This one has been floating around my mind for quite a while, after seeing people like AlexG, Mehaffeydr, Dca22anderson, atomic08, Vance, and others build massive plywood aquariums I was inspired to do my own. Having a pre-built glass or acrylic tank is wonderful in a lot of ways, you only have to move it, you get to spec it out exactly as you want and let someone else build it, and it *shouldn’t* leak. These are all great features especially as you get into large sized aquariums where water gets to the point of turning your basement into a small pond, but I guess I like to live a little on the wild side 
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As I was searching for my first house I was keeping an eye out for a space that could fit a giant aquarium so I could continue feeding my love for coral reef ecosystems that have been a part of my life for so long. Unfortunately it has always been from afar where aquariums, documentaries, and pet stores were the only way to observe this fascinating environment. I’ve always lived in a land locked state (except for freshman year in Hawaii), but it hasn’t stopped me from learning and going to graduate school to learn more about this magical environment.
The vision: A large mixed reef tank housing organisms that are found within the same environment and would have a high likelihood of mingling naturally.
For me the obvious area to set my sites on was the "coral triangle" which different parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon islands. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to succeed in this, there are so many amazing fish and inverts that come from across the globe that its hard to pass up on some of those iconic species whose natural range is outside of this area.
The goal with the physical tank was to create something as large as large as possible in the available space, while also having room for all the supporting pieces to keep the tank running smoothly (testing, filtration, flow, quarantine, coral propagation, etc.).
The useable space in the basement is basically a giant L with the small arm of the L feeling like mostly unfunctional space, it's a bit of a weird layout. I wanted to use the basement for both entertaining and a fish tank so I decided that using the small portion of the L for the fish tank and supporting system was the best idea (space boxed out in red). There were a few driving reasons for this decision but the main 2 were that it optimized space for the tank and it had a window that I could use for humidity removal/reduction.
The next steps were to model out the basement in google sketchup, I tend to enjoy the planning/building process as much as building out the coral reef ecosystem. I started with an at scale model of the basement in its current state then I added in the fish tank.
I've removed the wall that the tank will be framed in for easier viewing of the space
This open space will be used for all ancillary equipment, you can also see the catwalk behind the tank for easy maintenance.
The view below of the fish room best captures the idea of how it will be viewed from the outside. My plan is to have a half wall with viewing window(s) so that the fish room feels like a “lab” space. My thought was that doing it this way will allow for easy viewing to observe what is going on in the fish room without having to walk into the fish room. I can keep an eye on all equipment every time I walk by and can do multiple daily quick checks along with true walkthroughs within the room. The other thought with this was to open up the newly created “hallway” so that it doesn’t feel like a confined dark hallway when walking to the utility room/bathroom which are adjacent to the fish room.
@TheWB
.As I was searching for my first house I was keeping an eye out for a space that could fit a giant aquarium so I could continue feeding my love for coral reef ecosystems that have been a part of my life for so long. Unfortunately it has always been from afar where aquariums, documentaries, and pet stores were the only way to observe this fascinating environment. I’ve always lived in a land locked state (except for freshman year in Hawaii), but it hasn’t stopped me from learning and going to graduate school to learn more about this magical environment.
The vision: A large mixed reef tank housing organisms that are found within the same environment and would have a high likelihood of mingling naturally.
For me the obvious area to set my sites on was the "coral triangle" which different parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon islands. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to succeed in this, there are so many amazing fish and inverts that come from across the globe that its hard to pass up on some of those iconic species whose natural range is outside of this area.
The goal with the physical tank was to create something as large as large as possible in the available space, while also having room for all the supporting pieces to keep the tank running smoothly (testing, filtration, flow, quarantine, coral propagation, etc.).
The useable space in the basement is basically a giant L with the small arm of the L feeling like mostly unfunctional space, it's a bit of a weird layout. I wanted to use the basement for both entertaining and a fish tank so I decided that using the small portion of the L for the fish tank and supporting system was the best idea (space boxed out in red). There were a few driving reasons for this decision but the main 2 were that it optimized space for the tank and it had a window that I could use for humidity removal/reduction.
The next steps were to model out the basement in google sketchup, I tend to enjoy the planning/building process as much as building out the coral reef ecosystem. I started with an at scale model of the basement in its current state then I added in the fish tank.
I've removed the wall that the tank will be framed in for easier viewing of the space
This open space will be used for all ancillary equipment, you can also see the catwalk behind the tank for easy maintenance.
The view below of the fish room best captures the idea of how it will be viewed from the outside. My plan is to have a half wall with viewing window(s) so that the fish room feels like a “lab” space. My thought was that doing it this way will allow for easy viewing to observe what is going on in the fish room without having to walk into the fish room. I can keep an eye on all equipment every time I walk by and can do multiple daily quick checks along with true walkthroughs within the room. The other thought with this was to open up the newly created “hallway” so that it doesn’t feel like a confined dark hallway when walking to the utility room/bathroom which are adjacent to the fish room.
@TheWB
