Finishing a basement for a tank?

[afboundguy]

I visited a fellow reefer today to swap some corals and he finished hia garage/basement into living space and included his tank in the wall. Anyone have any before or after pictures when they refished their basements to accomidate a tank or just refinished to increase living space? I could make one hell of a man cave with a wet bar and all the ideas circling in my head...

 

[20gReef]

I have no pictures as it was already finished when i bought but I 100 percent condone these actions. My whole downstairs is my man cave although not a conventional one, I do have 3 tanks and 2 grow tents.

 

[Cheddah93]

Check out @Frag Freaks rebuild thread, he did a similar thing and it came out awesome.

The Rebuild Begins.......

Hi All, As you probably have seen, I have not had much activity on here over say the past 6 months. For those who may or may not have known, I had moved over the summer from Plaistow NH to Sandown NH. Prior to the move I had sold off almost 90% of my inventory so to lessen the risk of any...

bostonreefers.org

 

[ECExotics]

I visited a fellow reefer today to swap some corals and he finished hia garage/basement into living space and included his tank in the wall. Anyone have any before or after pictures when they refished their basements to accomidate a tank or just refinished to increase living space? I could make one hell of a man cave with a wet bar and all the ideas circling in my head...

If I tried that I’d be single...but then I’d have more money for tank builds

 

[afboundguy]

I have no pictures as it was already finished when i bought but I 100 percent condone these actions. My whole downstairs is my man cave although not a conventional one, I do have 3 tanks and 2 grow tents.

Can you share the finished pictures?

Check out @Frag Freaks rebuild thread, he did a similar thing and it came out awesome.

The Rebuild Begins.......

Hi All, As you probably have seen, I have not had much activity on here over say the past 6 months. For those who may or may not have known, I had moved over the summer from Plaistow NH to Sandown NH. Prior to the move I had sold off almost 90% of my inventory so to lessen the risk of any...

bostonreefers.org

Thanks I'll check it out now...

 

[afboundguy]

If I tried that I’d be single...but then I’d have more money for tank builds

I have already started preparing for how to word it to the wife. First I have to wait until we redo her bathroom upstairs which we should be starting before she's done the school year (she's a teacher). I won't really approach the subject with her until that's done so I just plan on doing a lot of research and getting some ideas. I've wanted to finish a portion of the basement for some time now and seeing the set up from a fellow reefer today and how easy he said it was reignited the fire.

I will be doing the bathroom with a family friend who's a contractor and I plan to ask him about helping out for the basement project and getting his input and also help as well. I plan on asking the wife shortly after her bathroom is done so that she is on an upward high with the best chances of getting a yes.

I had wanted to resurface my kitchen cabinets after the bathroom project but the basement may jump that project :-D

So far big plans would include a DIY murphy bed to make it available for guests, do a small half bathroom, wet bar and small fridge and big @ss TV or projector/screen set up with surround sound (man do I miss having surround sound) and either an in wall tank or a peninsula tank

 

[ECExotics]

I have already started preparing for how to word it to the wife. First I have to wait until we redo her bathroom upstairs which we should be starting before she's done the school year (she's a teacher). I won't really approach the subject with her until that's done so I just plan on doing a lot of research and getting some ideas. I've wanted to finish a portion of the basement for some time now and seeing the set up from a fellow reefer today and how easy he said it was reignited the fire.

I will be doing the bathroom with a family friend who's a contractor and I plan to ask him about helping out for the basement project and getting his input and also help as well. I plan on asking the wife shortly after her bathroom is done so that she is on an upward high with the best chances of getting a yes.

I had wanted to resurface my kitchen cabinets after the bathroom project but the basement may jump that project :-D

So far big plans would include a DIY murphy bed to make it available for guests, do a small half bathroom, wet bar and small fridge and big @ss TV or projector/screen set up with surround sound (man do I miss having surround sound) and either an in wall tank or a peninsula tank

Lol well I’m glad to see you have thought this out. I hope everything works out! Pls share progress

 

[afboundguy]

Lol well I’m glad to see you have thought this out. I hope everything works out! Pls share progress

Sure thing I'll update in a few years if the wife hasn't made me disappear

 

[ECExotics]

Sure thing I'll update in a few years if the wife hasn't made me disappear

Haha good luck

 

[this is me]

Dave,
Maybe some good read and inspiration.

Nick's Miracle Build

It's time to start a build thread for this. The building and electrical inspectors just walked out the door and we are now ready for the 2nd phase. You can call this Nick’s reef 3.0 since this is the 3rd serious tank upgrade. But this is something I called a Man-Cave or “In-Laws are Here” cave...

bostonreefers.org

My advice. If you need the space as living space, go ahead, finish it and put your dream tank there. HOWEVER, you must be prepare for the consequences.

Finishing your basement means more living space. More living space to maintain and more living space to heat and cool. AND more living space to pay tax on. If you need the living space, it’s worth every penny but doing all that for a fish tank? Probably not.

I don’t regret my decisions in life but I always think there’s a better way. Finishing that basement to put a fish tank was overall, a mistake. Yes, the tank was absolutely beautiful....WHEN I go down and see it. I captitalized the word “when” is because it was isolated. I had to make the effort of walking down the stairs and specifically want to see it. It wasn’t something I walked by and on the corner of my eyes. When we had guests, we had to walk them down to see the tank.

There was only two of us at the time. The house was already a comfortable 2500sq ft. We did not need the extra living space. With the finished basement, it was another 1000 sq ft on top of that... For two of us. Then came the new addition to the family and my time down the basement was literally to feed the fish and water change.

Also, don’t forget the cost. Heating up the space in the winter time and cooling and dehumidify the rest of the year. My electric bill was never under $400 a month. Property Taxes, of course, also went up.

Now, in this new house. We decided to keep the basement unfinished until we really need it. Having the tank on the main floor is a lot more enjoyable even though it might be smaller. Having to walk down and specifically go see the tank feels like a chore rather than something I can just glance over while I’m in the kitchen. But I admit, it was nice to come home with something you shouldn’t have from the lfs and avoid the wife completely by swinging behind the back door right into the basement and to the tank.

 

[afboundguy]

Nick thanks for the input I'm not sure if mine would qualify as livable space because the ceilings might not hit the minimum height that's something I'd have to look into with town hall. We only have about 1200 ft2 for 2 of us and 2 dogs and 2 cats but we recently had a bedroom divorce when I moved into the spare bedroom permanently due to our schedulea being so different, her liking it hot me liking it freezing and generally not sleeping well together so the idea of adding more space for guest would be quite appealing. Plus she's not a fan of the tank so making a man town with room to build a bigger tank (no way she'd let me get bigger tank on main floor) would be a very nice bonus.

I've always thought about finishing the basement never really thought about doing it just for the tank but I definitely need to keep that in mind that it wouldn't be just for the tank and to keep the tank as a thought in the process.

We also will probably never move as the wife loves our house and where we live so having a man town and extra guest spot long term is good. We had a friend spend the night since our bedroom divorce and had to share the bed for sleeping and we both had a crappy nights sleep.

She's also said multiple times if someone came to us with an insane offer way over what the house was worth she'd say no where I'd possibly say yes because I'd love to build/have a garage and our current plot of land probably doesn't make it financiall feasible.

 

[afboundguy]

Dave,
Maybe some good read and inspiration.

Nick's Miracle Build

It's time to start a build thread for this. The building and electrical inspectors just walked out the door and we are now ready for the 2nd phase. You can call this Nick’s reef 3.0 since this is the 3rd serious tank upgrade. But this is something I called a Man-Cave or “In-Laws are Here” cave...

bostonreefers.org

And I've def seen your build thata why I'm excited for the new one lol...

And also the heat/cooling isn't a huge concern the basement stays a very comfortable(to me at least) 55 in winter and maybe 70 in summer. I know it wouls change with a tank and finishing it but it would only be 500 ft2 at most and prob closer to 250-300 ft2

 

[this is me]

Sounds like the extra space will be appreciated. Finishing a basement isn't really difficult. it just takes a lot of planning to do it right. There's a lot of good resources online and on youtube. Just have to use your common sense to filter out the one that make sense to you.
I prefer a peninsula tank because of the additional viewing angles.

 

[PSU4ME]

I finished mine in 2018!

Happy to answer questions if you have them.

 

[Richard Kagen]

I "finished" mine as a sump room:
- Tapped the H&C plumbing
- Added a HD stock counter and sink on an open frame with shelf, added a single faucet for dedicated RO feed
- Built a sewerage ejector out of a Brute with a float switch
- Hung a plywood backer board to mount all of the equipment (RO, UV, Media, Controllers, etc)
- Installed a 7 stage RO/DI and RO/ALK (drinking water) system (soon to be 8) with 12volt solenoids
- Built a 55 gallon sump with dual returns on a 2x 6 stand (I have some strong opinions on sump design including low-flow refugium and 100% flow through MarinePure Spheres
- Set up RO storage and mixing station
- Built a manifold on one of the returns with single value turn water changing
- Installed 4 head doser (2 head used for RO water) which takes the heavy load and provides a back-up to my home made $20 ATO

Never has tank maintenance been easier than with a full lab, no crawling under a stand and a concrete floor tha t can get wet.

Built this all for a 60 gallon cube display with the knowledge that I would be upgrading. The SCA 120 went up last week

Happy to help anyone with questions

 

[afboundguy]

Sounds like the extra space will be appreciated. Finishing a basement isn't really difficult. it just takes a lot of planning to do it right. There's a lot of good resources online and on youtube. Just have to use your common sense to filter out the one that make sense to you.
I prefer a peninsula tank because of the additional viewing angles.

Yeah I was in Boston doing some consulting work and had several hours to kill. I did up a diagram on grid paper and marked everything up and even cut out templates for all the shelving currently in the basement as well as templates for 75/90 gallon tank, 100/125 gallon tank and 180 gallon tank. I'd love to do a peninsula tank as well but it might suck up too much room as I really only have about 9'x23' and that's cut down to about 19-20 feet if I throw in a half bath and a closet.

I also forgot I have some ledge on the outside wall and thought of putting the tank there and either just doing a sump underneath with out a fish room or running the plumbing behind the wall and up in the ceiling which would be a ton of extra work and require a much bigger pump.

I also thought of having the floor removed and lowered as I only have 78-79" without a ceiling and the last step is only 5" vs the rest of them which are 9" so if I lowered the floor 4" all the steps would match and I'd have a more "normal" basement ceiling height and could do drop ceiling.

 

[afboundguy]

I finished mine in 2018!

View attachment 135472
Happy to answer questions if you have them.

You have a nice clean flat easy looking basement... This is what I'd be working with a field stone foundation from 1948 with a poured concrete floor that is if I'd be lucky only fluctuates 2". Let's just say I'd be needing a fair amount of floor leveling compound lol.

 

[afboundguy]

Oh and then there's this lovely beauty That nice peice of ledge I was talking about that sticks up 3-4" above the already uneven floor lol...

 

[afboundguy]

I "finished" mine as a sump room:
- Tapped the H&C plumbing
- Added a HD stock counter and sink on an open frame with shelf, added a single faucet for dedicated RO feed
- Built a sewerage ejector out of a Brute with a float switch
- Hung a plywood backer board to mount all of the equipment (RO, UV, Media, Controllers, etc)
- Installed a 7 stage RO/DI and RO/ALK (drinking water) system (soon to be 8) with 12volt solenoids
- Built a 55 gallon sump with dual returns on a 2x 6 stand (I have some strong opinions on sump design including low-flow refugium and 100% flow through MarinePure Spheres
- Set up RO storage and mixing station
- Built a manifold on one of the returns with single value turn water changing
- Installed 4 head doser (2 head used for RO water) which takes the heavy load and provides a back-up to my home made $20 ATO

Never has tank maintenance been easier than with a full lab, no crawling under a stand and a concrete floor tha t can get wet.

Built this all for a 60 gallon cube display with the knowledge that I would be upgrading. The SCA 120 went up last week

Happy to help anyone with questions

I feel your pre-sump room frustrations. My RO/DI and all my supplies are in the basement as my stand is only for my 25 gallon and I can barely keep an RO/DI reservoir for top off. All my cords are crammed in there nice and messy drives me bonkers....

 

[PSU4ME]

Oh boy, that’s a challenge!