divmat
Sun, 10th Sep 2006, 09:47 AM
Hello everyone
My first time on the site and looks great. Seems to have lots of information. My wife and I are in the final stages of remodeling our house. We live in Corpus Christi and have never owned an aquarium besides the kids fish bowl. We have a friend that has a saltwater setup and the colors are beautiful, so this seems to be what we both want. I know there are pages of things to lean here so I don't want to take up much time for anyone, but I do have a few questions.
The area we are wanting to put in an aquarium, is a pass through between our kitchen/breakfast and the dinning room. The pass through dimensions are 4ft wide x 5ft high x 2-1/2ft deep (approx).
There are cabinets surrounding this area and we should have places to install the equipment. There is an ice maker located in the bottom center of the unit, so we have a water source, elect, drain, and lighting at the top of the unit as well.
My questions are-
1. Acrylic or glass ?
2. Should we custom build a tank to fit our exact area, or maybe better to locate a prebuilt to fit and trim around it?
3. If we custom build, can anyone recommend a company within a few hours of us? I don't think we have anyone here in Corpus.
4. How much space will we need to free up for equipment on this size of aquarium, and is this size too large for our first unit?
5. Do we need to allow space at the top of the pass through to be able to access cleaning tools into the aquarium or is the plumbing permantly installed and all the cleaning and filtering is done through the equipment below?
6. Last, what would be a good guess on total cost when done installing this unit. I understand quality of equipment and many other things will vary the pricing. Our budget for this project would be in the 3 to 5K range excluding the fish. Can we get the better equipment for this amount of money.
Any other info would be appreciated!
Thanks everyone
Steve
My first time on the site and looks great. Seems to have lots of information. My wife and I are in the final stages of remodeling our house. We live in Corpus Christi and have never owned an aquarium besides the kids fish bowl. We have a friend that has a saltwater setup and the colors are beautiful, so this seems to be what we both want. I know there are pages of things to lean here so I don't want to take up much time for anyone, but I do have a few questions.
The area we are wanting to put in an aquarium, is a pass through between our kitchen/breakfast and the dinning room. The pass through dimensions are 4ft wide x 5ft high x 2-1/2ft deep (approx).
There are cabinets surrounding this area and we should have places to install the equipment. There is an ice maker located in the bottom center of the unit, so we have a water source, elect, drain, and lighting at the top of the unit as well.
My questions are-
1. Acrylic or glass ?
2. Should we custom build a tank to fit our exact area, or maybe better to locate a prebuilt to fit and trim around it?
3. If we custom build, can anyone recommend a company within a few hours of us? I don't think we have anyone here in Corpus.
4. How much space will we need to free up for equipment on this size of aquarium, and is this size too large for our first unit?
5. Do we need to allow space at the top of the pass through to be able to access cleaning tools into the aquarium or is the plumbing permantly installed and all the cleaning and filtering is done through the equipment below?
6. Last, what would be a good guess on total cost when done installing this unit. I understand quality of equipment and many other things will vary the pricing. Our budget for this project would be in the 3 to 5K range excluding the fish. Can we get the better equipment for this amount of money.
Any other info would be appreciated!
Thanks everyone
Steve