This property came with a quite badly converted garage/dining room, so seeing as this needed totally re-doing anyway, I thought this would be a good location for the tank. As it stood, the living area was a large open plan 'L' shape with the view from the sitting area also looking strait down the length of a very long, but narrow dining room. (approximately 7'6" wide by 17ft long) that had a dropped ceiling about 9ft down its length. Seeing as the dining table would only take up approximately 5ft of that 9ft, I thought this a good place to start. So I proceeded to split the room at this point giving me a dedicated fish tank room at the end of the dining area so the tank could be viewed through the wall

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This is the dining room with the dropped ceiling at the far end.

This shot was taken whilst we were using it as a temporary lounge whilst the rest of the real lounge was completed.

Work commenced in early 2006 just after we moved in. with a full refit downstairs leaving the dining room and tank room till last. By  June 2006 the entire downstairs had been redone, and work was ready to commence on the tank room with the partition wall going up. This wall was fully lagged internally to minimise noise transmission through it, leaving me a space behind of  7'6" x 8'. After quite a few 'very beneficial' sessions on the Sketchup 3d programme. I came to a final tank size of 6.5'x 3.5'x 28" deep. I couldn't go any deeper than this due to the dropped ceiling restricting access to the top of the tank though ( so that's 24" water depth, the tank is actually a full 28" from top to bottom). 

A 3D model of the proposed dining room/ Tank room split with the tank viewable through the dining room wall. The archway at the end of the dining room leads to the main living room.

A close up image of the full tank room showing the tank resting on a purpose built triple RSJ stand, and the 4 tank tower sump assembly.

The main design criteria for the tank was that I wanted it as big as possible but to still allow a reasonable amount of work space available to do daily maintenance without feeling cramped. This is one area I would say to think especially hard about when designing a large system. All to often, people go for the biggest tank they can physically fit into an area without concern for how they are going to work on it or around it. In this case a low ceiling, and physical space limitations in the room meant I had to sacrifice some of the overall tank depth to allow me room to lean over the top of it, and I had to sacrifice 6" of my proposed 4ft front to back width because it would have made the remaining space just too small to work with sensibly.

The idea for the tower sump in preference to a standard 'under tank' sump, was that I wanted as bigger sump as possible and for it to be easy to work with. As it is, this method gives me the equivalent of an 8x2 sump in a 2x2 area and each section is easily accessible. Even more beneficial is that now, the entire 5.5 x 3.5 area 'beneath' the tank, can be used for equipment, the 4x10,000 lph closed loop pumps, plus a water change tank. All in, a considered and sensible use of space in my opinion. Trust me, it really is worth planning things out a couple of times before you commit, and don't be scared about trying something a little radical. Just because something hasn't been done, doesn't mean it 'cant' be done..

After the wall was built and plastered, it was time to tile the whole room to minimise any damage from damp salt air, and to make things more hygienic. not to mention the fact that I wanted it to be easily converted to a utility room should we decide to move at a later date. With this in mind, the room was also plumbed for hot and cold water and a waste pipe added to get rid of any  RO waste. it was also at this point, I added a new 2 way consumer box for the house electrics. This consisted of all the usual fused relays and RCD's, but also 4 more on a separate breaker to run 4 different ring mains to feed the various sections of the tank. The beauty of this, is that no one item can trip the entire tank off. Seeing as each ring runs a separate double socket, it means that no matter what happens, only a single line will trip in the event of an overload or electrical seepage/short.

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Image 1 shows the partition wall going up, with the power lines running through. (plumbing was also incorporated into this wall at a later stage so the Ro unit could be installed for the Auto top up, and waste..

Image 2 shows the extra door I had to fit. This was to allow access to the new room from outside. ( this was necessary as the tank would stretch the full width of the room so there had to be a different access point). This has worked out very beneficial as it means I can do all those dirty and wet jobs we all have to do on our tanks, 'outside' instead of traipsing through the house.

Image 3 shows the view from the living room, looking down the length of the dining room, and the viewing area of the tank. It doesn't look that big in this shot but that hole is 6.5ft wide by 24" deep and the tank will go 3.5ft back. at this point the dining room was just a plasterboard box, with no floor and no ceiling.

Image 4 shows the inside of the Tank room during tiling. This was just prior to the coving going up and Laminate flooring going down. The laminate had all the seams sealed with silicone to prevent water penetration.  The coving, ceiling, and edges were done in waterproof bathroom paint and sealed with white silicone sealer to make the room virtually water tight. This ensures that there is no danger of damage through damp penetration. Although it then becomes essential to fit ventilation to remove humidity.

Image 5 shows 3 of the 4 separately ringed double wall sockets. Each one can carry a 30 amp maximum load and are sealed around the edges with silicone to prevent any condensation or splashes seeping into the back. From each socket, 2 x 6 way plug bars will be fitted to run various equipment via a separate electrics board under the main tank. With this arrangement I could run a maximum of 48 components,  with one double socket on each side of the room reserved for the halides and T5 lighting units.

Image 6 shows the new consumer unit. At this point there is a requirement to fit a clear cover over the unit to prevent any splashes etc hitting it. Especially seeing as the top edge of the tank will be only 6" away from the unit. (this was unavoidable unfortunately)

Image 7 shows the water feeds. LHS = cold with tap for RO feed / middle = Hot water / RHS = waste pipe for waste RO.

Image 8 shows a shot of the fully tiled and floored Tank room, just prior to building the support legs for the stand. (This was taken just prior to skirting the room and sealing all the edges to make it water tight against leaks or spillages)

Turn to Page 2 for further build info.