New house planning

zbryant91 · Apr 14, 2020

My wife and I are starting the process of looking at getting a house built by a local builder. Most of the layouts we are considering have a study at the front of the house and a bonus room upstairs which are the most likely locations for a tank for us.

I guess what I am most looking for is what some folks have requested or wish they had requested to have been built into the house to best accommodate their tanks. Like one thing I will definitely do is have ethernet run to both rooms so I can hardline the apex. But on top of that it would be nice to have a drain for water changes and potentially a place to have a bucket of mixed saltwater in a closet so I can automate them. Things of this nature. Did you have the builder make pass-throughs for these types of things, are they even options? We have a meeting later this week and I just want to make sure I ask the right questions and get as much info as I can.

I'm sure I can easily tie into a bathroom nearby with a DOS for the drain but a run to the garage for the mixing station is going to be funky with the current plans we are considering so I just want to hear from some folks about what they are doing or wish they had done differently. Right now I just have a 60gallon cube but plan to leave room to upgrade to something around a 180 so going to that size will really be where I see the benefits of a good plan.

I'm no stranger to DIY so if my builder won't do much for whatever reason, I don't mind doing my own thing after the fact of thats just how it has to be. I'm obviously very early on in the planning stage as we haven't even picked a builder although there are not many currently in the location we want to be in.

Snoopy 67 · Apr 14, 2020

Put the tank in a room you will use, NOT something you just pass by. By upstairs do you mean 2nd floor?
That in itself means heavier construction for the over 1300 pounds for a 180. You should have 2 dedicated circuits minimum for "things". Wish I had a basement for a sump. On a bench is best as it reduces head pressure, saves kneeling on a concrete floor killing your back too.

zbryant91 · Apr 14, 2020

Yea, the study would be a downstairs office that I would use pretty often. The bonus room would be upstairs and probably would be used more often so that is a good suggestion. My only consideration for not having it in the bonus is the light being annoying with the tv/home theater. it isn't really a problem in our current house so I could probably just plan the placement to avoid light bleed.

Good idea on the dual circuits. I am currently using 2 outlets with gfci's but separate circuits is a great idea.

Thanks!

Snoopy 67 · Apr 14, 2020

You will get used to the light bleed & you could always have a canopy. Just the weight concern there for me.
Would you be surprised if I tell you I have 13 cords on mine? 3 outlets would have been better & with new plans it's a no brainer.

zbryant91 · Apr 14, 2020

haha not surprised at all. I actually have 2 of the 8 outlet power bricks from apex and have them both almost completely full. my power draw with everything running is still only about 400w so i'm not that worried about hitting the limit on the circuit more than I am just having redundancy.

definitely will do a bit of research on standard floor ratings.

Honestly my biggest issue currently is I have more equipment than cabinet space so my stuff is begun to take up the space behind the couch..

AlexG · Apr 14, 2020

Sounds like you have power, water, and weight considered which are the big ones. On the power side of things I would consider going with DFCI rather than just GFCI as an additional level of electrical circuit protection. Something else to consider is access of the display and filtration systems. Having a fish room, closet, or some extra space to allow access to filtration equipment is really important. Nothing worse than saying I would like to clean something but it is difficult to get to so it is put off for another day. Access is also important with canopies as there is nothing worse than not being able to access parts of the tank because the canopy is in the way. I took the step of making removable canopy panels that allow full access to the displays along with a walking platform behind the display to allow easy access to all parts of the tank without needing to get a stepladder out.

zbryant91 · Apr 14, 2020

I have never even heard of a dfci. Will look into it. The platform behind is a neat idea, not sure how it would look having the tank that far out but would also give extra storage underneath.

hoprah · Nov 2, 2021

zbryant91 said:
My wife and I are starting the process of looking at getting a house built by a local builder. Most of the layouts we are considering have a study at the front of the house and a bonus room upstairs which are the most likely locations for a tank for us.

I guess what I am most looking for is what some folks have requested or wish they had requested to have been built into the house to best accommodate their tanks. Like one thing I will definitely do is have ethernet run to both rooms so I can hardline the apex. But on top of that it would be nice to have a drain for water changes and potentially a place to have a bucket of mixed saltwater in a closet so I can automate them. Things of this nature. Did you have the builder make pass-throughs for these types of things, are they even options? We have a meeting later this week and I just want to make sure I ask the right questions and get as much info as I can.

I'm sure I can easily tie into a bathroom nearby with a DOS for the drain but a run to the garage for the mixing station is going to be funky with the current plans we are considering so I just want to hear from some folks about what they are doing or wish they had done differently. Right now I just have a 60gallon cube but plan to leave room to upgrade to something around a 180 so going to that size will really be where I see the benefits of a good plan.

I'm no stranger to DIY so if my builder won't do much for whatever reason, I don't mind doing my own thing after the fact of thats just how it has to be. I'm obviously very early on in the planning stage as we haven't even picked a builder although there are not many currently in the location we want to be in.

Yes, we always wanted to have a separate unit for the tank in the cabinets.

hoprah · Nov 3, 2021

I don't recommend installing a unit at floor level in the room. It ruins the room's look. We also wanted to have a saltwater compartment, but that requires certain requirements. I don't remember exactly which ones anymore, but I know that ours didn't fit those requirements. If I had saltwater, that would be great. You say you want to be able to automate, but that's pretty complicated and expensive. Should get outside opinions on when automation is required