6ft Office Dream Tank

[SmCaudata]

Hello everyone. This is a VERY early start for a build thread. I'm at the planning stage, but I wanted to get some input before I begin to order things.

Background:
I've kept many freshwater tanks in the past. I've only kept on FOWLR 20g saltwater tank. In that tank I had 2 clowns, a yellow watchman, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, and cleanup crew. I kept it successfully for several years before I broke it down for a move. Now I'm ready to get back into saltwater in a big way. Because I haven't kept corals, I plan to use this tank to progress. Start with aquascape and fish before moving to corals. When it comes to corals, i would like to progress through the typical pattern softies --> LPS --> and SPS. I will need to plan placement and coral selection accordingly to prevent being overrun.

Goals:
Large enough to keep a tang or two for quite a while.
Large enough to supply significant natural feeding for pod eaters (I will likely need to supplement too)
Lighting for a true mixed reef.
Enough control and monitoring to allow for house sitter just to feed while I go on vacation. (We have dogs too so likely will just have someone staying at the house. It's cheaper than boarding multiples).

Space:
I will be finishing an area of our basement mechanical/storage. I will be putting in an office with an in wall aquarium. Here is the layout I ended up with. Room is framed and rocked right now. Window between office and fish room is currently 72x25. I think that putting in the trim and framing will mean that I wont see glass edges, tank frame, sand line, or water line. I want it to just be all reef. I plan to try to hide pumps as much as possible too.

I plan to have a peninsula style overflow. The big double doors will let me slide a sump under the tank in case I need to change it. I can use the area to the right of the tank (looking from the fish room) to mount UV and equipment. Mixing station will be outside.

I went with the in wall so that I can keep the fish room nice and warm without making my office unbearable. The picture below is 100% accurate as the entire tank and stand are behind the wall with a cutout. It won't be in line with the wall.

I had 2 dedicated circuits run to the fish room. This will provide for some redundancy for heaters, return pumps, etc in case of GFCI failure.

Planned build:
Tank: Leaning toward Glass Cages now with a T-slot stand. Maybe 72x30x25/26. I may try to go a bit longer so that I can hide an overflow outside of the viewing pane.
Sump: Thinking Bashsea SS 48x18 sump. I will plan to put a ReefMat1200 in there with a skimmer.
Lighting: 3 Orphek Atlantic Icon to start. May put in bars and/or Kessil to fill or add shimmer depending on PAR readings and how I like the look.
Automation: I'm leaning toward Hydros right now. I haven't used any but I like the direction they are going and the people here that have bought into Hydros seem really happy. I would likely get a Control4 and WaveEngine.
Wave Maker: Undecided. I may put in 2 gyres and make the tank taller so that the gyres are out of view. I may put in a strong pump on the ground in the gutter behind the scape to keep the floor clear.
Return Pump: 2x something.
Heaters: I'm thinking 2 controllers and 2 heaters. One controller on each circuit.
Room heater: Fish room is on HVAC. I have a bathroom exhaust fan on humidity control to help prevent mold.
Skimmer: TBD.
RO/DI: 7 stage with booster pump
ATO: I may try to figure out a gravity fed float valve setup.
Extra Nutrient removal: Leaning toward Coralvue PRO in sump turf scrubber. I like the in sump option for leak reasons. I could still go refuge/chaeto, but the turf scrubber seems less likely to die off once going?

Future:
Kalk dosing system as SPS build up.
Eventually I would consider getting Mastertronic and Dosetronic (or Neptune/GHL equiv if I go that route) if I'm finding it necessary down the road.
Consider auto water change system

 

[blaxsun]

I think the layout is great. Having fish in the office is very relaxing! The "fish room" is definitely a must. Things that I would plan for in the fish room are a small sink, room for a RODI system, mixing station, countertop and lots of cabinets/shelves. You could potentially place the mixing station, sink and ROD in the mechanical area as well - leaving you room for a small frag tank or two.

 

[SmCaudata]

I think the layout is great. Having fish in the office is very relaxing! The "fish room" is definitely a must. Things that I would plan for in the fish room are a small sink, room for a RODI system, mixing station, countertop and lots of cabinets/shelves. You could potentially place the mixing station, sink and ROD in the mechanical area as well - leaving you room for a small frag tank or two.

I was going have the fish "room" be open to the utility. Those gray represent where I would put some open benches or maybe cabinets with overhead cabinets. I already have a utility sink so I wasn't planning to plumb another since the drain would mean concrete work. Do you think the open concept will work fine? I'm closing off the actual tank area for heat reasons. There is only about 2 ft of space behind the tank so I figure that will be more controllers and such.

I edited the OP with the rotated layout. I can get a 7 foot tank rather than 8 foot in there. What do you think?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Good job trying to plan everything out way in advance. I originally wanted to do and in wall tank as well, but the location I had to put the tank was load bearing and my wife nixed the additional costs of messing with that wall. So instead I just put some holes in that wall and built the fish room on the other side in the garage. All that said, your fish room is going to get very small very fast. My suggestion is to go with the layout that will give you the most fish room space. A 7' tank will be plenty large enough for a few tangs, especially if you are the 30" width mark. Mine is a 270g tank measuring 84x30x24 and my tangs are fine (still small, but I've got six of them).

I also have the Synergy Reef SK-60 with fleece roller mat sump. I run mine with two roller filters normally, but I've been running it with just one the last month or so. the setup does not work that great with just one filter roller going. Also keep in mind that the amount of flow you can get though your sump is going to be limited by the roller filters.

I'm assuming that you plan to put the sump under the tank? Servicing the roller filters will be a pain in that configuration.

Feel free to checkout my build thread and see if you have any questions.

 

[SmCaudata]

Good job trying to plan everything out way in advance. I originally wanted to do and in wall tank as well, but the location I had to put the tank was load bearing and my wife nixed the additional costs of messing with that wall. So instead I just put some holes in that wall and built the fish room on the other side in the garage. All that said, your fish room is going to get very small very fast. My suggestion is to go with the layout that will give you the most fish room space. A 7' tank will be plenty large enough for a few tangs, especially if you are the 30" width mark. Mine is a 270g tank measuring 84x30x24 and my tangs are fine (still small, but I've got six of them).

I also have the Synergy Reef SK-60 with fleece roller mat sump. I run mine with two roller filters normally, but I've been running it with just one the last month or so. the setup does not work that great with just one filter roller going. Also keep in mind that the amount of flow you can get though your sump is going to be limited by the roller filters.

I'm assuming that you plan to put the sump under the tank? Servicing the roller filters will be a pain in that configuration.

Feel free to checkout my build thread and see if you have any questions.

After looking through your thread, I realize that I actually like the look of the stand in the room. It also makes the room more flexible in case I decide to get out of the hobby. I can put some built ins or something later. Anyway, here is what I came up with. Sump would be in the fish room now. I'd plan to somehow make a panel behind the tank removable (but hidden from the front side) so that I can get access to the tank from the back. I have some ideas on this. I'm not sure if I will go floating canopy to hide lights or if I will get some lights like the new Kessil A500x and ceiling mount them for a real custom look.

@Oberst Hajj how does this look?

Would you recommend the SK-60 if you had to do it again? or would you go another direction? I'll go read through your build thread?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

For an office space, I'd make the stand into a sort of built in book shelf or something. That way you don't lose as much office space to the tank and stand being in the room.

I do like the SK-60 and would buy it again. The two things I can think of off hand that I'd change are a slightly larger return pump section. Running dual large pumps in there makes things pretty tight. The other thing I'd change is making the floor of the roller filter section removable. It would be much easier to use that space for bio media.

 

[SmCaudata]

For an office space, I'd make the stand into a sort of built in book shelf or something. That way you don't lose as much office space to the tank and stand being in the room.

I do like the SK-60 and would buy it again. The two things I can think of off hand that I'd change are a slightly larger return pump section. Running dual large pumps in there makes things pretty tight. The other thing I'd change is making the floor of the roller filter section removable. It would be much easier to use that space for bio media.

I'll probably put totes and other things under the stand for storage, stuff that doesn't look good on a bookshelf.

 

[SmCaudata]

Decided on behind the wall with a window for various reasons. Room is framed and rocked. Need painting and floors (epoxy in fish room and wood in office). I now need to finalize my tank choice and get that ordered...