# started my fish room



## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

Here is what i have been working on for the past month. Back in june a fish store was going out on business and i bought 8 30 gallon tank setup and sold the filters, hoods and lights on Craigslist to make the tanks free. then i completed a room in my basement and built the stand in the pics. i tried to do a photo journal to give people ideas of what they can do. Hope you like it.


























here are the sides being built in the room since they are to big to make it thru the doorway. i also painted the floor in the room with the garage floor epoxy paint with the flakes in and so far i seem to be happy


























then here i am starting to connect the two


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

here are the tanks sitting in the skeleton










then here is a pic of the plumbing getting started










here i am starting to put #2 pine on the outside of the rough pine 2x6'S


















here are all the tanks getting painted fro the background. the part that i didn't get any pics of is the hole drilling that i did on the tanks. sorry about that. but now thay are drilled and painted.










here is a pic of the of the overflow connetions that i have sat up.


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

here is a pic filling the bottom tanks for the first time










here they are all full of water










my sump










my uv setup










then i finished the stand off by putting the doors on to cover the lights










for lights i also used a 24" twin bulb t-12 fixture. seem to work well


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Awesome mate! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

I wish I was handyman inclined. Always an embaresment to my father who's a plumber, and comes from a family of tradies, sparkies, chippies etc, that he could have a son who's got no diy skills what so ever, zip, nadda, nil...


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

Dang, I'm getting jealous of all these nice set-ups! I was impressed with myself when I figured out how to connect a piece of PVC to my Pythonâ€¦LOL


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

Nice setup. :thumb: =D> I got some ideas for my fish room from looking at store central filtration systems.

How are you keeping the water level where it is so high above the overflow?

Looks like you have valves on the returns to regulate flow to each tank?

Can you give more details on the filtration system and specifics of how it works? Pump used, etc.


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## dkbrasher (Oct 11, 2009)

That is a SWEET setup! :drooling:

I'm with prov, I would like some details on the plumbing. I'm also with DFF that I have very few skills although I am forcing myself to gain DIY knowledge because of my cheapness


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## oscars4me (Feb 22, 2009)

Wow I'm jealous what a great setup nice job my friend. =D>


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

in my sump i have 4 quite one 4000 with 2 hooked together in parallel for the top and then the bottom set of tanks. this give 90-95% more flow at the same head height. it won't increase the head height as if you mounted another pump in line 5 feet off the ground but it does give more volume of water at the current head height. then the bottom set i have a tube going to the right of the pic with a ball valve on it to give my uv lights 250-300 gph.


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

on the overflow end of it i used a combination of elbows and t's the set my min water height. i wanted the keep my intake down in the tank just to help junk pick up **** in the tank which has seemed to give me better results for clean water. then the flow of the water naturally will go up 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch with the water flow turn on. which brings my water level half way up the plastic frame.










then i put valves on the return so i can shut tanks of for maintenance and regulate water flow depending on the type of fish in there. for example the one tank in my setup is full of baby albino bristle nose pelcos 150-200 of those. so i have a sponge over the intake so i had to slow to flow down to that tank and the valves make that easy.










i hoped this helped some


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> on the overflow end of it i used a combination of elbows and t's the set my min water height. i wanted the keep my intake down in the tank just to help junk pick up #%$& in the tank which has seemed to give me better results for clean water. then the flow of the water naturally will go up 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch with the water flow turn on. which brings my water level half way up the plastic frame.


Nice design. :thumb: I'm going to store that idea away for future use.


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## Acorn27 (Sep 1, 2009)

The PVC tee on the overflow is open at the top, right? I'm guessing that would provide a vacuum breaker to prevent siphoning?


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## maddyfish (Jul 23, 2004)

Very nice compact set up


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## reiger (Nov 29, 2008)

yes the top of my tee is open and it does work like a open water fall with no siphoning happening. on the other wall i am going to do the same thing with 4 125's and this was my trial setup. so one thing that i am going to do is use the 1" bulkhead and build the same thing but with 1-1/2 pvc not 1". i think the 1" causes resistance to the overflow where i did a test tank with 1-1/2 pvc and there seemed to be over twice the flow out of the same bulkhead size. so that is what i am going to do on the 125 wall. starting this soon, i just need to get 1 more tank to complete it. so everyone cross there fingers craigslist comes thru soon.


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

would the same principle work when putting the overflow even lower, closer to the substrate? as long as the top of the 'U' is where you want the water level it should work right? no matter how long it is


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## iCichlid (Sep 21, 2009)

::sigh:: I'm jealous. Very nice!!
:dancing: :fish: :thumb:


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

Outstanding!!!!!! :thumb:


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## deaver (Apr 23, 2011)

some sweet ideas here


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2012)

Wow, that's awesome. Good setup and nice build.


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