Christian Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were on a fish room. I will be moving into a new home in about a year or less. Im wanting to put an in wall aquarium. The room is 10X9 foot the wall that is on the same side as the living room is 9 foot, I'm trying to figure out if I should go with 5 or 6 long aquarium. I know that I want to go with a depth of around 4 foot. I am also wanting to add more aquariums in the room besides the the large aquarium. Let me know your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Will the tank be viewed from the living room? If you wanted to keep large tangs, 6' would be best. I would think long and hard on the 4' depth. At that depth, sandbed maintenance will be difficult. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ct67stang Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 +1 on the 4' being too deep. but id go with the 6'width imho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I did this in my house. You're more than welcome to come take a look and see what I've done. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ct67stang Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 heres Niko's tank that I built in his wall http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/26236-nikos-185/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I've seen some great pictures of fish rooms in the build threads. The first thing that comes to mind is that you'll probably want your tank to be 31" deep and 4x4x31" is roughly 310 gallons and would cost around $1700 on www.glasscages.com, which doesn't include extras like shipping, drilling, and a stand. By the end of this project you'll probably be in the $5-8k range. To me that's too much to spend, but that's just me. Generally, in-wall tanks are only accessible from one side. That means that you'll be unable to reach the front of the tank from the back unless you build some sort of scaffolding above the tank so that you can stand on it. The biggest pair of tongs I could find were 29" long. If you have a 30" reach and those tongs then you still couldn't reach the bottom front of the glass. That doesn't take into account your aquascape, so don't drop anything while trying to mount a frag. I would also consider where your equipment will be. Some in-wall tanks have an "equipment room" which is like a closet behind the tank for all the stuff that you don't want to see. It sounds like your equipment room will be in full view, so you'll probably want to dress it up. I've seen some people basically install a stand into the wall to dress it up. I've also seen a lot of people install sinks or wet bars in their fish rooms. They seem to like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Bigger is better but ease of maintenance is more important in my opinion. With a fish or filter room you can do some pretty interesting stuff with multiple sumps/refugiums. Layout and accessability is going to be critical and it's a real bear trying to clean the front glass off from the back side. There are algae magnets that will work for most of the easy stuff but you will have algae species that will have to be scraped off, better to have cabinet doors on the front side above the tank to clean. Do scale drawings and flow charts ofr everything before spending money. Also do your research on the manufacturer you are getting your tank from, soemtimes it's better to spend more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 I don't want to go 4' deep I'm sorry I meant to put 3 foot. That way I can get a good amount of hight on the rocks. I'm looking at buying maybe 2 x 130 gallon aquariums and using the long sides witch are 72" long so that would give me 3 feet of wall left but no room for the door to open into the room. Unless I move the hinge to the other side.(that would work) I'm also looking at doing a wood bottom for the aquarium using pond armor to seal the wood. That way I could cut down on the cost of glass. James I would love to see I t some time., but I'm currently not in Austin, I'm in Corpus Christi for school. But I am thinking of moving back. To address the space for the aquarium and the equipment I have a room that is 10'X9' 8" so their is a good amount of space. I will also have the in wall aquarium sitting about 36 inches or 48 inches high so that when I get a couch in the living room I want have any of the fish tank covered by the back or sides of the chairs. At this hight I will be able to place 3 tanks underneath one will be my chemical filter and skimmer, the next one will be an auto top off system tank and the third tank will be a refugium/ return pump. Also the room backs up to a downstairs bathroom so I could add drain lines into the room or even a sink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 I want to place an opening in the front that is a hidden opening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Yeah, that's one thing I wish I'd done...it is kind of a pain doing stuff to the front of the tank from the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 If you don't completely frame it into the wall, you could do a cabinet built directly into the wall which could easily allow access to the water from the front. If you've seen Richard L's tank this is what I'm talking about but his isn't accessible from the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 I was thinking kinda like a hidden door above the tank to be able to clean the front glass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 6, 2013 Author Share Posted October 6, 2013 Happy sundy everyone. For the past couple of days I have been looking for lights to place above the aquarium, I came a cross a site that said that a 400w metal halides will cover a 3 foot circle of area so to cover the 6X6 foot aquarium I would need 4. But that's like $100 a month for each bulb, but I don't make that much money to run the lights at that price. I ended up looking into Led lighting, but I have not found anything good saying that LEDs will be just as good for growing corals and giving them color. I run LEDs on my 15 gallon tall but I can't place any SPS in the aquarium because they all bleach I have SPS ion may 70 gallon that has 4X T5Ho and I keep SPS just fun but not great color. So I'm trying to figure out what LEDs would be best to cover the aquarium and have good color and groth. I've seen the Led cannon but I don't know of anyone who is running them on their systems, they also cost about $700 each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 Where did you get the $100/month figure? You don't need to replace MH bulbs monthly. LEDs will grow SPS just fine. Yours may be bleaching from the light being too high(in PAR). But the initial outlay is expensive. You could save some cost with the BuildMyLed lights but you lose the sleekness factor as compared to other LED fixtures. If it's an in wall setup it may not matter though. Also, what size tank are you wanting? 6' long, 3' deep(front to back)? And 3' tall? Where are you getting this tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 7, 2013 Author Share Posted October 7, 2013 For electricity cost. It was on some website. That I came across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 I'm with Robb, LEDs will work fine for stoney corals (assuming correct intensity and spectrum) and I would really like to see the math that comes up with $100 per month per bulb for operating cost. Taking a cost per killowatt of $0.12 a 400 watt running 12 hours will use $0.48, multiply by 30 days is only $14.40. While I would go with BuildMyLED fixtures if you like MH you should research MH fixtures and bulbs. I have seen 250 watt MH with well designed reflectors put more light in a tank than generic 400 watt MH fixtures and a 12000K bulb can put out twice the light of a 20,000K bulb of the same wattage and type. Also keep in mind we are dealing with literally thousands of different species and there is no single solution that will work for everything. Just with the Acropora genus there are species found in mutually exclusive environments. I think it's best to match the lighting and corals to each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 7, 2013 Author Share Posted October 7, 2013 Yeah. The site could of been wrong it could have been a year that it cost that much. I'm wanting to do a compleat mixed reef system, but mostly SPS, LPS, mushrooms, anemones and some zoa's also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 18, 2013 Author Share Posted October 18, 2013 Does anyone know how to import the aquariums from google sketchup into a single photo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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