What would you have done differently in your fish room???

[charlesgage]

I will be drywalling a 1600 sqft basement in a few months. I have a dedicated fish room framed in my basement. The display arm is 48" deep by 9-10 feet long. Planning an 8-10 footer with a walkway behind. 24-28" High by 30" deep. The tank will be enclosed in this area. Walkway will be cramped, but it's a tradeoff for bar space. Designer didn't want to push that wall out any further.

Right now I have 4 20 amp GFCI circuits, water supplies, and a floor drain with a 4 inch pipe. Also a utility sink. I will drywall outside the room with greenboard where the tank will be viewed.

Any other things I should be considering? I have access to outside air. Should I epoxy the floor in case of spills? Dehumidifiers needed? Outside air intakes, exhaust fans? Do I vapor seal the whole room?

Good news is that even when it is 100 degrees outside that fish room never sees 80. It's got one wall of full earth behind the concrete and it's 20 feet from the nearest window.

Is there anything different you would have done with your fish room if you could have?

 

[bked120]

I would have allowed more counter space for tanks, equipment, etc.

 

[DasCamel]

Floor drain.

 

[Andrew D]

A vent to the outside.

 

[rocsec1]

I have the floor drain, sink, and vent. I am glad I added all of them. Wish I had made it larger. A bigger sink would have been nice.

 

[imfsub12]

A vent to the outside.

Like a bathroom vent for moisture

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

 

[halmus]

I am having a problem picturing the physical space you're planning for the support equipment and back end. A quick hand sketch or something like that might get the brain juices flowing with your fellow reefers here.

I recently finished my basement, and a big requirement for me was being able to centralize all of my equipment in one room and make it easy to access/service.

I've read some great threads here where people have needed to locate some equipment under the tank, in adjacent rooms, and out in the garage all in the same system. Presumably, that was because of existing building constraints. That's not criticism, but if money and space allows, I think it's worth putting some extra work in ahead of time to make your life easier through the life of the system. That's just my personal approach. If you're starting with a blank slate (1600 sq ft is a big blank slate), I would plan on having more room than you need for equipment, reef product storage, etc. behind the scenes. It seems like no matter how much room you have, it gets filled up with something. Maybe that's a good reason to limit space, so you aren't tempted to fill it with something that costs $.

Good luck with the build!

 

[tom obrecht]

If money is flexible I would definitely add a ventilation fan (which I did after the room was completed...made a HUGE difference) and nice but not needed would be a grated floor so if large spills occur would run to the floor drain. A counter with lighting for water tests ect is nice. Also cabinets to hold chemicals and supplies would be nice to make the area cleaner and well planned out looking.