Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post

EnglishRebel · 12/14/2008, 02:49 PM

Part 1
Prologue
Let me start out by stating that this is my first saltwater aquarium. I had a small 10 gallon fresh water tank back in England, which was stocked with a couple of gouramis. So that was my experience but for the last five years I’ve been lurking here on RC and have gathered much information and knowledge (a lot from WaterKeeper who is being true to his sig. "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation"

– thanks WK).

I have been planning this system for about 4 or 5 years. I hadn't done anything about it until now as I was traveling extensively with my consulting job.
Now I am retired and finished with our kitchen and bathroom remodel I have all the time in the world (but less money

).
A couple of years ago I built a sunroom on the back of the house.

When I did I made sure that the floor could support the weight of a 200 gallon tank. Under the area where the tank would sit (parallel to the joists), I installed 12" x 3" gluelam beams which are incredibly strong. For the rest of the room I used engineered wooden I beams. The total span of the joists is around 16'-0". Being the anal retentive engineer that I am, intended to beef up this over-engineered structure with another gluelam beam running perpendicular to the joists, 6'-0" out from the house – but more on that later.
I always intended to have an equipment room in the basement – I did not want to have the smelly and messy equipment in the stand. Plus water changes meant lugging 5 gallon buckets up from the basement and at my age that aint fun.

During the initial planning I was going to have an equipment room here:

As you can see it’s a little cluttered to say the least. The thing on the wall is our tankless water heater which I installed about three years ago (saves a lot of energy – which I’m going to need when I start up my system.

) The more I thought about this and the “need” to beef up the sunroom floor, I had an epiphany. Why not kill four birds with one stone.
Stay tuned for the next episode.

12/14/2008, 02:49 PM	#1
EnglishRebel Retired Rebel Reefer Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Triad NC Posts: 1,902	Englishrebels 260 Gallon System Build Part 1 Prologue Let me start out by stating that this is my first saltwater aquarium. I had a small 10 gallon fresh water tank back in England, which was stocked with a couple of gouramis. So that was my experience but for the last five years I’ve been lurking here on RC and have gathered much information and knowledge (a lot from WaterKeeper who is being true to his sig. "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" – thanks WK). I have been planning this system for about 4 or 5 years. I hadn't done anything about it until now as I was traveling extensively with my consulting job. Now I am retired and finished with our kitchen and bathroom remodel I have all the time in the world (but less money ). A couple of years ago I built a sunroom on the back of the house. When I did I made sure that the floor could support the weight of a 200 gallon tank. Under the area where the tank would sit (parallel to the joists), I installed 12" x 3" gluelam beams which are incredibly strong. For the rest of the room I used engineered wooden I beams. The total span of the joists is around 16'-0". Being the anal retentive engineer that I am, intended to beef up this over-engineered structure with another gluelam beam running perpendicular to the joists, 6'-0" out from the house – but more on that later. I always intended to have an equipment room in the basement – I did not want to have the smelly and messy equipment in the stand. Plus water changes meant lugging 5 gallon buckets up from the basement and at my age that aint fun. During the initial planning I was going to have an equipment room here: As you can see it’s a little cluttered to say the least. The thing on the wall is our tankless water heater which I installed about three years ago (saves a lot of energy – which I’m going to need when I start up my system. ) The more I thought about this and the “need” to beef up the sunroom floor, I had an epiphany. Why not kill four birds with one stone. Stay tuned for the next episode. __________________ Alan "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. " Sir Winston Churchill praising those young RAF pilots. August 20th 1940 Click on my name for drop down list and select "Visit EnglishRebels Home Page" for my build thread. Current Tank Info: 60x30x24 200G AO custom glass tank, basement equipment room, 30G and 55G Fuges, LifeReef sump & 30" skimmer. Last edited by EnglishRebel; 12/14/2008 at 03:05 PM.