Fish Room Beginnings.....

[Chad Hughes]

Well, I have been working on a fish room in a portion of my garage fo rsome time and have finally come close to what may be a completed room here in the next couple of weeks.

The room itself is small, only 10' X 14', but is layed out in a very efficient manner. The left side of the room will be set up for breeding pairs (thirteen 29 gallon tanks) and the right side will serve for fry grow out and juvenile discus (nine 60 gallon and four 29 gallon tanks). Each side of the room will be plumbed to it's own central system with the ability for any one tank to go off the system at any given time for any given reason.

The sumps are 125 gallons each and employ 32" micron sock filters plus 4 stages of 12" thick Matal filter media. Ozone will be added at a later date as soon as I can figure out a suitable contact chamber that doesn't cost thousands of dollars. Each sump is powered by a Sweetwater High Efficiency pump. These pumps will turn about 40 GPM at a 10' head utilizing only 170 watts. The lights on my contest discus tank use more power than these pumps!

Each tank will have it's own sponge filtration as well, just in case the tank must come off the central system. The air system is simply a Jehmco LPH45 linear air pump that I picked up off Ebay for $100. I have this pump running right now on 6 tanks and it about blows the sponges out of the tank.

I still have a lot of work to do. The tanks will be here on Wednesday. I will finish all of the dry wall and insulating this weekend. All of the dry wall is covered in 1/2" styrofoam panels that are stuck to the walls with liquid nails and then siliconed at the seams. The room will be water proof.

Sometimes it gets hot here in San Diego! I've installed a Dayton 12" 800 CFM exhaust fan that is thermostatically controlled to keep the room at less than 90 degrees. Basically when the room hits 90, it starts to vent. I left ventialtion ports for the fan to draw cool air in to the room from outside. It also gets cold here. Yes, 50 degrees is cold for San Diegans! The room will be heated with a blue flame natural gas heater thermostatically controlled to 85 degrees. This room uses no other source of heat in any of the tanks, sumps, or water storage tanks.

Water changes are not automated, but are pretty simple. Basically the turn of a cauple of valves sends the contents of the supms to waste water holding drums and then the sumps are refilled from two 275 gallon holding tanks. One tank is conditioned for breeders, the other is tap water. For now I plan to change about 250 gallons of water a day, but may do less once the ozone is on line.

Speaking of water changes, I need to get to them. I've attached some pics (taken in the dark) that represent some of the progress and the tons of crap you have to order to do something like this. LOL! Sometimes I wonder if I am crazy, but then I look at all my discus and get a reality check. Yes, I am nuts! LOL! Enjoy the pics!

Best wishes!

The pictures show the sump tanks sans the filter baffles, some of the dry wall, styrofoam, ABS plumbing, a couple of the 29 gallon racks and the ventialtion fan in an unfinished wall.

[Chad Hughes]

Some shots of the room. It's very hard to take pictures in such a small space and still get perspective. LOL!

[Chad Hughes]

Sponge filters, bulkhead fittings, diamond drill bit, silicone tubing, matala filter media, 32" 100 micron filter socks and Sweetwater water pumps.

[jeff@zina.com]

All of the dry wall is covered in 1/2" styrofoam panels that are stuck to the walls with liquid nails and then siliconed at the seams. The room will be water proof.

Might want to consider humidity then, or condensation may be an issue. A dehumidifier plumbed to a drain or sump pump will likely be all you need.

Jeff

[Disgirl]

Wow Chad, you have been a busy guy! And when do you have time to do your paying job? And sleep? That will be a great fish room there and I'm sure you are having a lot of fun with it already despite the work and $$$$!
Barb

[acroken]

Chad,
that looks like a great fish room you are putting together. 13 pairs,wow. That is a lot of fry! Best of luck with the balance of the construction and please keep us posted on the developments. I would love to see more pictures when you can. Thank you.

Kenny

[Chad Hughes]

Might want to consider humidity then, or condensation may be an issue. A dehumidifier plumbed to a drain or sump pump will likely be all you need.

Jeff

Thanks for the input Jeff! I appreciate that.

Wow Chad, you have been a busy guy! And when do you have time to do your paying job? And sleep? That will be a great fish room there and I'm sure you are having a lot of fun with it already despite the work and $$$$!
Barb

Hey Barb!

Well this has taken me quite some time to get this far, due to having a real job, having to sleep, etc. LOL! I think the room will be great as well and am looking forward to completing it. Thanks for hte kind words!

Chad,
that looks like a great fish room you are putting together. 13 pairs,wow. That is a lot of fry! Best of luck with the balance of the construction and please keep us posted on the developments. I would love to see more pictures when you can. Thank you.

Kenny

Kenny,

I'm building the room so that it will hold as much as it can. Not a free square inch will be left open. LOL! We'll see how many pairs and subsequent fry I can jam in there. I'll keep you posted! Thanks!

[ifixoldhouses]

I wouldn't worry about condesation since you left vents for the outside air to get in.

[Chad Hughes]

Brian,

That was my line of thought as well. The room is set up where one of the outside walls acts like a vent. The wall is suspended about 1" from the floor. I did this for two reasons. I want to be able to "hose down" the fish room or evacuate any spilled water under the wall and down the driveway. There is no drain in this room and the slab is already graded in the direction of the wall. Preliminary testing (water spills) show that water will run directly out of the room, under the wall and down the driveway.

As for ventilation, when the exhaust fan runs, there is a signficant air current that flows in to the room under the wall and you can feel it on the opposite side of the room. I think this is more than sufficient. If humidty does start to get out of hand, I'll either look in to dehumidification or an air exchanger. Either could be employed later on with relative ease.

Thanks for all the great input! I really appreciate everyone's participation.

Best wishes!

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Looks great Chad. Im happy to see this all coming together. You wont be sorry with those Sweetwater pumps!

-Ryan

[Chad Hughes]

Ryan,

Thanks for the tip on using www.aquaticeco.com. I actually bought the Matala media and the filter socks from them as well. They ship super fast and have some pretty good products. The pumps are amazing. I can't believe the power they deliver for the wattage consumed. I guess the better be good for $451 a pop! LOL! I always say "you get what you pay for"!

Anyway, thanks for checking in and thanks for the email. Thanks for all your help! I'll keep you all posted.

Best wishes!

[scottthomas]

Are you going three levels of tanks? How much space are you allowing between the bottom of one and the top of the other? Also how high are the ceilings? I am asking because I am currently doing something similar with a space that is 16' x11'. I was hoping to get three levels but I'm not sure if that leaves enough room with 8' ceilings.

[poconogal]

Looks good, Chad, and I assume the Lab gave you lots of help and pointers!

[Elite Aquaria]

Chad,

Looks like the making of a fantastic fish room...I can't wait to see it finished.

[Chad Hughes]

Are you going three levels of tanks? How much space are you allowing between the bottom of one and the top of the other? Also how high are the ceilings? I am asking because I am currently doing something similar with a space that is 16' x11'. I was hoping to get three levels but I'm not sure if that leaves enough room with 8' ceilings.

Yes, the racks are three levels. Each tank has about 7" between the base of the top rack and the lip of the tank below. I do have a few inch advantage on you in the height of the room. The garage slab actually sits about 8" lower that the house, so that gives me about that much extra vertical room. I had to be careful, since I am using a central system, that the lowest rack didn't fall below the height of the sump. So far, so good! LOL!

Looks good, Chad, and I assume the Lab gave you lots of help and pointers!

TONS OF HELP! Look how busy he is! LOL!

Chad,

Looks like the making of a fantastic fish room...I can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks Dan! I'll keep you posted!

Best wishes!