Building: Fish Wall

[BlindZide]

I am looking to turn half of my basement into a fish room. I am currently in the remodel phase IE removal of old junk, painting, and flooring. The basement was built as a entertainment room and has its own circuit breaker panel separate from the rest of the house. I have TONS of outlets down there already. The section of the basement I want to turn into my fish wall is in an "L" shape. One side of the "L" is up against the bathroom. I was thinking of tapping into the plumbing here for a RO/DI and water change automation system.

What I am wanting to do is fit 4-5 tanks along that wall all around the same size. I was planning on building a continuous stand all the way around the wall with room underneath for sumps. I am planning on running LED fixtures hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling is a drop ceiling. I was going to poke holes in the tiles for wires and hanging links for the lights covered with feed through bushings.

The center of the room will have a table with chairs to play card games or sit and hang out. The other side of the basement will have a bar and TVs set up for viewing sports and what not.

OK, now that is a lot of info laid out. That is my vision. I was wondering if anyone has done this before and has any advice or photos to share. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my 75g in my dining room but I think putting the other tanks down there would be a lot easier with less ambient light and no traffic walking past them.

1. Is this idea far fetched or should I just get with 1 gigantic tank and 1 smaller tank?
2. Do I need separate sumps or can I use one and plumb them all to the same one.
3. Doing manual water changes would become cumbersome. How do you suggest I go about making it totally automated with multiple sumps if I need multiple sumps? If only 1 sump is needed, again, what steps to automating it should I take?

I'm sure I will pop more questions as I get replies. Thanks!

[pjwperth]

Not far fetched at all. It all depends on what you want to do. You could make them into region of the world tanks or species only up to you.

Keeping them totally separate would make it safer incase one crashes or a tank gets ick or velvet. You could however use the same ATO for all the tanks.

good luck with it

[Votts]

I am sort of doing the same thing right now also... what I have is 3 220 gallon setups and they are all continuous. I am putting reef on the 2 sides and in the middle I am making an aggressive tank. as for the sumps and stuff, I went with 2 (300 Gal) horse troughs as seen here: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/rubbermaidreg%3B-structural-foam-stock-tanks-300-gal--capacity.

I plumbed everything together and I made 1 of the Trough's a refugium with egg crate and the other one has the socks and huge skimmer and reactors. I am thinking about maybe adding a big sump that I have to just the Aggressive tank because then I can use as a QT with it also..

[BlindZide]

Not far fetched at all. It all depends on what you want to do. You could make them into region of the world tanks or species only up to you.

Keeping them totally separate would make it safer incase one crashes or a tank gets ick or velvet. You could however use the same ATO for all the tanks.

good luck with it

Not a bad idea at all. Obtaining species from all parts of the world and having tanks setup to house various parts. Never thought of that before.

As for the sump, good idea. I kinda thought that already but having confirmation makes it seem a lot better that way.

I am sort of doing the same thing right now also... what I have is 3 220 gallon setups and they are all continuous. I am putting reef on the 2 sides and in the middle I am making an aggressive tank. as for the sumps and stuff, I went with 2 (300 Gal) horse troughs as seen here: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/rubbermaidreg%3B-structural-foam-stock-tanks-300-gal--capacity.

I plumbed everything together and I made 1 of the Trough's a refugium with egg crate and the other one has the socks and huge skimmer and reactors. I am thinking about maybe adding a big sump that I have to just the Aggressive tank because then I can use as a QT with it also..

Hmm, setting up tanks side by side, end tanks as reef with rock work cascading to the center tank. Make it look like the center tank is the middle of a reef? NICE!

I kind of agree with the statement above though. Separate sumps just in case of disease. A QT tank would also be set up separate as well.

Thanks for the replies guys!