melev

I've been wanting to paint the fishroom floor for over two months, but never had the right conditions. Yesterday, the weather was 64F for the high compared to the day before when it was 85F. I pulled out everything scattered around the fishroom floor, grabbed the air hose from my compressor and blasted dust everywhere, swept up the mess and damp mopped the concrete to get rid of any other dust.

Btw, that cloud was ominous and a lot of it settled on the surface of the reef. Not exactly what I was expecting - then again I sweep it all the time and didn't think that much dust was still on the slab - but the skimmer did its job.

Once it was dry, I took a sash brush and painted the perimeter first, working my way around the tank stand, along the walls, around the poly tank and around the electrical & quarantine stands. Once done, I rolled the epoxy paint over everything. I used Behr's Concrete & Garage floor paint, available at Home Depot for about $38 per gallon. With the cool weather, I was able to leave the doors open and let a breeze of fresh air run through the fishroom and my home. The vent fan was running in the ceiling of the fishroom, and the skimmer was turned off. I didn't want the skimmer to suck in the fumes via the venturi tubes. After a couple of hours, I rolled a second coat and let it cure overnight.

Then today, I decided to repurpose some of the woodwork from my 280g that was still stored in the back room. Rather than throwing it out, I chose to hang onto it all this time. After a few passes through the table saw and compound miter saw, I was able to re-use some of that former woodwork for the new fishroom. Now I have shelving and a nice long ledge along one wall to place drygoods, keeping this stuff off the floor.

Here's some of the oak lumber, prior to modification.



This was the ledge in front of my last reef tank. It was pretty with the crown molding and PM molding. I rubbed it down with a fresh coat of stain to darken it somewhat more and give it a renewed look. Today it was back to 84F and very humid, so I did the stainwork indoors.



A set of shelves. They didn't need to be massive, but instead practical and functional.



A close up of some of the trimwork.



Here are pictures of the floor. Also, while painting it I opted to paint the walkboard the same color.





Eventually the carpet to concrete threshold will need to be completed.



I love the color!





People are always concerned when I suggest the hop up on the walkboard. Here's the underside to show how strong it is.



Here are the new shelves and the ledge, which is almost at 6' high.





And here's the power station. I'd not posted a recent picture of it.



Barely visible, I put a piece of 3/8" acrylic under the stand to avoid saltwater coming in contact with the aluminum stand and the other gear in its base.



The frag tank is in place, and nearly plumbed in to the manifold.



I have the MP60 ES Vortech drivers and a pH controller affixed to the side of the stand.



The frag tank has an internal overflow that drains into one of the five drains from the main reef.



You can see how it drains into the white fittings and the travels to the right into the nearest (to the camera) drain.



There's still a bunch of little things to do, like running baseboard, touching up paint in a few spots, and cleaning up around the stand. It's progress though.