Think I oughtta maybe grab me some of that floor topper. Thanks for the documentation :)

New hot water tank replacing the 27, yup thats right 27 year old tank we have currently. That hot water tank is older then I am...
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0604.jpg

Debating using this door, yes its original to the house, on the fishroom door. However I love its vintage charm and am concerned that it will be ruined by the extra humidity.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0610-1.jpg

The new hot water tank gives us our final measurements for framing in one part of the fishroom now!

*suddenly feels old*:neutral:......

your probably right....an old solid wood panel door like that would likely either swell and/or warp from humidity differences between the interior and exterior off the fish room....

wow im jumping on this starting to look great already

Out of curiousity... whats a new hot water tank worth these days?
Im pretty sure I will have to replace mine soon too... :neutral:

The tank we purchased is a 50g and it set us back just shy of $650. Part of the reason we did this now is that Kevin was told by a plumber friend at work that soon you will only be able to buy high efficiency ones, just like furnaces.

Originally we wanted a 40g tank, as our existing one is only 30g. However all the 30s and 40s were sold out. We picked up the last 50g in stock.

Catherine, Nice setup you have going! I am going to tag along on your build as we are thinking about one in our basement similar to yours. I am not sure of your configuration: are you placing a wall along the aquarium front ? using the aquarium front as part of a wall?

Brad

You're right Brad!

We're using the front, and right sides as viewing panes. Everything else will be framed into a wall.

Just so you feel better, you'll be happier with the 50g. At my old house I replaced a 15 year old but leaking hot water tank, and went with a 40g since that seemed to be the most common size. Turns out the old one was a 50g, and while I thought that "newer will be better anyhow, since the old one will be all encrusted and stuff inside, it's not really 50g any more" .. and it turns out that whatever working volume it DID have, it was still more than 40g and it turns out that 40g was just slightly under whatever volume the bathtubs were (ie., the water turned ice cold before done filling). It sucked. So my own word of advice for when replacing hot water tanks is go bigger than what you think you need. At the time they had just started introducing the "on demand" style heaters (ie. without a tank) but man the price difference was huge, like 3 or 4 times as expensive. Which was too bad, they do sound sort of neat.

How'd that cement cure? Everything nice and level?