for them to build it into the house with 2x6 framing. there is a bunch to think about now and i would draw it up so they can see what you are thinking as most contractors need a drawing to work from. one main thing is to determine how you want the floor to work? are you having a room with a floor drain? what happens if there is a catastrophe where will the water go? the other main thing will be power as you want a couple dedicated circuits and you may want to really think through where they will be. One thing i did not think through was that i was going to have an apex run all of the gear and to have things go on and off as i want, not to mention monitor power usage or problems they all need to be located together. also i needed to figure out how to get my 2 APC's so that they did not get overloaded as they only can run 900w through them.
wire management and cableing is a bear and i would think through all of that as i really was not sure and now i am trying to figure it out as we speak.
Having said all of that i am a strange bird and like to have my fish room as a display of sorts and most people dont want that so alot of the details might not matter that much to you.
good luck and let me know if i can help