Thoughts and ideas

[fuzzybob4]

I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were on a fish room. I will be moving into a new home in about a year or less.
Im wanting to put an in wall aquarium.
The room is 10X9 foot the wall that is on the same side as the living room is 9 foot, I'm trying to figure out if I should go with 5 or 6 long aquarium.
I know that I want to go with a depth of around 4 foot.
I am also wanting to add more aquariums in the room besides the the large aquarium.

Let me know your thoughts.

[allan]

I have a fish room, but not with a in wall tank... Which would be kind of cool. Wall units have always been pretty cool, everyone sees them. In my case they have to go into the fish room to see the tank.

[fuzzybob4]

Yeah I have a 70 gallon in my living room in my apartment, but I want a larger aquarium but I don't want it to take up floor space in the living room. So I was like in wall!

[rrasco]

I went back and forth about putting mine in-wall since I have a similar setup to you, living room wall and fish room behind it, but in the end I decided against it. I didn't want to deal with all the modifications at this point in time, my foundation is also not level so I didn't want a level tank and un-level wall. I also ended up with a rimless so that's kind of counter-intuitive IMO.

If you are going in-wall I would definitely go 6 foot. You said 4 foot deep, does that mean 6x4 is in your future? That would be an amazing reef tank.

[fuzzybob4]

I don't want to go 4' deep I'm sorry I meant to put 3 foot. That way I can get a good amount of hight on the rocks. I'm looking at buying maybe 2 x 130 gallon aquariums and using the long sides witch are 72" long so that would give me 3 feet of wall left but no room for the door to open into the room. Unless I move the hinge to the other side.(that would work) I'm also looking at doing a wood bottom for the aquarium using pond armor to seal the wood. That way I could cut down on the cost of glass.




To address the space for the aquarium and the equipment I have a room that is 10'X9' 8" so their is a good amount of space. I will also have the in wall aquarium sitting about 36 inches or 48 inches high so that when I get a couch in the living room I want have any of the fish tank covered by the back or sides of the chairs. At this hight I will be able to place 3 tanks underneath one will be my chemical filter and skimmer, the next one will be an auto top off system tank and the third tank will be a refugium/ return pump. Also the room backs up to a downstairs bathroom so I could add drain lines into the room or even a sink.

[fuzzybob4]

Happy sundy everyone.
For the past couple of days I have been looking for lights to place above the aquarium, I came a cross a site that said that a 400w metal halides will cover a 3 foot circle of area so to cover the 6X6 foot aquarium I would need 4. But that's like $100 a month for each bulb, but I don't make that much money to run the lights at that price. I ended up looking into Led lighting, but I have not found anything good saying that LEDs will be just as good for growing corals and giving them color.
I run LEDs on my 15 gallon tall but I can't place any SPS in the aquarium because they all bleach I have SPS ion may 70 gallon that has 4X T5Ho and I keep SPS just fun but not great color.
So I'm trying to figure out what LEDs would be best to cover the aquarium and have good color and groth.
I've seen the Led cannon but I don't know of anyone who is running them on their systems, they also cost about $700 each.

[allan]

I ran a single 400 w mh over a tank that had a footprint of 4' by 3'. Nothing else.

Massive growth throughout the tank.

Haven't thought about a cube tank measuring 6' by 6'.... But I think you might be stacking the lights a bit heavy.

[fuzzybob4]

So you think that 2 400w HM lights would give good growth and color?

[slm222]

A lot of people have great color with LEDs. You just need todo full spectrum. You SPS is probably bleaching because the LEDs need to be dimmed....too much light. Most people run their LEDs from 60-80% depending on which brand and how many watts each LEDs are driven. I'm having fine growth with the SPS frags I got under LEDs.

[fuzzybob4]

That could be but I don't have a dimmer on my lights.

[slm222]

Move the SPS down in the tank if you can.

[fuzzybob4]

I have tried they still bleach :(

[slm222]

What are the lights

or can you raise the lights

[fuzzybob4]

I have a 6 inch 12k led made by http://www.current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/truelumen-pro-led-striplights

[allan]

Bleach or fade? Bone white? Algae starts growing on them? May not be the lights.

You did say the tank you want has a footprint of 6' by 6'?

[fuzzybob4]

They turn white, but no algae groth.
Yes I was thinking 6' X 6' or 5' X 6'

[slm222]

for your current tank, not sure if this has a dimmer, but adds a nice feature. http://reefbuilders.com/2013/09/20/current-usa-invents-product-category-single-ramp-timer/

[fuzzybob4]

Well it keeps soft corals good. And I have my other aquarium for SPS.

[slm222]

Back to the topic..I've seen Allan and big puns tanks running LEDs both of which had great growth of SPS and lps. High quality parts and full spectrum are key from my reading and observations

[fuzzybob4]

Do you know what lights they are useing?

[allan]

If he doesn't, I do. :)

I have two AI Sols and a single large chinese fixture. I grow pretty good SPS at all levels in the tank, LPS in the lower areas and zoas all the way up to the mid to high mid level.

Chris has a single LED fixture... but I forget what it is. He's heavy SPS, but running a fair share of lps and softies.

[fuzzybob4]

What about acro's?

[allan]

Sps... It's all the same as far as I'm concerned. I do better with acros than I do with millies... But I think I have one in my tank now that's doing well.

It may not be your lights.

[fuzzybob4]

Yeah but I can't find any thing else that could be wrong with the aquarium.

[allan]

What's your phosphates at?

[slm222]

with a nano I find mine does better with a 25% water change somewhere between weekly and bi-weekly.

[fuzzybob4]

0

[CoryDude]

Fuzzybob4,

got ot a couple of pointers on the in-wall. I've been running an in wall tank since 2005. Don't forget that unless you install openings on the front wall that you'll be working on your tank from the back and top. So it's difficult to arrange corals and get inside the tank because you are working in reverse and from the top down, with no eye level view. So if you do go with a deep tank, I'd suggest installing access panels on your front wall.

Also, make sure you have at least a 24 inch clearance on the sides of the tank to allow access. I screwed up and made a small 6x4 room with a 4 foot long tank. I curse that decision every time I use the magnetic glass scrapper for the side panels.

You definitely want to go with LEDs if you can. Heat buildup is a big issue in an enclosed room. When I ran 2x250w halides and 4x110w vho's the room would clock in at 110+ degrees during the peak photo-period. If you use a chiller, do not install it in the fish room. There's way too much and it will cause a chiller to short cycle and kill the compressor.

These were all mistakes I made so I want to make sure you avoid the same pitfalls.

[CoryDude]

With sps/acros and led, you definitely want a full spectrum. I'm running 2x ai Vegas and 1 hydra. It wasn't until I started supplementing with vho bulbs that I began to see my acro colors return to their metal halide type colors. For some reason my green acros and milipora acros faired the worst when I switched from halides to led.

[fuzzybob4]

Fuzzybob4,

got ot a couple of pointers on the in-wall. I've been running an in wall tank since 2005. Don't forget that unless you install openings on the front wall that you'll be working on your tank from the back and top. So it's difficult to arrange corals and get inside the tank because you are working in reverse and from the top down, with no eye level view. So if you do go with a deep tank, I'd suggest installing access panels on your front wall.

Also, make sure you have at least a 24 inch clearance on the sides of the tank to allow access. I screwed up and made a small 6x4 room with a 4 foot long tank. I curse that decision every time I use the magnetic glass scrapper for the side panels.

You definitely want to go with LEDs if you can. Heat buildup is a big issue in an enclosed room. When I ran 2x250w halides and 4x110w vho's the room would clock in at 110+ degrees during the peak photo-period. If you use a chiller, do not install it in the fish room. There's way too much and it will cause a chiller to short cycle and kill the compressor.

These were all mistakes I made so I want to make sure you avoid the same pitfalls.

thank you, the wall that I am putting the aquarium in is a 9 X 10 and the aquarium will be placed about 2 feet from the outside wall and that will gove me 1 food from the door opening so I will have to make the door open out. Instead of in.
What do you mean by placing the aquarium away from the wall?

[CoryDude]

Sorry, I was talking about the space between the side of the tank and fish room wall. Because I only have about 8 inches between each side, it's always difficult to clean the glass on the sides of the tank. Basically I can only access the tank from the back. It would be a lot easier if I could work on the tank on the sides and the back. With a room of your size you should be fine.

[fuzzybob4]

Ahh yeah I want to place odors in the front so that I can work on the front of the aquarium.

[fuzzybob4]

22481
Im wanting to set up the aquarium like this since the aquarium will be a 6 X6 or 6 x5 foot print. But I can't find any thing about this aquarium other than the aquarium is no longer running.

[fuzzybob4]

Bump

[slm222]

where are you going to pck up a tank that big and whose building it?

[fuzzybob4]

I'm thinking about taking apart 2x 130 gallon aquariums and than put the front and back sides for the aquarium it's self.

[fuzzybob4]

I found one place that would build it but it would be 10,000 dollars that's crazy!

[EpicWin]

One interesting idea I have seen on r2r is a tank with only 1 glass side. The others are plywood with a special paint. Supposedly it cuts cost by a massive amount. Just throwing it out there.

[fuzzybob4]

Yeah I have looked into that but it's going to be in my fish room/ in wall so inwantto at least see into the aquarium from 3 sides

[fuzzybob4]

Does anyone know how to import the aquariums from google sketchup into a single photo?