Fish room tips?

[nickjj]

Click on the little red house and there are lots of pics of my fish room on my build thread.

Make sure that you plan for everything before you start building It's a lot more difficult to make changes once you start filling up the space with equipment.

Having a window in the room has been very helpful during the seasons.

Good luck.

 

[edandsandy]

I agree with the windows, we have 2 in the room and a set of french doors.

 

[EnderG60]

yeah I wanted to put in a set of double doors but my house is brick so that was to much of a pain to do.

Ended up having to cut down my storage tanks to fit through the door, but they are still 200g each so that will work.

I also cut all the wood for the stands, and then figured out having the sump next to the table with the 40g's took up to much space, so I need to go get some more wood so I can recut the legs and stack and put the sump under the 40's.

So much to do

 

[michika]

I'm planning my room now, and a few things I've come to realize that I need is shelving for organizational purposes. I also second the utility recommendation for skimmer cleaning, and washing down waste water.

I am also planning a shallow sink, as I found one cheap at the harware store. It holds no more then 6" of water and I plan to use it as my fragging station. It will allow pieces to remain in the water while I work on them, and the surface is a bright white which makes it easier to see and work with.

 

[Rouselb]

Does anyone have a list of items that you need for a fish room?? We have talked about
1. Ventilation
2. Electrical
3. Sink
4. Frag Station
5. Storage Space
6. Elevated Ro/DI tank
7. Dedicated Switches for Pumps and Lighting
8. Floor Drains

 

[EnderG60]

9. Elevated sump for easy draining

and it looks like im going to need a step ladder to get to the skimmer cup and into the 40's

 

[porthios]

i'd only add a dedicated set of tools. having a basic but separate set of screw drivers, channel locks, needle nose, lineman's pliers, vice grips, chisel, dremel, etc. saves me several trips up to the garage woodshop for whatever tool you need NOW cause water's leaking, animal's dying, whatever..

plus they can get all rusty and nasty cause you really don't care..

good excuse to get new tools for the shop anyway ..

 

[EnderG60]

another good point. I already have a set of tools that are all rusty from aquarium use. I was planning to do just that, and get a new set for the garage.

horay for more tools!

 

[tgunn]

If you can't have a floor drain (I was in the same boat with my fish room), make sure to install vinyl baseboards in the room and use a whole load of caulking to seal the seams and the baseboard to the floor.

The slope of my basement floor meant that water would generally pool up in the back of the room. I can't count the number of times I accidentally left a bucket filling with RO/DI, or slipped a bucket I was dumping into the sink and got a load of water on the floor, or had the clamp slip loose while holding my siphon hose into the bucket when doing a water change. In short, you WILL get water on the floor. Make sure it'll stay contained somewhat. If you need to, I'd put a threshold in the doorway and seal it up nice so that some amount of water would stay in the room.

My other tip would be to ensure your plugs are covered in some manner. I can't count the number of times I spilled water on one of the outlets under my sump, tripping the GFCI.

Oh, and ventilation is a very good thing. Make sure you can get to the fan to replace it. After 3 years my ventilation fan is about ready to die from all the salt in it.

Tyler