Finishing Basement, need advice before closing the walls up

[Ocelaris]

I apologize in advance, this is a repeat of my thread over on reefcentral, but I actually live in NJ, and plan on getting involved with the club. I'm in Glen Rock, near Paramus, and we've been renovating this house for the past 3 years, and just realized a month before the basement walls go up that I intended to put in fish tank provisions!

Anyways, it's been about 15 years since last coral reef tank. Fast forward through my 20s and into my 30s we have a nice house and space where I'd like to put a tank with most the bells and whistles that I missed out in my teens. We're finishing the basement ourselves, so I'm trying to think of all of the plumbing, electrical, control wire etc... that I need to have in place before the drywall goes up.

The best "spot" to watch the tank doesn't back up to a room, so I'm forced to split the "back of house" area and "front of house" stuff in two locations.

The big tank I have in mind is between two columns, facing the "rec room" area. I can fit a 60" tank, so I'm imagining a 190 gallon (DSA 190 is 60x27x27") with a sump below. The main tank will back up to a half wall, and be mostly exposed. The half wall will have some cabinets for my use, and it has water and a drain. I have an outlet above for future lighting, and a storage shelf for ballasts if necessary.

The Boiler room will be unfinished for the time being, but I have plenty of room for 55 gallon drums, RO/DI, a frag and QT tank etc... I'm hoping to do my ATO and water changes via peristaltic pump back to this room. So my question to the group is what would you run while the walls are open?

Main Tank:
2x20 amp circuits
water/drain
cat5 ethernet to internet

Boiler Room
1x20amp circuit (2nd circuit run but not in use)
cat5 ethernet to internet
water/drain

Linking rooms:
3x 1/4" poly tubing
5x 18/2 thermostat wire for relay/triggers etc...
cat5 cable

Picture Explanations:
last 3 pictures are of the main tank location, coming around it for perspective
first 2 pictures are of the boiler room to be, where I'll be managing all the back of house stuff..

Just looking for ideas so when I start the build I don't smack myself for missing something. Really looking for out of box brainstorming. Thanks in advance!

excessive details:
I imagine the peristaltic pump removing water from the main tank, back to the frag tank, which drains to the QT tank (when not in use for QT, could be another frag tank), basically daisy chaining the 3 tanks + sump to create a larger volume. Skimmer, control would be mostly in the main tank, but I'm comfortable with relays, so any triggers etc... I'd like to have linked between the systems. I was going to use PEX to have a larger pipe between the systems, but realized brass fittings are a no-no, so not sure if I can get by with the 3x1/4" poly tubing, or should run something like a 2x 1" pvc (would be kind of hard to run, but now is the time to do it).

 

[Edwardw771]

When I finished my basement around my tank and fish room I didn't realize how much humidity would be created. I ended up buying a large dehumidifier (which cause the temp to rise in the basement). I then put in a large restaurant exhaust fan which helped a lot. Good Luck with the build.

 

[Brando457]

I run a large dehumidifer with built in pump that pumps to my drain. It keeps the humidity at 55 consistently without much issues. I have a 180g in wall, 75g sump (about 40 gals), 40 g breeder, 20g ATO, 55g QT, 30g x 2 mixing bins.

 

[Ocelaris]

Thanks, I have a smaller 50 pint per day unit running which keeps things dry now, but when I get the tank I'm sure that's not going to be able to keep up.

 

[mnat]

We have a 200g upstairs with the rest of our system in the basement. Plan and draw it out and figure out where you want specific things. Where are your return pump/pumps going to be and how are you going to plumb them? (Flex PVC is the answer btw). Where is your equipment going to be and will you have outlets for that piece of equipment in the right spot. We have a 55g tank for mixing saltwater, a 55g for holding fresh, a slop sink which acts as our drain, an 80g frag tank, ato container, naturereef reactor, calcium reactor, two return pumps, (one run the manifold), a sump, a recirc tank (for water changes) and then the skimmer. We had our fish room guy and our friend who built it meet and plan it all out. Then our electrician put the outlets exactly where we needed them. We were able to do a lot with not a huge space and it is all planned out pretty well. Shelves and storage are a plus and the dehumidifier ideas above are very smart.

 

[horseplay]

If you could avoid putting sump under tank. Much easier to work with otherwise.

As Mike said have the auxiliary tanks planned out and plumbed so water change is just flipping a switch instead of running soft hoses.

 

[malenmike]

Use roxul insulation, its soundproof fire and water, mold resistant. I used this in my my laundry area to the entire basement ceiling very easy to install, and no mask or other hazard materials needed to wear. Worth every penny and no best of all "0" mold.

Good luck!

 

[Ocelaris]

Use roxul insulation, its soundproof fire and water, mold resistant. I used this in my my laundry area to the entire basement ceiling very easy to install, and no mask or other hazard materials needed to wear. Worth every penny and no best of all "0" mold.

Good luck!

Thanks, I ran a bunch of thermostat wires and ethernet cables tonight, but I'm confused, if the sump isn't below would you really pump the water 25 feet away day in, day out? I'm about to run some 1/2" pex, I just can't fit anything larger in between the 2x4s. I'm worried that running a sump so far away would be unreliable?

We just bought standard insulation for the ceiling for sound proofing (big area to cover), but I think I will do roxul for the back of house stuff.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm not sure what the 1/2 inch PEX is for, but that won't work for a drain or return. You can easily fit 3 inch pipe through a 2 x 4 studded wall. I'm confused???

 

[Ocelaris]

I'm not sure what the 1/2 inch PEX is for, but that won't work for a drain or return. You can easily fit 3 inch pipe through a 2 x 4 studded wall. I'm confused???

I don't have much room to work with, and I need one supply and one return. Would 3/4 or 1 inch suffice?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Paul B]

I also built my tank into a wall and built my basement around it. Over the years (40) I installed more circuits (I have been a master electrician for 40 years) and an exhaust fan over the tank that runs the humid air outside the house.
If I were you, I would install a one inch PVC pipe above the ceiling from the tank area to the room where the circuits breakers are. I have such conduits all over my home in case in the future I want to add some type of wiring. They have come in handy and the pipe is very cheap and easy to install now. I would also add more outlets now, not more circuits but just outlets. I know my tank uses about 10 duplex outlets.

 

[Ocelaris]

Thanks, the problem I'm running into now is how to get the water to evenly pass from one tank to the other. Basically it's a ~30-40 foot run horizontally from the main tank (and up and down 8 feet) to the remote sump, so even if I had a pump on each side getting those two to balance is going to be a problem, and I can't think of a way to continually circulate water between (and keep the level even) the two tanks except with an float valve...

 

[trivan]

I think you need to determine what kind of drain your going to use? If using a Durso or siphon, herbie or bean animal, that will determine the size pipe you'll need. If you go siphon, you can use 1" flex pvp for must situations, but you'll need at least 2 for herbie and 3 for Bean animal. 1" for the return may do, but again, you'll need to figure out what you want in terms of flow.