Questions about upcoming custom build!

[Mattl22]

I'm buying a house in a few months from my in laws !

I wanna start looking into a custom build
Tank would be built in where a book case is now that separates kitchen and living room and will be viewed from all 4 sides !
Plan to have it plumed directly below into a half cellar where I will have a xl bin for water rock and equipment
Nothing too fancy just want lots of water volume and plenty of live rock !
At this Time no other tanks down there wanna keep it simple and electric bill low as possible so plan on running LEDs 2 mp40 or 60 return pump dose kalk with food doser and add cal reactor when tank ready !

Anyone know someone who designs systems?
I would need wood working done to match the existing kitchen !
Ill take some pics of space later but wondering if anyone has a rough idea the amount $ I'm looking at!

 

[Mattl22]

Looking to do atleast 200 gal tank will post pics and measurements later

 

[Mattl22]

Here is picture of all 4 sides of the aera is like to put tank at this point totAlly hypothetical as Its still not a %100 I'm buying this house but I would like to get an idea how much it would cost to build

 

[House of Laughter]

going to be hard to design a reef around that vertical space.

Unless you run a reef tope up top and something else on bottom.

interesting space. Looks like it will be a custom tank though.

House

 

[MIKE NY]

Matt ..no way to determine how expensive it's going to be without measurements...also you have to find out if the bookcase wall is a load bearer. If it is you may have to get an engineer in to see if it's even feasible to build the tank in to be viewed on four sides and support the floor above as well. It would probably be a custom tank and the woodwork to match your existing kitchen cabinetry can be expensive as well....my brother is in the kitchen/bath business and can build furniture and cabinetry and can tell you it's not cheap. Also if the cabinets are older it will very difficult to match the color..

 

[Mattl22]

Hi Mike thanks this is exactly the kind of input I'm looking for ! I have no clue weather it's load bearing wall gonna have to find out ! The cabinets r around 3 yrs old ! I'm guessing this might be just too expensive right now ! But would like to hear from more ppl with exp.
ill get measurements up tonight!
I do have one other spot for tank in mind would not be near as nice but I'm guessing budget will be an issue with all the wood working needed for the kitchen living room divider tank !

 

[Mattl22]

The other spot I'm thinking of is in a wall behind a couch in the den /tv room ! This would require much less construction and min. wood working
Just hoping there no pipes etc running down walls ! Also this would allow me to buy a stock tank not need a costly custom tank built!
This would put the actual tank in a 1 car un heated garage ! So garage would probably need to be insulated and heated in winter cooled in summer something that would need to be added to the decision making process. The sump would be 4; ft below tank on garage floor as opposed to a floor below with the kitchen / living room divider location ! Also the sump for kitchen tank would be in a cellar so could never stand up its only about 5 feet high designed for storage under house!
Pics of 2nd location to come again please lmk what ur thoughts r!
Would love to hear from someone who actually does this for a living feel free to pm me! Not ready to have anyone in for estimate just yet right now just wanna cme up with a solid plan !

 

[E.intheC]

Congrats on the new house purchase man! I'm going through the same thing right now also.

That said, maybe it would be a good idea to buy a small system that's a bit more self contained for the first year or so? I know for me it's going to be crazy around the house before and after the sale, from the purchase process to the contractors, etc.. I'm doing a Solana AIO system for this very reason.

But enough of my opinions :lol2: ..this is an exciting time, and I'm sure you are looking forward to starting up again! I'm going full-on SPS this time around so we'll have to trade frags.

Good luck!

 

[Mattl22]

40 breeder setup in laundry room lol
using for grow out for frags like this one my fav p dragon eyes

 

[Mattl22]

Here is other location
Might as well start a pro vs cons list here


Would want tank to be just above the shelf where pic frame is !


Here is the back of that wall

 

[NewfiDog]

The big advantage to the second choice is that looks to slab, and the room in the garage for equipment.

 

[MIKE NY]

The garage/den wall is going to be easier and cheaper...there aren't going to be any pipes on an exterior garage wall maybe some wiring which is easy to relocate....however it maybe a load bearer which really isn't that big a deal anyway just have to support the ceiling bracing until you can get an I beam or header beams in to cover the length of the tank/wall....I did it in my home when I took out two first floor bedrooms and made a one large den. BTW Ive been helping my brother for about 25-30 years and after I retired from the PD I worked in the Kitchen Dept of HD....got a much better job now..LOL

 

[Mattl22]

Mike that's good too know! I hope u r looking to make extra $ when I'm ready the more I look at it seems only option is the garage location ! Will this require garage to be heated?

I'm guessing the other location would put me in the upwards of 15k budget wise b4 livestock and that's no where near what I'm looking at I will get an estimate when time comes but most likely going with garage

 

[masterswimmer]

Matt, ex-home builder here. Make sure you check with your towns building inspector before you go cutting into a partition wall between your garage and living space. Standard sheetrock in a home is 1/2". The sheetrock between the garage and living space in most new homes is 5/8"-X because it is fire rated. If you take down that sheetrock to put in a tank you could be compromising the fire rating and therefore have a potential problem if a fire were to start in the garage and spread to the house your homeowners insurance might come back with a disclaimer saying you're not covered.

I'm not saying this is a fact, I'm saying you should check with your building inspector first to avoid any problems down the road.

As for the tank location in the kitchen....that wall has a couple of load bearing points. You've got either a girder or a header running across the opening that is supported by possibly 2, 3 or 4 2x4's. To the right of the bookcase you've got the exact same situation, either a girder or a header. And to the right of that girder/header is another archway with a header supported by a similar configuration of 2x4's. Bottom line, that wall behind the bookcase is riddled with supports.

When building an in-wall tank into an existing home it isn't always the easiest thing to do. By no means am I saying it is impossible, you just need to evaluate each location for structural integrity.

Good luck
Russ

 

[edd]

The other spot I'm thinking of is in a wall behind a couch in the den /tv room ! This would require much less construction and min. wood working
Just hoping there no pipes etc running down walls ! Also this would allow me to buy a stock tank not need a costly custom tank built!
This would put the actual tank in a 1 car un heated garage ! So garage would probably need to be insulated and heated in winter cooled in summer something that would need to be added to the decision making process. The sump would be 4; ft below tank on garage floor as opposed to a floor below with the kitchen / living room divider location ! Also the sump for kitchen tank would be in a cellar so could never stand up its only about 5 feet high designed for storage under house!
Pics of 2nd location to come again please lmk what ur thoughts r!
Would love to hear from someone who actually does this for a living feel free to pm me! Not ready to have anyone in for estimate just yet right now just wanna cme up with a solid plan !

speek to a member bayondai, he has the exact set up in living/garage

 

[Mattl22]

Hi Russ thankyou very much for your help ! Good point about the fire rating ! That's certainly something I have to look into ! I guess I'm gonna have to hire a professional tank custom guy / company to at the least help me design the system !
Please pm me if anyone knows some one that does this for a living!

 

[Mattl22]

Hi edd didn't see ur post b4!
Thank you for the heads up ill shoot him a pm and hopefully he can post here !

 

[Mattl22]

Please feel free too add ur thoughts from tank maker lights pumps I'm looking for info from guys who've ran lg tanks for yrs

 

[Mattl22]

Ok so if I'm going with the garage build any recommendations on tank size ? I'm thinking 6 foot long and maybe going 4' high and 3 ' 3-4' wide

 

[MIKE NY]

when getting a tank have a budget in mind because customs can get expensive...the cheapest nice 6 footer is a standard 180. The 4' tall may present a lighting problem with SPS. The 3' wides are real nice ...maybe consider the DD models like the 300dd ..72" x 36" x 27"...give Charlie or a few others here who are currently building them..