Fish Room Insulation

[RichardTN]

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.IMG_0695.JPGIMG_0696.JPGIMG_0698.JPGIMG_0700.JPG Concrete has been poured a few weeks ago and framing is coming along nicely.

The fish room will be 36 x 20 feet, framing is done with 2 x 6's on 24".

From reading a lot of articles I take it closed cell spray foam is the best insulation but after a not so great experience with spray foam in our house I am entertaining a different approach to insulating the room.

We will use ZIP board on the outside covered by metal siding.
Insulation will be regular fiberglass bats (R16)between the studs covered by 2" Foamular 250 (R10) nailed to the studs. Foam boards will then be taped and covered by metal siding on the inside.

OSB will be used for the ceiling. We plan on using fiberglass blown in insulation on top of the OSB board which should be good for about R40.
Against the OSB ceiling I also plan on 2" Foamular 250 covered by metal siding.

Does this method of insulating this fish room make sense to anyone or does it sound like a bad idea?

Thank you for your comments!

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Richard and welcome to SD. I'll let others weigh in on your insulation question, but WOW am I jealous of your fish room project! Good luck and keep us updated with your progress.

[HappyFace]

Welcome to Simply Discus Richard! That looks amazing! Sorry I can't offer any advise on insulation.

[Altum Nut]

Richard...that is one great looking fishroom space and like Steve I am also extremely jealous. IMO I prefer spray foam for reasons alone of a better insulate tight seal at R6 per inch. Not sure what your heat source will be but if that was my build...radiant gas heaters may be an option and would think much cheaper then hydro and a gas water heater can be also added for lots of w/c's.
The best of luck with this build Richard and I too will be following this thread.

...Ralph

[RichardTN]

Richard...that is one great looking fishroom space and like Steve I am also extremely jealous. IMO I prefer spray foam for reasons alone of a better insulate tight seal at R6 per inch. Not sure what your heat source will be but if that was my build...radiant gas heaters may be an option and would think much cheaper then hydro and a gas water heater can be also added for lots of w/c's.
The best of luck with this build Richard and I too will be following this thread.

...Ralph

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

There is no natural gas here so I am planning on installing a mini split.
I have one in the bonus room above our garage and am extremely pleased with the performance of it, even in low temperatures it works pretty good.

I hoped to stay away from heating the water by keeping enough IBC totes filled to give it time to get to "room temperature". Maybe I need to reconsider?

[bluelagoon]

Hi,I would call that a fish house not a fish room.

[Altum Nut]

There was no mention on your location but I'm guessing TN after your name refers to Nashville, Tennessee?
Are you going with Air and Heat with that mini split unit?
I would think it may work out seeing your low temps don't go much below zero. Even if your aged water in totes do not exceed the mid 70's you should still be ok with 50% volume w/c's.
Would not work for me here with the last 4 days -25 below zero with wind-chill -35

...Ralph

[RichardTN]

There was no mention on your location but I'm guessing TN after your name refers to Nashville, Tennessee?
Are you going with Air and Heat with that mini split unit?
I would think it may work out seeing your low temps don't go much below zero. Even if your aged water in totes do not exceed the mid 70's you should still be ok with 50% volume w/c's.
Would not work for me here with the last 4 days -25 below zero with wind-chill -35

...Ralph

You are correct Ralph, I live in TN.

Mini split should work for heating and cooling. I am planning on placing the totes close to the ceiling using a pallet rack so they are in the warmer part of the room, or house as Marvin called it.

[Altum Nut]

The water storage totes location will do you good. One of our prime member veteran hobbyist breeder John Nicholson in Texas keeps 6 or 8 230g caged totes up in the ceiling rafters that not only stay warm but no need for pumps as flow is just gravity fed to tanks.

...Ralph

[fishbubbles]

Richard, I would recommend that you install a fresh air vent thru one of the side walls for your fish room that you can open and close on a damper. Newer buildings are much more "air tight" than in previous years and the air can quickly become stale especially once all that water starts to evaporate into the room. Also be sure to consider getting a mini split with a dry feature, I'm an A/C guy in Florida and we have extremely high humidity since we only live about 10 miles from the ocean. The dry feature lowers the evaporator fan speed down to allow the evaporator coil more time to remove the humidity from the air. This is especially important when you have an air tight room with high humidity such as your fish house. I personally use the Daikin mini splits and have had good luck so far with them.

I have IBC totes to age my water and they work great, I recently installed a fill line from my water heater to the tank which is turned on by a standard water bibb timer. After the pipe leaves the timer it goes into a float valve to prevent any accidental over fillings. Good luck with your new project, I'm looking forward to the end result.

[RichardTN]

High humidity is definitely a concern for me. I will make sure the mini split has a dry feature, do you think this will eliminate the need for a dehumidifier?
Since this building should be fairly air tight, I am planning on installing a Heat Recovery Ventilator like the True Breeze HRV ( 150 CFM and a sensible effectiveness of 0.78). Any thoughts about this?

Richard

[pmkappy]

I am a retired custom home builder and have built in Connecticut and South Carolina. Your insulation package is more than adequite for TN. It would work in North Dakota. I am not a big fan of foams. The fiberglass you propose is the way I would go. The tighter the room the higher the humidity. Wether you will need a dehumidifier can be determined after you are up and running. Good Luck!

[RichardTN]

I am a retired custom home builder and have built in Connecticut and South Carolina. Your insulation package is more than adequite for TN. It would work in North Dakota. I am not a big fan of foams. The fiberglass you propose is the way I would go. The tighter the room the higher the humidity. Wether you will need a dehumidifier can be determined after you are up and running. Good Luck!

Thank you for your input Paul!

[fishbubbles]

I agree with Paul, get the fish house up and running first and then check your humidity levels at that point. There's too many variables that will influence how much humidity you will have in the building. Surface area of water and the sizing of your mini split will all play big roles.

The HRV will solve your issues of the air becoming stale because it will draw air in from outside negating the need of a separate fresh air vent.

[RichardTN]

IMG_0734.jpg

We had a few weeks of bad weather but quite a bit of progress last week.