# help with fish room



## troybernard (Oct 29, 2006)

Not sure if this is the right place, but I will post here anyway. I have decided to make my fish room. I have a rack that will hold roughly 24 30 gallon tanks or I may run some 10's or 20's as well. None of the tanks are drilled and I am not sure how to drill them. The rack for the tanks is 3 tiers high. I will be starting with about 8 tanks and adding from there as needed. I am not sure what I should do for the filtering. I have heard I should use air and sponge filters or just drill the tanks and use sumps. I was also told to do something like an automatic water changer. Just looking for some ideas. What would you do kind of stuff.


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

most breeders use sponge filters for filtration. running a air pump is cheaper then anything else by far. Sumps while great for small systems. For large systems, they will "nickle and dime" you to death.(figure $25 a tank just for "fittings") They also do a great job of spreading "bad things" threw out a system. They are continuous overflow systems( see below) so a clog in the drain = flood. 

I would recommend drilling your tanks for a water change system.

there are 3 basic kinds.

over flow
continuous over flow
drain down

overflow is really simple, you just install a overflow, by adding water to the tank, tank water is sent to the drain. The pros its really simple, no moving parts. the cons is if the drain gets clogged, you will have a flood.

continuous overflow is just like above, only you have water going into the tanks all the time. Same pros and cons,

Drain down, is you have a overflow installed at level you want to do the water change too. you open a valve and the water drains to that level. Pros, water changes are the same every time. Cons, if the valve is stuck or fails, the system will not work.


One thing that is almost always over looked is humidity. Unless you have a system that removes it from the air( $$$) or have good ventilation( remember you need both air coming in and air going out.)


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## nguyendetecting (Dec 26, 2008)

wow that's serious project you have ahead of you. I've seen some fish rooms with a water pipe system that they use to fill the tanks with. Will treated and aged water in a tank at then end of the room. All they do is open the valves to fill each tank. And they drain their tanks like normal with a python, with that in mind I saw one with drainage piping system. Like a gutter that ran to a drain. That way no drilling was required just a bunch of pipes for draining and a system that provided already treated water. goodluck keep us updated


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## luckydud13 (Oct 10, 2008)

Sponge filters are a good, cheap filter, and thats what I use in mine


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## troybernard (Oct 29, 2006)

So far I am leaning towards sponge filters and R/O water


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