Build thread--433.9 gal.
I guess it\'s about time I start this thread. The asbestos-abatement crew is supposed to start tomorrow, so I guess I finally believe that this\'ll happen.
Last spring, my lovely bride and I found out that it was time to have our furnace replaced. Our 110-year-old, converted from coal to natural gas, covered all over the place in asbestos furnace. As we contemplated moving out to accommodate the haz mat crews, we remembered that the last time we had the floors refinished, they told us it was the last time those floors were ever going to be refinished.... Then we remembered all of those conversations about re-working the kitchen....
It was all downhill from there.
Seriously, we love the vast majority of the house, we love the location, and we don\'t want to move so while we were going to be out anyway it seemed like the perfect time to fit in a major remodel to make it the way we\'ve always wished it could be. So that we never have to move again (hopefully).
We started working with an architect. We redesigned the house the way we wished, including the idea of adding three rooms stacked to the back--basement, first floor, and second floor. We then submitted what everyone thought were pretty modest remodel plans to the city and drew the worst possible scenario: We were assigned the new member of the planning department. Sigh.
She was supposed to have a month on the first round of comments. She was a month late on that. Worse, they came back with a flat, \"No,\" that cited as support laws that don\'t even apply to my city zoning. It took another month to thoroughly research and refute her first comments. (At one point we had a meeting with her and her boss. Her boss said, \"Do you know that there are over 400 pages of code? It\'s really hard to read this stuff.\") She got another month to respond (and was another week late). \"Yes.\" Woohoo! (Thanks for wasting a _ton_ of money.... )
So now another month-and-a-half to work on permits. We aren\'t entirely through that process, but the demo permits are out. So now the work begins! Woohoo, again!
Goals for the tank
I\'ve always wanted a larger tank. I guess that pretty much goes without saying. But, I\'ve never had a tank longer than 4\' and I\'ve never felt comfortable keeping any tangs or other larger fish in that space, so I\'m planning a tank that will give fish a lot of swimming room. One of the goals of the remodel is to install a largish \"spa\" room downstairs because my wife and I are starting to get some physical issues. I decided that I like the option of using a big tank as a room divider between the spa and the living room so that the relaxation benefits that everyone else but me ( ) gets from the aquarium can be had from either side. Plus, I think it\'ll be cool.
I\'ve also decided against doing as much DIY this time around because of the mentioned physical issues, so I\'ve hired a local aquarium installer (Aqua Imports) who also happens to be my LFS to help me out.
Tank dimensions
I\'m aiming for something a little different on this one. It\'ll be an \"L\" shaped tank. The first roughly 4.5\' x 2\' x 2\' will be in the foyer as you walk in the door to my house, and then making a corner into the living room for another roughly 12\' x 2\' x 2\'. I say roughly, because I don\'t know the exact plans yet for overflows and room for plumbing the closed loops. Roughly 434 gals. by my calculations. A plan might help:
and
and
http://65.102.221.68/Main_level.jpeg
The fish room
Essentially, I have my entire current basement to play with for a fish room. I\'ve always liked the idea I read somewhere about how large aquariums use a lot of water volume hidden out-of-sight in order to allow for more fish in the display tank than could be had otherwise. Current plans for behind-the-scenes call for a system with a 180 gal. sump, the 120 gal. and 40 gal. tanks that I currently have, and 6 more 90 gal. tanks to serve various support roles. Most of those tanks won\'t be filled completely, so I\'m estimating system volume at about 1,100 gal. +- for displacement.
http://65.102.221.68/Basement.jpeg
More to come.
I guess it\'s about time I start this thread. The asbestos-abatement crew is supposed to start tomorrow, so I guess I finally believe that this\'ll happen.
Last spring, my lovely bride and I found out that it was time to have our furnace replaced. Our 110-year-old, converted from coal to natural gas, covered all over the place in asbestos furnace. As we contemplated moving out to accommodate the haz mat crews, we remembered that the last time we had the floors refinished, they told us it was the last time those floors were ever going to be refinished.... Then we remembered all of those conversations about re-working the kitchen....
It was all downhill from there.
Seriously, we love the vast majority of the house, we love the location, and we don\'t want to move so while we were going to be out anyway it seemed like the perfect time to fit in a major remodel to make it the way we\'ve always wished it could be. So that we never have to move again (hopefully).
We started working with an architect. We redesigned the house the way we wished, including the idea of adding three rooms stacked to the back--basement, first floor, and second floor. We then submitted what everyone thought were pretty modest remodel plans to the city and drew the worst possible scenario: We were assigned the new member of the planning department. Sigh.
She was supposed to have a month on the first round of comments. She was a month late on that. Worse, they came back with a flat, \"No,\" that cited as support laws that don\'t even apply to my city zoning. It took another month to thoroughly research and refute her first comments. (At one point we had a meeting with her and her boss. Her boss said, \"Do you know that there are over 400 pages of code? It\'s really hard to read this stuff.\") She got another month to respond (and was another week late). \"Yes.\" Woohoo! (Thanks for wasting a _ton_ of money....
)So now another month-and-a-half to work on permits. We aren\'t entirely through that process, but the demo permits are out. So now the work begins! Woohoo, again!
Goals for the tank
I\'ve always wanted a larger tank. I guess that pretty much goes without saying. But, I\'ve never had a tank longer than 4\' and I\'ve never felt comfortable keeping any tangs or other larger fish in that space, so I\'m planning a tank that will give fish a lot of swimming room. One of the goals of the remodel is to install a largish \"spa\" room downstairs because my wife and I are starting to get some physical issues. I decided that I like the option of using a big tank as a room divider between the spa and the living room so that the relaxation benefits that everyone else but me (
) gets from the aquarium can be had from either side. Plus, I think it\'ll be cool.I\'ve also decided against doing as much DIY this time around because of the mentioned physical issues, so I\'ve hired a local aquarium installer (Aqua Imports) who also happens to be my LFS to help me out.
Tank dimensions
I\'m aiming for something a little different on this one. It\'ll be an \"L\" shaped tank. The first roughly 4.5\' x 2\' x 2\' will be in the foyer as you walk in the door to my house, and then making a corner into the living room for another roughly 12\' x 2\' x 2\'. I say roughly, because I don\'t know the exact plans yet for overflows and room for plumbing the closed loops. Roughly 434 gals. by my calculations. A plan might help:
and
and
http://65.102.221.68/Main_level.jpeg
The fish room
Essentially, I have my entire current basement to play with for a fish room. I\'ve always liked the idea I read somewhere about how large aquariums use a lot of water volume hidden out-of-sight in order to allow for more fish in the display tank than could be had otherwise. Current plans for behind-the-scenes call for a system with a 180 gal. sump, the 120 gal. and 40 gal. tanks that I currently have, and 6 more 90 gal. tanks to serve various support roles. Most of those tanks won\'t be filled completely, so I\'m estimating system volume at about 1,100 gal. +- for displacement.
http://65.102.221.68/Basement.jpeg
More to come.
