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Folks,
It's been years since I've had a proper fish room. When SimplyDiscus began, I had "Pete's Skanky Basement O' Fish" for a time. Life happened and we spent 14 years between Mexico and the USA. Fishkeeping was limited to a 5 or 20 gallon aquarium; setup and taken down every 5 months. It was a great phase of our life. We had so much fun. However, life has happened again, necessitating that we stay in the USA (likely won't return to our Mexican Pueblo for many years). One concession to this change was that a fishroom would be built, here in Arizona. So, work has begun on the "Sonoran Desert Fish Nook".
We have a modest 1400 sq ft southwestern pueblo style townhome. Our's has a 3-season Arizona room that was converted into a small 4-season den/office. I work out of it. It's 8x14, but also has a 8x3 closet. That closet has become the 'Fish Nook'.
Pictures:
The tiny home office in the converted Arizona room:
Let's start, door and frame removed:
Inside of closet, start taking out the sheetrock:
Decided at this point to kill the circuit labled 'Arizona Room' in our breaker box. Suddenly, had no lights nor outlets in both bedrooms, a hallway, and part of the den/office. While my house has excellent wiring, it appears the bedroom circuits were robbed to power the Arizona Room den/office. The planned outlet expansions for the office (too few at present) and the fish nook would be too much. So, a detour:
A southwestern pueblo style home has no basement, and no attic. So bury electric conduit outside and run the circuits. Might as well run a 2nd run of conduit to encase a Cat5e cable to bring a wired connection from the switch at the front of the house to add a 2nd switch there in the Den/Office.
New circuits run. Depending on where I was in the process, 4 different mediums (abs conduit, emt, bx, and romex) were used to transport electrons. (this is why we have so many tools guys!). I'm pleased that the bedrooms no longer have the Arizona den/office stuff on them. Re-labeled the panel accordingly.
Quite a diversion. Back to destruction of the arizona room closet to finish up the 'Fish Nook'
Entry widened, without disturbing the venetian plaster that is in every interior wall of my home. I got lucky here as the closet used to be a very fortified seperate structure. So it was T-11 with the sheetrock laid on top. That meant it was very forgiving as things were cut up with a SawZall. Plaster never cracked, even when cutting squares for the new outlets and data ports that would go in the office. Zero venetian plaster repair necessary.
Here you can see the 60" bi-fold doors that will go in to close off the 'Fish Nook'. Like the idea of being able to close the nook off from the office on occasion. (also like the idea of maintaing that space as a closet, more or less, should we sell the home).
The tile repair from where the wall plates were cut back was minimal, just pieced in. Floor bolts cut and grinded flush. Space was leveled out to receive new tile pieces:
Tile repair looks okay. Challenging to match decades old tile and grout. It's flush and the bi-fold doors will cover most of it anyway.
Again, pleased that so much work was done without damaging that office facing sheetrock. Old phone lines, old lighting circuit, new den/fishnook circuit, cat5e data lines, new header...
The work on the boxes for the den is okay. Tried to use existing cuts in the sheetrock to avoid repairs. I dont' care that the alignment is a little funny at times. 2 new quad outlets and 4 cat5e data ports were installed in the office. Fish nook ceiling light switch was located to office side of the wall and made dimmable. Existing outlet brought into new Arizona den fish nook circuit. Once the doorway trim is on, minor imperfections will be less noticeable. Cat5 keystone jacks will be installed soon.
Sheetrock work inside the fish nook is done. Photo shows a very small part as it's a tight space. Something about measuring twice and cutting once. Oh well, taping skills should fix those mistakes. The fish nook has 2 twin outlets and 2 quad outlets. (way more than enough for the fish equipment, as most of it will be wired into my homebuilt controller.). There is also an accessible splice box used to re-route the old light circuit. Good number of cut-outs in so little sheetrock.
There are just two corners and one small seam to tape. Then the messed up faces on the older sheetrock will be repaired. Should be done over the weekend, as well as priming. Old shelf glue needs to be cleaned from the rear brick wall before the final color is applied.
This fish nook will contain just 2 36X72 fish racks that will have 4 display tanks and the 2 chamber sump. No space for water prep equipment, so the following is a sneak peak of where the RO Filter and Storage will go.
There is a nice closet (bodega) off of the carport at the front of the house. Hot water heater is there, so hot and cold water are available for a thermostatic mixing valve to keep that RO Filter working at it's optimum:
That space will hold this equipment and a mag pump.
The front bodega in the carport inherited the door that was removed from the office closet. A nice unintended benefit as it matches the style of all the doors in the house now. Need to paint it the spanish white of the carport.
Remember, the carport bodega is in the front of the home and the fish nook is at the back of the home. How will RO water from the storage tank get to the fish nook? How will the RO waste reach the Citrus trees out back? How will wire pairs for level indication and pump control get from the fish nook to the water storage? With no basement, nor attic, a raceway needed to be created to run a 1/2" clean water hose, a 1/2" waste water line, and wire pairs for level sensors and pump control. This raceway will pass through 3 closets, but be exposed for 13' along the ceiling of the guest bedroom. So, it has to be pretty.
3" Black PVC pipe painted with bronze hammer coat paint, so that it looks like an aged copper pipe. Hey, Arizona is the 'copper state' so it will look decent enough. A 3 5/8" hole saw will be used to make the penetrations through the sheet rock as it travles, 6 in total. I'll take pictures once I undertake that project.
The other project will be to remove waste water from the RO unit and fish tanks and drop it in the garden to water citrus trees. Just outside of the fish nook is the back convered patio that has a nice storage bodega, perfect for concealing pipe to transport the waste. A 2" drain line will run along the floor of the fish nook, pass through a wall to the rear patio, travel behind a storage bodega, and exit to the garden for the trees. Thankfully, this part of Arizona only has about 10 hard frost nights each winter, so this should be a viable means to dispose of the water without sending it down the sewer.
I'll keep this thread updated and include more 'fish elements' once the construction phase is over and stuff is moved into the water prep and fish nook areas. Attending to a few family things for the next 10 days, but will get back to it on my return.
It's been years since I've had a proper fish room. When SimplyDiscus began, I had "Pete's Skanky Basement O' Fish" for a time. Life happened and we spent 14 years between Mexico and the USA. Fishkeeping was limited to a 5 or 20 gallon aquarium; setup and taken down every 5 months. It was a great phase of our life. We had so much fun. However, life has happened again, necessitating that we stay in the USA (likely won't return to our Mexican Pueblo for many years). One concession to this change was that a fishroom would be built, here in Arizona. So, work has begun on the "Sonoran Desert Fish Nook".
We have a modest 1400 sq ft southwestern pueblo style townhome. Our's has a 3-season Arizona room that was converted into a small 4-season den/office. I work out of it. It's 8x14, but also has a 8x3 closet. That closet has become the 'Fish Nook'.
Pictures:
The tiny home office in the converted Arizona room:
Let's start, door and frame removed:
Inside of closet, start taking out the sheetrock:
Decided at this point to kill the circuit labled 'Arizona Room' in our breaker box. Suddenly, had no lights nor outlets in both bedrooms, a hallway, and part of the den/office. While my house has excellent wiring, it appears the bedroom circuits were robbed to power the Arizona Room den/office. The planned outlet expansions for the office (too few at present) and the fish nook would be too much. So, a detour:
A southwestern pueblo style home has no basement, and no attic. So bury electric conduit outside and run the circuits. Might as well run a 2nd run of conduit to encase a Cat5e cable to bring a wired connection from the switch at the front of the house to add a 2nd switch there in the Den/Office.
New circuits run. Depending on where I was in the process, 4 different mediums (abs conduit, emt, bx, and romex) were used to transport electrons. (this is why we have so many tools guys!). I'm pleased that the bedrooms no longer have the Arizona den/office stuff on them. Re-labeled the panel accordingly.
Quite a diversion. Back to destruction of the arizona room closet to finish up the 'Fish Nook'
Entry widened, without disturbing the venetian plaster that is in every interior wall of my home. I got lucky here as the closet used to be a very fortified seperate structure. So it was T-11 with the sheetrock laid on top. That meant it was very forgiving as things were cut up with a SawZall. Plaster never cracked, even when cutting squares for the new outlets and data ports that would go in the office. Zero venetian plaster repair necessary.
Here you can see the 60" bi-fold doors that will go in to close off the 'Fish Nook'. Like the idea of being able to close the nook off from the office on occasion. (also like the idea of maintaing that space as a closet, more or less, should we sell the home).
The tile repair from where the wall plates were cut back was minimal, just pieced in. Floor bolts cut and grinded flush. Space was leveled out to receive new tile pieces:
Tile repair looks okay. Challenging to match decades old tile and grout. It's flush and the bi-fold doors will cover most of it anyway.
Again, pleased that so much work was done without damaging that office facing sheetrock. Old phone lines, old lighting circuit, new den/fishnook circuit, cat5e data lines, new header...
The work on the boxes for the den is okay. Tried to use existing cuts in the sheetrock to avoid repairs. I dont' care that the alignment is a little funny at times. 2 new quad outlets and 4 cat5e data ports were installed in the office. Fish nook ceiling light switch was located to office side of the wall and made dimmable. Existing outlet brought into new Arizona den fish nook circuit. Once the doorway trim is on, minor imperfections will be less noticeable. Cat5 keystone jacks will be installed soon.
Sheetrock work inside the fish nook is done. Photo shows a very small part as it's a tight space. Something about measuring twice and cutting once. Oh well, taping skills should fix those mistakes. The fish nook has 2 twin outlets and 2 quad outlets. (way more than enough for the fish equipment, as most of it will be wired into my homebuilt controller.). There is also an accessible splice box used to re-route the old light circuit. Good number of cut-outs in so little sheetrock.
There are just two corners and one small seam to tape. Then the messed up faces on the older sheetrock will be repaired. Should be done over the weekend, as well as priming. Old shelf glue needs to be cleaned from the rear brick wall before the final color is applied.
This fish nook will contain just 2 36X72 fish racks that will have 4 display tanks and the 2 chamber sump. No space for water prep equipment, so the following is a sneak peak of where the RO Filter and Storage will go.
There is a nice closet (bodega) off of the carport at the front of the house. Hot water heater is there, so hot and cold water are available for a thermostatic mixing valve to keep that RO Filter working at it's optimum:
That space will hold this equipment and a mag pump.
The front bodega in the carport inherited the door that was removed from the office closet. A nice unintended benefit as it matches the style of all the doors in the house now. Need to paint it the spanish white of the carport.
Remember, the carport bodega is in the front of the home and the fish nook is at the back of the home. How will RO water from the storage tank get to the fish nook? How will the RO waste reach the Citrus trees out back? How will wire pairs for level indication and pump control get from the fish nook to the water storage? With no basement, nor attic, a raceway needed to be created to run a 1/2" clean water hose, a 1/2" waste water line, and wire pairs for level sensors and pump control. This raceway will pass through 3 closets, but be exposed for 13' along the ceiling of the guest bedroom. So, it has to be pretty.
3" Black PVC pipe painted with bronze hammer coat paint, so that it looks like an aged copper pipe. Hey, Arizona is the 'copper state' so it will look decent enough. A 3 5/8" hole saw will be used to make the penetrations through the sheet rock as it travles, 6 in total. I'll take pictures once I undertake that project.
The other project will be to remove waste water from the RO unit and fish tanks and drop it in the garden to water citrus trees. Just outside of the fish nook is the back convered patio that has a nice storage bodega, perfect for concealing pipe to transport the waste. A 2" drain line will run along the floor of the fish nook, pass through a wall to the rear patio, travel behind a storage bodega, and exit to the garden for the trees. Thankfully, this part of Arizona only has about 10 hard frost nights each winter, so this should be a viable means to dispose of the water without sending it down the sewer.
I'll keep this thread updated and include more 'fish elements' once the construction phase is over and stuff is moved into the water prep and fish nook areas. Attending to a few family things for the next 10 days, but will get back to it on my return.
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