Building a new fish room.

[RichardTN]

I originally posted a question about insulation in the general forum but realized this may be the better place to do so.

We sold our house more then two years ago and my tanks have been in storage ever since.
Now that we are settled in our new house we have started building a garage with attached a fairly large fish room.


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[RichardTN]

Bat insulation (R19) is installed between the studs, attic will be insulated with blown in insulation (R50) and today I started installing 2" foam board.
It is nailed to the studs and the ceiling, everything will be taped with foam board tape.

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[RichardTN]

I purchased a DAS system that was removed from a LFS a few years ago and have build a stand with a sump inspired by the setup Discuss Hans uses.
I have twenty of these 65 gallon tanks available which should fill up almost half of the new fish room.


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[Altum Nut]

Hope you don't mind Richard...I rotated your pic upright.

Absolutely a WOW factor Richard. That is one Kick-A** fishroom in the works.
Keep the pics coming Richard as your build is sure to populate many viewers from many of us envy SD members. :thumbsup:

...Ralph

[RichardTN]

Thank you Ralph!

[two utes]

Very impressive Richard. Looking forward to further updates on your project.

...and what Ralph said :)

[RichardTN]

Just the inside corners of the foam board left to tape. Its not easy to get them taped neatly since the tape is super sticky.

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The will be an insulated double door leading to the garage and one double pane low E picture window on the short side of the room.
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[FischAutoTechGarten]

Will you be running all of the electric/lighting/plumbing as surface mounted conduit / tubing / pipe?

[RichardTN]

Will you be running all of the electric/lighting/plumbing as surface mounted conduit / tubing / pipe?

I decided to do surface mount to keep the chance of condensation in the outlets low and not to penetrate the insulation numerous times.
Outlets will be close to the ceiling so there will not be that much conduit.
The wiring is already in place in the attic.

[Willie]

I had my fishroom refurbished two summers ago when the basement was renovated. If there's one thing I would do different, it would be to have tougher paint for the concrete floor in the fish room. The paint is coming off and I end up tracking it into the rest of the basement. It'll be a pain to repaint it now due to offgassing.

Does anyone have experience with epoxy paints in a fish room?

Willie

[Altum Nut]

Does anyone have experience with epoxy paints in a fish room?

Willie

Not for a fishroom...but my brother-law used this stuff on his tool/die shop floors now 6 years ago with no issues of peeling. http://www.klasskote.com/epoxy_paint_home

...Ralph

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Richard,
What a nice fish room that will be... In a very nice part of the country. (Tennessee is really a beautiful state).

[RichardTN]

The metal has been installed and the electric installation has been completed.114586114587

[OCC Aquarium]

Man, that is going to be an awesome fish room! I am super jealous!!!

[geo57]

Wow, a fishtank room. I was happy just to get a fishtank lol, and you get a whole room with a thousand tanks. I couldn't afford the energy costs. it is beautiful bro.

[RichardTN]

Wow, a fishtank room. I was happy just to get a fishtank lol, and you get a whole room with a thousand tanks. I couldn't afford the energy costs. it is beautiful bro.

I am putting a lot of thought in this room because high energy bills I don't want. Insulation is probably a little overboard, super efficient mini is not cheap but should not cost much to run, ERV instead of regular fan to reduce energy loss, all LED lighting.....

[Hiball1]

Wow what a fish room That is gonna be! If only I could talk the wife into a fish room. Very nice so far!

[RichardTN]

Progress has slowed down quite a bit but eventually it will all be up and running.

Last weekend we moved my tanks out of storage, they need some cleaning and I plan on touching up the paint. Moving the tanks a few times has resulted in quite q bit of it being scraped of.
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The ERV was installed, we choose to install the unit and the duct work in the well insulated garage. Two simple vents were installed for the air supply and return.
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Today the mini split was installed. This unit is super efficient at 25 Seer and an HSPF of 13.3
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Next step will be IBC totes and plumbing for air and water.

[Darren's Discus]

Looking amazing,can't wait to see it finished.

[BillyTRichVa]

Looking amazing,can't wait to see it finished.

Me either! Hurry up!

[Gabriel13]

nice......

[Pices]

What a waste to have a window when everyone will be looking at those tanks! This is amazing to watch it unfold!
Patty

[Kfactor]

Any updates I really want to see how this turns out

[RichardTN]

Finally some progress!

Two of the four IBC totes are on the rack and plumbed in. I found some simple float valves which I installed using 3/4" bulkheads.
One rack for the first ten 65 gallon tanks is in place and air, water and drain lines are in place.
A 1" water line will feed the tanks with aged water from the IBC totes, each tank will have its own fill valve. A 1 1/4" line makes a full loop around the room for air and a 1 1/4" inch drain line runs right below the tanks to make siphoning water out of the tanks easy.

These ten tanks will have sponge filters and/or Mattenfilters.



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[RichardTN]

Some more work done.
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Ten tanks ready to go, finally.
I have removed all the original glass dividers which divided the tanks in three 20+gallon compartments. I used 3" thick Poret foam to divide some of the tanks in two 30+ gallon sections. I did try the 2" thick foam first but it doesn't work for this tank size. The 3" works great. I made slits with a sharp knife at the water level and installed air lift tubes so that the dividers will filter the water.

[Tshethar]

Looking great! No doubt this will be the envy of many on here, myself included.

Two questions for you, admittedly as someone who hasn't done any of this himself:

(1) did you think about drilling the tanks and installing bulkheads for automatic or semi-automatic drainage? (Might not want to now, but would allow you to automate more down the road...);

(2) were you planning to slope the drain line? Not sure if standing water or slow drainage would matter much if you were gravity siphoning one at a time, but could be an issue if you used the drain differently, like with a pump or multiple open valves. (Again, no experience, but have seen people try to allow space to drop a quarter inch every 10 feet, I think it is.)

Congrats on the progress and look forward to seeing more! :)

[RichardTN]

Looking great! No doubt this will be the envy of many on here, myself included.

Two questions for you, admittedly as someone who hasn't done any of this himself:

(1) did you think about drilling the tanks and installing bulkheads for automatic or semi-automatic drainage? (Might not want to now, but would allow you to automate more down the road...);

(2) were you planning to slope the drain line? Not sure if standing water or slow drainage would matter much if you were gravity siphoning one at a time, but could be an issue if you used the drain differently, like with a pump or multiple open valves. (Again, no experience, but have seen people try to allow space to drop a quarter inch every 10 feet, I think it is.)

Congrats on the progress and look forward to seeing more! :)


Thank you Bill,

I did install bulkheads in the other ten tanks I have. Going into this project, my plan was to set them up with a sump "Discus Hans style". Somehow I talked myself out of it after I made a four tank setup to test this out. I decided to keep this first setup as simple as possible and just get a better feel of what it takes to maintain these tanks.

I did slope the drain line a little, not sure if it is a quarter inch per ten feet though.

[RichardTN]

A few picture of a divider with lift tube. These Jetlifters move about 150 gallons per hour.

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[RichardTN]

First fishes to be delivered today!

[danotaylor]

Looks great mate...what fish do you have arriving today? How exciting for you!!

[RichardTN]

They are all Leopard Snakeskin from Hans, (8) of the 4" and (1) maybe pair.

[RichardTN]

New Arrivals

[LizStreithorst]

What a waste to have a window when everyone will be looking at those tanks! This is amazing to watch it unfold!
Patty

The only problem with the window is that the view from it sucks. I'm sure he'll fix that later on.

[RichardTN]

The only problem with the window is that the view from it sucks. I'm sure he'll fix that later on.

Blinds maybe?

[LizStreithorst]

Why have a window at all when space the window takes could be used for more tanks?

[Willie]

Boy, a lot of hostility toward windows on Simply. :p

[LizStreithorst]

I wonder if the OP is thinking of going commercial. He sure does have a lot of breeding tanks.

[danotaylor]

Why have a window at all when space the window takes could be used for more tanks?

To peek in and make sure everybody is behaving...maybe ;)

[danotaylor]

boy, a lot of hostility toward windows on simply. :p

lol:D

[danotaylor]

Liz, plz excuse my ignorance, but what does "OP" stand for? :confused:

[thomaswal]

"OP" stands for original poster ;)

[danotaylor]

Cheers Thomas!! :o

[RichardTN]

Why have a window at all when space the window takes could be used for more tanks?

A rack full of that tanks would hide that window just fine if the space is ever needed :)

[RichardTN]

I wonder if the OP is thinking of going commercial. He sure does have a lot of breeding tanks.

I doubt that Liz, this is my first ever discus adventure and I will have a lot to learn!

[RichardTN]

I decided to go with the filter sump after all. The second tank stand contains a 150 gallon sump with Poret Foam.

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[RichardTN]

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View can't be all that bad...…

[RichardTN]

Had a hard time getting used to discus but they are doing much better now. It seems like the group of eight I purchased in October are starting to feel at home. Maybe I need to get the RO water going....


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[RichardTN]

The audience was hungry for eggs, they didn't last long.

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[danotaylor]

Looking good Richard...some good looking fish there, glad they have settled in for you and are doing well :thumbsup:

[brewmaster15]

Richard,
I think thats one heck of a nice fishroom you built. I have always dreamed of having something like that. Nice job and great seeing the fish are at the point where they will be breeding and raising fry soon. Knowing first hand how easy it is to have way too many fish getting it right at once then being over run with them, Have you given any thought as to how you will move out the fry? Are you in area with easy access to shipping businesses like FEDEX or USPS? Or near an area with good walk traffic? It will only take a few pairs to fill those tanks with fry.

Al

[timvriens]

woooow, that is a amazing fishroom :o good luck with it

[RichardTN]

Richard,
I think thats one heck of a nice fishroom you built. I have always dreamed of having something like that. Nice job and great seeing the fish are at the point where they will be breeding and raising fry soon. Knowing first hand how easy it is to have way too many fish getting it right at once then being over run with them, Have you given any thought as to how you will move out the fry? Are you in area with easy access to shipping businesses like FEDEX or USPS? Or near an area with good walk traffic? It will only take a few pairs to fill those tanks with fry.

Al

Thank you All,

For me it is a dream come true. Growing up I spend a lot of time in the fish section of our local pet store, walls were lined with racks with tanks from top to bottom and I wanted something like that so bad.
About 7 years ago I purchased about (24) 65 gallon tanks of e-bay and set them up in a bonus room attached to our Garage, nothing was convenient about that space and maintenance was tedious. Now that we build our new house I had the opportunity to build a room just for my tanks with plenty of space for extra tanks :)

I have not even thought about what to do with excess fish since I am completely new to Discus and I am just now learning how to take care of them. The first group of discus I received from Hans in October has probably suffered from my lack of knowledge. The fish are not very uniform now but at least lately they seem to be comfortable and always begging for food. I hope that this spawning event is a sign that I am on the right track. I feed them beef heart mix from Hans in the morning and evening and freeze dried black worms ( from a supplier called Aquatic something :) ) several times during the day. So far they just refuse to eat anything else.

Richard

[jimmyjoe]

All I have to do is dream...………………………..Jim in Ohio

[RichardTN]

Separated the pair, mixed half RO with tap water bringing the TDS to 70, KH 1, GH 3, PH 6.8

For some reason the heater seemed to be a better option :)

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[danotaylor]

Lol, typical, provide a cone and they choose something else. I had the same issue, haha. A lot of breeders install their heaters horizontal for just that reason :D

[Cove Beach]

Adding another heater and shutting down the current one will solve the problem. I had angels that did the same thing.

[RichardTN]

About 9 months later, and still no babies.

I have moved fish around and had eggs numerous times but never had to hatch any.
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the $ per gallon sale and decided to get a few 29's. I drilled them and installed a 1" overflow in each of them. 4 tanks are set up with a 120 Gallon sump with Poret Foam. Water changes are done by draining the sump and refilling it with a 50/50 mix of RO and Tap water.

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A few days later and a few maybe pairs have settled in nicely.

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And this evening when checking up on them:

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Keeping my fingers crossed.

[two utes]

Hang in there. Good luck!

[danotaylor]

Looking good. Reminds me of the statement "winners never quit, quitter's never win". Hang in there mate. Before you know it your she's will be full of fry!!