My 240, My 240/Basement Fish Room, My 240/Basement Fish Room/built into a full wall bookcase and focal point of house addition.

[Dburr1014]

Howdy, I'm in middlesex County, CT. Truly a neighbor, see you at FFM!

Following your past progress! Stunning.

 

[JGT]

Howdy, I'm in middlesex County, CT. Truly a neighbor, see you at FFM!

Following your past progress! Stunning.

Hi @Dburr1014 (Dan), yes, more neighbors than you may realize. You may not remember but couple years back I bought some corals from you. Still in my tank and doing great. We met in the parking lot of a mall. Anyone watching woulda thought something sketchy was going down .
Thanks for the kind words!

 

[cudafishman]

Few teasers..gotta organize my photos. Will be slow going but will pickup momentum. Going to document home addition, tank, fish room, tank built into full wall bookcase (with a hidden door) which was focal point for the addition and interesting story of my current tank.
Will also share some photos/stories of my old tank back in the 1990’s.
Will then cover current tank, filtration, inhabitants both corals and fish, lighting (which is automated, you’ll have to tune in to see what this actually means) and other interesting tidbits.

That's so beautiful! Thanks for posting!

 

[JGT]

That's so beautiful! Thanks for posting!

Thanks very much!

 

[Dburr1014]

Hi @Dburr1014 (Dan), yes, more neighbors than you may realize. You may not remember but couple years back I bought some corals from you. Still in my tank and doing great. We met in the parking lot of a mall. Anyone watching woulda thought something sketchy was going down .
Thanks for the kind words!

Oh yes! I remember. The hammer coral.
I finally ordered a tank from planet. I think you were selling your old one at that time.

Nice to put a face to the name.

 

[JGT]

Oh yes! I remember. The hammer coral.
I finally ordered a tank from planet. I think you were selling your old one at that time.

Nice to put a face to the name.

Yep that’s it. Things grown into a monster. Good luck with the new tank. Expect to see a Build Thread on it.

 

[Digitalfirex]

@albano, you are quite the detective. I am in Fairfield County CT. Howdy neighbor.
Thanks.

Fairfield County you say

 

[fltt]

New Haven County here ...Lol.
We should be more active on CTARS.
I shouldn't talk, I'm not a good member either.

 

[Dburr1014]

New Haven County here ...Lol.
We should be more active on CTARS.
I shouldn't talk, I'm not a good member either.

Haha, yes we should. We have a new BOD.
I hope to get some more events planned out.
Sorry OP, don't want to hijack.

 

[Zeefishies]

Few teasers..gotta organize my photos. Will be slow going but will pickup momentum. Going to document home addition, tank, fish room, tank built into full wall bookcase (with a hidden door) which was focal point for the addition and interesting story of my current tank.
Will also share some photos/stories of my old tank back in the 1990’s.
Will then cover current tank, filtration, inhabitants both corals and fish, lighting (which is automated, you’ll have to tune in to see what this actually means) and other interesting tidbits.

fodas,

 

[JGT]

Fairfield County you say

Another nutmegger, what town you in?

 

[JGT]

New Haven County here ...Lol.
We should be more active on CTARS.
I shouldn't talk, I'm not a good member either.

CT representing on R2R. I had checked CTARS out a while back and quite honestly it seemed in disarray with not much interest. Has it changed?

 

[JGT]

Haha, yes we should. We have a new BOD.
I hope to get some more events planned out.
Sorry OP, don't want to hijack.

No worries, all good. Are you running it now Dan?

 

[fltt]

2023 was like a resurrection. They tried to kick start it up again and was definitely better and more active. As you know we the members are to blame for not supporting meetings (me included). Hopefully this year it can grow a little more.

 

[Dburr1014]

CT representing on R2R. I had checked CTARS out a while back and quite honestly it seemed in disarray with not much interest. Has it changed?

No worries, all good. Are you running it now Dan?

Yes, I was voted in as president this year.
We really tried to resurrect it in 2023, the struggle is real.
New pres, vp, and made some switches.
We will have a table at FFM. I'm hoping that can be another kick start for the coming year. I have some ideas for get togethers.

 

[JGT]

Yes, I was voted in as president this year.
We really tried to resurrect it in 2023, the struggle is real.
New pres, vp, and made some switches.
We will have a table at FFM. I'm hoping that can be another kick start for the coming year. I have some ideas for get togethers.

Congrats! Sounds like it’s under new management which is good. May have to check it out.

 

[Dburr1014]

Congrats! Sounds like it’s under new management which is good. May have to check it out.

Yes, are you going to FFM? I would love to chat with you about it.

 

[JGT]

Yes, are you going to FFM? I would love to chat with you about it.

Probably not. As you can see, I’m not exactly in need of more coral.

In fact I have the opposite problem. My corals grow like crazy and having to manage their growth is a constant battle. It’s probably my biggest headache with the tank. I know…good problem to have but it it time consuming and I hate fragging my corals cause I wind up chucking them and then there’s the period where they go though the semi-ugly phase as they grow back.

 

[BeanAnimal]

@Sisterlimonpot. Looks great. I use mine weekly. I’m a bit of neat freak when it comes to algae so I like to get my 36” algae scraper and get the algae both green and coralline near the sandbed. If I couldn’t raise the lights out of the way, I’d be cursing up a storm every time I hit my lights. Also placing frags mid tank and lower this really comes in handy. I can get shoulder deep with no issue if need be.
Since I can control it from my phone or keypad it makes it real easy to use. It also has upper and lower set limits so I can hit a button and it raises and lowers to the same height every time.

I had mine on a linear actuator and pulley system that moved it up and down. Originally it was for sunrise, sunset with the halides and for maintenance. I moved to LEDs and really have no need to move the lights, so scrapped the lift frame. Always interested to see how people setup their light movers though.

 

[JGT]

Next up is the back story to my current tank.

I broke down the 135 when I bought a house and had to move. Was in my house several years but hadn't set the tank back up. Had lots of home projects occupying my time so didn't have a chance to focus on the tank.

I went out lunch one day with a business colleague who was in town from Colorado. During lunch, we got into talking and found out we both had a love for reef tanks. In fact, he was moving himself, and had a 240 gallon tank along with a stand, sump, and canopy he was looking to get rid of. He then asked me if I wanted it and I said hell yeah, but how much? He said, don't worry about it, you just cover the shipping from CO to CT and we'll be good. So while I figured shipping wouldn't be cheap it was still cheap compared to buying that tank and all of that equipment so I agreed.

So a few months later he told me it was packed up and ready to be shipped. It arrived and the driver used a forklift to move crates into my garage. When I contacted my buddy to ask him what I owed him he said, no worries, it's on me. I just bought the company that made the tank! (My buddy just had newborn twins so I sent him a bunch of baby clothes as a way of thanking him.) So there I was with this nice tank, stand and equipment and I paid 0. And there it sat in my garage for the next 17 years, while life happened and got in the way of me setting it

Until....(to be continued)..

So continuing onwards…I always had plans to do an home addition and as I was doing the design I thought, what a great place and time to setup the big tank. So without getting into all the building plans, designs and pics since this isn’t a home building forum, I planned for the tank to be up against the wall on the left hand side of the double doors leading to a new office. So that was my plan and I started to move forward with it after I finished the addition.

I wanted the tank to have more of a presence in the room so I built a platform to mount the stand to. This would raise it up 8” or so and get the bottom of the tank above the backs of the sofas so it could be seen from anywhere in the room.

While the stand was solid and well built, I figured why not add a little extra muscle to it. I had some reconstituted 4x4’s and old decking that I cut to size and glued/screwed into key support areas of the stand. I painted the whole stand with a primer and several coats of white latex semi gloss-both inside and out.

The tank was in decent shape but it had a few scratches so I got my drill, a buffer pad and several grades of acrylic polish and buffed it to perfection-both inside and out.

I’ve included a few pics detailing the layout and some early work on the stand and tank.