Lairds multi tank build with fish room

[Laird]

I'm back after a 5 year break. What started as just setting back up a 180 has turned into finishing multiple unfinished rooms, knocking out concrete walls, drilling through concrete, designing an entire room around a tank, and buying all new equipment for a build that will end having a new custom 220 gallon tank in one room, 50 gallon cub in another, all controlled by a 13x6 fishroom complete with a 30 gallon frag, 2 mixing barrels, sink, 30 gallon frag, and quarantine system.

Since my last tank i've moved, had my first first kid (with one more coming soon), and changed careers a bit. In that time I almost completely shut myself off from the SW world because I would get upset whenever I saw anything related to SW because I missed my tank so much.

Links to a couple of my old tanks.
My old 90 gallon tank https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/laird-tanks-90gal-main-30-gal-frag.71206/ (I have not figured out coral photography, the only photo I ever took of that thank that i'm proud of is now in my avatar)
My old 180 gallon tank build https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lairds-180.95867/

When I bought my new house I picked it for the location and backyard but once we moved in I realized that it did not have an obvious place for a big tank. For years I debated setting back up my 180 but just didn't love where I would have to put it. My wife had encouraged me to set up the tank somewhere in the house so our kids could enjoy it and she knew how much I loved my old tank. So I started researching nice tanks. One day we decided to stop by to see an old friends tank, Teknik77. Within 5 seconds I knew I had to set mine back up and a lot of what I was going to do was modeled after what he did with his tank, and fish room.

At first I was just going to set back up my 180 gallon. I already had 90% of the equipment so it wouldn't be a big deal to set up....so I thought.

I have a suspended garage with an unfinished concrete room 23x20 under it that I had used for storage. On the other side of the concrete wall is a couple closets, cold storage, and a utility room. On the other side of the room is a garage that goes out of my walk out basement.

The plan: Finish the 23x20 room. Design the room around the tank, add a wet bar, and my poker table.Next to that room, in my main living room will be a 50 gallon cube, and next to that room will be the fish room that runs everything. Here is a little video explaining it all, and a little diagram.

I can't seem to upload photos or videos. No idea why. Any thoughts?

Here is the room where the tank is going with my daughter standing where the tank is going. The tank will fit between those two big beams that i'm leaving exposed.

Here is the future fish room.

My goal with the new system is to build something that has a high level of automation and control.

I've always loved "high end" coral and having exotic and rare pieces. With the new set up thats the same direction i'm going to go. I love the idea of trading coral and also giving away exotic coral to people who couldn't normally get their hands on it. Growing and fragging was always my favorite part of the hobby.

Tank spec place holder:

Build Specs:
Display Tank:
Custom 220 Gallon
50 gallon CAD cube
Stand:
220:Custom wood stained stand.
50 cube: Cad stand
Sump: Elite Aquatics
Return: Hammerhead
Lighting:
220gal: Aquatic life 61 Hybrid ThHO 4x80W with 4 Ecotech Radion XR30 G4 Pro.
50 gallon cube: Radion Pro
Flow:
220gal: 2 MP40wes/ 2 Gyre XF330s
50 cube: 2 mp10wes
Dosing: Apex DOS BRS 2pt Doser (3)
Misc: Bubble Magus Filter Roller
Skimmer: Regal 300 INT 12: internal
Controller: Apex
Calcium Reactor: TBD
Mixing Station: TBD

 

[Laird]

The first part of this thread will be building out the room where the tank goes, then it will go to the fish room, then the fish room build.

The idea to finish this room and put a tank in started last week of Aug 2019. The plans in my head started first week of September 2019. The goal is to have it all done November 2019 because I have a baby coming and I want to have the big build done and the tank starting to cycle while we are going through the new baby phase of our life. The once we get our heads back on after a few months the tank will be cycled and ready to go.

 

[Laird]

One issue I had with putting the tank in this new room was I was worried I would not go in that room enough to make it worth it. The room was cut off by the rest of the house. So my thought was I would cut out the current door and replace it with big 8 foot french doors which would make it so we could see the tank from the living room next to it.

The idea was good in theory but it do it we would have to cut out a foot of concrete. Which is no small task.

Here is the current door, and next to it the french doors I want to replace it with.

 

[Laird]

Here is the view from the other side.

 

[Laird]

First step was the clean out the room, take down the electrical that was in the way and prep to be cut.
Then hired some guys to come cut out the door and also cut out holes in the wall to run drain lines for the wet bar, and also the drain lines from the 220 display tank to the fish room on the other side of the wall.

 

[Silent]

That's going to be a massive project. I imagine that is a supporting wall and cutting that high into it you need to get an engineer involved and costs could skyrocket fast.
Keep us updated.

 

[Laird]

The wall coming down.

 

[Laird]

I got an engineer involved before I started. He's in my family so has come by a bunch during the project. We were going to be totally fine cutting out as much concrete as did. The issue came when they made WAY bigger over cuts than they said they were going to.

 

[Laird]

We hauled away the concrete, cleaned everything up and started prepping for framing. Again, this project is turbo charged. We took down the wall and started framing within 48 hours.

I put some sealer on the concrete on the exterior wall. I had water issues from some drainage issues that have since been fixe.d Thought i'd put up sealer just to be safe.

 

[Laird]

Because of the over-cuts in the concrete we put some additional supports inside the room above the door, and on the other side of the wall where the french doors are going.

 

[Laird]

The entire project has been done this fast because of talented friends and family who have been over at my house every evening with me getting things done. I had the vision but not the skill set to do all this by myself.

Here is the door installed so now we can see the tank from the living room. Had to get a little creative with the door jam since its 14 inches deep, haha.

 

[dbraun15]

Quite the project! Looking great so far!

 

[Laird]

A couple years ago I built a new little office building and my biggest mistake was not making it sound proof enough. With that in mind I wanted to make sure that sound wasn't too loud in the bar room and also sound didnt get out throughout the house.

With this bar room being made of concrete and a metal ceiling I knew sound and echos would be a huge issue. So my plan was to put sound proofing in the walls. I went with rockwool insulation and I cannot believe how well its worked. When we where framing we had to wear earplugs because the sound was so loud in that room. After putting up the soundproofing its silent in there. Sound hits it, get absorbed, and dies. It's amazing stuff. Highly recommend. I liked it so much I decided to put it in the fish room as well. It's also so easy to work with.

I have a bunch of videos of everything but can't figure out to get them to post correctly. Once I figure that out i'll go back and add videos to a bunch of these post.

 

[Laird]

Everything that i've just posted was what i've done with that room over the last 3 weeks. As of today we are going to start putting up the drywall. In the next 10 days I hope to finish the drywall, paint, and put in the flooring.

 

[Laird]

As i've been doing the build I've also been planning out the fish room, and taking inventory of everything I had left over from old tanks.

For the 220 gallon display I have old rock, and 2 MP40s i'm going to reuse.

The 50 gallon cube I already have everything rimless cube/stand, Radion, mp10s. I'll just need new plumbing to run it into the fish room instead of the old sump in the stand.

For the fishrrom I have the 30 gallon peninsula frag tank i'm reusing that has a a 6 bulb t5 and a mp10.

For the fish room I have a big nice sump i'm still debating if i'm going to use or if i'm going to get something bigger. Probably will get something bigger. I also have a big UV sterilizer left over that i'll be using. I also have a reflow dart that I think i'll save to run my mixing barrels and i'll upgrade to a hammerhead to run the main system.

Here is my old 180 and stand thats in storage. I'm going to use the stand but not the tank because of the corner overflows.

The canopy for the big tank was damaged in storage. I'll have to find someone to help me fix it.

 

[Laird]

I pulled out all my old rock and bleached it. I'll need to get a lot more rock but this is a good start.

 

[Laird]

From my old 180 I also have a ton of custom vida rock that i'm still debating if i'm using or not.
I'll probably use some if it and mix it in with some shelf frock for the 220.

These pics are from my old 180 build. The rock was just bleached and now is in trash cans waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

 

[Laird]

I'm currently debating if I want to run a refug or not. If I do it will be its own tank outside of my sump.

 

[antrageous]

Nice build!! Always better with a fish room. What a big project you're taking. Good luck and great start so far.

 

[Laird]

Got the drywall up for the fish room and the bar room and the holes cut out for the tank drains.

I also got about 10 boxes in the mail today full of plumbing, lights, and 90% of the equipment I'll need for the tank build.