fish room question

[TheBigBadReefer]

i am planning on making a fish room 18'x14' and placing a few tanks probably 1000+ gallons. any suggestions on ventilation, gypsum board, or any other preventive mantinance i should take?

 

[fanaglethebagle]

Ac

 

[S Hunter]

Lots of outlets is a given on GFCI, does the room have any windows, if so good shades, a good 1 piece flooring like Linoleum for the few spills you may have green board is good for wet locations... i would paint all the wood (stands) with a good water proof paint. what part of the house is this room going to be in?

 

[NateHanson]

I'd put a drain in the floor if at all possible.

 

[JayM]

at least a waste sink....lots of plugs.....lots of light.

 

[nitrofish]

I had a mini fish room, I used 6 40 gallon breader tanks

 

[JakeLevenson]

What are you planning on using your room for? Frags, breeding? Depending on the use there are a lot of considerations to think of. For example: If your breeding fish, you need a fair amount of room for hatching food like 24 hr bbs, 48 bbs rotifers and even green water if your feeling courageous. Best thing I did was learn how to use the free drawing program, google sketch up. It makes space planning much easier so you can keep everything to scale and make the most of every inch.

Nitro: That's awesome, same idea that I'm working on in my basement, only I have the tanks so the short end is facing out. This way I can fit more tanks in.

Nice set up, makes me want to stop sitting on my butt and finish mine!

 

[JakeLevenson]

ps

Geeze, I forgot the one thing I need to stop forgetting about, BUDGET!

Helps to try and plan how much you want to spend, and then count on spending twice that.

 

[TheBigBadReefer]

i am planning on all the display tanks to be in wall and breeders in back in a behind the scene fish room so a room inside a room. tile floors, green board walls or dens-glass (fiberglass board) vapor barrier on all walls. but how about ceilings?

 

[TheBigBadReefer]

fish room will be north side of the house no windows, and first floor on a pad style concrete floor

 

[JakeLevenson]

Those frp fiberglass indoor panels are great for ceilings too. There is a place in needham that carries it, but I cant for the life of me remember the name. You see the stuff often used for kick panels to prevent walls from being scuffed up around high traffic walls and doors. The thinner stuff is fine for your ceiling.

What is the rack going to be made of?

 

[TheBigBadReefer]

rack?

 

[JamisonSmith]

TheBigBadReefer,

I think Jake was referring to having a rack of tanks and what would they be made from, i.e. concrete blocks, 2X4's, fiberglass angle, etc. Something similar to what nitrofish has above in his picture.

Have you thought about what you are going to have in your fishroom? For example long shallow frag tanks, a phyto, rotifer and brine shrimp culture station, a sink, floor drain, plumbed air manifold, microscope station, food preparation station, etc.? These are some of my thoughts (wishes) for a fishroom. There is a thread on RC about a guy in Jacksonville, FL and he completely outlines his entire set-up, including his fishroom. Do a search for 180 diamante glass tank (I think), he has a lot of great ideas for a sump, and equipment room for his primary viewing tank.

Hope that this helps. Good luck.

Jamison

 

[TomD]

I really do not know much about building a fish room but I hope you think about everybodys suggestions and yours long and hard. It just seems like no matter how well you plan, something could have been done different.

I have experienced this with my tanks and upgrades so I couldn't imagine on a larger level like a fish room.

Good luck

 

[tedrux96]

Matt, shoot me a message if you are going to go through with this i would love to help or at least check out the build. good luck

 

[TheBigBadReefer]

i plan to have the tanks separated and placed in the walls other than from just one stand or unit, and maybe 2 or 3 seperate systems, the walls that the tanks will be in are going to be non-structural walls, behind the tanks is where the guts of the sytems will be. this will be in a newly constructed home, i haven't started building it yet, so im just gauging what im going to need or have an idea of what works best. i will try to get a floor plan up later

 

[Reef55]

1) dedicated air-conditioner (wall mounted would work)
2) humidity controlled ventilation (air exchanger)
3) dedicated power circuits
4) seal the floor with conrete waterproof sealer

 

[JakeLevenson]

Good suggestions. Epoxy paint works wonders. Theres good stuff at hd or lowes, aes sells this really nice FDA approved 'food grade' epoxy paint. I use it on old fiberglass, wood supports, pretty much anywhere that could use some protection from water.

 

[JamisonSmith]

TheBigBadReefer,

It sounds like what you want to do is similar to what this guy on RC did. Here is the link: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=813080

Hope that this helps.

Jamison