Building a fish room

[butchie]

So We have settled down in a house, the babies are getting older, and life is in general more stable. I decided to convert our garage into a workshop/fishroom. Currently I have a 150g and 2 40 g set up on sponge filters/canisters. This weekend I aquired some used tanks from someone getting out of the hobby including a massive (for me) acrylic tank around 300 gallons. I am going to slowly update this as I go. My goal is to raise and breed Central American Cichlids, along with a rogues gallery of assorted catfish and oddballs I enjoy keeping.

My first debate is filtration. I am leaning towards putting the 150g and 300g on a sump. They both have overflows already. I am not overly excited about building a sump but I think it will help greatly with maintenance. I am searching the local forum posts for a large sump or I may use a rubbemaid stock tank And build something out of it. I have built many sump systems before for stores and my home systems. I hate doing the plumbing and I am concerned about the humidity which is my only hesitancies. I think I will keep everything else on a large air pump with sponges.

I drilled a four inch hole through the block wall for a vent and attached a portable A/C (that was not fun). I will almost certainly end up insulating the garage doors as temperature has been my nemesis so far.

Any input or comments are appreciated, I will post some pictures when I get home later today

 

[Hendre]

Sounds like you're on the right track!

For temperature, see if you can get something like these:

Sucks warm air out, simple physics. A friend of mine uses them to keep his room cool and it seems to work well! Could also help with humidity, or just a plain dehumidifier can work? Lidding the tanks as an additional precaution should be good. Are the materials of the garage susceptible to humidty damage?

 

[DRUKENMUNKY]

I have a separated 2 car garage that I converted to my fishroom/workshop/man cave 12 years ago. If you are starting from scratch ...my best suggestion to take extra time and thought in planning the layout.....over the years the biggest projects in my fishroom were moving giant setups to different locations. Moving large tanks isnt hard but a pain in the ass. Insulating is a absolute must especially if you live in an area where it gets cold. I use sumps because ease of maintenance and everything is sealed ( I ended up insulating and lining all the walls and ceiling 1 inch thick foam at the end ) and am now saving alot in electric from when i first started. I am using a dehumidifier also......dont get the small cheap ones...get the larger rated types that use a drain hose because emptying holding tanks sucks. I also ended up putting the entire garage's electrical on a separate sub panel and added outlets everywhere lol. This helps me isolate things in a power outage as well as the garages sub panel has a back feed that hooks directly into my generator. Also plan your drainage system...it helps alot and will keep water changes less messy. My garage didnt have a drain so i ended up with a 2 inch pvc network that eventually runs out the garage to my street. Took me over a decade to get things this way but in the end its worth it. Map it out in your head and plan it out.....things will change obviously but hopefully you get the major stuff executed in the build.

 

[butchie]

prior planning is my greatest weakness lol. I am already thinking about moving the first stand I built that holds the 150 and 2 40's. You are so right, not hard but a major pain in the ass. My garage is a 3 car garage, I live in central florida so you would think the cold would not be an issue but it has been a surprising pain these last 2 months. The garage has only one exterior wall plus the doors so that is good. There is "house" above it also. So really the only thing I need to insulate is the doors and possibly one wall, although it is cinder block so I am not that worried about it. I also do woodworking so my table saw/outfeed table, chop saw station, dust collector, tool storage etc take up major real estate (and they are also my reason for humidity concern, they cost bank)

I like the idea of sealing the sump/s, and also of installing a sub-panel. I was considering that already. Pretty easy considering the main panels are right there. Drainage has concerned me... There is no drain in the garage, if I need to install one we are well out of my abilities and it will require a jackhammer to get through solid concrete somewhere as there is not a wall with a drain in that area of the house either. Water is there for filling though. My current plan is just cracking the garage door and draining into the grass

 

[DRUKENMUNKY]

prior planning is my greatest weakness lol. I am already thinking about moving the first stand I built that holds the 150 and 2 40's. You are so right, not hard but a major pain in the ass. My garage is a 3 car garage, I live in central florida so you would think the cold would not be an issue but it has been a surprising pain these last 2 months. The garage has only one exterior wall plus the doors so that is good. There is "house" above it also. So really the only thing I need to insulate is the doors and possibly one wall, although it is cinder block so I am not that worried about it. I also do woodworking so my table saw/outfeed table, chop saw station, dust collector, tool storage etc take up major real estate (and they are also my reason for humidity concern, they cost bank)

I like the idea of sealing the sump/s, and also of installing a sub-panel. I was considering that already. Pretty easy considering the main panels are right there. Drainage has concerned me... There is no drain in the garage, if I need to install one we are well out of my abilities and it will require a jackhammer to get through solid concrete somewhere as there is not a wall with a drain in that area of the house either. Water is there for filling though. My current plan is just cracking the garage door and draining into the grass

sealing the sumps not only helps a great deal with humidity but also with heat loss......not having a drain also is why i set the pvc drains....its alot easier using a siphon hose with a 6 ft hose as compared to a 25 foot plus hose...also check your garage door for gaps on the floor and sides. Even little gaps can can lead to heat leaving or cold coming in all of which can be solved with a cheap threshhold kit from home depot or amazon

 

[butchie]

sealing the sumps not only helps a great deal with humidity but also with heat loss......not having a drain also is why i set the pvc drains....its alot easier using a siphon hose with a 6 ft hose as compared to a 25 foot plus hose...also check your garage door for gaps on the floor and sides. Even little gaps can can lead to heat leaving or cold coming in all of which can be solved with a cheap threshhold kit from home depot or amazon

Drunkenmunkey...I hate you lol. So I sat staring at my tanks and walls and there was just no way I could design a drainage system ever with my current layout. So, I flipped the "woorkshop" with the tanks. Basicaly put my tanks on the opposite wall. Now If I want to I can punch a hole through the wall into the front lawn to drain the water, and bonus I can do it behind some bushes so the HOA will be none the wiser.

Did make for a long weekend though. I built the stand for my new 300 gallon and moved most of my tools. set up a temporary pond for the fish. Tonight I will move the Stand with a 150g and 2 40g breeders. Need to re-set up the tanks tonight as I have a big cichlid order coming tommorow

 

[DRUKENMUNKY]

Lol all i can say is all your hard work now will be rewarded in the future. Having a fish room wether its a bunch of 10 and 20 gallon tanks or even juat a few huge tanks is a whole different level of maintenance as compared to having just a nice tank in the house. The more work your putting into it now will lead to alot more hours of you chillin in your chair and enjoying your fish. Alot of my friends that have just been recently getting into the hobby ask me for advise and the one thing that i always tell them is to not complicate things and just do regular maintenance routines and most importantly just watch and enjoy your fish. I see sometimes people get so infatuated with making perfect filtration that their fish never get the chance to settle in and just get comfortable. Id love to see pics of the evolution of your fish room

 

[DRUKENMUNKY]

O and also forgot to voice my opinion on linked filtration. > prefer isolated systems to make sure disease doesnt spread with the exception of grow out tabks if any. I want the fish to be in the exact same water as the future home. Keep in mind my room only houses 4 huge tanks and a grow out and a quarantine so isolation isnt too bad for me.....if you have a lot of tanks i can understand you linking a bunch to a sump.

 

[butchie]

 

[butchie]

so starting to come together. I will probably plumb the 150 and the 300 together the stands hold 40 gallons along the bottom. I am exhausted from draining and moving them. Will need to get them set back up tonight though. Set up the "pond" to hold the fish in the meantime