Fish room tips?

[EnderG60]

OK Im about to start building my basement fish room, and im looking for any tips you guys have.

I plan to have tanks for making RODI and mixing salt, sump/fuge combo, one of those plastic sinks with hot water and dosing tanks.

I cant do a floor drain, but what other stuff do you consider MUST HAVE, or would you want to do but didnt?

 

[Fitchguy]

Good Question, I will be tagging along! Without actually having a fish room, I will have space behind my new tank to make some use out of. I will not have room, but a utility sink would be Very convenient. Easy to wash hands, empty skimmer collection cups, wash pumps, discard water from new livestock bags etc. Also I think some shelving or cabinets to keep all supplies organized and readily available. And maybe also a little work bench to set up a fragging station. And last, just keep adding as much water volume to your setup as possible, try integrating all Filtration concepts out there such as DSB refugium, a Reef Mud Refugium, a Benthic Zone, mangroves etc. These would be my ideas and I will try to incorporate as much of them into my setup as possible.

 

[Elliott]

having a fish room is great for spills and just to get the smell and noise away from the display, the one item I could not do without is a sink, it's used constantly, regarding a floor drain could you do a drain with bilge type pump? other than that just space for equipment IMO

 

[waynem]

I wish I put a intercom in mine.

 

[SVTour]

Well...first off, I don't have a sink in mine. But I can't state that I didn't wish I did, as it would sure make life easier.

Here are some things to consider...

1) Start with a good layout. Making sure you have easy access to everything. Display tank, sumps, outlets, equipment, etc. Don't start setting some things behind others thinking you'll never need to get to it. You're better off building shelves and placing things higher if needed. Think about expansion too...

2) Get some on/off switches for the outlets. Makes it easier to shut a skimmer off (or other devices) by a switch rather than pulling a plug all the time.

3) Since you don't have a drain, create an easy way to do water changes. The easier you make this, the more often you will stick to the routine maintenance.

4) And I wish I would have thought of prior. Keep the sump off the floor so you can clean it out with a siphon.

5) Even though you don't have a sink...can you run a line from your RO to the fish room, so you don't need to lug water around?

 

[EnderG60]

so far I have two 200g tanks for RO and salt mixing, and pumps to mix and move the water.

I just ordered the sink. I will have a drain line going out the back of the house, for the sink and water changes and such. I just dont have the time and money right now to break up the slab to install a sump for a floor drain. Might be something for down the road though.

I have the electrician coming on monday to install a seperate panel box with 6 dedicated circuits for the tank. From there I will wire up a BUNCH of switches and relays to use along with the controller.

Great idea lifting the sump up a bit, I will do that.

Anyone have an exhaust fan on a humidistat?

 

[Black Mammoth]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14399558#post14399558 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnderG60
I have the electrician coming on monday to install a seperate panel box with 6 dedicated circuits for the tank. From there I will wire up a BUNCH of switches and relays to use along with the controller.

Great idea lifting the sump up a bit, I will do that.

Anyone have an exhaust fan on a humidistat?

Holy crap! That's a lot of dedicated circuits! I just ran 2 20amp lines to the room I'm building. I added a 3rd line, but that's going to the garage. I guess if those aren't enough I can tap off the garage line or the existing 15amp line. I was looking for some switches to control the outlets and I was having a hard time finding anything for 20amp. I'm sure I could have ordered some, but I'm just going to use a rocker panel.

I just ordered an exhaust fan and a humidistat. I ordered it from WSC Direct. I should get it on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully it comes through OK. They had a good rating on eBay They were the cheapest for both items. I paid $165 for both with free shipping.

Anyway, I bought a FanTech exhaust fan which is recommend on here. Here is the link to the kit I bought. FanTech Exhaust Kit

Here is the humidistat as well. FH20 Dehumidistat

The PB190 kit works for my size room. You might need something larger or smaller (mine is bigger than I need). Just make sure you size it correctly. You can use this page from FanTech to help you with that. How To Pick The Correct Size Fan

 

[EnderG60]

Yeah I figured if I was putting in a dedicated panel it wasn't much more to add a few more circuits.

they will be..
1. lights
2. return pump
3. current pumps
4. Main heating/cooling
5. Mixing tank, pumps, heaters and fans
6. whatever else.

That way one system can go down and not take down the tank no matter what since its all monitored by the controller. Or if something happens i can shut down the whole tank system.

any more idea's?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Anyone have an exhaust fan on a humidistat?

I do, but I think it runs all the time anyway. It's still fairly humid in there but the fan makes it bearable. Kind of like being on the east coast without any fish tanks.

It sounds like you have most of it covered. Oh, I love having a separate refrigerator downstairs. And not just for the beer. A rack of tanks for breeding fish? A sound system so you can play Barry White for the breeding fish? A place for live food cultures?

 

[Rouselb]

I have the electrician coming on monday to install a seperate panel box with 6 dedicated circuits for the tank.

I ran 2 dedicated circuits for my 180. If you add up all the equipment you have, or plan to have, you can get a good idea. I would think 2-4 dedicated circuits would work. Im planning on 3 for my next project. I keep an excel spreadsheet with all the electrical info on it so i can plan accordingly. I have been reading all of the TOTM and flipping through the large tank forum to get ideas on the layouts. I have also sketched up ideas and then chalked them up on the concrete floor downstairs to see how it looks.

 

[EnderG60]

yeah ill leave the breeding to people with more time.

Now that i have the sump finalized (will be a 7' 210, 5' of which will be fuge) im considering not even bothering to hook up the two 40g tanks I have. Might just plumb them up and leave them off unless I need them for something.

 

[Rouselb]

EnderG60 - Do you have a picture of your sump setup? Im in the process of working up some new ideas for my new build. I have not decided if im going to do separate tanks for the sump and frag/fuge or one large one.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Why not turn one or both of those 40s into water change tanks? They sure make life simpler.

 

[porthios]

then chalked them up on the concrete floor downstairs to see how it looks.

that's a great idea. wish i'd thought of that..

 

[EnderG60]

no pics of it yet, since I still have to silicon it and put in the baffels.

The fuge will be about 150g(5x2x2) and ill just be using two baffels to seperate it from the sump sectoin. Keeping it pretty simple. If I do a frag section for now it will just be some egg crate on the top of the fuge, or might be one of the 40g's.

For water changes ill just drain the fuge down and refill it. The tank is already drilled to be reef ready, so Ill be widening two holes to 2" for the pump intake and fuge drain, and the other two will be emergency overflows in case the sump overfills.

 

[edandsandy]

If there is any advise we could give on the fish room
1) ventilation
2) ventilation
3) ventilation.

Our contractor WAY underestimated that when we had our room built!

Now he has to come BACK !!

If you think the room is big enough, a 2 feet in each direction. Our room is 18'x8', We were surprised how fast we are filling the room up.

 

[TIMMYE]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14410522#post14410522 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edandsandy
If there is any advise we could give on the fish room
1) ventilation
2) ventilation
3) ventilation.

Our contractor WAY underestimated that when we had our room built!

Now he has to come BACK !!

If you think the room is big enough, a 2 feet in each direction. Our room is 18'x8', We were surprised how fast we are filling the room up.

I agree 100% I would look into something along the line of a whole house air to air exchnager. Something along the lines of the Broan Guardian Plus is the one I like the most. It gives you alot of install options plus HEPA filtration for the intake air and energy recovery.

But whatever you do, you have to get that humid air out of the house some how!!

 

[Oldude]

My fish room is 16 x 8 and I could use more room. I have a good solid workbench, sink & 4 dedicated curcuits, which makes life much easier. Here are a couple of pictures of mine.

It's still not quite finished yet but you can sort of get the idea. I have since fixed the electrical & cleaned up all the wiring so there is nothing on the tank rear.

 

[Untamed12]

One idea that I recommend is to elevate your RODI water holding tank. The municipal water pressure will allow you to get the water up there.

Gravity is still free. If the FW is elevated you can easily drain out what you need to mix new SW, and gravity feed your evaporation replacement system.

Mine looks like this. That's the FW holding tank on top, with the SW mixer underneath it. (and of course, the required sink)

 

[Oldude]

How tall are your containers? I need to revamp my FW & SW containers to a larger size and something I can see the levels through. Could you please PM me a source for those if available?
Thanks.