Bob's Reliability Reef: 250 Basement Fish Room Build

[bobbravo2]

5/21 it’s coming!

I need some help on Saturday 5/23 @FishieBusiness any chance I can enlist the help of some pros?

 

[Cpage101]

Before
View attachment 233814

After
View attachment 233815

I wish I knew about raceways growing up. So much cleaner!

Panduit raceway for the win!

 

[bobbravo2]

Working on getting professional help on moving the tank.

I’ve shared photos of the basement entry, doorway/threshold, and destination area.


The tank is a Waterbox REEF LX 330.7. I do not have the physical tank yet, so please use the manufacturer specs for quoting:

• Display tank: 84.1” L × 29.5” W × 25.6” H
• Empty glass aquarium weight: 664 lb
• Glass thickness: 19mm / 3⁄4”
• Total system weight listed by Waterbox: 1,052 lb, but the aquarium will be moved empty
• Cabinet/stand ships separately from the glass tank

The basement door/threshold and destination path are shown in the attached photos. The doorway is tight, so please assume this needs a specialty heavy-glass plan. I can remove the door from the hinges and clear the path before arrival.


I also have some glass suction cups on-site, but please bring your own professional-rated glass suction cups, padding, dollies/panel carts, and enough crew for a 664 lb fragile glass aquarium.


Can you confirm:

1. Whether this is within your capability
2. Recommended crew size
3. Whether you want a quick video walkthrough from driveway to final location
4. Availability and estimated pricing
5. Insurance coverage for a large glass aquarium move

 

[bobbravo2]

Got a crew of 6 to come Friday morning. Definitely need a bigger crew for 650# of glass.

 

[bobbravo2]

 

[bobbravo2]

 

[Sparent25]

View attachment 234366

Wow - awesome looking tank! Exciting times

 

[bobbravo2]

Wow - awesome looking tank! Exciting times

Exciting indeed! 7 years of planning, all coming together now.

 

[bobbravo2]

Got lights installed under the tank.

Starting to mock up the plumbing


ALSO: key simplification: I decided NOT to keep the waterbox sump and attempt to have a gravity drain between them. Figured the Bashsea 60 pro is plenty big enough, and I don’t need another flood source.

Drilled the Frag Tank for a Durso overflow, since that will be the longest gravity run back to the sump.

Bought tons of PVC, and will start dry fitting it tomorrow

 

[Reefried]

Nice! Get this beast up and running!!!

 

[bobbravo2]

What a day! Lots of prep work, planning, and infrastructure today. Focused on measuring, plumbing, and figuring out fixed points. Also, cleaned the workshop to have one less cluttered area.


Got a laser level to tape benchmarks for the gravity drains first.


Also started marking studs, and ripped a piece of PVC trim for the frag tank spacer. One big unknown still is about the protein skimmer and how it interacts with plumbing. I’m thinking of moving it out a few inches, and running plumbing behind it. The other option is to keep the gravity and pressure lines below the skimmer (& in front of the hip wall).

Invested in more infrastructure to hide sensor wires, and keep them dry behind the frag tank.

Started marking the wall where plumbing and electrical pass throughs need to get cut. Pictured: the left painters tape is the sump height on the other side of the wall. The single sharpie mark on the wall represents the fish room inner wall length.

I tell you what: I wish I had Superman X-ray vision

Tomorrows goal:
Get the frag tank anchored. Keep mocking up the plumbing lines, potentially start running some of them.

 

[bobbravo2]

What’s that old saying: man plans, God laughs?

I noticed that drilling the frag tank stand had started to swell, after drilling it with water. Figured this would NOT be the first time this surface gets wet. So I decided to waterproof the frag stand top.

And, I got some help from the better half installing the rock work!

 

[Reefried]

You’re getting close! Nice work

 

[bobbravo2]

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Filled in some sand last weekend

 

[bobbravo2]

Weekend update: service portals, PVC sleeves, and the fish-room path becoming real

That’s a wrap for the weekend.

This was one of those messy but important infrastructure pushes where the system still isn’t wet, but the build crossed another threshold from “planned” to “physically real.”

The big visible work was on the wall penetrations between the display stand and the basement fish room. The main gravity-side opening is now a proper service portal, roughly 16″ × 7″, sized for:

• two 1″ drains
• one 1.5″ gravity drain
• actual hand access for inspection, salt creep cleanup, and future service

I also started building the pass-through sleeves out of 1/2″ PVC sheet, ripped to the wall depth and assembled with 45° miters. The wall is standard stud wall construction with 5/8″ gypsum on both sides and FRP on the fish-room side, so the sleeves are about 4.75″ deep. The goal is a clean waterproof tunnel through the wall instead of raw gypsum around saltwater plumbing.

Current layout thinking:

• gravity gets the large lower service portal
• pressure/return plumbing gets separate smaller penetrations
• pipes will be supported by split rings/standoffs, not by the wall opening
• final face trim stays removable until slope, supports, and wet testing are done

A lot of the weekend was also about tightening up the support strategy. The plan is to use vertical PVC backer boards tied to studs so the exposed plumbing can land on adjustable split-ring supports. I’m still chasing the “clean industrial / steam-punk fish room” look, but the priority is serviceability first: continuous fall on gravity lines, no hidden stress points, and no future maintenance traps.

Other recent progress in the same push:

• frag tank has been secured to the wall
• raceway behind the frag tank is in place
• laser benchmarks and stud marks are now driving actual layout decisions
• display aquascape is staged and making the whole thing feel less theoretical

Also had one classic oops build moment: a critical 1″ gate valve broke. Fortunately the system is still dry, so it became a project-management problem instead of a flood problem. Replacement is on the way, and it reinforced exactly why I’m trying to make every hidden part of this build serviceable before water goes in.

Next up:

• finish installing the PVC pass-through sleeves
• dry-fit the gravity plumbing through the service portal
• lock in slope and pipe support locations
• separate pressure routing cleanly
• then make the wall openings look intentional instead of freshly excavated

Still dry. Still slow. Still trying to make the boring parts reliable before the pretty parts take over.