Gabe and Casie's reef project! Pics!

[Casie]

Hiya!

Gabe and I are about 8 weeks into our close-in-the-garage-and-build-a-fish-room project! We are juuuuust getting to where we have decent pics to share. I'll spare you the pics of us cleaning out the garage and staining/sealing the floor.

About 7 years ago we bought this cute 2 story metal A-frame house, off lake Bistineau. It had a 25' x 20' open carport on the back of the house, under the second floor deck. Aaaand since it was time to replace the decking, we figured why not do the garage and upgrade tanks too?





This is the framing for the end wall.



Heres the new end wall aaaalmost complete. It still need trim around the AC unit (I was hoping we could tie the new room into our existing central heat and air but it wasn't possible- so sad). And there will be flashing to hide the metal beams... but you get the idea! Uhhh and don't look at the unfinished deck above. We still needed to run the skillsaw over that last few boards that were hanging over in that pic.

[Casie]

Now the fun part! We get to start framing in the fishroom! Its gonna be 10' x 12'.





And of course the 1st thing Gabe brought in was a jukebox. Gotta have good tunes for all those smoke breaks! Also you can kinda see the nice 8' tank (from The Aquarium Company) on its temporary stand on the back wall there.





Heres a few pics of the stand. Gabe ran lots of power for the sump. Each outlet has those foam sheets to keep out moisture. The boxes are made of plastic and all the holes that the wires come in are siliconed up nicely. Also we got a big ol box of plastic caps to plug any outlet not being used.

[Casie]

Now to make some dividers for that sump! Some of you may remember my thread about this sump tank. I originally purchased the tank to be the display tank. It arrived pretty battered so I sent it back to the maufacturer. He sent me another that arrived in worse shape, so I ended up with the 1st tank back and a small refund. It was a mess. I sooo hate confrontation!

But on a happy note, the scratched up tank will make an excellent sump!



Heres Gabe making a template for the divider teeth. He is using a block of wood to guide the acrylic evenly over the router bit. Then he moved the block of wood down 3/4" and did it again. When he had about 10 teeth done we had enough of a template to carpet tape to the dividers and route em out nice.



Heres the test fit! Looks pretty good.



Ready to glue!



We used weldon 4, thickened slightly with clean acrylic shavings, to glue in the dividers. We planned on a settling area, a fuge section, a place to grow tangs heaven seperately, and a large space for our euroreefs and the heaters etc.

[Casie]

This is some large pieces of limestone we got in texas. Its hard to tell from the pics but some of these pieces are 40lbs+ !





The Aquarium Company did an amazing job on this tank. It arrived in perfectly cherry condition and its WELL made. I couldn't be more pleased with it! And last week, out of the blue, they called just to ask how the tank was doing. Lots of love out to Franz and the rest of you Aquarium Co guys!



Ok, so what to do with the bottom of the tank? I currently have a DSB in my 90 that blows around and drives me cRaZy. And before that I went BB... easy to keep clean but not so nice to look at. So after a TON of thought we figured we would give these texas limestone pavers a try.



Pretty huh? But then we found these travertine tiles at home depot. Travertine is a type of limestone and our local home depot somehow got stuck with a palat of UNFILLED light sand colored tiles, so we snatched up 20 of them.





We learned cutting thick limestone tiles with a skillsaw and a 45$ dimond tipped sawblade quite frankly blows... but it can be done. If you have to do this, use a scrap of 2x4 and some clamps as a guide. Set the blade shallow and make several passes. Add water.

[Casie]

Now we are starting to come together!



The rock went in suprisingly easy. Gabe slipped a piece of pink foam into the tank and taped it to the front panel of acrylic in case we were careless with the rocks, but we never had a problem. They just stacked in easy and solid on the first try! That has NEVER happened to us before. We are usually habitual rock re-stackers. You know the type.





Here is the end of the tank. Its going to be a porthole view.



When the rest of that side wall is framed out we will install a 11" bronze porthole to frame it up nice. The porthole is 4" deep with a beveled glass window that will be left open most of the time. Should be a neat little view!

Ok so thats were we are now. Since we now know the approximate placement of the rocks the next step is to drill the tank for its closed loops and plumb it up! I would like to get it plumbed before we dive back in to hanging drywall. But thats just me!

I know the limestone tile and rock isn't for everyone. But I think when we move over the liverock and corals from our 90 gallon it will be pretty spectacular! But we've got a LOT left to do before I can start planning where to put the corals.

[Fanatic]

[JG1312]

Thats very cool....Is there water in it or just the rock?

Good luck,
Jim

[Ewan]

great idea for the bottom. It's going to be great.

So far so good, I'll be keeping an eye on this project.

E.

[prafferty]

Nice Fish Room !!!

[cypres]

once again..... I am jealous of someone elses tank.

[scottywags]

If I could buy a $100,000,000.00 house with 10,000,000.00 square feet and you would only find me in that room! Nice idea and great job!

[Casie]

Hiya Jim,
No, there is no water in the tank yet. Thats why the acrylic looks so dusty. When I peeled that protective paper off of the acrylic, it became statically charged and every bit of sheetrock dust within 10 feet of it stuck right to it.

You KNOW how hard it is not to start filling it up! But with a little luck we will have the closed loops drilled and plumbed this weekend! And then we'll get to fill it up (and clean off all that dust!).

Scottywags, Cypres, Ewan and Fanatic,
Thanks for the kind words (and smilies!). Family and friends look at you funny when you mention you are building a fishroom. Thats why its sooo nice to post here. Makes ya feel nice and normal!

[bonerfortuna]

Another great idea I can pilfer from another more clever board member ! Thanks ! Peter

[dendronepthya]

very nice.

[reelheel]

Hi Casie,

Do you guys plan any type of venting to remove the humid salt air? I see the AC for cooling but do you plan to heat the area as well?

I'm in the planning stages of a similar project myself and I'm curious as to how you've approached these issues.

TIA

[Casie]

Hiya James,

Sears has these nifty dehumidifiers by Kenmore that I'm pretty set on. I think I'm going with this one.

I'm going to just plumb its external drain connector right into the room drain. And its on SALE!

I will admit heating the room is going to be an afterthought. We could have gotten a similar sized window unit with heat, but here in Louisiana winters are pretty mild. Most likely we will end up with something small like those Vornado units or the Bionaires from the Sharper Image if its needed.

I have family in NC (in Elizabeth City and Greenville) so I know your winters can be no joke! Sometimes I really envy your snowy Christmas days... But thats probably cause I've never had to shovel them!

[reelheel]

Thanks for the reply Casie...

I'm actually moving back to Greenville (that's where I'm from). My garage "fishroom" will be in our new house there. I'm in the process of planning all the crucial elements so that I can keep several tanks in the garage. Hopefully I'll find a way to keep temps stable and remove the humid air...thanks for the tips!

Good luck with the rest of your project!

[scottywags]

try this link for professional dehues.
http://www.dri-eaz.com/

[downset]

wow looking great

[hottuna]

love the limestone bottom idea !! way better than starboard....and limestine rock means little or no detritus production.....i think we are on the same page as to using little or no live rock !! this tank should live on a long time ....

[Algae Blenny]

Really nice. I can't wait to see it filled.

[ShipMate]

The bottom will get covered with coralline algae...so it will end up looking just like any bb tank...Then again i understand the reasoning behing it... I like the rockwork nice and open, very nice!

[Casie]

scottywags, thanks for the great link!

Gabe has been working on getting the porthole framed up. Sooo new pictures!


We used the carpet tape trick and routed out several of these.



Then some glue and clamps!



Painted black and ready for a test fit. It fits prrrrretty good. Now it just needs some pretty birch ply to wrap it all up!



Test fitting the unfinished pieces of birch ply.



Then we took down the piece over the tank and cut the holes for the 4 large (32" x 18") doors that we ordered from Ameridoor.



Heres one of the doors all stained and poly'd up.


And Gabe may have changed my mind about the bronze porthole hardware. I think instead we may go with something like this...



It comes in several nice wood finishes too. Hmmmmm...

We took all the birch plywood back down and stained them. They got a 1st coat of poly and maybe Wednesday I'll have pics of them all re-installed with the doors on. *mumbles* I wish poly dried faster!

[Northside Reef]

The porthole is very clever I like it.

The whole project looks fun.
I cant wait to do my next tank lol so much learned from the first one

[Casie]

Update!

We got all the wood finished and the doors on late tonight. It still needs all the molding bits but its look'n pretty goood!

Porthole first.





Here are the doors going on.



We used Minwax Red Mahogany on all this wood. Then gave it a good coat of Helsman Spar Poly in satin.



All done for tonight!



And Gabe and I can't agree on this bit of unfinished wall above the porthole. Obviously the birch plywood only comes in 8' sheets, and since the ceiling is 10'-ish we have a hole. The metal beam will be covered in oak boards to look like a wood beam so it will trim out the top of the birch everywhere else EXCEPT that hole. So if you have an opinion on what should be there... a square of birch plywood peiced in, or a square of sheet rock... say so!