Thinking of taking the plunge into reef keeping

SubRosa, you may be onto something there. It would be nice to not pretend to be a contortionist for once when doing maintenance. That would also allow me to make an enormous sump(even bigger than the main system without worries about weight loads etc... Even the fuge and cryptic zone could potentially go down there.
 
Are you planning on heating the basement or just letting it find its own temp? I'm not sure exactly where you are and how cold the basement will get, but having a large volume of water someplace where you have to heat it drastically could add up, so you may want to think about how to distribute the volume upstairs vs basement. Fwiw if you're doing the carpentry, it could look pretty nice with a refugium above the main tank, perhaps a 30 breeder to match the 65 in footprint. Makes the trim work easier! Think about a floor to ceiling column with the two tanks built in. Just make sure you have an unobstructed opening of at least 14", preferably 16" above the main tank, most preferably on both sides of the island. You may walk a bit more, but you can probably avoid serious contortions!
 
Point taken. I'm in Maine and the basement stays pretty steady around 46F during the winter and maybe climbs to the low 50's in the Summer.

I REALLY like the idea have having the refugium visible above the display tank. I'll just have to take some measurements now and see if there is enough clearance.
 
You could always scale back the main display to a 50 and get a few more inches to play with if it's close. Figuring standard 36" counter height, 24" for the tank, 14" for clearance, 4" for framing, and 12" for a 30 breeder if you have 8' ceilings you'll have less than 6" of clearance. The 50 could make the difference.
 
You make a valid point. This an older house and the ceiling height is only 88" :(

But if I drop the island height to 30"(which is not a bad idea anyways as it is for food prep which is easier with a lower counter top) and drop down to a 50 like you suggested it would give me above 10" clearance above the 30 gallon fuge.

hmmmmm
 
Still been playing around with the numbers on this. Not sure if I like how a lower island will work on not still.

My current problem stems around which tanks to get. So I'm looking for some opinions.

Option1; a 50g display tank and a 30g display refugium. I think this would be a good look, but both tanks would have to be ordered as no one stocks them. Which means no 1$ per gallon sale :(

Option2; a 65g dt with a 12g long dr; this would allow for a larger dt, but the 12g is pretty pricey for its volume

Option3; a 40b dt and a 40b dr. This is a little tighter fit and I'm not sure how having the dr the same size as the dt would look, but it has the advantage of being readily available via the 1$/gallon sale which would leave money for other goodies.

in all cases I'm planning on a 150g rubbermaid stock tank as a sump in the basement with possibly a cryptic fuge or auxiliary dsb in a couple of 10g under the stand.

Any thoughts or suggestions guys?

Thanks
adam
 
Whether you go with a 50, 65 or 40B as the display, my vote would be to use a 40B as the fuge. All of those tanks are 36x18. I like the 65/40B combo as I like the additional height of the 65 for the main display. THis would also provide a nice contrast. Tough to beat a 40B for display fuge IMO. Great footprint and adequate depth. Oh and $40 is tough to beat as well :).
 
So as usual life gets in the way of tank builds :) Between shoulder surgery and other junk I'm just getting near to starting this project. Unfortunately as I've been remodeling the kitchen I find I don't have as much room as I thought :(. I'm still playing at moving cabinets around but it looks like I'm stuck and will have to shorten the cabinet that was to house the 36" tanks from 48" down to 36-40". This means I would have to scale back to 30" tanks(20L,29,37) or custom built.

I'm not sure it's worth the trouble and expense of the basement sump for such a small display. So I'm mulling over just putting the sump in the cabinet under the DT. It's just a tight fit for a sump, ATO and water change reservoir(something I'm designing to make water changes quick and nearly painless).

The other problem is the narrowness of the standard 30" tanks. Using the biggest available(37 gallon) means aquascaping a tank that is nearly twice as tall as it it wide.

The other option is to call someone like glasscages and have them custom build the tanks using a wider footprint. Essentially take a 50 gallon and a 30 breeder and shorten them by six inches.

Any recommendations/thoughts/ideas are appreciated.
 
So the glasscages was kind of a bust. The tank price wasn't bad, but shipping was ridiculous. I expected it to be pricey, but no 200+ per tank :( That and they ignored/overlooked my request for a three hole overflow instead of there standard two hole one. So it looks like I'm back to a 37DT and a 20L Display Fuge. grrrr the best laid plans and all that :(
 
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