# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Fish room plumbing



## Alex (Mar 31, 2004)

I am building a house, due to be finished next May/June. One of the features is a concrete slab lower level half a floor down from the main floor and half a floor up from the full basement. This 22' x 15' room will be my show tank fish room with tanks covering 3 of the 4 walls. The tanks will be of 2 water types, high PH hard water tanks for African Cichlids and low PH soft water tanks for Tetras and new world Cichlids. I have in mind making two 100g sumps in the basement and plumbing the respective tanks to the proper sumps. I will be drilling the backs of the tanks down a few inches for the piping so that if all the floats and check valves fail no more than a few inches from each tank will be able to flow back into the sump. Right now I have four 10g, a 20g, a 29g, a 32g and a 55g tanks and would expect to double that volume within one year of moving in including a 180g African Cichlid tank, two 54g or 90g corner Apisto and or Ram tanks and a 75g or 125g Tetra tank. There will also be some other tanks, plant and fish breeding, fry growout, etc. The system will include a UV sterilizer on each system and the sumps would be 200g stock water tubs filled with 100g of water with custom made filter floss and bioball chambers. The sumps will also be planted to help stabilize the system. I'm also considering a automatic water changing system with a 1 gph addition/subtraction of water for ~500g worth of tanks and sump for an equivalent of about a 30% water change per week. The waters changes would be provided though ro water and holding tanks.

Now, the questions are, am I insane or is this possible and does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup and any advice?

Thanks,
Alex


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## Alex (Mar 31, 2004)

I am building a house, due to be finished next May/June. One of the features is a concrete slab lower level half a floor down from the main floor and half a floor up from the full basement. This 22' x 15' room will be my show tank fish room with tanks covering 3 of the 4 walls. The tanks will be of 2 water types, high PH hard water tanks for African Cichlids and low PH soft water tanks for Tetras and new world Cichlids. I have in mind making two 100g sumps in the basement and plumbing the respective tanks to the proper sumps. I will be drilling the backs of the tanks down a few inches for the piping so that if all the floats and check valves fail no more than a few inches from each tank will be able to flow back into the sump. Right now I have four 10g, a 20g, a 29g, a 32g and a 55g tanks and would expect to double that volume within one year of moving in including a 180g African Cichlid tank, two 54g or 90g corner Apisto and or Ram tanks and a 75g or 125g Tetra tank. There will also be some other tanks, plant and fish breeding, fry growout, etc. The system will include a UV sterilizer on each system and the sumps would be 200g stock water tubs filled with 100g of water with custom made filter floss and bioball chambers. The sumps will also be planted to help stabilize the system. I'm also considering a automatic water changing system with a 1 gph addition/subtraction of water for ~500g worth of tanks and sump for an equivalent of about a 30% water change per week. The waters changes would be provided though ro water and holding tanks.

Now, the questions are, am I insane or is this possible and does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup and any advice?

Thanks,
Alex


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## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

I am told these guys are good to talk to about such. They apparently have a lot of experience.
http://www.jehmco.com/

Some other links that may be useful:
http://waynesworldangelfish.com/automated_water_changes.htm

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200004/msg00745.html

http://www.angelfish.net/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=275

http://gpas.org/pub/flash/feb02/fishroom.htm

http://www.angelsonly.com/hatchery.htm

Bob

High Pressure CO2 sources, needle valves, information:
http://members.cox.net/tulsaalstons/AquaticPlants.htm#High%20Pressure%20CO2

[This message was edited by BobAlston on Mon October 27 2003 at 02:50 PM.]

[This message was edited by BobAlston on Mon October 27 2003 at 04:09 PM.]


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## Alex (Mar 31, 2004)

Thanks for the links.

Alex


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## JamesHoftiezer (Feb 2, 2003)

Dunno if you're insane.... too early to tell









Plan EVERYTHING out and prototype what you can in advance. I've been working these things out in my head and keeping the pressure/flow to all the tanks seems the hardest part.

Before the walls go up, plan on tying into the household water lines and drains. You will save a lot of head aches if you do it now. Make sure to use drywall primer on all the walls followed by exterior paint. You may want to plan on a de-humidifier.

When constructing your racks, I am a BIG fan of commercial metal racking. Some of the 2x4 constructs I have seen hard to ...certify/rate/... what's the word I'm looking for .....
At any rate with commercial racking you KNOW the load you can safely put on them. They look a LOT better and don't cost too much more (given the scope of the project).

Have you thought about a sand filter? Just asking cause they look interesting









Check out www.usplastics.com for sump and holding tank ideas. For wet/dry ideas try www.wetdryfilter.com

*James Hoftiezer
Hoftiezer.Net - Journals and Libraries
Rate My Tank!!

Tank Journal - Aquascape ( Latest / Archive(No Longer Active))
Tank Journal - Parts and Construction ( Latest / Archive(No Longer Active))*


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## Alex (Mar 31, 2004)

I thought about a sand filter and various other types but basically I want a large tub full of plants, algae, rocks, etc with lots of lighting to provide the filtration as I can also use this for a plant raising tank also. With the water coming through a couple of chambers, .5 cubic feet for floss and maybe 2-5 cubic feet for bioballs it should have plenty of mechanical and biological filtration. The hvac system in the house has a dehumidifier built into it and if that isn't enough I have a stand alone model in mind. The head pressure is one of my worries as the top of the outflow lines will be about 8 feet above the bottom of the tubs and it has to pump through the UV sterilizer as well as splitting to as many as 10 tanks for the low PH system. The basement will have a laundry tub with hot and cold water so I can tap into those lines. As all of my tanks have filters right now the first test will be a small system with maybe ten 10g tanks juut to see if it will work at all. I was planning on using 4x4s posts with joist hangers to build the racks so it should be okay.

Alex


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