# Building a Big Ol' Fish Room



## Catfish Dan (Apr 12, 2011)

As much as we love seeing our fish while sitting in the living room, eating in the dining room, cooking in the kitchen, and going to the bathroom, we've decided to consolidate our tanks down in the basement. Earlier this summer we gutted hald of said basement and reserved the lumber for tank stands. Then we set about painting...


IMAG0986 by Weld Turtle, on Flickr[/img]


IMAG0982 by Weld Turtle, on Flickr[/img]

Some of those support beams in the pics will be coming out, they're for our frontosa tank in the dining room. For two novice construction workers, building the stands has been a lot more difficult than what we'd pictured in our minds, resulting in lots of kindling for this winter's fires. Still, it's coming along.


IMAG1080 by Weld Turtle, on Flickr[/img]

On the left we'll have 2 stacked 125s. Next to that, our monster 265.

Today we built more-


IMAG1082 by Weld Turtle, on Flickr[/img]

That last addition will have a 135 on the bottom and a couple of 40 breeders on the top.

We still need stands for 4 x 75s and a 150, plus a gaggle of 10s and 20s. We're learning as we go along, and each stand gets a little easier. The only tank that will be staying upstairs will be Hurly's, our petulant Oscar, as he needs constant attention 

I'll post more pics as we progress. Thanks for looking!

Debbie and Tom


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## Mr.Dempsey (Jan 4, 2012)

AWESOME! Keep up the good work man!


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

Very nice


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

How cold does it get there in the winter? Normal construction of fish rooms in basements, consist of insulated walls, sometimes ceilings, and total vapor barrier, sheathed with sheetrock, especially if the room is enclosed. Mine isn't, because it is open, but I have heard of a couple of people having to replace roofs because they didn't add a vapor barrier to their fish room.


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## Catfish Dan (Apr 12, 2011)

> How cold does it get there in the winter? Normal construction of fish rooms in basements, consist of insulated walls, sometimes ceilings, and total vapor barrier, sheathed with sheetrock, especially if the room is enclosed. Mine isn't, because it is open, but I have heard of a couple of people having to replace roofs because they didn't add a vapor barrier to their fish room.


Is this due to condensation? The room is partially open. Winters here aren't too cold, we may get a few inches of snow here and there.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

A large amount of aquariums, even with glass lids, can still contribute a lot of water via evaporation to the room. Good air circulation and possibly an exhaust fan that is humidity controlled will help to maintain a comfortable level.

Is this new fish room going to have a source of heat for the room or are you going to be heating the tanks individually?

Do the existing foundation walls get cold/clammy during the winter months or are they insulated?


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## Catfish Dan (Apr 12, 2011)

> Is this new fish room going to have a source of heat for the room or are you going to be heating the tanks individually?
> 
> Do the existing foundation walls get cold/clammy during the winter months or are they insulated?


The walls are not insulated, but are thick, and stay dry. The basement stays relatively cool in summer months and warm in winter months compared to outside temps. Our HVAC system does have ductwork with vents through the fishroom so we can adjust the room temps accordingly. All in all it is a much more stable environment, temperature-wise, than the upstairs of the house. We will still have heaters in the tanks for "fine-tuning" the temperatures, just as we do now.

All of the tanks will have glass tops but additional condensation is definintely something worth considering. Would a de-humidifier be of use in this situation?


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I have my tanks in a basement room similar to yours. We run a dehumidifier in an adjoining room. Without it, the basement gets a bit musty. We have forced air heating and cooling and with the dehumidifier we don't have any moisture issues.


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## cbechdel (Jun 9, 2012)

I friend of mine in St Louis had a large 300 gallon tank with plumbing, sumps etc. plumbed down in bnasement.

When he went to sell his house, the home inspectors found $15,000 in damages caused to the basement and home due to excessive moisture. Warped flooring, joists etc.

Definietely use a de-humidifier. Just like you need to turn on the bat exhaust fan whentaking a shower to remove humidity.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

I am just finishing up my basement fish room. Here are a couple of pics from the final phases of construction.
















Humidity control is definitely a major concern in cooler climates. In anything that is closed up to retain heat (newer home construction is actually worse for this because of it's higher thermal efficiency) condensation will occur along cooler walls as there is nowhere for the vapor to go.

In my fish room I first Drylocked the basement walls (to prevent moisture from seeping in from the outside), installed a 3/4" foam board insulation on all the exterior walls, put up the stud wall, insulated between the studs with fiberglass insulation with vapor barrier, added a plastic vapor barrier and sealed it with tape, installed plywood sheeting over the studs (resists moisture better than drywall), taped and sealed that up as well, and then painted everything. I installed vapor barrier on the ceiling and put 3/4" foam insulation board over top of that as well. Painted and taped all that up to make a tight seal too.

I would say the main part of the fish room is all but airtight. The other part of the fish room where the furnace and water heater are were too difficult to install all the insulation and barriers because of the maze of pipes and conduit. I placed my dehumidifer between the fish tanks and this part of the room and am hoping this can keep the humidity level down on this side.

The room is about 350 sq. feet. Eventually I may add a heat exchanger in place of the dehumidifier as they have a larger capacity and are more reliable.

So far it has been working well but I won't really know how well until this winter.

One thing I can suggest is to try and heat the room instead of each individual tank. Right now without any heaters running in the tanks they are staying about 72-75 degrees. I have a space heater that I will use to bump up the temperature into the high 70's to low 80's once I get a good temperature controller to run it. With 50 tanks in the room running individual heaters would be cost prohibitive.

Andy


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

WOW to catfish and narwhal, i envy you both, id like to ask you both a question.

How do you intend to filter these tanks?

I would imagine individual filters will be out of the question so some kind of central unit?


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## Catfish Dan (Apr 12, 2011)

Narwhal- that room is awesome, you're making me feel like a slacker! We did dry-lock seal the walls.... I agree about heating and we'll do our best to keep the room temperature moderated and will keep a close eye on any potential moisture problems.

Fusion- Our larger tanks will use canister filters. We have 3 rena XP3s and 2 XP4s (I think) and just got a fluval FX5. We also bought a huge air pump system so we can run the smaller tanks off of sponge filters. I'd love to put in the LED strip lights eventually, but for now we have a hodge-podge of lights from fluorescent to LED.

Most of our tanks are bigger (265, 150, 135, 2 x 125, 5 x 75 and on down) so I'm hoping we can get some good use out of the air system. What's the smallest tank you would feel comfortable running off of sponge filters?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Catfish Dan said:


> Narwhal- that room is awesome, you're making me feel like a slacker! We did dry-lock seal the walls.... I agree about heating and we'll do our best to keep the room temperature moderated and will keep a close eye on any potential moisture problems.
> 
> Fusion- Our larger tanks will use canister filters. We have 3 rena XP3s and 2 XP4s (I think) and just got a fluval FX5. We also bought a huge air pump system so we can run the smaller tanks off of sponge filters. I'd love to put in the LED strip lights eventually, but for now we have a hodge-podge of lights from fluorescent to LED.
> 
> Most of our tanks are bigger (265, 150, 135, 2 x 125, 5 x 75 and on down) so I'm hoping we can get some good use out of the air system. What's the smallest tank you would feel comfortable running off of sponge filters?


Hope your not asking me about the sponge filters 

Ill leave that 1 to the ppl here with some experience of them as i have none lol


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Fusion- I don't want to hijack Catfish Dan's thread so I will try and keep my answer short. (Probably have to start my own build thread on CF I guess).

I use a variety of filters. My larger tanks are on a central sump. What you can't see in the photos is another rack of 8 x 15's and 2 x 25 gallons. The 15's are connected to the central system along with the 120's and they will use a mattenfilter type setup. The sump will be setup like a refugium with live plants. Between the mattenfilters and plants that should be plenty of filtration. I will also have some UV's installed.

The bulk of my breeding tanks use sponge filters. I also have 12 more tanks that use Aqueon power filters and these are my grow out tanks that I keep heavily stocked with young fish and feed heavily. The power filters help keep the water cleaner than the sponge filters do.

I have a build thread going on the MAS website but I need to update it.
http://milwaukeeaquariumsociety.com/yab ... 1322704855

Andy


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Catfish Dan- Depending on the size of the sponge filter I have had tanks up to 75 gallons running off them with no problems. As long as you change water and vacuum the debris out of the tanks regularly the sponges will keep the water healthy.

Most of my tanks that use sponge filters are between 10 and 29 gallons.

Andy


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## Koteckn (May 16, 2012)

opcorn:


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

17 tanks in my room, 125 and smaller, all on sponges. Plethera of old HOB as backups. This is by far the most economical way I have found for 7 tanks or more. And always have a rebuild kit ON HAND.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

iwade4fish said:


> 17 tanks in my room, 125 and smaller, all on sponges. Plethera of old HOB as backups. This is by far the most economical way I have found for 7 tanks or more. And always have a rebuild kit ON HAND.


Same here. Cost next to nothing to operate or maintain.


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

Update, please!!!!!!!!!  opcorn: :fish:


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## Catfish Dan (Apr 12, 2011)

We are finally ready to start moving fish down! We've been fortunate to score some extra tanks along the way (CL) so we'll be able to stagger the move. Today we're going to work on:

Tramitochromis intermedius (2m, 3f) and P. phenochilus (2f, 1M), currently together in a 75- they'll be split into a 40B (Intermedius) and a 75 (P. phenochilus). We just lost our large male P. phenochilus so we'll pull the younger male from our all male tank to live with the girls. This will leave us with an empty 75.

Community tank- this will go in the empty 75 and will house, for now, a hodge podge including: 3 bosemani rainbown, one PNG trainbow, 4 rasboras and a lemon tetra, Cleithracara maronii (keyhole cicdhlid), Satanoperca jurupari, green cory, and a gaggle of plecos. These have all been living for 1+ years in a 55. Also considering adding 3 juvenile P. polleni which have been in a 20 quarantine tank for a month. I've read they are docile in a community setting until they pair off. We are hoping for one pair we can move to a 75 of their own. Unitil then, we'd like to get them 'socialized' . They are extremely shy but have recently started coming out of hiding to see us at feeding time.

Tanganyikan community- Empty 135. Inhabitants will include Cyprichromis leptosoma, 13 which have been growing out in a 20 long since the ACA last July. They've already started breeding, we stripped our first female last night of 7 good looking big babies. Don't know how momma fit them all in her mouth! I think there are 4M and 9F. C. foai, just 2 unfortunately as we lost many of the fry. Looking for some more of these. Tanganicodes irsacae (5 young). Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (7 young). Frontosa fry, ~2 months old, 16- grow out for most, we'll keep a few for our frontosa tank. Compressiceps "sumbu dwarf" (5), which will free up our 20 long solely for our pair of Ornatipinnus nigripinnus. So tired of seeing all the babies disappear in there!

Will post pics as we progress!


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

cant wait to see pics.....


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

How's the fish room coming? I have learned some valuable lessons this winter and plan on making some changes this summer. Was wondering how you were fairing with yours?

Andy


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