OK people.......the Snowboss is in the planning stages of building a new house {hopefully breaking ground by the 3rd week in April} that being said...I am building a tank into the wall with a tank room behind it - - - what I would like to hear are some ideas from everyones expierience and/or "if i could i would do this" type ideas.......... im thinking about a deep sink, extra tank for quarentine, premix salt tank above the display so i can just gravity water into the tank during water changes, sink close enough to syphon water from the display into it .....NO MORE BUCKETS, woohoo !!!! lol -custom electrics with switches for everything, custom pipeing with multiple valves for routeing, RO right there at the tank etc etc etc - ideas ????? Boss
tank room great idea al.is this going to be a reef or fowler setup?i would have the electric outlets above all tanks for starters.if its a reef you could add a small tank above the main display for copeods ect. natural food...if you can find one of those big blue barrels you could run your ro water system in to that.with a top off switch it will stop water from over filling the barrel . then in your sump you could add one of those top off switches and a pump in the ro barrel to top off main tank.since you are building the house add a drain in the floor. you could put a tee with a shut off valve on the return pump going to the drain in the floor. not only that but if there is ever a flood the drain will save the day..
we can all give advice sakamoto - - -first of all what do you have other than a 20 gallon tank? i.e. lights, filters, skimmers, access to live rock, live sand, foods etc etc - --although an extremely beautiful hobby, compared to fresh water salt is very costly as well....so be sure your prepared to invest time for learning, maintaining and money for supplies................and before you go much further...take it from someone who started and has a 20 gallon salt tank....if there is anyway on this earth ....try to get a bigger tank to start with 30 gallon minimum - -it will save you huge headaches down the road..................well ive said enough, start fireing us info and we will help all we can ....welcome, Snowboss
Check out http://www.garf.org/news25p2.html#HUGE and look for plans on construction of a 140 gallon and a 500 gallon in wall reef tank with price lists and directions. I don't know how to link directly to the directions for the 140, 500 gallon, but you can prob find it if you look. Itgives directions for building a tank that's mostly plywood and has a front of glass. I think tank I looked at was approx 3/3/9 feet.
WOW....i'm thinking about building my own tank now as opposed to just slideing a factory tank into the wall........although that 500 would be incredable..........im thinking 250-300 maybe 24inches deep 6 foot long and 3 feet from front to back - - deeper means more costly lighting......no?
Deeper would mean more lighting. I'm not able to get to the part where it gives specific directions with the link I provided.You can google garth's 140 gallon reef tank construction and it gives all the directions and fish safe products needed to build a 140 gallon in-wall system while on a budjet.
wonder how hard it would be to build a corner tank? i'm thinking 4 foot down one wall and 4 foot down the other - -basically an "L" shape....I'm probably getting into engeneering issues now eh? stresses on the corners and such.........
It would probably be like putting in a window. You need to replace the corner support with two structural verticals. I'm not a carpenter, but I'd guess this is necessary. Were you able to Google (Garth's 140 gallon reef tank construction)? There's lots of good info there and That's probably the way I'm going to build my next big 300 gallon. You can't get to the construction directions with the link I gave above. You need to look it up as I don't know how to make this link.
didn't see the 140.......but i did google building a tank and got lost reading other articles....LOL i think im definately going that route.........ill get the 140 article sooner or later im sure....thanks man , Boss
