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

As my remodel plans rolled out I became pretty locked in to the 72' x 36" footprint. Also, I was spending a lot of hours around my LFS (actually around 3 of them, it's a sickness but people here seem to understand) and I asked the owner who I've known for over 20 years... "What do you think, Joe? Should I go with the Marineland 300 or should I do something bigger?"

remember bigger tanks are easier to take care of and they really don't cost all that much more. you can tell that to your mom JWIN


Anyway, Joe says, "You know, Rob, I think that a taller tank would look really nice in there. We could do something like this 600g here that's 42" tall. Or, you know, as long as you stay with a standard size piece of glass, it's really just about the same price to go with a tank that's 49 1/2" deep like this 1200g here". And that's how I wound up with a tank that's deeper than a lot of swimming pools. I ordered it back in mid-May and its journey to Richmond is a long and sordid tale which some of you may be familiar with.

 

Just for fun, I'd like each of you to go down to your LFS tomorrow and ask the owner "So, do you think I should go with a bigger tank?"

 

ill do it

 

Even before the garage was totally cleaned out, I had the plumbers remove the utility sink and the hot water hearter. It's summer time here in Virginia and we really didn't need hot water anyway.



Actually, we changed over to a Rinnai tankless hot water heater which is mounted outside the house. Much more energy efficient to help offset my burgeoning carbon footprint.

The plumbers carted my utility sink away before I got home and I had to call them and have them bring it back. You never know when a sink is gonna come in handy.

 

May 10th was demolition day. We tore out the overhead doors and tracks, the old closet, and the old landing and stairs.


We lowered the ceiling to 12' so that it would hide the irregular heights of the original garage. It also gave us plenty of room above to run pipes and wiring.

 

Framing out only took a day. New (smaller) closet to hide the central vac that I had to move. New half-bath and landing with big storage area underneath. Somehow I've got to find a way to devote that space to fish. Maybe an in-wall set really close to the floor.

Here's a little bit different angle

And here's a distance view of the other side. That large framed area is about 12' x 14' and encompases the new walk-in wine cellar and my fish 'closet' which is about 10' x 3'. It's remarkable how quickly you can run out of space in a room that's 25' x 25'.

 

The refrigerator certainly gives that last shot perspective on size. It almost looks like an easy bake oven next to that framed out wine cellar!

 

This close view shows that the near wall is set at a 45 degree angle to all the othe walls in the room. A fellow member of the Richmond Reef Club is a general contractor and a darn fine cabinet maker. He suggested building the wall on a 45 (thanks Christian). It really makes the space a lot more interesting and positioning the tank with it's long side to this wall instead of as a true peninsula (sorry Scott) really did a lot to maintain our ability to be able to move throught the space. As it turns out, this positioning makes for some nice viewing angles too.

Another thing that you can see in this shot is that while the ceiling in most of the room was lowered to 12' we kept the space above the wine cellar and fish closet at 13'4". These 2 spaces have 10' ceilings leaving me with a 3' mechanical room above. I thought that this was going to be a ton of space but it filled up fast.

The large crate sitting at 3 o'clock contains the climate control for the wine cellar and the box sitting on top of it has an inline exhaust fan that will move 240 cfm Whisper Line Vent Fan – Panasonic Ventilation Systems this is going to be the ventilation for my tank (keep your fingers crossed for me Scott). Ventilating this space is still a wild card for me. I'll know for sure in a month or 2 when I've got lights blazing over all that water.

 

Sparky, that fridge was important. It kept the , uh, Gatorade cold while we were working. That thing came used with my first house in twelve years ago and it's still chugging along.

 

How many pics do I get to post before Luna oliceman cuts me off?