Rev's 400+ Gallon Basement Inwall

[Wiinberg]

Congrats on the new house If your going to build a separate tank room, i would maybe epoxy the floor and 10" up the wall, plus a high doorstep. This way your certain a flood won't do any damage (you never know if the floor drain will block the exact day that the tank starts leaking). Plus you can clean any mess with a hose.

 

[JPSika08]

Congrats on the new house If your going to build a separate tank room, i would maybe epoxy the floor and 10" up the wall, plus a high doorstep. This way your certain a flood won't do any damage (you never know if the floor drain will block the exact day that the tank starts leaking). Plus you can clean any mess with a hose.

Either this or ceramic tile flooring. When I had my fishroom I tiled all the floor, major spills, no problem.

Here is a pic of my former system fishroom:


I even had Several tanks for QT, a Lionfish, predator tank, a Mantis tank, an Eel tank and the big Sump with a 400+ DT Tank. Too bad I had to close this system.

 

[rayn]

Holy cow! Nice house! Gotta finish reading the thread, but big CONGRATS!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Thanks everyone for the awesome suggestions! Some that were mentioned I had thought of many moons ago but had forgotten. Thanks!

Also we closed on the house yesterday. It was supposed to be Friday but there was a minor hiccup that pushed it until yesterday. It feels more real now!

We do have 3 weeks before we can move in. We allowed the current owners the extra time since they did not realize they would sell their house so quick. They are elderly and really great people so we had to oblige! I now have tenants for a few weeks! Ha!

The old owners have been feeding a stray cat for years and asked us if we would continue. Of course we said yes because we already do that. But after agreeing they gave us a nice 50" flatscreen tv for doing it among a few other things.

Anyway....

The planning continues! I'll be talking with the tank builders personally at RAP this weekend. They estimate the time to build to take 4-6 weeks.

 

[Saltwaterwill]

Congratulations and I wish u the best and success, it's going to be epic.

 

[tripdad]

Ok, first congrats on the house and welcome to home ownership fold! Now I will probably catch flack for this but I am a guy who likes to have my bases covered. I would contact the builder of the home , if possible, and ask how thick the basement floor is. My reasoning is that the more compact the tank the more localized the load on the slab. They pour some floors around here as thin as 4". If the floor is thin you could spread the load by widening the footprint. If you put a high load right on the edge( next to the wall) it can cause cracking if floor is not thick enough. I know, no-one ever checks this they just install the tank, but that will be a lot of weight and I would want to know that I will NEVER have a problem as I would not want to have to tear it down later to fix something after years of growth. Now I am not an engineer and one may tell you that I worry about nothing but it cost nothing to ask a simple question now, right? Looks like a super cool project and yes, like others I am envious of the space and floor plan.

 

[BoneXriffic]

Im at work today and noticed. Nice layout for the return on your tank

 

[BoneXriffic]

In all seriousness rev, tripdad makes a great point about the slab....thats some serious weight. Have you check thickness. Not that pumping some footers would be difficult but i cant imagine that weight here in fl....would make a sink hole lol

 

[cono]

another suggestion would be build walls out of backer board no mold and water proof

 

[cono]

Hey is reefapalooz in NY this weekend?

 

[BoneXriffic]

Orlando

 

[cono]

Just seen that lol

 

[JMSKI333]

4" of concrete (which is standard up here in NY) is plenty strong if done correctly. Depends a lot on what's below it and how compact it is. Even 8" thick concrete will settle and crack if the base settles. If it's not horribly cracked already, then it will be fine. We have a saying in the construction industry, "there are two types of concrete, concrete that is cracked and concrete that hasn't cracked yet"

Don't get me wrong, our tanks are heavy, but our houses our built to hold a lot more weight than a few thousand pounds.

 

[BoneXriffic]

4" of concrete (which is standard up here in NY) is plenty strong if done correctly. Depends a lot on what's below it and how compact it is. Even 8" thick concrete will settle and crack if the base settles. If it's not horribly cracked already, then it will be fine. We have a saying in the construction industry, "there are two types of concrete, concrete that is cracked and concrete that hasn't cracked yet"

Don't get me wrong, our tanks are heavy, but our houses our built to hold a lot more weight than a few thousand pounds.

I dont see rollers on residential building pads to often anymore lol but im in fl so i imagine its different up north

 

[dbl]

...We have a saying in the construction industry, "there are two types of concrete, concrete that is cracked and concrete that hasn't cracked yet"

Too funny and goes along with how we put it. "There are two known facts about concrete...it gets hard and it cracks!"

 

[BHHOWARD]

Congrats on the new house If your going to build a separate tank room, i would maybe epoxy the floor and 10" up the wall, plus a high doorstep. This way your certain a flood won't do any damage (you never know if the floor drain will block the exact day that the tank starts leaking). Plus you can clean any mess with a hose.

Congrats on the new home!

I used backer board like this (http://www.homedepot.com/p/James-Ha...MERCH=REC-_-nosearch2_rr-_-NA-_-100183556-_-N) for the first couple of inches of the wall (matched the same height as the raised doorstep), and green board the rest of the way up the wall. WEST System Epoxy on the floor and up the backer board to eliminate any seams. You can use any pigment you want in the Epoxy. I tried to match the total system water volume with the volume of room that was covered in Epoxy so in case my pump failed to remove the water from the room, it was like an indoor pool instead of flooding outside of the room.

Prep the floor with this http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Concrete_Prep_Tool/12570/
attached to http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Floor_Maintainer/01278A/
Makes quick work out of a very difficult job. Do not try to use chemicals or any hand power tool! From experience, this will not work.

I would have liked a floor drain, but decided to reduce the cost and installed this
http://www.plumbing-deals.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=46541
which will remove all but 1/8" of the water on the floor. As stated earlier in the thread, most slabs SHOULD be designed to flow toward a drain or a door. (Mine was not). Pour a little water on the floor to identify the direction the water "flows" and install the pump in the lowest portion of the room. Even if you decide to install a floor drain, you will want to validate the low point in the room before adding the drain.

 

[cono]

If anything install a french drain hooked up to s sump pump to pump the water outside or into the sewer line

 

[BoneXriffic]

Rev sent me home with a huge box of rocks today, so in true form i shall reply to that with more huge equipment for his build.

 

[reefmania59]

Rev sent me home with a huge box of rocks today, so in true form i shall reply to that with more huge equipment for his build.

Is that the new UV?

 

[Chris Ferrell]

Congrats Rev, can wait to see the tank build. Don't be scared you only live once.