# Fish room.



## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

So, I have some plans to start a fish room in my basement this winter. Need to finish clearing it out, and get some lumber, but I am going to do it for sure this time.

I have two stretches of wall that I am going to be using. One is roughly 60" long, give or take a couple of inches. I am thinking a rack that will put two 20long tanks side by side and three high will fit there.

The other wall is roughly 7' of useable space. I want to do two racks that will hold six 10gallon tanks and one 40gallon breeder. I am thinking a row of three 10gallons on the bottom, the 40gallon in the middle and a row of three 10gallon tanks on top.

The 40's will be used for plecos and the 10's for pleco eggs to hatch and as grow out tanks. I can also try my hand at some smaller cories or tetras in the 10's as well. The 20's will be for shrimp and other smallish fish. All will have air powered sponge filters and shop lights. Don't want to mess around with that many power filters. I am planning on a water storage tank of some sort for WC's, and I want to use a central drain system for draining the tanks for WC's. Not going to use an auto fill system though. I want a little more control then that. I am also planning on a separate circuit for all the electrical and I need to add a water line for ease of use. I have some stuff drawn out, but need to get it to the comp, so I will have to post that later on. An RO/DI unit will be later down the road as I need one for the reef tank anyway. I am thinking a 50 gallon drum for the water storage tank, and I can drain all the tanks directly into the floor drain when I do WC's.

My biggest hurdles are going to be stand construction and plumbing. With all the tanks, will 2x4's with dato joints be sufficient? I am thinking something along the lines of this, only on a larger scale.

As for drain plumbing, I was thinking of this plumbing or this plumbing. They are both essentially the same with minor differences. I am thinking of drilling for 1/2" bulkheads about 3/4 of the height of the tank, so when I open the valves, it will auto drain about 20%ish of the water to be refilled. Would that be sufficient? Or should I lower it? Also for the rack that will hold the plecos, I am wondering if I should sump the system or not. Or maybe sump the two 40gallon tanks and just lose the bottom row of 10gallon tanks and put the sump there. I really would rather not do that though, and think it will be more cost effective to have sponge filters.

Thoughts or ideas? Pictures of your setups? Advice or criticisms? Let me know. I will try to get some pics up of my idea so you can better see it.


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## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

OK. I finally got some diagrams of the stands together to better explain things. First, let's talk about the 20long stand.










This shows the complete rack and the detail on the underside of the shelf.

The left image is the complete front view of the rack. Maybe I should put a legend on here first.

Brown - 2x4's for the shelf frame
Red - 1/2" plywood for the shelf top
Purple - 2x4's to support the shelf.
Tan - 2x4's to keep everything together
Yellow - 2x4's for extra support
Blue - 2x4's for added support


Ok. Back to the picture. Use the above to see what I am talking about. The blue and yellow is where the tank frame would rest. All three shelves would be made like this. On the left is the front, the middle is the side, and the right is the underside of the shelf. The tanks would fit in between the supports so the rack could fit in the space allotted. The whole thing would be +/- 60" wide and 20" deep.










This is without the outer Tan supports and it shows the top of the shelf with the plywood on it.










And this is the top minus the plywood. The yellow and blue would be attached to the brown with datto(sp?) joints. Those are where the tank frames will rest when setup.

Now on to the 40gallon/10gallon rack. Same legend as the above.










This is the complete shelf. The views on the right are the shelf the 40breeder will sit on.

The top one is the shelf top down with no plywood.
The second one is the shelf top down with the plywood on.
The third is the shelf underside.

The next one is the rack minus the tan supports on the sides and it shows the shelf the 10gallon tanks will rest on.










On the right is the shelf.
The top is the shelf top with no plywood.
Second is the top with the plywood, and the bottom is the underside of the shelf with the plywood. The dimensions of this rack will be +/-40" wide and 20" deep. And I will have 2 of these. I am still working on exact dimensions and will get them up soon. Also need to plan out the plumbing.

I hope this makes sense to everyone out there. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I imported rare fish some time ago and what I'm about to tell you is from experience, not just common sense:

The drains that go into the big horizontal drain pipe must be open - just like the Swisstropical guy does it. There needs to be a gap between the vertical drain hose and the T-fitting.

The overflows of your drains will clog, fish will get in, etc. You need to cover them with mesh fabric which is easy to remove, clean, and replace.

Do not attempt to have a centralized filling plumbing. It gets too complicated.

Individual filtration for each tank is the best. First time one of the tanks gets ich you will know what I mean if you have a centralized sump. 

Poret filter foam, sold by Swistropicals, is light years ahead of any other filtration material. Invest the money in it (it's not that much for your entire fish room. Maybe $120).

Make the tank refill easy. The easier it is the more consistent you wil be with your water changes. Get a big size water filter housing (the size of a 5lb CO2 bottle) and fill it with activated carbon. That housing is about $150 and well worth it (tap water comes with all sorts of crap that your dechlornator does not neutralize). That filter connects to your faucet. A hose runs from that filter to your fish room. The end of the hose needs to have a securely attached valve (nothing worst than having to run back to the faucet to shut off the water) and has a U-shaped pipe on the end that you hang on each tank. With such a setup + overflows you never drain the tanks - just fill up and wait as long as you have decided is enough.

The main drain needs to be wel below all tanks. If it is a little bit below all tanks if you run your fill line too fast the draining water will leak on the floor from the T-fittings etc.

Get a piston air pump. $200 or so. It will be more than enough for your fish room. No sound - just the noise of the air bubbles in the room. Pump is mounted on the wall, above all tanks. A PVC pipe is connected to it. On the pipe there are enough metal valves to connect to air hoses leading to each tank. At the end of each air hose there is a cheap plastic valve too. You can't adjust the air flow using the metal valves only.

Get a dehumidifier off Craigslist. A $400 unit can be bought for $80. The dehumidifier will not only take care of the humidity in the room. It will also, believe it or not, maintain a constant temperature in there (about 83F) which means that your tanks will not need heaters. Summer or winter - same temperature, guaranteed.

Leave enough rooom over the top of the tank so you can stick your hands in the tanks without being cramped. Cleaning a tank's glass etc when being cramped leads to one thing - skipping on maintenance.

All electric plugs should be off the floor.

Get several battery operated air pumps ($10 each). In case of a power failure.

Ligths - T5, normal output, from Home Depot. Cheapest ballast - Fulham Workhorse 7 - for $40 it can run 9 28 watt bulbs. But all of them will be on or off at the same time. In any case - use T5 normal outputs either way - they do not heat up the room. Kelvin 3500 or 5000 (if you can find 5000) give very nice colors.

And forget plywood. It will get wet somehow. Get wire shelves - $60-80 a piece. Best looking, cheapest, most practical solution. You must get the ones that have a middle support - they are heavier duty than the ones that are available everywhere. Also you put a vertical support made of metal electrical conduit in the middle of every shelf. No sagging.


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## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

niko said:


> I imported rare fish some time ago and what I'm about to tell you is from experience, not just common sense:
> 
> The drains that go into the big horizontal drain pipe must be open - just like the Swisstropical guy does it. There needs to be a gap between the vertical drain hose and the T-fitting.
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the help. I did my best to answer everything you posted. It is in bold print along with a couple of questions.


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## funnytrash (Sep 5, 2010)

might be kind of off topic but why not use cement blocks? i dont remember what they are called but in general they look like [[] []]


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## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

funnytrash said:


> might be kind of off topic but why not use cement blocks? i dont remember what they are called but in general they look like [[] []]


I thought of that, but I want something that will look a little nicer and be easier to move should I have to move it.


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## jhays79 (Apr 22, 2012)

Looking forward to seeing more of this. I love fish room build threads!


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## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

jhays79 said:


> Looking forward to seeing more of this. I love fish room build threads!


Thanks. Everything is sort of on hold until I start working again. But as soon as I get back on track, I will be back to it.


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## bigred35 (Apr 25, 2012)

man i wish i had the room to set something up like this... i would be in heaven..


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## cableguy69846 (Feb 7, 2011)

bigred35 said:


> man i wish i had the room to set something up like this... i would be in heaven..


Lol. I don't really have the room. I am making it. Lol. :supz:


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