# Fishroom Questions



## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

Im buying a house that has three rooms int he basement. A family room, a bedroom, and an empty unfinished "utility" room wiht the heater and washer and dryer in there also.

The back part of the room is about 20 feet wide and Ill have about 20 feet deep before I get into the washer and dryer area. As of now theres no finished walls in there. Theres a drain inthe floor nearer to the end I want to use as a fishroom. I plan on walling up the furnace and washroom areas so they will be closed in and seperate from the fishroom.

I am thinking about just putting the tanks along the walls so that it is more open. I dont plan at this time to make a 1000 gallon tank there. I would rather have some larger tanks on teh bottoms of whatever racks I decide to use and then maybe a row of 20 or 29 and top it off with 10 gallons for fry or smaller fish. I am thinking about 3 rows of tanks. I want to get the most tanks that I can safely get in there.

Now for the problems. I dont want to hear an air blower motor running all night. My bedroom is not directly above that but my wife will kill me if she hears an airpump or water running at night. I want to keep the wastewater to a minimum. I want to keep the electrical to a minimum. I only have a couple outlets intehre right now in that area and dont want to verload them. I will eventually get some more dedicated circuits ranin there from the breaker box.

I was debating between a airpump/blower to use individual sponges on the 10 gallons (i will use them for fry mostly Im thinking) and as many tanks as possibly. Or to use a common filter from a 55 gallon barrel or some sort of stock tank for a wet/dry /trickel filter or soething similar.

I am interested mostly in cichlids but also some livebearers and bettas. I tend to get into various fish and trade them off or whatnot if I had enough of that one after a while so I can get something new. However apistos and some other cichlids I never get tired of.

I also am thinking about how I can get at least some of my money back from running and obtaining a fishroom. I can sell off some fry but how much is that going to help? I also am into planted tanks so I have plenty of plants. I dont plan on saltwater yet unless I can get a really good deal on equipment. I also dont plan on doing it all at once so maybe Im thinking that I can trade fish for empty ten gallons or soemthing liek that. I would want bigger tanks on the bottom, at least 55 gallons, and would like to try to get as many tanks in as possible so Im thinking that Id turn most of the smaller tanks sideways, like the 20 and 10 gallon even the 5 gallons or whatever else I go with.

Would I be better off using some rubbermaids to growout in some places instead of 55 gallons? Just a thought. *** had fish since I was 4 years old which makes me continuously keeping fish for 34 years. This is a lifelong dream and Id like to plan it and have some good ideas before I start making crappy shelves in a hodgepodge manner. Id like something modular instead of total wall racks so I can take out something and add a larger tank shoudl the opportunity come along.

Any ideas would be welcome. *** read and looked around at so much stuff online but I thought that it'd be gre4at to hear some ideas from others that have done it so I can communicate with you and get some input.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

It would be interesting to use the fishwater to grow some hydroponic plants. I dont think running fishtank water outside and back in would be a very good idea. If it rained a lot it ouwld raise the waterlevel inside too. Obviously it would affect the water temperature inside depending on what it was outside. I could grow something along the windows without using artificial lighting. I think it would be easier though if I could somehow run the water outside to something to grow plants in and then bring it back into the tanks. The problem once again is what about that water, regulating the water level, and the water temperature. Im in Seattle so the summer isnt bad but inthe winter the air temp gets into the 20's on occasion and the heaters would likely stay on but the water isnt staying outside all that long but still it would likely affect the water temperature. If something happened like a power outage inthe winter then the pipes could potentially freeze and burst. Thers a floor drain inthe basement but Id rather not rely on that as a backup.


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## drungil14 (Jan 11, 2009)

I would run a PVC pipe around the room attached to a linear air pump(very quiet and can filter many tanks) and have air line tubing from the PVC to the sponge filters. For the sponge filters I would either recomend making them or finding really cheaply.

Trading in fish probably wont cover up the cost to make the fishroom and run but you never know.

I use rubbermaid tubs to growout my fry and they work great. Also about 1/10 of the price of a 55 gal for a tub the same size. If you get the clear ones you see your fish.

Depending on how insulated the room is, you could heat all of the tanks with heaters or heat the room.

For the most tank space availability I would put the ten gallons side ways.
Good luck.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

I dont think that it would make much but anything to help cover the cost would be a plus.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Prepare for humidity!

Dehimidifiers use a lot of electricity but also create a lot of heat. If the room is well insultated it is very possible to use one unit to both kep the air reasonably dry (to avoid mold/mildew development) as well as to avoid needing any individual aquarium heaters.

As suggested, a large air pump can be used to supply air to many tanks powering many filters using little electricity.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

I was thinking about putting the air pump/blower inthe room with the water heater and building a space for it that has better inuslation for noise so it wont be heard at all hopefully.

I already have a dehumidier soemwhere. Its in storage so Im not sure what size or anything that it is.

Glss tops would help some with evaporation. Would anyone recommend using glass tops on all the tanks or is it more expense and trouble than its worth? I have a huge sheet of pane glass that itsnt tempered. Its 1/4 glass.


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## drungil14 (Jan 11, 2009)

For tops I like to use the thin storm windows that you see on the older windows on houses. They're only 1/8 inch thick and easy to cut with a $6 glass cutter from the hardware store. It takes some practice but becomes easy after a little practice. 1/4 inch thick would be even better beacause I sometimes have a tendancy to break mine. I also would suggest a dehumidifier.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

I like this rack the way they set this up. What might be some downfalls to making two of these to fit the back wall?

It looks like 10s on the bottom, 5 in the middle and 2.5 on the top? It should work with other sizes, like 20, 10, 5 or such, yes?

How efficient are these filters that they made with the filter pad that blocks off part of the tank and expells the riser water into the other part of the tank? It looks like it would work the same as a sponge filter.

This is a nice fishroom.

http://www.swisstropicals.com/Swisstropicals Fishroom.html

Looks like it was set up with some thought.


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## drungil14 (Jan 11, 2009)

If you build the racks sturdy enough you can put almost any tank size you want on them. The filters that you saw on swiss tropicals are Hamburg Mattenfilters. They are probably one of the best ways to filter a tank with sponge. The only downside to the Poret Filter Foam is that it gets kind of pricey but still less expensive than any of the power filters.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Personally... I would go with regular old sponge filters... One big blower/air pump can power many (100+) sponges with ample flow rates and sponges are super easy to clean...

The Filters shown in the Swiss Tropicals fishroom seem like they would be very efficient, but not nearly as practical to clean.

If you can get your hands on drilled tanks... I really like the convenience of plumbing multiple tanks together. Below is a 75 gal with 2x 50 gals (48" x 18" @ 12" tall) stacked above. The water is pumped from the 75 gal to the top 50, falls through an overflow into the middle 50... falls through an overflow into the bottom 75 gal.










I had a similar set up with a 30 gal over and under 3x 10 gals... the plumbing was a bit more complicated to disperse the overflow from the top 30 gallon evenly to 3x 10 gals... but it wasn't too difficult...










I ran a 20' x 13' fishroom for a year and the only problem/complaint I had was the humidity... The only reason I don't still have it is a lack of integrity in my ex (don't ask  )

The overflows were fairly loud, but the room was insulated enough so it could not be heard anywhere else in the houseâ€¦


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

What is that you have growing in your tanks?

I had been looking at drilling my own tanks. I dont think its that difficult. I have a freind that is a glass guy and he said that it isnt that bad if you keep it under running water and use the template board method of sandwiching the glass through two peices of wood and clamping them gently. Of course bottoms wouldnt be that easy but I wouldnt durso it anyway.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

I looked around at tank sizes and think that Ill make it so that I can have either a 55 gallon on thebottom or 4 29 gallons, then the second row, 4 29 gallons, and then above that 5 ten gallons all sideways except for the 55 gallon. that way I can fill it up with 10 gallons if I wanted to later after I built the second or third rack. I dont think that I have the height for 5.5s at the very top. Im concerned about it being weak anywhere and would rather over engineer it. iI think that 2x4s with dado joints would be okay. I cant seem to find anything about building this sort of rack to be anything more than functional. Id like it to look nice and have been looking for some other designs but come up with not much more than 2x4 framing or either cinderblocks which I wont do. I dont have accesss to my welder any longer or Id make it out of box tube. Any suggestions?

I think that I should get a blower and put it in the framed in room and plumb pvc to the tanks. I thinkthat Id rather keep everything seperate like that in case I want to keep different water aprams. If I have it all plumbed together I will have troubles with my SA and my Africans or whatever else I may want to keep. If I decide to go saltwater in any of it I figure that I can have at least 4 of these racks. One can be a saltwater and I can use the bottom tank as a sump to run the others. That way I can still have 3 other racks with at least 10 tanks each. The airblower will help with the electrical part of it to reduce the energy use. Ill try to use shoplights with 55 or 65K hardware bulbs in it.

Im not sure how I can reduce the water change waste water. Anyone have any ideas how I can keep from changing half of the water every week? To my knowledge I dont know how to minimize the amount of water taht aneeds to be changed other than the bio load that the water is carrying. I thought about incorporating aquaponics but IM not sure how effective that would be. I am somewhat versed in the planted tank and fertilizers and nutrients but I dont know everything.


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