TighTT
Active Member
I have been enjoying saltwater reefing for over 10 years...having owned several (smaller) tanks: Elos mini, Elos system 70, Elos system 120XL, and an Elos 160. Roughly a year ago my wife and I purchased a home with the intention to completely renovate it from top to bottom. Obviously one attraction of renovating a home is that I can design the location of my new tank and also a "fish room" in the basement to house my custom frag tank, sump, water storage, etc. After discussing several options with Elos, I decided to go with the new Diamond line of Elos tanks in a 200 gallon capacity (160XL).
Now that the tank is ordered, I turned my attention to a sump. I decided to go with a custom sump from My Reef Creations. After conferring with MRC, we decided on a 6 foot long sump, 24 inches wide, and 24 inches tall. I wanted a nice size refugium in the center of the sump. Since I'll be going with an external skimmer, I had all the room I wanted for my XL refugium. After a few weeks...the sump arrived:
I then turned my attention to designing the "fish room". I decided to put it in the corner of my basement. This will keep it out of the way for when we eventually finish the basement and also will allow for easy venting. I had my contractor build the room 17 feet long and 9 feet wide. We then installed a drop ceiling complete with LED lighting and a vent to carry away heat/moisture. For walls we installed two types of material: mold resistant drywall was installed from the middle of the wall, up. For the lower half we went with cement board.
Incase of an emergency (water leak) I wanted the floor to have a built-in drain. For the drain to work properly the floor needed to be pitched. To this end I had my cement contractor trowel-out a pitched floor with a center drain:
I wanted to have plenty of power so I had my electrician put in a separate panel for this room. There are GFI'd outlets (4 gang) throughout the room with a single non-gif outlet for the return pump.
After everything was fully cured I decided to have the floor epoxied, with the epoxy running up the wall onto the cement board. We then painted the remaining areas with white paint:
For water storage, I went with two 100 gallon plastic vessels (one salt and one RODI). They finally arrived yesterday:
Since the tank will be on the first floor and I want there to be minimal maintenance regarding cleaning the walls from splashing, etc....I decided to have the rear wall (behind the tank) tiles with subway tiles. This gives a finished look and will also be easy to keep clean:
Thats it for now....I'll update later with more info.
Now that the tank is ordered, I turned my attention to a sump. I decided to go with a custom sump from My Reef Creations. After conferring with MRC, we decided on a 6 foot long sump, 24 inches wide, and 24 inches tall. I wanted a nice size refugium in the center of the sump. Since I'll be going with an external skimmer, I had all the room I wanted for my XL refugium. After a few weeks...the sump arrived:
I then turned my attention to designing the "fish room". I decided to put it in the corner of my basement. This will keep it out of the way for when we eventually finish the basement and also will allow for easy venting. I had my contractor build the room 17 feet long and 9 feet wide. We then installed a drop ceiling complete with LED lighting and a vent to carry away heat/moisture. For walls we installed two types of material: mold resistant drywall was installed from the middle of the wall, up. For the lower half we went with cement board.
Incase of an emergency (water leak) I wanted the floor to have a built-in drain. For the drain to work properly the floor needed to be pitched. To this end I had my cement contractor trowel-out a pitched floor with a center drain:
I wanted to have plenty of power so I had my electrician put in a separate panel for this room. There are GFI'd outlets (4 gang) throughout the room with a single non-gif outlet for the return pump.
After everything was fully cured I decided to have the floor epoxied, with the epoxy running up the wall onto the cement board. We then painted the remaining areas with white paint:
For water storage, I went with two 100 gallon plastic vessels (one salt and one RODI). They finally arrived yesterday:
Since the tank will be on the first floor and I want there to be minimal maintenance regarding cleaning the walls from splashing, etc....I decided to have the rear wall (behind the tank) tiles with subway tiles. This gives a finished look and will also be easy to keep clean:
Thats it for now....I'll update later with more info.
