Very Early Planning of a fish room

[kikireef]

So I am just getting ideas for a fish room that will be at least a year out but I am really wanting to do it right the first time. I have a few questions just to start with. Before I do any planning of the system I would like some input on the room first.

1st: I would be pulling out all of the carpet down to the bare concrete. Should I cover the concrete with any type of covering or is bare concrete sufficient? Also, along the walls where there are baseboards, should I do anything with those? What I mean is IF there was a flood of some sort I would like to prevent water damage to the drywall. Is there anything I could/should do?

2nd: I will have to install a ceiling vent fan (probably 2 just to be safe). Do those have to run 24/7 or are there controllers on the market that can turn them on/off when humidity reaches a pre-determined point? If there is such a thing would I need 1 unit per fan or can I link both fans to the same unit?

3rd: I don't have a chiller on my current setup but I would have one on this tank being that I am in So Cal and temps can get crazy out here. I know they create a lot of heat and is there a way to vent that heat outside without placing the chiller outside in the "elements" or would the ceiling fans take care of that issue?

4th: What type of electrical would I need wired up? I know this may be a broad question but assuming I had a dedicated breaker for the room what kind of load would I need that could handle just about everything I could hook up? I have absolutely zero electricla knowledge. Also should I hook up many many GFCI outlets?

Basically I guess if you could design your perfect fish room how would you do it? I am on a budget and funds are not endless but I don't mind taking my time to do it right. I will post more questions as they come. I am just typing and thinking...

 

[FishTruck]

You are smart to sort this out now. Venting systems are key to save your house. Do you have a separate equipment room, or will everyting go under your tank?

So, So Cal, no basement right. This is ground floor.

1. Look into epoxy paint or tile. Can you install a drain somehow for a possible leak? You could run tile instead of baseboards, but, if you have six inches of water in the room... I think you will have bigger problems to worry about!

2. Controlling heat and humidity are super important. If you have a canopy, you can just vent the canopy. You can pull in outside air and exhaust to the outside. Let this run 24/7 and you will greatly reduce rust issues in the equipment above your tank. If you are going for an open top, then you will need to vent the room and might look into an HRV unit.

3. You can vent the chiller to the outside. I did this. Build a box around it, use 10 inch duct and a panasonic remote inline fan which will turn on when your chiller does. This will reduce your cooling costs for your house.

4. Separate circuits for the 1 chiller, 2 Main sytstem pump, 3 lights and circulation pumps - would be good to prevent complete system shutdown if a single GFI gets tripped. Multiple GFIs on a single circuit works o.k. On my system, my ATO trips the GFI all the time... but.. this is isolated from the rest of the electrical. I have 10 days to fix it before my RO resevoir runs out. One thing I really like is that I put my electrical outlets above my tank. No worries about drip loops etc...

 

[kikireef]

Thanks fishtruck. This will actually be an extra bedroom converted into the fish room to hold all equipment. It will be an in-wall design. The bedroom shares the wall with the living room. As far as the canopy it is not going to be decorative or anything because you won't see it. Depending on the amount of space above the tank I will likely be building some sort of railing system to move it side to side or a pully system to move it up and down. I haven't decided. Thanks for the tile idea! I can't believe I haven't thought of that. As far as cooling the chiller...did you build a box that completely covers the chiller or just the side that the exhaust exits the chiller? Im sorry for my ignorance but what is an HRV unit?

 

[douglass]

Great thread...........thanks for sharing.

 

[Oldude]

I highly recommend having a counter to work on and a sink , etc.

 

[bullitr]

use a porcelain tiles to me its the best because its non porous!
i wish i have a fish room!
good luck

 

[Lightsluvr]

Read the threads...

Read the threads...

When I was in the planning stages a few months ago, I spent hours reading the build threads on this large reef tank forum. I made lots of bookmarks and kept following those threads as they developed. There is a vast amount of information contained in those build threads which will probably answer any question that you could ever imagine...

Good luck with your build.

LL

 

[kikireef]

Thanks everyone for the info.

Lightsluvr - I'm already on it. lol I can't seem to read enough. My GF hates the amount of time I spend on the computer reading stuff but she knows I love it and she loves the outcome....just not the time away from her and the $$$.