Off-topic from normal 'pets' fare, but.. (dial-up warning) [View all]

[X_Digger]

I thought I'd share some pictures from my ongoing reef tank and fish room build, in case there are other reef keepers hiding at DU.

First, the plan:

When we moved our new (to us) house, we decided that an extra bedroom adjacent to the space I use for my office would make a great fish room. A 'fish room' is a place to store all the support equipment, filtration, testing supplies, spare parts, etc that a big tank requires. The plan was to cut a hole in a non-load-bearing wall seven feet wide and eighty inches tall, and place the tank in the opening. When finished, the tank would look like it was floating in the wall from the outside, with custom looking cabinetry above and below.

Here's what the exterior of the tank and room will look like:



And here's what that space looked like before we started:


I figured the tank would be 84" long, 24" tall, and 32" deep. There'll be a set of panels on the top that either come off or lift up for front access, and the bottom panels will likely be doors, so that I have access to the filtration from both front and back.

In the fish room itself, I plan to have two 65g barrels plumbed inline for doing painless water changes (alternate which one is mixing v which one is inline), a 100g refugium for growing sea grasses, and about eight feet of counter space for qt tank / testing / microscopy / etc with cabinets above.

Here's bird's eye view of what the space behind the tank will look like:


If you're wondering about those things on the counter, in addition to the normal testing that one does with a reef tank (calcium, alkalinity, nitrates, magnesium), I like to investigate things under my microscopes and take pictures and video. If you've ever looked at a drop of pond water as part of a biology class, that's nothing compared to what you can see in a marine environment.

For the walls of the room, we're going to have some fun. This build is going to take a long time since we're doing all the work ourselves, so we have time to play. My wife and I are getting a lot of joy out of decorating the room with stencils. Here are some shots of things we plan to do with stencils..









So those are the plans. Here's where we are in real life.

We took down the closet that formerly occupied one corner of the room:



We scraped down the popcorn ceiling texture and smoothed out the knockdown texture on the walls:





We moved and added outlets that will now be above the counters:



We cut the hole in the wall and test fit the stand for the tank:



We painted the walls a nice blue and sand textured paint:



I installed and painted the cabinets on the right side, and put in a countertop:



We started stenciling the walls:

















I installed a computer monitor and cables inside the wall, with USB ports on the counter (the monitor folds up out of the way):



We trimmed out the opening and put the tank (280 gallons) in place:





And that's where we are today!

In the future, I need to install the left counters and countertop, install the sink and plumbing, water change barrels and refugium, and start getting the tank actually going (not to mention a lot more stenciling to be done.)

We'll be using all tank raised and/or captive bred fish, and aquacultured or locally propagated corals. Lighting will be via high efficiency LED lights.