building an aquarium into a bar

[CAbb]

My spouse and I are in the process of purchasing a new home and part of our offer includes the builder finishing the basement. We are supposed to be sitting down with the builder tomorrow to discuss just what we want in the basement. Something I would like to have the builder do is to add our 90gal aquarium into the back wall of the wetbar. Hopefully the floor plans will work out in such a way that it can back up to the mechanical room.

I'm having trouble finding photos of that type of design though anywhere because I'd like to find something to take to the builder to show them exactly what I'm looking for. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on things I should ask for in terms of how it's built for this type of project, I would greatly appreciate any input. Or anything I should take into consideration for having it put into the wall. We've always had freestanding aquariums w/ it's own hood and stand.

I know it's going to need a steel frame built to hold it and I would prefer that all my access to it be strictly from the back, but is there any reason I would need to access it from the front? Should I ask to have a swinging panel above the front of the tank? Or can I get by with just accessing it from the back?

Please shoot suggestions and ideas away (or if you know where I can find pictures similar to, that are done in a tasteful manner). This is our first home and first time working with a contractor so I'd like this to be done right the first time and not miss anything. I would like to keep the price reasonable though too. We don't need anything overly extravagant.

[areze]

well, you dont need a metal frame for 90g, a simple frame of 2x4s would be way over ample.

you dont need front access if you design the back right. though honestly, it can be nice to feed the tank from the front and stuff.

[ej797]

Dude, I will never install another inwall without having access to the the tank through the front. It is so much easier to do things when you can see what you are doing.

EJ

[amstar]

Agreed on the access to the front of the tank. its so much easier to re-arrange the tank or place corals when you can move them while looking as well as overall cleaning the tank.

if you can have a drain put into the floor. those work great for quick water changes as well if something bad should happen such as a leak or siphon to overflow the sump.

extra outlets placed close by. You never know when you are going to upgrade or add new toys that need to be plugged in.

a source to tie your ro/di into that is close to the tank.

anti-slip flooring... you never know when your going to get water on the floor, which in turn you may end up on the floor.

[eznet2u]

You will need to vent that space heavily. Please keep that in mind.
Otherwise you will have to deal with mold and mildew issues.

[areze]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13533916#post13533916 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ej797
Dude, I will never install another inwall without having access to the the tank through the front. It is so much easier to do things when you can see what you are doing.

EJ

hadnt thought of that, but damn that is so right. mind is inwall, but thanks to a load bearing wall and general lazyness, I left the studs, more or less crippling any access from the back. there is no way I could scrape the tank from the back...

[MeuserReef]

Well.... heres the only "Bar-Reef" that I can remember seeing lately.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r118/untamed_photos/Aquarium%20Construction/100_0082.jpg

You can check out this guys AWESOME build <a href=http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=28436&page=10>HERE</a>

[CAbb]

Thanks for the input everyone! I'll see about having extra outlets put in there. I had completely forgotten about venting. I suppose I'll have to see where the mechanical room is on the floor layout (I can't remember where exactly it is) tomorrow when we go to talk to the contractor and see if it's even reasonable to put some venting in. We made our offer on the house and are expecting a lot to be done already, I don't want to end up adding a TON of costs after the fact.

MeuserReef - I remember seeing that build some time ago. It's a gorgeous looking setup too! Unfortunately it's not quite what we're looking at doing, but that guy did a great job. We want a bar that we can walk behind and work from, and just a tank in the wall behind it all.

[BeanAnimal]

I have my in-wall build documented on my website (in the gallery section) www.beananimal.com

[CAbb]

That is a very nice tank! I'm afraid ours will take FAR longer to get up and running but I want to get it into the wall and at least started so that we don't have to go in after the basement is finished and start ripping things out. Like I said before, I want to do it right the FIRST time.

As a side thought...if I'm unable to get proper venting in the basement for the tank, would a dehumidifier work?

[CAbb]

So more or less, this looks like what I'm going to ask the contractor for:

sturdy wood stand
access to both front and back of the tank
additional electrical outlets
additional venting
near a drain (likely we'll ask to have it put near the sump)


Since this is the first time we've ever done a project like this, is there anything else we should be discussing w/ the contractor? As far as electrical is concerned, is there anything in particular I should request? (Obviously I'm not the handy type here when it comes to this....)

[Indymann99]

Some pict of my basement tank.

I too considered putting it behind the bar but the access to the mix room (for water changes) would have been much more difficult. Also I like to glance over while watching TV and check out the fish, or many times glance over at the TV while watching the fish:D .

The best thing I ever did is setup a mix tank (32g Brute) in the mech room, and plumb connection to the display tank so water changes are bucketless. Just drain the sump (pump in sump pumps water to drain in Mech room, change some valves, and pump from Mix tank back into sump. 20-30g water changes done in 10min or less. :rollface:

http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn10/Indymann99/

Things I took into consideration.

Height of stand - how will you mostly view the tank... not having to bend over to view is nice.

Height of planned skimmer - easy maint

Easy access to sump (I wanted a completely open cabinet under the tank for easy access.).

Access to lighting and top of tank for cleaning. NOTE with the height I set my stand at (36") I have to get a step to access the top of the tank.

Dont know where you are at but I am not having any mold issues and the tank seems to loose about 1 g to evap per day.

Tank TEMP is ROCK solid due to basement location! I dont need a chiller and the heater runs very little.

Hope this helps

[mx36]

I would split your extra outlets up on different circuits so you don't have to worry about overloading any.

[ravedood]

I was at Seaworld Orlando last month and in one of their restaurants I saw a bar with an aquarium. The only difference was that the actual bar itself was the aquarium. Its was not a granite top nor a wooden top. It was a glass top with about 10 inches of depth. So your drink would actually sit on top of the tank. it was about 20 feet long by 2 feet wide. It looked so awesome with corals and fish.

[Dustin1300]

Looks great! keep us posted on pics because this looks like it'll turn out great!