# FishRoom design - need ideas



## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Anyone here has a fishroom with multiple racks, centralized/non-central system etc etc etc. 

If so, I will follow up with questions. :wink:


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

*L* well..my room is turning into a fish room. but I guess that doesn't count 

Ask questions anyways!


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

*room ideas*

I have some pictures here:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's Page/Aquarium/hardware/fish room/sunroom.html

I try to keep about 18 inches clear in back of large show tanks. Its a real pleasure working on all four sides of the tank. Its also much easier to do water changes by the windows and work on filters, etc. You see Amano a lot at the back of his tanks.

On the left side of the room where the couch is I may eventually put racks of 10 to 20 gallon tanks. Since these are small they probably will go against the wall.

Steve Pituch


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

This is the "final" layout of my fishroom.










*Tanks: *

Notice changes in tank size *

Bottom shelf - 3 x 29G 
Middle shelf - 5 x 10G (1 short-side) 
Top shelf - 5 x 5 1/2 G + 1 x 2.5 G

*Heat: *

- heating entire room

*Filtration*

- PVC pipes with air pump (not sure which one yet)
- Hydro sponges on 10s and 5s -> http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/FILTRATION/Hydro-Sponge_Filters/hydro-sponge_filters.html

- HOB on 29s (probably AC200)

*Light *

- 1 x 96" NO T12 double strip under each shelf. Lots of light in case I want to grow more plants 

fixture - 25$ 
bulbs 6500K 84CRI - 10$

Fish to come: 
- Latecara sp. 
- Apistogramma sp. 
- various Killies 
- Kribs 
- Julis 
- small Malawi cichlids 
- etc.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

How about using the automatic water changing pipe system? :wink:


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Raul-7 said:


> How about using the automatic water changing pipe system? :wink:


I thought about that. I really don't want to invest time and money into it. Plus I don't want to drill tanks.

This is 2nd floor apartment so I'm trying to eliminate excess material.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Why not use Penguin or Emperor HOBs...they're great for tanks that don't have plants and house a lot of fish?


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Raul-7 said:


> Why not use Penguin or Emperor HOBs...they're great for tanks that don't have plants and house a lot of fish?


Sorry but Penguins are poor version of Emperors and are on the bottom of my list. This is experience from keeping african cichlids from Lake Malawi.

ACs use sponges, and are quiet when compared to Emperor (The Waterfalls).


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Jay,

What are you trying to accomplish with this? Do you want to breed fish, grow plants, have a bunch of aquascaped tanks? 

Things to keep in mind/ I wish I'd done but didn't when making my plant rack:

Don't forget to take the height of your light fixture into account when determining the distance from the top of the tank to the next crossmember. My T-12 Shoplights take up 4" from the space between the tanks. I had to drop the bottom tank a full foot to account for the extra used space and still have 8" to get stuff in/out of the tanks. 

Also, if you're planning on cutting notches out of your upright members to inset the crossmembers, make sure to plan for the decreased width inside the rack. My plant rack is 10g tanks lengthwise along the wall and with two notched uprights I only have room for 1 two bulb fixture. I was originally wanting two fixtures per level...... 

Make the frame for the tanks first and then attach them to the upright members. Because I overestimated the width of the 2x4s, my tanks are sitting with an inch hanging over the crossmembers. Although, now I've got the perfect excuse to get plywood and put reptile heaters under the tanks. 

Best,
Phil


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Phil Edwards said:


> Jay,
> 
> What are you trying to accomplish with this? Do you want to breed fish, grow plants, have a bunch of aquascaped tanks?


Primarly grow fish. No aquascape tanks. Grow some plants but nothing fancy.



> Don't forget to take the height of your light fixture into account when determining the distance from the top of the tank to the next crossmember. My T-12 Shoplights take up 4" from the space between the tanks.


As you can see, I have 12" between top of the tank to above 2x4. So If I place fixture, I still have 8" between. I also have bottom 14" which is not being used but it was designed to help with lower shelf tank drainage. I could use at least 1-2" of that space for each shelf space.



> Also, if you're planning on cutting notches out of your upright members to inset the crossmembers, make sure to plan for the decreased width inside the rack.


I'm using 4x8ft plywood which will give me 24" of width - notches = 20



> My plant rack is 10g tanks lengthwise along the wall and with two notched uprights I only have room for 1 two bulb fixture. I was originally wanting two fixtures per level......


I will have enough for two.

Thanks for your input.


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

You're welcome Jay. 

About filtration....individual sponge filters will probably be your best bet. A few large hobby pumps should power enough sponges to keep all the fish in there happy and nothing's better in a breeding tank than a sponge filter.


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Phil Edwards said:


> A few large hobby pumps should power enough sponges to keep all the fish in there happy and nothing's better in a breeding tank than a sponge filter.


I am shooting for Rena 400 :idea:


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## EDGE (Feb 28, 2004)

I didn't think rena 400 can power pvc style airline. You would need at least a hagen hi-blow to do that or similar style of pump.

I was in the process of designing a fishroom, but theres too much furniture/painting at risk to water damage.

Self waterchanging system is not as expensive as it look. Slap a timer on the pump that feed the tank or use a 24/7 drip system. Put a threaded needle valve to the pvc pipe and attach a sprinkler line to that end. Let the line hang over the tank and attach a 1 gph sprinkler drip system to the other end.

The old water will overflow to another tub with a censor sump pump which get auto turn on when water reach a certain level.

You can avoid drilling the tank out by doing a DIY overflow pipe setup.

Below is a link to one of the discus breeder using DIY parts for his setup.

http://www.discusfish.us/default.cfm?page_var=waterwork

I find getting all the glass tanks to be the most expensive when I had it all worked out. The room was design to use a mininum of 40 tanks each being no less than 30Gallon.

I was going to use ball valves for all the tank refill, which added to the cost of piping really fast; however, it is really cheap when you start avoiding all the Tees,elbows and ballvalves to go with a drip system.


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

I am looking for space heaters to heat my fishroom. I was told that ceramic heaters w/ controler on the cord as the best. 

Any tips ?


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

Hey Jay, go to www.mcmaster.com

in the search field enter 534 (this is a page in their catalog). 534-538 has all sorts of nice options for you


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## JLudwig (Feb 16, 2004)

Jay...

I have two racks, one houses 3 10 gallons, the other has 2 20longs and 5 2.5's. Five 2.5 on end is same frontprint as twenty long, works out real well... I use exclusively the #00 sponge filters from Jehmco, I'm keeping a pair of gardneri, diamond tetra, A. normanii, Ram/Cory tank and a pair of saltwater clownfish... 2.5s are for fry rearing...

Skip the intermediate air pumps and go right for a linear piston air pump... very quiet, I have the LPH26 model from Jehmco. They also sell a PVC manifold, about 3.5-4 feet long with twently air valves, pick one of these up also.

Be sure theres enough room to fully open an All-glass canopy between racks. Have water worked out in advanced, even the strongest powerhead can't pump to the top rack, you're in sump pump land working against 4+ feet of head pressure. Visit a local killifish guy, these folks tend to have great fishroom automation.

Also, on your racks, go with 3/4" ply and leave the front 2x4 off, a la aquarium center racks... that extra 3.5" to work with up front is really helpful. Use pinkboard from home improvement center under tanks, I cracked a 10 on the top of my rack as it didn't sit exactly true on the ply...

Jeff


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

JLudwig said:


> I use exclusively the #00 sponge filters from Jehmco


Which one is that ? Did you mean H-0 model Hydro ?



> Skip the intermediate air pumps and go right for a linear piston air pump... very quiet, I have the LPH26 model from Jehmco.


Thats the one Ghazanfar is using it. You talked me into it. What the hell, $189 :shock: 
http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/HARDWARE_/Central_Air_Pumps/26_Watt_Pump/26_watt_pump.html



> They also sell a PVC manifold, about 3.5-4 feet long with twently air valves, pick one of these up also.


Which one. I can't find it.



> Have water worked out in advanced, even the strongest powerhead can't pump to the top rack, you're in sump pump land working against 4+ feet of head pressure.


I'm buying Mag water pump w/ 500 gph or so.



> Also, on your racks, go with 3/4" ply and leave the front 2x4 off, a la aquarium center racks... that extra 3.5" to work with up front is really helpful. Use pinkboard from home improvement center under tanks, I cracked a 10 on the top of my rack as it didn't sit exactly true on the ply...


I'm using 8x2ft rack so I will have plenty of room up front since tank will be positioned long way. 
I'm using 3/4 " plywood.

I send you PM. Call me


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## JLudwig (Feb 16, 2004)

Jay Luto said:


> Which one is that ? Did you mean H-0 model Hydro ?


Yup... cheap, heavy, order replacement sponges while you're at it...



Jay said:


> Thats the one Ghazanfar is using it. You talked me into it. What the hell, $189


Well... yes, it is expensive but we wasted the money for you already  . We had two of the big guy Whispers, one Rena methinks and it couldn't keep up. They say xxx devices but you need to keep in mind the head pressure at the top tanks. We've prolly spent over $100 on smaller airpumps which are now worthless.



> They also sell a PVC manifold, about 3.5-4 feet long with twently air valves, pick one of these up also.


Call them, I don't bother with their website anymore  They are so helpful over the phone, they know exactly what you want... They can really help with a lot of design questions, they've supplied just about every serious fishroom I know about. They're not too far from us in Jersey either altho I dunno if they allow walk-ins...

I'll snap a few pics of the fishroom tonight, its water change night anyhow... Grab a can of BBS before the prices go up any more also...

Cheers,
Jeff


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

> I'll snap a few pics of the fishroom tonight, its water change night anyhow... Grab a can of BBS before the prices go up any more also...


Jeff,

I got your message tonight but I was busy w/ fixing up entire house. Floors, walls, painting etc etc. I will call you when I get the chance.

Please post some pictures of your setup :wink:


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

good luck


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## Hanzo (Mar 9, 2004)

Here's a link to some pics of my setup back when I was breeding Betta's. I use a gardenia drip system, with just a normal gardenpump to run the whole thing. I Still use some of this setup to propogate Riccia, Javamose and stuff like that. all the text are in norwegian, but feel free to ask any question here

http://www.diskusjonsforum.no/akvariet/showthread.php?t=10048


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

nice job hanzo!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I am seriously thinking of getting a window air conditioner for my fish room. In the summer the cooling from the central air conditioning is not enough because of all the heat produced by the lights and ballasts. Another concern is that in a rack of tanks, the lights for the tanks below, heat the tanks on the shelf above. One possible solution for overheating would be to have the fan that moves the air around the house on all the time, not just when the heat or the AC is on.


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

HeyPK said:


> One possible solution for overheating would be to have the fan that moves the air around the house on all the time, not just when the heat or the AC is on.


Or at least have a ceiling fan, which is what I will have in the fishroom. I spoke to various knowledgeable NJAS members who have or had their fishrooms on 2nd floor with larger tanks than mine, no central AC, and they had yet to complain about their setups.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

A ceiling fan is a very good idea, it should also help avoid eccessive condensation on the ceiling which will lead to obvious problems. Humidity is the major problem I've seen in fish rooms.

With heating and cooling, we purchased a portable a/c unit with heater and de-humidifier built in for a small server room. You set the temp and it will turn the a/c or heat on accordingly. I have to check the invoice but it was around $400-500 dollars if I remember correctly. I'm sure it would work well in a fish room too.

Giancarlo Podio


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

gpodio said:


> A ceiling fan is a very good idea, it should also help avoid eccessive condensation on the ceiling which will lead to obvious problems. Humidity is the major problem I've seen in fish rooms.
> 
> With heating and cooling, we purchased a portable a/c unit with heater and de-humidifier built in for a small server room. You set the temp and it will turn the a/c or heat on accordingly. I have to check the invoice but it was around $400-500 dollars if I remember correctly. I'm sure it would work well in a fish room too.
> 
> Giancarlo Podio


i have the same thing in my dormroom. it's the best money i ever spent


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