Planning new tank for new house

[treesprite]

I finally bought a house so no more stupid apartment rules about aquariums. I do have to worry about the floors being wood instead of concrete. It's an old house (1945) with the original wood floors. I bought it "as is" so I have a lot of work to do in it before I can put up the tank, but the tank setup is part of the work I need to do in the living room. It's going to be a couple of months before I can physically start on the tank project, but I have to do a lot of planning. 

 

I can't do an in-wall tank, so I want to build a large unit that the tank can be set into with a couple inches in front of it so water doesn't drip onto my wood floor (the sides and back of the unit will keep water off the floor). The tank section would be 6 ft and then on each end a tall 12" cabinet, so the unit would be about 8 ft long. There will be a top going all the across and a back, and I can hang lights from that structure, plus a front flip-open panel to hide everything above the tank. On the outer ends I'll still have a couple of feet of space, so I'll possibly put a flip-down counter space to put stuff on when I'm working on the tank. This will be along the lengths of the beams under the floor and those look to be a max of 2 ft apart (didn't actually measure), so the thing needs to be at least 24" wide but I'm getting a 72x18. I'll build the stand with supports in the right places to be able to put a smaller tank on it if needed. 

 

I don't want the weight of a sump on the floor. I was thinking I'd drill the floor to put a sump in the basement, but in this house that part of the basement is a finished room that I don't want to become a tank equipment room. So I'm just going to make the tank into an AIO using the ends of it, and I'll still have enough room for my favorite fish. Years ago before my 38g was used for drill practice at frag fest, I had made it into an AIO with both ends having a section of macros - the contrast of the macros on the ends with the display section in the middle framed by the macros was really cool looking, so I would kind of like having that design (maybe I can put a little hole in the macro section dividing wall for fish to nibble at any bits or pods that wander through).

 

Hopefully the costs to fix up the house won't mess up my tank plans. Most of the expense is stuff like a parking pad that is costing almost 7k, taking out the oil boiler system and installing a mini split for heat and AC which is gonna be at least 7k. I haven't found an electrician yet and have no idea what it will cost. The plumber is at 3k just for a few initial things. Curses to metal pipes that keep me from doing plumbing stuff myself - after all the years with saltwater tanks I know basic plumbing by now as long as the pipes aren't metal. Eventually I'll have to replace entire runs because there are still galvanized metal pipes mixed in with copper pipes - hopefully I can get them replaced with pex. 

 

If anyone has an empty 72" 125 tank FS let me know. I'll also be looking for lights and gyre pumps. I should have enough LR already. But I lost what was left of my corals because of 2 heat incidents that happened a couple of months ago when I wasn't home - call them the casualty of living in an apartment where you have no control of heat and AC. 

[Gatortailale]

Congrats on the new house!  Hopefully you will find a tank and equipment that fits what you are looking for.