Swimaway
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2026
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 42
- What state or country do you live in
- Oklahoma
Hey all,
We just moved into what I'm going to call our forever home. In other words, I'm not planning on moving out of this place anytime soon, because I put WAY too much effort and time into having it built.
I've had a lot of tanks over the years, but for work I moved quite a bit so they were always either nano tanks, or they'd be running for a couple years, then taken down when we ultimately moved. Now, I'm quasi-retired, and am here to build what will likely be a very overbuilt 150.
In all the homes we've owned over the years, most have either been crawlspace, or they had a basement. So when we built this one, we went slab on grade, and I worked with an architect to come up with a design that would allow the tank to be an integral part of the living space. Essentially I wanted to see it from the living room, the dining room, and have it "greet" you as you entered the home. We worked out the flow so that the tank is basically in the dining room, we expanded the dining room to accommodate, and then we made a few modifications to where the dining room sat in the home. I didn't want a fish room in the literal sense. While yes, I could've had the room for it, I instead decided to put the "room" part of the fish room in my 3rd bay of my oversized 3 car garage. This did a few things. Gave me expansion room for a frag system, kept all of my fish stuff in a place that I could easily unload/load stuff, and kept my wife happy.
So this is the wall that the tank is going on. Kitchen is to the left, guest powder room is on the right. I'm standing in the dining room.
Standing in the kitchen looking toward the tank wall, stairs to 2nd floor, entry way.
Even from the far end of the great room, the tank will still be partially visible.
Now, we went around in circles on the size of the tank. My wife actually wanted me to go with a much bigger tank than the 150 I ended up with, but, my philosophy is pretty straight forward. I wanted a tank that was big enough that it was a statement piece, but not so large that it consumed my life. We have some pretty crazy hobbies, and I didn't want ALL of my time to be consumed with a tank. I also wanted it to look right within the space. I didn't want IT to be the feature of the house, I wanted it to fit well within the house itself. The feature of the house is the great room, I didn't want the tank to distract from that.
The tank is currently in the garage, waiting for me to lift it in place on the stand that I just finished building. Another update coming shortly.
We just moved into what I'm going to call our forever home. In other words, I'm not planning on moving out of this place anytime soon, because I put WAY too much effort and time into having it built.
I've had a lot of tanks over the years, but for work I moved quite a bit so they were always either nano tanks, or they'd be running for a couple years, then taken down when we ultimately moved. Now, I'm quasi-retired, and am here to build what will likely be a very overbuilt 150.
In all the homes we've owned over the years, most have either been crawlspace, or they had a basement. So when we built this one, we went slab on grade, and I worked with an architect to come up with a design that would allow the tank to be an integral part of the living space. Essentially I wanted to see it from the living room, the dining room, and have it "greet" you as you entered the home. We worked out the flow so that the tank is basically in the dining room, we expanded the dining room to accommodate, and then we made a few modifications to where the dining room sat in the home. I didn't want a fish room in the literal sense. While yes, I could've had the room for it, I instead decided to put the "room" part of the fish room in my 3rd bay of my oversized 3 car garage. This did a few things. Gave me expansion room for a frag system, kept all of my fish stuff in a place that I could easily unload/load stuff, and kept my wife happy.
So this is the wall that the tank is going on. Kitchen is to the left, guest powder room is on the right. I'm standing in the dining room.
Standing in the kitchen looking toward the tank wall, stairs to 2nd floor, entry way.
Even from the far end of the great room, the tank will still be partially visible.
Now, we went around in circles on the size of the tank. My wife actually wanted me to go with a much bigger tank than the 150 I ended up with, but, my philosophy is pretty straight forward. I wanted a tank that was big enough that it was a statement piece, but not so large that it consumed my life. We have some pretty crazy hobbies, and I didn't want ALL of my time to be consumed with a tank. I also wanted it to look right within the space. I didn't want IT to be the feature of the house, I wanted it to fit well within the house itself. The feature of the house is the great room, I didn't want the tank to distract from that.
The tank is currently in the garage, waiting for me to lift it in place on the stand that I just finished building. Another update coming shortly.
Whatcha buildin?
