I have done a major home remodeling that included removing several walls for an open concept. But this has caused the "mancave" area to be a part of the living room space. I wanted to wall it off separately from the living space, but my wife said I should do something more creative than building a wall after just removing other walls. So my idea is to build two large aquarium stands that will hold large fish aquariums of about 120 gallons each. The stands will span a room of about 15 feet and a space between the two stands of about 4 feet. I want square columns at the gap between the tanks, so the stands and tanks will in effect be a wall with the columns going to the ceiling as the "door way" between the rooms. I will see if I can post some pictures of this idea. I want to see if anyone has experience with large tanks. My plan is to have aquascape tanks and small but numerous fish rather than the large South American cichlids. I love the African cichlids but it appears than I am the only one in the house that does, so the small tetras and a variety of exotic small fish with lots of plants is the plan. The tanks will be rimless and the lighting system will be suspended from the ceiling so I can't have any fish that are prone to jumping.
Ok, this is not my home, they are screen shots and I would like to give credit to the owners,...but I don't know who they are. This is basically what I want to do, but with the massive upgrades needed to support the aquariums. One side of the stands will be open book shelves on the mancave side and the living room side will be a bead board flat panel. My plan is to make the columns hollow on the cave side as well for possible storage or even more book shelves? The lighting system will be pooltable "bar" style hanging lights painted on the cave side and the side on the living space will be a more traditional type design.
The plan is to get custom tanks made to speck that will be something like 4 feet long about 30" wide and as tall as realistically possible. I have the dimensions somewhere and pricing from the estimates but off hand I don't remember them.
From the living space looking into the mancave area. [IMG]https://images.fiero.nl/userimages/Rickady88GT/16 070253682997871200080581613332.jpg[/IMG] This is the space for the aquariums. Right now it is full of boxes for Christmas decorations and boxes for the Thanksgiving decorations that need to come down. The pictures do not give the space any size perspective, but like I said, the width of the room is about 15'.
[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 12-03-2020).]
One of the reasons for the aquariums is that if I were to wall this space in, it would make one VERY long wall across the living room. To brake this up, I decided to do the aquariums and stands. The columns tie the stands together as if they are a wall or as if they belong there rather than an afterthought.
Thanks, I saw that and closed it 3 times. The first time it was 3 spaces but did not fix it. After that each time I closed the space, it automatically put the space back? For some reason it also lower cased the IMG? Thanks, I just took another picture rather than try to fix it again.
Just some aquscape ideas for the aquariums. The tanks will be viewable from both front and back, but not the outer sides. The two ends at the columns will be limited, so the filtration systems will have the plumbing at the ends of the tanks were they will be hidden.
I have done a major home remodeling that included removing several walls for an open concept. But this has caused the "mancave" area to be a part of the living room space. I wanted to wall it off separately from the living space, but my wife said I should do something more creative than building a wall after just removing other walls. So my idea is to build two large aquarium stands that will hold large fish aquariums of about 120 gallons each. The stands will span a room of about 15 feet and a space between the two stands of about 4 feet. I want square columns at the gap between the tanks, so the stands and tanks will in effect be a wall with the columns going to the ceiling as the "door way" between the rooms. I will see if I can post some pictures of this idea. I want to see if anyone has experience with large tanks. My plan is to have aquascape tanks and small but numerous fish rather than the large South American cichlids. I love the African cichlids but it appears than I am the only one in the house that does, so the small tetras and a variety of exotic small fish with lots of plants is the plan. The tanks will be rimless and the lighting system will be suspended from the ceiling so I can't have any fish that are prone to jumping.
A glass wall for your man cave? Interesting. A man cave with windows to the inside of the house. Maybe if there is a divider in the tank blocking a straight view into your private domain.
A large fish aquarium is a good idea, but have you considered using one for small fish?
I really don't want salt water. I worked in a pet store for a few years as a kid and those dang things were a thorn in my side. But I love the little fresh water fish and shrimp. SOOO many cool things can fit in these tanks.
A glass wall for your man cave? Interesting. A man cave with windows to the inside of the house. Maybe if there is a divider in the tank blocking a straight view into your private domain.
To be honest, my real mancave will be a 40x60 shop out back that has a 2 post lift, a cnc mill, cnc lathe and plenty of room for cars to work on.
A glass wall for your man cave? Interesting. A man cave with windows to the inside of the house. Maybe if there is a divider in the tank blocking a straight view into your private domain.
I was thinking perhaps a one way mirror on mancave side of the aquarium. He could see the fish and into the family portion of the home, and they could see the fish but not into the mancave. and it would appear to the outside world, that there were double the number of fish in the tank..
These appear to be separate but are actually all one volume of water totaling just over 400 US gallons. I did it this way instead of one large tank to still have the buffering effect of a large volume but be able to separate incompatible fish and coral species.
I was thinking perhaps a one way mirror on mancave side of the aquarium. He could see the fish and into the family portion of the home, and they could see the fish but not into the mancave. and it would appear to the outside world, that there were double the number of fish in the tank..
These appear to be separate but are actually all one volume of water totaling just over 400 US gallons. I did it this way instead of one large tank to still have the buffering effect of a large volume but be able to separate incompatible fish and coral species.
~Tyler
Nice looking set up. That looks like a lot of love went into it.
I am really into aquascaping and just love it. I have ponds, tanks and right now i am using a 5 foot tank to make a waterfall. I am making a stand out of plastic boxes with a wall garden around stand so whole thing will be green. The idea has come due to the fact tank was falling over old rotting stand and i sell this stuff. I plan to make interior of tank out of plastic and foam. I used to use fiberglass but dont need too. I have made amazing fish tank backgrounds caves with left over resins etc at end of the day as was building my car would continue a second build. The only thing today xmas day i constructed the stand with grow wall and will dismantle old stand tomorrow and start the transformation.
Second main project In coming months i plan to turn my pond into a greenhouse with a water tank and solar heating to keep tropical fish with only 20-200 watts of power and moving thousands of litres. Keeping towards 20 watts as it used to run this way till giant tree destroyed that but i am on the fix. I can run 20,000 litres an hour at 200 watts with mutlimeter. I also bulld water features at work not my main role but the manager of a tank. pond, garden pump and plumbing business.
At work i have 7 ponds 1500 US gallons and 2 ponds at home equating another 1500 gallons. 6000 litres easy each.
[This message has been edited by Australian (edited 12-25-2020).]
Just saw this post. I have an almost 1 year old 225 gallon saltwater setup. 180 gallon display 55 gallon sump. I have a bunch of zoa coral, a torch, a bubble, african tree coral, candy cain, bunch of others. I have clowns, Cardinals, a blue tang(yes cast of finding nemo) , dragon goby, 2 male molly, and a lone fire fish and 2 bubble tip nems. Then tons of hermits. I just got a sponge and a feather duster. I hope they fair better than the clam i had.
Today i dismantled old stand and levelled out new stand reinforced tank as a round glass with hollowed out sections under i filled for more strength. I painted back of tank as well as light and filter externals. The set up which has a frame used to be silver then painted it whilte now mking it black. Tomorrow i plan or should i say no plan to make hard scape with waterfall. Half aquaterraium. Not going to use foam but geofabric with concrete to make something solid but hollow and split level to maximise amount of water in it. This will hold a lot more water than what you see. The air part of the tank I plan to hold water behind any backgrounds in my vision to charge more water falls have 2400L per hour 10.5 gal a minute pump to make some splash. I will use pond liner underneath waterfalls as have off cuts from my pond anyway. Tomorrow is my art day.
[This message has been edited by Australian (edited 12-27-2020).]
Built the hard scape no water or plants yet cement to dry also have a stand in between tank and light to be a foot higher not shown will post more pics as i go. 2 pumps one to drive filter and waterfall another with two out puts for waterfalls. Huge flow 2400l/hour n x 2. = 10.5 gallons minute x 2 = 21 gallons per minute. Normally will be run 1 pump. There is a full bag of potting mix in there too all hidden.
[This message has been edited by Australian (edited 02-05-2021).]
Tank is looking way better will post some more pics as it grows. i have been thinking about heating a pond enough to hold tropical fish in winter outdoors. I have already had success in past using cut down water tanks I sell tanks. Somehow they never get cold had a beige tank but darker is better so painted outside black the second year. I have had 2 years in winter with all breeds survived guppies neon tetras swords platies. I am in Sydney and it does rarely have a 5 degee morning but want tropical fish to live.
I have 24v 20,000l/h pump 50mm inlet outlet had it connected with inverter to 240v but thinking of using only 24v with solar panel and element in water not use a controller.
Cheapest options others use are to copy the irrigation 13mm pipe circulation ideas A solar powered pump or low volt. or pool pump to push through solar heating pipes.
My idea is use solar panel instead of controller inverter 24v and use 24v element from 24v hot water heater to heat water run it off only one solar panel 200-300w. I could include a battery. I have 5000L of water 1100 gallons. I have been toying with idea of enclosing it as a greenhouse making a roof twinwall sides glass sliding window at front but wondering how warm i can make the water. I watched someone on youtube make a water heater with 12v heat plugs for oil and see 12v elements for kettles etc so cheap. Solar power has to be a more efficient way to warm the water with elements than circuating the water through 13mm pipe. Also makes running pump free with large enough solar panel.
[This message has been edited by Australian (edited 02-25-2021).]
