Great ideas folks. As I just bought a house with a sprawling basement I have been thinking about these issues myself. (Beds, living room furniture - huh?) Some ideas: - Paint at least one wall black or dark blue or green behind tanks. - No windows. I know the fish look great in natural sunlight but the darn algae doesn't. - Leave room for a few house plants. - Use that pretreated deck wood for racks. Use bolts so I can take it apart if I need to! - I would also love to figure out a good cheap way to be able to slide the tanks out of racks to clean them. - A sink big enough for a 10G tank. - All lights on a single timer. - At least one serious display tank - my dream would be one of those cool corner ones with the bowed front. - Supra IV air pump, enough for 30 tanks easy. - Safety first: GFI and painted non-slip floor. - If you have the space a cool idea I saw was to have the utility table in the middle of the room with cabinets underneath. This guy eventually hung a light over it and put plant tanks on it. - My biggest concern is water. I think I've decided my first system will just be my RO unit running into a plastic trash can with an overflow valve, and a big submersible pump to top off tanks. -Doug Brown debrown@kodak.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!