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Aquarius Marinus

Fish room complete!

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Aquarius Marinus
, 03-06-2014 at 03:59 PM (8181 Views)
Howdy Reef Addicts!

I have finally completed the fish/equipment room in my basement! I built a 6' x 8' room that will hold my sump, filtration, water top off, chemicals, etc. All reef related items. I will also have a 10gal quarantine tank set up here.

I thought that the room was going to be plenty large, but now I find myself wishing it were larger, and there isn't even anything in it yet! I ended up using a high-gloss white paint for durability, even though I didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to my horrible drywall finishing, I chose function over form.

I ordered Armstrong VCT tile that was 79 cents per square foot at Home Depot. I was incredibly surprised at the huge color selection, and how easy it was to install this flooring. If you have ever installed ceramic tile, VCT is about one and a half million times easier. IMO. The main reason I decided to go with the VCT (aside from price) was that all I needed to do to my concrete floor was simply vacuum and wash it. If I were to do an epoxy (and expect it to last), I would need to etch the floor and/or fill some of the cracks I had, and I didn't want to mess with any of that.

(Hopefully Melev can tell me if I did the next part right?) After adhering the tile and letting it sit 4 days, I used a PH neutral cleaner (Armstrong's datasheet claims the Excelon tile doesn't need to be stripped out of the box and recommends a PH neutral cleaner with a red pad). After the floor dried I put down two coats of an acrylic based sealer, then 5 coats of wax. For these chemicals I used the ZEP family of products that Home Depot carried. All in all I really enjoyed working with the VCT and I think the floor looks great! Only time will tell how it will stand up to the salt water.

I put in two GFCI outlets that are on their own 15 amp circuit (with the room lighting), and haphazardly placed two porcelain base lamp sockets on the side walls (since there is no ceiling). The light bulbs are both LED. I'm not sure whether or not I am going to add a ceiling. I have also yet to add a door.

Most of my plumbing came in from Savko today. I need to determine whether I am going to try to reuse the flex pvc from my 180 build or just order another 25 feet for $25 + shipping. I also need to make up my mind on deciding exactly where in my living room I am going to bring the plumbing up through the floor. The 60g cube is going in a corner, and I need to decide if I am going to bring the pipes up in the corner or along one of the two walls. At some point in the next year or two I'd like to add a 120g tank (48"x24"x24") and I am not sure if I will want to locate it on this wall and move the 60 to another location or put the 120 in another location.

The rock from my 180 has been cycling in some Rubbermaid containers for the last two weeks. I'm doing a fish-less cycle with ammonium chloride and Dr. Tim's One & Only. Haven't checked chemicals since I set it up, should probably do that today.

I ordered an RLSS 6i protein skimmer, and a Hydra 52 (just to be different...actually I agonized over this a lot. Ended up going with the AI for the cheaper Director (even though I'll probably get the reeflink one day anyway) the EXT rail system, and its low power usage). The Hydra 52 hasn't shipped yet, but I ordered the EXT frame mount and the Director as well. I need to order another MP10wES when I get around to it (read: get paid again).

The stand that came from Deep Blue is pretty freaking flimsy. I would certainly not pay $260 for one of these stands ever again. I could have built something very nice for that amount of money (less probably). The tank itself seems quite nice though. I applied black vinyl backing (not pictured yet). I'm probably going to take out 3/4" to an inch of sand before I fill it. I'm also thinking about soaking the sand in saltwater for a week or so because I have read (The Reef Aquarium Vol. 3) that new/dry sand can significantly drop alkalinity. Has anyone noticed this?

The pictures as viewed on my computer are rotated correctly. But they aren't rotated correctly here. I'm using Windows 8.1. I was wondering if it automatically rotates the pictures based on metadata from the phone's gyroscope, and maybe it only does that in the viewer, doesn't modify the files themselves? Sounds good.... any ideas?

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Updated 03-07-2014 at 08:32 AM by Aquarius Marinus

Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ DIY projects , ‎ Questions - Need some input , ‎ Equipment

Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    I'm so jealous of your basement area. Talk about a nice perk, you were able to make a very nice fishroom in an area that was essentially unused other than storage.

    The flooring came out really nice, good job. You did the right thing stripping and waxing it, but as you know saltwater is harsh stuff. Be good about mopping up spills so the wax will hold up long term.

    Regarding dry sand and alkalinity, you can buffer it up with baked baking soda if necessary. I never noticed any strange numbers, but my tanks were running when I moved livestock in. Remember when I set up the 400g in 2011, I used 450lbs of dry sand. And this time when I set it up anew, I used the same sand, washed clean but it was in the tank with live rock for almost a month before I transferred the livestock.

    Pictures - argh. I have the same thing happen from time to time. I don't know why it happens, and those images that are wrong have to be opened up in a photo editing program rotated to the right orientation (even if you do a 360°) and saved. That seems to solve the problem. Then I delete the first set of wrong images and upload the new ones. Total PITA.
  2. dlandino's Avatar
    Man, that is awesome! Great work!
  3. Aquarius Marinus's Avatar
    Thanks guys!

    My wife and I just moved into this house in December, and I won't lie, the basement is my favorite part of the house. On the other side of the wall I'm building a home theater, it's like a giant blank canvas. I still need to find room to store a lot of the stuff I displaced, but yeah, that's just a minor issue.

    I'm glad the floor gets the professional stripper seal of approval! I'll probably VCT other areas of the basement as well.

    Good to know on the sand, I'll probably just leave it and see what happens. I tested my liverock batches last night....my ammonia level is still the same as it was a week ago, which doesn't make sense. I checked my test kit date.....2006. I checked some RODI water....same reading. Do you think its even worth buying another ammonia kit or should I just let it sit a couple more weeks and call it good? I'll probably have to replace most of my test kits, so I'd rather put the money into Cal, Alk, Mg, etc. I guess I could pick up an API kit a Petsmart for a small price.

    Thanks for the info on the pictures. I fixed the rotation, and I sharpened the final one of the floor with wax-- its really the only one that was worth tweaking. They all looked reasonable on my phone, they look a lot worse full screen! I won't bust the Nikon out until the tank is up and running.
  4. melev's Avatar
    Yes, API test kits are cheap and fine for Ammonia and Nitrate measurements. 2006! Yes, that will need to be replaced. For Ca, Alk and Mg I'm using Elos kits now. I'll likely be selling those from my site soon.

    I'll go check out your images again since I can't turn my Mac on its side.
  5. melev's Avatar
    Gotta love a nice waxed floor. Looks sharp! And I hear you on the "I wish the room was bigger..." - that was the case with my 280g. For the 400g, the rebuild of that room to a larger size worked out beautifully. I have enough room to move around in there and do what needs doing. It's a little bit shocking to me that I was able to park a 215g setup in the room when the 400g leaked, since the room wasn't built for an extra reef tank whatsoever. Fortunately, it all worked out and my livestock stayed safe during that period.