Hood or No Hood - Advice Please

[aleithol]

I'm about to begin the cabinet build and place the order for a custom 150G eurobraced reef tank 54"Lx30"Wx24"H. It will be located in the open bar area between my kitchen and family room. My original design was to have a hood over it to hide spurious lighting that would interfere with the adjoining family room home theatre. Before I pull the trigger in the next few days, I'm seriously reconsidering putting only a matching cabinetry "lip" around the top of the tank to hide most of the unwanted light at eye level not coming through the glass -- to save quite a few bucks on the cabinetry, dramatically reduce weight when I need to remove the hood, as well as provide a lot more flexibility (and avoid reworking the hood top) with future lighting changes as they occur.

My concern is this: My kitchen is used for all sorts of home cooking and baking -- it's not an unused "showcase" as it is for some. Even with a kitchen exhaust fan, there are occasional odors, puffs of flour from the mixer when baking and such a few feet away from where the tank will be. Assuming I don't go crazy or dump something directly in the tank :crazy1:, will having an "open top" on this aquarium set me up for failure significantly more than if I had a hood over it? FWIW, according to the drain/overflow size estimator (http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/drainoverflow-size-calc), I should have sufficient drain and linear overflow size so I'm expecting skimming to move surface contaminants rapidly to my sump.

I would appreciate comments from anyone that is a cook or has one in the family, and has practical experience with a reef in their kitchen or adjoining area. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[Reef Frog]

I personally like hoods. In your case, I can't imagine routine kitchen odors & smoke being a big problem. But a stove fire, burning the steaks to a crisp, a burning Teflon pan etc could be a problem in theory but 150g would take some time to comtaminate I think. It depends on distance...How far is the tank from an oven or stove? Heat exposure, especially over a long time period could be an issue to tank residents & perhaps glass and acrylic.

If the main TV is nearby a well designed canopy & light fixture will keep "light spillage" (which some do not like while watching TV) to a minimum. But you may get a tank reflection on the TV screen, depending on placement. You may wish to simulate this before committing to the final design.

If the tank is in a high traffic area some fish may get spooked by fast movement. Collisions are a consideration too if kids are throwing balls around or rough housing for example.

I would also make sure the tank has its own dedicated 20amp minimum circuit. High amperage kitchen devices like microwaves, blenders, toasters etc can wreak havoc on some sensitive electronics and motors now used in the hobby.

[aleithol]

Reef Frog -- Thanks.

See attached pictures. Tank will be in a bit of an unusual position, close to the floor with the back a couple of inches under the lip of a granite counter which I've already waterproofed and sealed for good measure... I never use the "bar side" of this counter, and it will be spectacular when sitting in the family room, and being able to naturally look across and slightly down on most of the corals... tank a few inches off the floor on the right, kitchen behind that, access way from family room to the left of the tank position where you see the dog dishes with gas-only fireplace (seldom used, and fireplace has been recently chimney sweep inspected) with plasma TV above that.

-- "Mock-up" photo will give you a feel where the tank will be
-- "Model" photo is something I built to approx scale and shows how the tank would be with the hood in place (two radians routed into top of hood), albeit there would also be an air gap between the bottom of the counter lip and top of the hood as well as other ventilation on far right sump area and behind tank close to where the dog dishes are. The sump area on the right will still have a top to it -- who wants to look at plumbing, skimmers and the like, but will be easily accessible from the front or a quick pop-off of the top on that side. Other consideration if I don't put a hood on the tank is additional light, but I can remedy most of that if need be. I'm not worried about heat/cooling as I already have high-end UV/heat coatings applied to the double-paned windows and I live in Southern California with heating and cooling as required in this very temperate environment.

Key concern with all of this is something spilling across the counter and down into the tank, but with only me to blame except when guests are present, should not be too bad. For when guests are around, I have already purchased and tried a long 2" wide, 1/4" thick strip of heavy black neoprene I'll place down on top of the counter, so if anything should get spilled when I'm not looking, it won't get into the tank. The neoprene tends to temporarily adhere by itself to the surface of the granite and is easily removed. I already gave my solution a try with a glass of water I dumped on the counter. What a mess even with the towels I put down in advance, but worth the real test for my piece of mind knowing everything stayed on the kitchen side of the neoprene. :uhoh2:

I don't have to worry about kids running around, so my dog and I, with occasional visitors is all the traffic concerns. Critters will be able to get to the back corner easy enough to hide if they are bothered, but I suspect after a while with just my dog being around, they'll get used to normal traffic. ...and I'm ahead of you on the electrical. Finished last week putting in 2 dedicated 20amp circuits (only needed 15amps with plenty of head room based on load estimates I've done, but what the heck as the panel work is done for the future and I can easily redirect the other circuit somewhere else in my home if need be), as well as running two CAT5 cables back to my office switch to be able to hardwire my future APEX and a webcam so I'm not diddling with wireless connections. ;)

[ca1ore]

I'd worry more about accidentally spilling something into the tank.

[Reef Frog]

Looks good. It sounds like you've planned well. Just make sure your neoprene block can handle all possible volumes if liquid can reach any electronics or plugs. Murphy's Law has a special affinity with salt water aquariums!

How far is the overhang on the granite bar? I'm no expert here but would want about 2/3 or more of the tank supported by cabinetry. Will there be a sump & equipment in the kitchen cabinet?

[aleithol]

Fortunately, the area above the tank is not used often with liquids, if anything, it's a food (not drink) serving area when I entertain -- it is the BIGGEST drawback to this location, but if I'm going to have a tank, I learned long ago in my aquarium hey-day (120+90+60+20+20 freshwater and a 120 saltwater at the same time -- boy I had GREAT parents in my teen-20's while I was still living at home letting me have all that) that they are most appreciated and tended to when located in the areas I'm in the most, hence that position that I look at from my easy chair all the time, even while catching something on the TV just to the left of it. I am an old-timer from the saltwater dark ages, so have an appreciation of what can go wrong and effort involved -- have been out of it for just over 35 years as best I can remember, and have researched getting back in a couple times over the years, but never pulled the trigger. This time though, I'm retired and have spent the last almost 3 months reading books and forums like this, talking, listening, watching videos and planning A LOT on everything I can consume that's changed and what's new. I'm a very detailed guy, having been a project exec for a great part of my career on large IT engagements, so planning is sort of what I do, and having a Plan B in my hip-pocket is a personal requirement with a partially baked Plan C that could be finalized also in the back of my head somewhere. ;)

Reef Frog -- to your questions, without getting out my plans or tape measure, the overhang of the bar on the Family Room side is about 14"... tank will only be under it for about 2", leaving about 10" in the back open for ventilation, the returns and a sliding panel that will pull out in front of those dog dishes (See 1st picture) for electronics (APEX), power bars, transformers, etc -- all with an acrylic panel in front of it so there will be no water possibility from the back of the tank and all up off the floor by several inches just in case of flood. Both my circuits for the tank are also on independent GFCI just in case. As to the sump area, it will be to the right of the tank -- again, different from most people's design and not underneath -- the bottom will be about 1" lower than the main tank, with the return overflow box on the right END of the tank. The sump is why the tank is an unusual 54" in length so I can squeeze in a sufficient size sump to handle skimmer, a couple reactors, 2-3 dosing containers, a small top-off box, and still have enough capacity when the power goes out and extra water flows back in. I started with a more traditional 24" wide tank, but moved it out to 30" as it aesthetically looks better coming out to the carpet line and should serve me a lot better with tiered/slanted aquascaping opportunities. Similarly, I started with a 48" long tank in that space which gave me more wiggle room in the sump area and the sump didn't have to be quite so tall capacity-wise, but I elected to put the additional 6" length in the DT -- both because it looked weird having a huge piece of cabinetry on the right end of that area, but also because I'd just rather have a bit more usable space for critters and such in the DT. The best part of this tank location is, NO STEP STOOLS to do any work on the tank or sump, and unlike most people, my sump area will be 100% accessible from the front and top with a little over 30" of headroom for things like tall skimmers should I ever need that... Plumbing will be tricky, but is doable -- I've sketched it out and dry connected sufficient pieces in the design to gain confidence it's do-able. Will probably curse a few times putting all that together, but I bet most of us do. Ah ha ha.

Thanks again for the thoughts and comments. Greatly appreciated.