I thought I'd start a thread on the build of my new fish room. Due to a local breeder, and friend closing his doors due to health, I decided to build a fish room to play around and raise some fish for fun, and to keep the locals supplied with fish. Being a plumber, I'm experienced on installing water lines and drain lines, so I've done some interesting things to make my water changes easy. I currently have 6-75 gallon tanks on a large central wet/dry filter with a UV sterilizer for growing out fish, 4-40 breeders for growing out smaller fish that I can run half full initially, and then run full once the fish are larger, and 9-20H for adult pairs. I don't intend to fill the 9-20 gallons with adults at this time, but I had them, so I'm building the rack to hold them all, should I need them in the future. If anything I can use some of them to grow out juvenile fish until they're large enough to move to the 40's or 75's.
My space I'm building my fish room in is a long, L-shaped room that runs the perimeter of my basement on one side.
I'm installing a individual fill valve for each tank, connected to a mixing valve set at 85 degrees, so I can add tap water directly to the tanks by turning a valve. All tanks will have a 1" drain, so I can open a ball valve to drain them 80% down, then fill them with tap water. I added a connection to my mixing valve line so I can shut off the tap water feed, and pump water from a 300 gal holding tank through the same line to the tanks, if I wanted to add RO water or aged water to the tanks. Right now my tap water works fine, right out of the tap. I have a whole house carbon filter that looks like a water softener, that holds 60lbs of catalytic carbon, that removes all chlorine and chloramines. I frequently check the carbon by testing for total chlorine with a Hanna ultra-low range total chlorine test. I also have a water softener, but I put it in bypass when I change my water, to keep the TDS up for the grow-out tanks. I have a 1.5' bulkhead in my sump, set up for a high limit drain, that drains to a nearby sump pump. When I want to do a water change, I open the drain line on the individual tank, the excess water will drain into the sump, and run down the overflow drain into the sump pump pit. I can then open up the water feed valve for that tank, to fill the tank back up. I can do 4-75 gal tanks at a time. Draining them and filling them takes roughly 20 min or less. I've also installed a 1/2 vinyl hose, connected to my drain to the sump pump, with a piece of 1/2" pex on the end, and a bulb starter, to siphon the tanks with. Its connected to the waste water drain, so when I want to siphon the tanks, I just use the bulb starter to get the siphon going, and siphon the tanks, and it goes right down the drain. I can fill the tank with the fill valve right after. I've tried to make water changes as easy as possible, without spilling a drop of water on the floor.
The room gets a bit cold, so I've cut in a couple vents into my ductwork in the ceiling, so when the heat is on, it'll blow into the room. I've also insulated all the tanks on the bottom with styrofoam, and wrapped the tanks on 3 sides with refectix insulation. I've also insulated all water feed, and return lines, and placed glass lids on the tanks to minimize heat loss. I'll add a ceramic space heater on a thermostat, to help keep the room warm too.
Anyway, its a work in progress. Im finishing the 6-75 gal grow-out systems this weekend, then I'll start on the 9-20 gal adult system, and building the rack for the 4-40 breeders. I don't have the 40 gal tanks yet, I'm waiting for the next Petco sale to buy them, which is rumored to start 12/25/16.
I'll start posting some pictures shortly.
-Leland
