oooo looking good. :)

Very cool dude. If you need a hand with some heavy lifting I'm always available.

All framed up, hopefully I'll get it drywalled this weekend.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps1aff6340.jpg

Looks awesome. Wish I had the option of doing an inwall.

Why not finish your basement and build an in wall down there?

No temptation to go BIGGER?

Very nice!

I've always liked the built-in look. I really like the little room you get with this build.. keeps everything together and a clutter free look for the tank!

Tat would have looked much better as a 48" or 60" cube! What, it's only money :mrgreen:

Had this discussion on another thread. But how are you going to clean the glass and see what you are doing when arranging rocks and corals on the viewing side with the wall coming down to the tank top?

Leah, a few posts back I mention that I've framed the wall so that there are two removable sections so that the rough opening can accommodate a 5'x3'x2' tank later… when I can afford it.

Reef Pilot, I clean the glass with a Magfloat. If you haven't heard of them they are the best thing you'll ever buy for your tank. So far I can still reach the front of the tank from the back and with the return pump shut off I can view it all from the top down.

Haha,... yeah, I know what a mag float cleaner is, and use one every couple days. I was thinking of more serious cleaning, like coralline algae, or even your rock and sand on that side. And arranging your corals and rock.

Maybe you have more room than I do, but I even break corals accidentally when I can see what I am doing...

Anyway, should look good as an in-wall. Good luck.

There is an attachment for the magfloats that allow you to add a razor blade to them. It does a terrific job removing coraline if used regularly (once a month in my case) http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/cl...g+Magnets.html

I don't do anything to clean the rock or sand.

This is the same tank that I've had since 2006 so I really don't move things around much anymore. But if reaching through the back becomes too much of a nuisance later I can always cut an opening in the front and make up some doors.

I'll hang a new background on clips for easy removal later but here is a FTS for now. There are fish in there somewhere… powder blue tang, tomato clown, fu man chu lion fish, copper banded butterfly and a new snowflake moray. The purple tang is in the frag trough with a tail spot blenny.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...pse0b02886.jpg

Looks good, make sure not to cheap out like I did and buy the dust free drywall mud. Tank looks very clean, what kind of a top do you have on there with the eel?

No top. I had the previous snowflake for 8 years until it developed a big lump/tumour and died last spring. In that time it never jumped or showed interest in escaping so I've got my fingers crossed that this new one will be the same.

I'll be sure to buy the better mud but I probably won't tape/mud the inside of the room anyways. I might just insulate and poly it for sound dampening and to protect the insulation from getting wet.

Just read this whole thread
Very nice set up.
Following along

I had to do a little equipment shuffling and re-plumb the overflow to make everything fit a bit better. But I got the board up so things are looking a lot better from the outside at least.

I'm going to need to use a different de-humidistat though. The DewStop sensor doesn't kick in and turn the exhaust fan on until the room reaches 80% which is okay for a bathroom but too high for the tank room. It has been up near 30 degrees Celsius and 60% humidity in there all of the time so I'm going to install an adjustable sensor to run more often.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...psacaaf6df.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps0ba35b76.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps2a471cf3.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...psc0ef6b0a.jpg

Looks awesome!

I have my inwall setup the same way, front and right side viewable. It's a nice blend between the clean inwall look and the additional viewing angles that multisided gives you.

There are times I wish I had given myself cabinet door access on the front. Would have made for easier target feeding my LPS and 'nems (although I make do with the access from the tank room so it's not a huge loss). At the beginning I really wanted a quiet tank and I figured cabinet doors would let equipment noise escape into the living area. Having switched to LED's my cooling fans have never turned on once though so the irony is I keep my tank room door open all the time anyhow. :lol:

Still though I think the inwall look has this "public aquarium" look. It's a nice separation: from the front it's all about viewing the animals; from the tank room it's all about running the system.

What is the black thing on the floor next to your skimmer waste collector?

Do you think your going to need a chiller for the summer months? Or you going to give LEDs a go? Hard to tell in the pic but did you use that gyproc that's moisture resistant? There's huge chunks of gyproc falling in to NEs tank. Been like that for over a year and they still won't fix it.

Yes I used green board because despite my best efforts I always splash a little water around. I have the ability to run the ceiling fan constantly now that I've installed a regular de-humidistat (not pictured) and there is a window right beside the tank room doorway so I should be okay in the summer. I don't remember, does NE have any active venting for their tank room?

The thing on the floor is the protective cap for the CO2 tank.

The quick part is done. I'll post some new pictures once I've finished off the area and hung the door… or pictures from the PG Tank Tour. Whichever comes first.

Yes but it was installed way too late. They are in need of someone to replace the wall, as well as put in access to the front of the tank. If your interested I'll talk to them. Your usually off this time of year are you not?

I'm still working steady, probably until the end of February. Plus I've got my own walls to complete.

Coming along very nicely
Keep the pics comin'

Done for the moment. I used the same paint as the previous owner to finish off the walls and trim of the room but I think we'll be changing the colour scheme later. On the inside the walls are also insulated with Roxul so its very quiet in front of the tank for the first time in nearly a decade. The camera doesn't want to show that the trim around the tank is actually oak stained dark red so here is a closeup.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...pseeaf5d8e.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps594fd831.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...psbce71a96.jpg

The room is always too warm and the humidity keeps the exhaust fan running almost constantly so I decided to retrofit this fresh air intake. Its too cold outside right now to caulk the exterior portion but I'm quite pleased with how well it works.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...pscf78765e.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps73cb503b.jpg

Good Job

Here are two more pictures to show the tank room insulation. I've also repainted the trim and replaced the curtains for a new colour scheme. That blue was driving me nuts.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps109b1c2e.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps4d1c896a.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...pscb776fc9.jpg

For the first time since 2007 I actually want to show off the room as well as the tank. This was its former home.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture183.jpg

That's a room I'd be proud of :smile:

Where'd you get the posters ? Magazines ?

The posters came from Ottawa Inverts but they are no longer a retailer. Its the Illustrated Guide set by Anthony Calfo and Robert Fenner. Marine Depot says they've been discontinued so I guess they're a collectors item now.

I love it!

looks really good Russell, are you gonna put up anything like poly on the inside of the room or keep the insulation bare?

wow, that turned out wicked and really suits that space well! Excellent work!

As long as I don't get the insulation wet it will be okay without any covering. It would be pretty tough to do now with all of the electronics in the way but I still might do it at some point.

looks classy great work! gotta say i did like the mancave look too though. those posters are sweet.

Today we finished off the rest of the viewing area of the tank room. We found this cool leather set used on Craigslist so now there is something worthy of the tank to sit in. The bar and bookshelf were also purchased from Craigslist/Kijiji.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps08a96045.jpg

Amazing!

Awesome looking setup and observation area!!

I just came home to a dead Copperbanded Butterflyfish tonight. I've had it since the fall of 2008... it was always a very active fish and ate readily 3 times every day. These pictures were taken just last week. I have no idea why it died but I've since done a water change and placed some fresh carbon in the reactor. The last new additions to the tank were a Flame Angel and a Mandarin Dragonet back in the spring (June I think).

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps08034159.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...psf0414aa0.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...psdacbe321.jpg

Aw. That sucks. Sorry

I suspect something had been going on with that CBB for a while as he was very underweight. You can see how he the curve of his body below and behind the gill flap and above his eyes are concave, so he had probably been wasting for a while, likely so slowly you didn't notice. He might have had gut parasites, or some other conditions that made it hard for him to absorb his food.

In any case I'm sorry you lost him. I had mine for a year when he mysteriously died of what I can only describe of the fish equivalent of lung cancer. An entire gill was replaced by some sort of tumour over the course of weeks, then one morning he was just dead, after behaving perfectly normally the night before. They're fickle animals.

You're probably right. The dorsal and tail fins were also a little bit ragged looking compared to normal which I had noticed. Like most people I purchased the CBB for aptasia control. With any luck after 6 years that crap won't come back and I won't feel inclined to purchase another.

This 3-4 year old powder blue tang is my next typically delicate fish and it still looks relatively round so I've got my figures crossed that this was an isolated incident. As a precaution I'm going to start adding garlic extract to their food again. The CBB only cared for Mysis and whatever worms etc that grew within the tank but the tang also eats pellets and nori daily.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps79189729.jpg