Location of your Tank

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

My original 210g reef was in the dining room area but we rarely spent a lot of time in the dining area so my main reef now (165g) is in the living room area where we do spend a lot of time. We can enjoy it sitting at the couches or standing in front of the tank.

Wherever you normally spend a decent amount of time is usually a good place to position your tank.

[reefgirl189]

180 gallon in the middle of the living room. We reinforced the floor and moved the 75 gallon sump to the basement. This is an old picture but you get the idea :

[mark]

main floor, sort of in the center, 145g.

[mike31154]

77 sumpless sits on outside, southeast corner of dining room, perpendicular to floor joists. Similar to Enigma, I have an older bungalow with the shiplap subfloor at 45 degrees to the solid, monster joists. Strangely many of the joists are 2x9, but there are more than a few which measure close to 10 inches by over 2 inches thick. There's a lot to be said for homes built back when builders had access to the very best BC wood for building rather than it being shipped across the border or to Asia as is the case now.

Ultimately I'd like to have a 5 foot tank as a room divider between kitchen & dining room. I've already roughed in a fishroom in the basement where the sump will be located. One of the fishroom walls will help support the load, since this tank will run parallel to the joists. I like the idea of situating a tank so that as many sides are available for viewing as possible. After all, we're paying for 4 panes of glass in most cases so why not use them for viewing vice jamming them against a wall. It does mean having to keep more glass clean, but I think that's a minor tradeoff. My current tank is viewable from two sides only, which kind of sucks IMO. The room divider plan will provide 3 sides of viewing pleasure, one end being close to the south outside wall. Some of the nicest tanks I've seen (to me) are cubes set up with center overflow/returns that are viewable from all 4 sides.

The other thing I'd like to do while I'm setting up my room divider is include a nano for the living room. I'd run the photoperiod on that during the afternoon & evening, shutting off later at night. Photoperiod on the current system is pretty standard daytime & I'm often disappointed there's nothing to see after 19:30.