Brett's fish room build - advice needed
- Thread starter BrettDS
- Start date
Got the RODI and the Apex and it's EB8 moved today. All the rest of the Apex modules will be staying upstairs, except the DOS, which I use for auto water change.
The RODI isn't connected to ATO or AWC or anything yet, but at least the plumbing is run for it and I can make water downstairs instead of making it in 5 gallon buckets and carrying them downstairs as I have been doing. That got old fast
I definitely need to get ATO working soon though. I forgot how lunch of a pain manually topping off is. Originally I just had a float valve connected direct.y to my RODI filter. I know that's a bad idea, but I just didn't have the room for a freshwater reservoir. Now that I have more room I'm going to get a slightly bigger NSW reservoir for AWC and use my existing 14 gallon reservoir for fresh water. I still don't have a lot of room in the new fish room, so I'm planning to put the freshwater reservoir upstairs inside the stand, now that I have plenty of space there. That will save some space in the fish room and also allow me to use a float valve again with a gravity feed for the new ATO system.
Here's a picture of the apex and RODI in their new home. I still need to work on cleaning up the cables and tubes.
The RODI isn't connected to ATO or AWC or anything yet, but at least the plumbing is run for it and I can make water downstairs instead of making it in 5 gallon buckets and carrying them downstairs as I have been doing. That got old fast
I definitely need to get ATO working soon though. I forgot how lunch of a pain manually topping off is. Originally I just had a float valve connected direct.y to my RODI filter. I know that's a bad idea, but I just didn't have the room for a freshwater reservoir. Now that I have more room I'm going to get a slightly bigger NSW reservoir for AWC and use my existing 14 gallon reservoir for fresh water. I still don't have a lot of room in the new fish room, so I'm planning to put the freshwater reservoir upstairs inside the stand, now that I have plenty of space there. That will save some space in the fish room and also allow me to use a float valve again with a gravity feed for the new ATO system.
Here's a picture of the apex and RODI in their new home. I still need to work on cleaning up the cables and tubes.
fishresponse
New member
Nice fish room
Brett's fish room build - advice needed
Well, I'm pretty much done. I've got everything that's going down moved down and my reservoirs are full, so all of my automated systems are back up and running... ATO, AWC, and auto salinity drift compensation. I've got all the cords and tubes tied down (although they probably could have been a bit neater, but oh well). I added a valve so that I can use the the old tank water that my AWC system pulls out to fill the Q tank, so that should help save a bit of salt and water.
I still have a few loose ends to tie up:
I still need to patch a couple of holes in the wall... I screwed the drywall back in, but I need to spackle and paint.
I'm getting a bit of vibration from the return pump in the plumbing and you can hear it on the other side of the wall, so I'm looking into some soft silicone tubes to see if I can decouple the pump from the plumbing to help with that.
I still need lights for the refugium and the frag tank. They're right next to each other, so I'm debating whether I can just use one light for both of them... put it over the frag tank, but hopefully have enough light spilling over into the fuge to support the algae I'll put there.
I've also got a bit of a problem with heat. I think the fact that I've been leaving the door open between the fish room and the garage to help with humidity isn't helping with the heat... it can get into the low 80's in the Garage this time of year, plus the huge submersible return pump is probably adding a decent amount of heat as well. At one point the tank got up to 84. I added a small fan in the hood of the tank and a large desk fan in the fish room blowing over the sump and that's helped to keep the temp under control. I'll probably order some fans designed to cool tanks so I don't have to jump over a desk fan when I enter the fish room. The good news is that this is really the hottest time of the year for us and the past couple of days have been in the high 90's, so it should only get better from here.
I also still need to figure out ventilation for the fish room. Right now I'm debating pulling in air from inside the house so it will be cool and low humidity and then venting it out to the garage or even right to the outside so I don't have excess humidity in the garage. I just worry a bit about my power bill if I'm constantly pulling conditioned hair from the house and sending it outside. But I'm not sure sending all the humidity back into the house would be ideal either. I'll have to keep thinking about this one a bit.
I also had one other unfortunate problem... I put my original sump in the stand through the back before I pushed it against the wall and put the tank on it... and I discovered that the sump doesn't actually fit out the front door of the stand. For now I've tipped it up on it's side and pushed it back against the wall in the stand, but I think it may wind up living there for a while.
My last problem is that I didn't build myself a workspace at all. It would be nice to have a little shelf or something to use when I run water tests and such. I may try to build something out in the garage for that, or possible a small fold down table on the wall opposite the tanks.
Well, I'm pretty much done. I've got everything that's going down moved down and my reservoirs are full, so all of my automated systems are back up and running... ATO, AWC, and auto salinity drift compensation. I've got all the cords and tubes tied down (although they probably could have been a bit neater, but oh well). I added a valve so that I can use the the old tank water that my AWC system pulls out to fill the Q tank, so that should help save a bit of salt and water.
I still have a few loose ends to tie up:
I still need to patch a couple of holes in the wall... I screwed the drywall back in, but I need to spackle and paint.
I'm getting a bit of vibration from the return pump in the plumbing and you can hear it on the other side of the wall, so I'm looking into some soft silicone tubes to see if I can decouple the pump from the plumbing to help with that.
I still need lights for the refugium and the frag tank. They're right next to each other, so I'm debating whether I can just use one light for both of them... put it over the frag tank, but hopefully have enough light spilling over into the fuge to support the algae I'll put there.
I've also got a bit of a problem with heat. I think the fact that I've been leaving the door open between the fish room and the garage to help with humidity isn't helping with the heat... it can get into the low 80's in the Garage this time of year, plus the huge submersible return pump is probably adding a decent amount of heat as well. At one point the tank got up to 84. I added a small fan in the hood of the tank and a large desk fan in the fish room blowing over the sump and that's helped to keep the temp under control. I'll probably order some fans designed to cool tanks so I don't have to jump over a desk fan when I enter the fish room. The good news is that this is really the hottest time of the year for us and the past couple of days have been in the high 90's, so it should only get better from here.
I also still need to figure out ventilation for the fish room. Right now I'm debating pulling in air from inside the house so it will be cool and low humidity and then venting it out to the garage or even right to the outside so I don't have excess humidity in the garage. I just worry a bit about my power bill if I'm constantly pulling conditioned hair from the house and sending it outside. But I'm not sure sending all the humidity back into the house would be ideal either. I'll have to keep thinking about this one a bit.
I also had one other unfortunate problem... I put my original sump in the stand through the back before I pushed it against the wall and put the tank on it... and I discovered that the sump doesn't actually fit out the front door of the stand. For now I've tipped it up on it's side and pushed it back against the wall in the stand, but I think it may wind up living there for a while.
My last problem is that I didn't build myself a workspace at all. It would be nice to have a little shelf or something to use when I run water tests and such. I may try to build something out in the garage for that, or possible a small fold down table on the wall opposite the tanks.
Last edited:
BrianKC
New member
I came upon this thread searching for fish room and refugium ideas. Curious how it's been going 4 months later.
Also, if you haven't solved your work surface issue...that tank to the right looks like one to me...just keep a spare piece of plywood leaned against the wall; put it over the tank when you need a work surface.
Also, if you haven't solved your work surface issue...that tank to the right looks like one to me...just keep a spare piece of plywood leaned against the wall; put it over the tank when you need a work surface.
Similar threads
