Cali Kid Corals

My fish closet

pixelpixi

pixelpixi

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I have a coat closet right behind my aquarium, which is awesome because I can put all sorts of gear in there. Up until recently, however, it's been an disaster waiting to happen.

I had a rusty DJ power strip clamped to an old board, with a tank right above it. Lighting was with a crappy clip-on light that would fall all the time. I had tubes and wires going everywhere, and a plywood floor that soaked up spilt water. Even the paint on the walls was peeling and molding from the humidity. (my sump was actually in the closet)

I decided that before my house burns down I had better get around to tearing it all out and doing it right, so I finally did. I thought you guys might want to see what I came up with.

Here are the main highlights:
- Tiled floor (over concrete) with waterproof membrane and drainage
- Water storage/mixing below (rather than above) the electrical
- Exterior electrical housings with flexible conduit and GFCIs
- Two 20g water containers. One for DI water, one for SW mix.
- Single pump to transfer water between containers, mix SW, pump to a bucket, or pump through the wall
into the aquarium.
- Glass work surface for fragging, doing tests, etc.
- Ceiling mounted light and exhaust fan with humidistat
- Spots for calcium reactor and Sediment/Carbon/DI

Now for some photos...

Photo of entire closet:

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Calcium reactor, light, and humidistat:

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Outlets, DI, work surface, top off. (still need to finish and clean up the top off controller wiring. kinda messy)

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Water storage/mixing.
Three outlet valves (mixing, flexible house on left, tank on other side of the wall)
Two inlet valves (saltwater or DI)
Sicce Syncra pump
Spot to storage a bucket (on top of salt container)

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So far it's working great! I only wish I had a proper floor drain, but there is a concrete floor under this closet so that wasn't a feasible option. Instead I just drilled a hole so that smaller or slower spills will at least drain to the crawlspace.

Anyway, that's about it!
 
Oh, PS. The shelves are wire shelving, cut with an angle grinder to fit. So far they work great but I'd probably have done stainless steel if I didn't have these lying around already.
 
Great job.

I'd like to see a closeup of how you went thru the wall. I'm thinking of putting my refugium in the room behind the aquarium and need some ideas for the piping.
 
Oh, what it plumbs to? Not nearly so pretty. ;-) Regardless, I'll try to take a photo soon and post for posterity.

John, going through this wall was tough. It's 8" thick solid masonry. I drilled it with a rotary hammer then just ran the pipe though. After the pipe goes through the wall, it goes into a ball valve, then an elbow, then directly into the sump. I'll take a photo of that too. I hope you just have drywall to deal with?
 
pixelpixi said:
Oh, what it plumbs to? Not nearly so pretty. ;-) Regardless, I'll try to take a photo soon and post for posterity.

John, going through this wall was tough. It's 8" thick solid masonry. I drilled it with a rotary hammer then just ran the pipe though. After the pipe goes through the wall, it goes into a ball valve, then an elbow, then directly into the sump. I'll take a photo of that too. I hope you just have drywall to deal with?
Click to expand...
pixelpixi said:
Oh, what it plumbs to? Not nearly so pretty. ;-) Regardless, I'll try to take a photo soon and post for posterity.

John, going through this wall was tough. It's 8" thick solid masonry. I drilled it with a rotary hammer then just ran the pipe though. After the pipe goes through the wall, it goes into a ball valve, then an elbow, then directly into the sump. I'll take a photo of that too. I hope you just have drywall to deal with?
Click to expand...


Wow, talk about dedication to a project! 8" masonry!! That's some serious drillin'.

Mine is much easier. Just sheet rock. I'm mostly interested in how you finished/trimmed the hole. I would like mine to not look like I just punched a hole in the wall since the DT is in the living room.

No rush on the pics. I'm just a little behind in my project timeline. :(
 
John, I didn't finish or trim the hole in any way. Since it's comes out under the sump I didn't worry about it.

You could put a flange on it to cover the drywall edge: http://www.trimbydesign.com/categorydisplay.asp?CatName=Traps
 
pixelpixi said:
John, I didn't finish or trim the hole in any way. Since it's comes out under the sump I didn't worry about it.

You could put a flange on it to cover the drywall edge: http://www.trimbydesign.com/categorydisplay.asp?CatName=Traps
Click to expand...

Thanks. I had forgotten about those!
 
Very cool Erin! I'm jealous of the space you have and what you've done with it

You should really think about strapping down that CO2 tank. Nothing quite like a liquid propellant rocket in earthquake country :p
 
Okay here's a photo of the tank:

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Most of the corals are doing pretty well (and they're mostly from BAR. Thanks guys!) but the few acros I had took a beating when I let water parameters get too far out of range during the closet rebuild. Lighting is a 250W Radium, T5 actinics, and a kessil A150 for some extra intensity right where it's needed most.

Now for the sump...

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Not very pretty, but it works for now and should tide me over until I can rebuild everything. John, that blue valve to the left of the outlets is for pumping saltwater into the sump.

Other notable features are an ecoxotic Par-38 for my little frag section, a new Urchin skimmer (replaces my huge old euroreef), and a horizontal float switch for top-off. There's an eheim return pump behind the skimmer.

Finally, a photo of the cabinet:

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It was old and fairly crappy when I got it and it hasn't gotten better with age. The doors are cut because I used to have a "second display" there and had the sump in the closet. Can't wait to replace it!
 
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