GoToSleep's 700g Build Thread (& complete remodel)

GoToSleep · 08-16-2009, 01:55 PM

For 5 or 6 years my wife has wanted me to remodel our garage into living space. I wasn’t at all interested in making the investment until 2 years ago she tried a new tack and said “You know, if we remodeled the garage, you could put a wine cellar out there”(the bait was dangled) . This got me a little bit interested in the project

but not enough to get started. After another 12 months of inaction on my part, she pulled out the big guns

and said, “If we remodeled the garage, we’d have room to put a fish tank out there” (and thus the hook was set).
Previously, we'd each had 70 gal reefs with soft corals and some inverts. After getting married we combined our tanks into a nice 120 which was set up for 4 years. When we moved back to Virginia, our new house didn’t have a good spot for the tank and so our tank spent 8 years sitting empty in the garage

.

defdad · 08-16-2009, 01:57 PM

Sounds like a great project. Looking forward to following along.

Puffer Chick · 08-16-2009, 01:58 PM

wow that's going to be an amazing project! a 700gall reef! wow!

zjpeter · 08-16-2009, 02:04 PM

*jaw drops* (there's probably a smiley for that...) 700 gallons is like a whole other ballpark, man. will that be the biggest tank on here? i know there's a 600 set up but 700!?!? wow, just wow

GoToSleep · 08-16-2009, 02:11 PM

Here are some pics of the garage at the start of the project. Like all my garages, there has never been enough room in it for a car.

You can see my old 'wine cellar' against the wall at 3 o'clock (I got it for free from a friend. Thanks, Ken)
My old 125g tank is burried in this picture too at 7 o'clock (still in the wooden crate from the move back to Virginia).

Garage doors with overhead rails...

Ceilings over 13ft high but with some irregular beams, juts, etc... that my wife wasn't fond of.

Hot water tank and utility sink were not very pretty to look at and taking up a lot of room. The landing and stairs got the job done for a garage.

GoToSleep · 08-16-2009, 02:15 PM

The place was such a mess that the first thing that we had to do was build a new detached garage so that we had a place to put all the stuff from the existing garage. We finished the detached garage last summer. Oh, and my wife made me buy that truck. Truck; wine cellar; fish tank; yeah, she’s definitely a keeper

.

gfunk823 · 08-16-2009, 02:21 PM

oo i wana see this one

railroader46 · 08-16-2009, 02:35 PM

This build should be sweet.

=Jwin= · 08-16-2009, 02:41 PM

This on top of your 550?? Good Lord, man!

I can't wait to see this one!

GoToSleep · 08-16-2009, 02:45 PM

This is how things looked at the begining of May, which, coincidentally is the time that I ordered my display tank.

Here's a view from the outside:

While planning the tank, I toyed around with a few different floorplans and tank configurations. Some early thoughts included placing the tank flat against one of the walls (where you see the double closet doors in the earlier pics). This would have been a very practical placement but not very unique. My LFS owner suggested that we could place the tank as a freestanding island in the middle of the room and run all the wiring and the plumbing down through a central column from a drop ceiling. This would have been very unique but not very practical because the floor is a conrete slab and I would have had to either jackhammer it out to run drain lines (I already spent 8 years using a Python to drain my tank for water changes and I wasn't interested in going there again) or I would have had to pump against 13' of head pressure to get things up to the ceiling. Kind of as a compromise, I really liked the idea of doing a peninsula build. It was around this time that I was drooling over Otty's build thread (K+ to you for all the help that you didn't even know you gave me). I had been thinking of moving from a 125g to a 180g but reading Otty's build definately gave me some serious tank envy. Besides, everyone knows that a bigger tank is easier to take care of than a smaller one and really not that much more expensive (and don't any of you tell my wife anything different

). And so I did some looking and discovered that Marineland now makes a stock 300g tank. It's 72" x 36" so a peninsula set-up would give me 12' of viewable glass which sounded pretty nice.

08-16-2009, 01:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
GoToSleep Funny Guy Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 1,141 Skin: Classic Karma: 13774	GoToSleep's 700g Build Thread (& complete remodel) For 5 or 6 years my wife has wanted me to remodel our garage into living space. I wasn’t at all interested in making the investment until 2 years ago she tried a new tack and said “You know, if we remodeled the garage, you could put a wine cellar out there”(the bait was dangled) . This got me a little bit interested in the project but not enough to get started. After another 12 months of inaction on my part, she pulled out the big guns and said, “If we remodeled the garage, we’d have room to put a fish tank out there” (and thus the hook was set). Previously, we'd each had 70 gal reefs with soft corals and some inverts. After getting married we combined our tanks into a nice 120 which was set up for 4 years. When we moved back to Virginia, our new house didn’t have a good spot for the tank and so our tank spent 8 years sitting empty in the garage . _________ 550g DT, 135g sump, 30g frag, 40g specimen tank. Reeflo Barracuda, AlphaCone 300 with self cleaning head, 120W UV, Four LumenMax Elite reflectors with CoralVue 400W dimmable ballasts and 14K bulbs http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off...del-70010.html

08-16-2009, 01:58 PM	#3 (permalink)
Puffer Chick Giant Squid Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: The OC, California Age: 20 Posts: 8,008 Skin: Mint Karma: 58882	wow that's going to be an amazing project! a 700gall reef! wow! _________ 46 gallon bowfront: SPECS: octo bh 800s skimmer; vortech mp20 + hydro evolution 1050; AquaClear HOB 4 Carbon;T5HO Tek; 40lbs lr; 60lbs ls LIVESTOCK: 2 b&w clowns; 2 female pink margin fairy wrasses (paprika,; chromis; McCoskers flasher wrasse (flash)INVERTS: typical CUC blue tux urchin; emerald crab; cleaner shrimp Coral: Mixed Reef

08-16-2009, 02:04 PM	#4 (permalink)
zjpeter ἰχθύς Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago-ish Age: 25 Posts: 532 Skin: Mint Karma: 11266	jaw drops (there's probably a smiley for that...) 700 gallons is like a whole other ballpark, man. will that be the biggest tank on here? i know there's a 600 set up but 700!?!? wow, just wow _________ Maturity is knowing that you were an idiot in the past, wisdom is knowing that you will be an idiot in the future.

08-16-2009, 02:21 PM	#7 (permalink)
gfunk823 Coral Banded Shrimp Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: ct Posts: 360 Skin: Mint Karma: 565	oo i wana see this one _________ you can tune a guitar but you cant tune-a-fish

08-16-2009, 02:35 PM	#8 (permalink)
railroader46 Skunk Shrimp Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Louisville KY Posts: 287 Skin: Mint Karma: 859	This build should be sweet. _________ 90 gallon reef project born 8-16-2009

08-16-2009, 01:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
defdad Fire Shrimp Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 302 Skin: Mint Karma: 3127	Sounds like a great project. Looking forward to following along.

08-16-2009, 02:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
GoToSleep Funny Guy Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 1,141 Skin: Classic Karma: 13774	Here are some pics of the garage at the start of the project. Like all my garages, there has never been enough room in it for a car. You can see my old 'wine cellar' against the wall at 3 o'clock (I got it for free from a friend. Thanks, Ken) My old 125g tank is burried in this picture too at 7 o'clock (still in the wooden crate from the move back to Virginia). Garage doors with overhead rails... Ceilings over 13ft high but with some irregular beams, juts, etc... that my wife wasn't fond of. Hot water tank and utility sink were not very pretty to look at and taking up a lot of room. The landing and stairs got the job done for a garage.

08-16-2009, 02:15 PM	#6 (permalink)
GoToSleep Funny Guy Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 1,141 Skin: Classic Karma: 13774	The place was such a mess that the first thing that we had to do was build a new detached garage so that we had a place to put all the stuff from the existing garage. We finished the detached garage last summer. Oh, and my wife made me buy that truck. Truck; wine cellar; fish tank; yeah, she’s definitely a keeper .

08-16-2009, 02:41 PM	#9 (permalink)
=Jwin= Purple Tang Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Tennessee Age: 19 Posts: 1,826 Skin: Classic Karma: 32218	This on top of your 550?? Good Lord, man! I can't wait to see this one! _________ -46g bowfront-born 11/21/08 http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off...ont-55581.html =9g Mantis= born 02/04/09 http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off...tml#post551014 I think I'd find watching my mantis shrimp more enjoyable if she didn't watch me back...

08-16-2009, 02:45 PM	#10 (permalink)
GoToSleep Funny Guy Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 1,141 Skin: Classic Karma: 13774	This is how things looked at the begining of May, which, coincidentally is the time that I ordered my display tank. Here's a view from the outside: While planning the tank, I toyed around with a few different floorplans and tank configurations. Some early thoughts included placing the tank flat against one of the walls (where you see the double closet doors in the earlier pics). This would have been a very practical placement but not very unique. My LFS owner suggested that we could place the tank as a freestanding island in the middle of the room and run all the wiring and the plumbing down through a central column from a drop ceiling. This would have been very unique but not very practical because the floor is a conrete slab and I would have had to either jackhammer it out to run drain lines (I already spent 8 years using a Python to drain my tank for water changes and I wasn't interested in going there again) or I would have had to pump against 13' of head pressure to get things up to the ceiling. Kind of as a compromise, I really liked the idea of doing a peninsula build. It was around this time that I was drooling over Otty's build thread (K+ to you for all the help that you didn't even know you gave me). I had been thinking of moving from a 125g to a 180g but reading Otty's build definately gave me some serious tank envy. Besides, everyone knows that a bigger tank is easier to take care of than a smaller one and really not that much more expensive (and don't any of you tell my wife anything different). And so I did some looking and discovered that Marineland now makes a stock 300g tank. It's 72" x 36" so a peninsula set-up would give me 12' of viewable glass which sounded pretty nice.