Reef Room Suggestions

[Glenn]

I am starting to plan a new house. I am going to set aside a room just for my tanks and was looking for any helpful additions that would make life a little easier. I am already going to devote a small panel just for the circuits in that room. Also going to have some sort of drain and cold water line plumbed in there also. The floor joists and piers under that room will be beefed up also. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Satchmo]

Nice. How about skylighting the room to utilize natural sunlight? Also maybe insulate the room off and keep a separate thermostat. Might be cheaper to heat the room than run a gaggle of heaters. Another cool idea would be to have one of the larger displays placed in-wall. Then, it could be viewed from outside in the adjoining room. I'm picturing a big living room: fireplace, plasma screen TV and a monster in-wall reef. Schweeeet.

[Dave ESPI]

goood god man ! I could expound upon this very topic fer hours !

for sake of the "Tl; Dr" people, think of this...

 

3 INCH FLOOR DRAIN.

CENTRAL WATER SUPPLY.

NOTHING BUT THE BEST COMPONENTS.

STARFIRE GLASS.

RODI at LEAST 100 GPD 7 stage unit with a 55 gal reserve.

DOUBLESIDED ACCESS TO TANKS. (make a closet walkway behind)

CENTRAL AIR

DEHUMIDIFIERS (Commercial grade)

SKYLIGHTS.... never have enough "Natural Light"

KEGERATOR..... freeeeeeeee flowwwinnnnn beerrrrr.....

CHASE LOUNGE.

HAMMOC.

BIKINI BABE SERVING PENUIS KOCKALOTIS SWALOWIS drinks.

and last but not least.... "a deck ape" to do all the mucking for you so you can sit back and "mack" on the bikini babe !

 

 

GTG... chubbing already !

[Glenn]

Easy Satch, your starting to sound like the wife (except she's picturing a large laundry room, walk in closet, huge kitchen with endless cabinets, etc.) I do like the idea of seperate units. Also the in wall tank viewed from two sides would be cool also. I will definitely insulate all walls in my house (all houses, unless specifically requested, only have outside walls insulated. I prefer all walls to be because I believe it helps with overall temp control and it also keeps noise down within the house).

 

Hmm, Dave....don't know if I can sell the wife on the bikini waitress. But the floor drain and RO/DI are definitely in the plans.

[Metznreef]

make sure you have some sort of large exhaust fan pulling air out of the room because the evaporation from all the tanks can cause alot of humidity and dry-rotting of the walls and ceiling.

[Metznreef]

by the way the fan ain't necessary unless you want to put a lot of tanks in this room;)

[printerdown01]

Air vents... Condensation in a room filled with tanks can be pretty serious, and can cause the walls to rot in a hot environment. The more air circulation you give it the less condensation .

[Dave ESPI]

Originally posted by Glenn

Hmm, Dave....don't know if I can sell the wife on the bikini waitress.  But the floor drain and RO/DI are definitely in the plans.

sooooooo is she haout?

make her service ya...... of shesays no, then hire a hooter gal.

:woot:

I would

[Twins Guy]

laundry tub for washing stuff out and a saltwater premix vessel attached to the RO reservoir. just flip the valve to fil it with RO, close it off and mix your saltwater for all the tanks. east and south exposures are great too since you'll be installing floor to ceiling windows + skylights. lots of shelves or cabinets if you want it to look purty. all that and a 10' diameter wading pool/mangrove biotope/dolphin exhibit. and you'll want a midget ...definitely a midget.

tg

[tinyreef]

first and foremost, all side viewing. put the BIG tank in the middle of the room. let people view it from all sides. we're talking minimum 300g here. i'd go tall, long, and wide.

 

electrical should probably be from ceiling down. 4~6 400w mh's with actinic supplements 4x110w vho's (minimum)

 

sump/refugium at a minimum 150g imo.

 

skylights over it could be nice. at the very least it can provide actual moonlight effect but i'm not sure about actual lighting unless you're going to greenhouse this bad boy.

 

rafters or joists would be preferable imo. you may need to hook up a platform or do some suspension for tank maintenance. i agree with ro/di, of course. you'll need a sink/wet bar too. closets & cabinets. no carpeting.

[Kalanianaole]

This is one of the raddest tanks i think i've ever seen – www.moyesreef.com/home.html . Check out all his tank specs for good pointers...he lists a lot of things he wishes he'd have done different when he built the house.

 

What size is your biggest tank going to be? I'm thinking of a 200-500 gal in-wall with a small saltwater stream flowing through the floor in front of it. Flank the sides of the tank with mangroves growing out of the stream underneath skylights. Sort of like a showcase fuge. It'll be perfect when the mangroves reach several feet high. I hope that makes sense, cos it looks amazing in my head.

 

If the stream is too silly of an idea, try flanking the in-wall tank with two cubic tanks, jutting out of the wall so to allow mangroves to grow out the top.

Man-tastic.

 

Or try an in-wall sun coral tank. Nothing but tubastrea from top to bottom. When it's feeding time, it'll look like a painting of sunflowers.

 

Ok, I'm done now.

 

No I'm not. Gas fueled torches. Fire's neato.

 

If you had several tanks totaling some 1,000 gal or so, what would be the pros/cons of linking it all on the same system?

 

Ok. Fin.

[Satchmo]

Originally posted by Glenn

Easy Satch, your starting to sound like the wife

 

Now why'd you have to go and say something like that? I said plasma screen TV and an in-wall reef. Aint nuttin' wifey bout that.

 

How about a suspended harness from the ceiling. You can swing from tank to tank, lowering yourself right to water-level for maintenance. The midget's a great idea too. Either that or a butler monkey. And a 50,000g pool filled with frikkin sharks with frikkin laser beams attached to their heads.