H20cooled Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Well I know that I have been MIA for a while now; been very busy. We sold our house and moved into a new house (new to us at least) and I've been busy with projects around here. Before I moved I had a pretty major tank crash in my 130G tank and lost about 60% of my corals, so I tore the tank down and I've had a friend watching what survived. He had been able to get everything else going and they seem to be making a great recovery. So, after the move I had to figure out what to do with my tank, I've never been happy with the lack of room and difficulty with maintanence in this big of a tank in just the normal stand/canopy setup. So with the new house I have a great place to put the tank into the wall with a fish room. I don't have a great picture of the area before I tore it apart but it was a small family room with a 4th bedroom butting up to the unfinished laundry room. We decided to remove the 4th bedroom and build the inwall/fish room next to the laundry room and open the family area up. This seemed like an easy thing to do only to find out that its a load baring wall; so a lot of time and $$$$ later we finally have the wall gone and a nice beam in its place. Everything else has worked out great so far. Details on the fish room. I have the fish room all sheet rocked with 1/2" green board over 1 layer of 1/2" sound board, a 50 amp sub panel with a 220 plug for my MH lighting and a dedicated circuit for everything. My chiller will be outside under my deck in a little protected area, I have a dedicated circuit for it outside and 1 1/2" pipe ran outside for the chiller loop (you can see the pipes next to the hot water heater). The hot water heater will soon be replaced with a tankless unit and protected in a cabinet. The room will be all tiled with 2" white tiles and an ocean blue grout used. I have a drain in the floor and a utility sink will be install once the sheetrock in finished. The sheetrock guy will be here soon to finish the outside of the room and the inside, I hung all of the sheetrock in the room to save $$$, it was a pain but I'm glad I did it. I also have an 150 cfm fantech fan that will be installed into the room and it will exhaust outside, fresh air will be draw from inside the house. I know that I will probably need to add a room fan to move the air around some once everything is done. The tank details are; 130G Starphire glass (4'x2'x26" tall), custom metal stand coated with Line-X, 40G and 80G sumps, 1/2hp Tradewind chiller, custom skimmer, CA reactor, & Nitrate reactor (built by me). Other details still have to be worked out. Here are the pics so far. Room Before Construction and wiring Room outside Room inside I will post more pics as things get done. Later, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted September 30, 2007 Author Share Posted September 30, 2007 By the way here is a picture of this tank in its prime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Looks great Rich!!! Can't wait to see more progress............. and by the way working barefoot isn't very safe!! (whistle)(laugh)(naughty):p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 1, 2007 Author Share Posted October 1, 2007 Thanks Mike. Yeah thats what happens when I'm tired I guess... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Nice to hear from ya Rich! Looks like the project that you always talked about Cant wait to see it done. Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
180Brandy Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Wow that is a very cool project your working on!!! Keep up the awesome work!!!! (rock2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefhut Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Looks like your project has came a long way since I seen it last....Looks really good. How's the little one doing? Still changeing the little skimmer cup alot? LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 2, 2007 Author Share Posted October 2, 2007 LOL, yeah the room has come a ways now, the sheetrock should be done next week and ready to really get things going. Little one is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 WOW! I like. Very nice. Good luck with the finishing up part. Looks like you have done tons of work! Its going to be killer. Garrett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 very nice, I have plans for something similar when we sell this place, if I'm lucky enough to get the sq ft I need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Nice Rich. I've always wanted a fish room. Thats gonna be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Alright, since this is close to what I am planning I have a few questions. 1) what are you using to cool the fish room or are you going with a chiller 2) What are you doing for humidity control? An inline fan on the roof on a rheostat? 3) did you add a floor drain to the tank are? I'm just curious and would love to hear comments on details, hoping to get more ideas on my build, I don't use a chiller since I run t-5 and a AC / heat pump unit does all the chilling/heating, I was thinking I would put a new 2 ton in the fish room and that would keep that room fully temperature controlled, due to there low cost I love using them (mini split systems) Anyhow fill me in, I'm dying ... LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 Alright, since this is close to what I am planning I have a few questions. 1) what are you using to cool the fish room or are you going with a chiller 2) What are you doing for humidity control? An inline fan on the roof on a rheostat? 3) did you add a floor drain to the tank are? I'm just curious and would love to hear comments on details, hoping to get more ideas on my build, I don't use a chiller since I run t-5 and a AC / heat pump unit does all the chilling/heating, I was thinking I would put a new 2 ton in the fish room and that would keep that room fully temperature controlled, due to there low cost I love using them (mini split systems) Anyhow fill me in, I'm dying ... LOL 1) not going to cool the room, I have a heat pump setup for the rest of the house. I thought about connecting it to the fish room but after some research decided that there was to good of a chance in doing a lot of damage to the system. So I'm using a 1/2 hp inline chiller, it will be installed outside so that the heat from it is outside, also the water lines to the chiller are buried underground so that should help with passive cooling. 2) The tank/fish room is in my basement so there is no way to use a remote fan setup, so I'm using a fantech 200 cfm inline fan mounted in the room to exhaust the air outside, it will draw fresh air from inside the house. I have a humidistat and also the fan is connected to a speed controller, but I'm not sure I'm going to use the humidistat yet. I will most likely just leave the fan on all the time at a lower setting. 3) the room already had a floor drain, so that worked great. With the setup I have in this room to exhuast the humid air I could also connect a remote A/C unit to it, I'm hoping since the house will stay cool and its in the basement I will not have to much issues with heat. Only time will tell though. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefgeek84 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Glad to see that you did not leave the hobby...Was wondering what happened to you...thought maybe you went away along with a few other people who got fed up with some of the stuff on the board....Your system is looking amazing, I can not wait to see the finished product and of course some more progress pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 If you decide you need one let me know, I got a great lead on a split AC that works great, I see a few guys on RC using them as chillers on large systems to, just remove the coil and add the ti bars for direct chilling. As for the fan I would have it on a timer so its on primarily when the lights are on since thats when you get 95% of your evap. When you get her all done I would love to take a road trip up and check it out, let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 When you get her all done I would love to take a road trip up and check it out, let me know. I'm coming with you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 You can pick me up on the way Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 If you decide you need one let me know, I got a great lead on a split AC that works great, I see a few guys on RC using them as chillers on large systems to, just remove the coil and add the ti bars for direct chilling. As for the fan I would have it on a timer so its on primarily when the lights are on since thats when you get 95% of your evap. When you get her all done I would love to take a road trip up and check it out, let me know. LOL, will do. I'm hoping to be able to host a meeting sometime when its done. One question on the AC unit, how far away can you put the main unit? My tank is on the front of my house so I would want something like that on the back or side of the house. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 The line that is PRE charged is 25', but you could go 50' without any issue (but it will need to be charged be a AC tech), farther than that I would talk to a tech and ask from the MFG of the unit. In my line of work we run the refrigerant lines over 100' with no issues, its just a matter of adding more refrigerant and making sure the compressor is big enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 You can pick me up on the way Later Ryan Then grab me!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 LOL, maybe we should do a frag swap too... LMAO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 7, 2007 Author Share Posted October 7, 2007 Yeah not sure i have anything to frag at this point as my tank is still in pieces in different tanks until I get this setup again. Most likely I will just be starting with frags in the new setup anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danno14 Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Hey! I recognise that purple rimmed monti! Drop me a line if you want some of it back. It's....uh, a bit bigger now [/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 love the color, I have the same piece but its not that blue on the rim, very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20cooled Posted October 24, 2007 Author Share Posted October 24, 2007 Hey! I recognise that purple rimmed monti! Drop me a line if you want some of it back. It's....uh, a bit bigger now Thanks for the offer, I'll have to see how the tank layout ends up once its back together, cause that thing grows really fast. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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