PlanetCatfish.com

Quick thought. Have you considered placing the tote higher off the ground? In an ideal situation close to the ceiling is best because of gravity assist and the room air will also heat the tote over time.
From experience using the port on the front side of the tote works better. Can easily swap out pump or gas n worst case gravity drain. I have used additional fittings inside the tote to step down to smaller dia pipe and can drain almost all the water.

Jim

Thanks for the ideas Jim.

I hadn't considered elevating the tote, although as you mentioned there are two good reasons to.

I'm using the 2 inch valve on the base at the front, stepped down to 1 inch, which then goes to a pump and through the wall to the fish room. There will then be valves above each tank to fill.

I guess I had always had it in my head being setup like this and hadn't considered raising it! I'll see how things go and may move it later if it becomes a pain to heat the water. Right now I want to get it up and running it seems to have been going on forever! The start of the building work which the fish room is part of was back in February!

I need somebody to build for me room like this ! Lol

This is amazing! I can't wait for the final reveal

Thanks everyone for following along.

I made some more progress today, the water and air lines are starting to go up and I've insulated the window. It's only there in case we move or change the use of the room, so it can be turned back into a 'normal' room .

The cables coming through the wall are power for the pump which will be used to return fresh water to the tanks after water changes, it's so I can mount the controller in the fish room even though the pump is in the water room. That way I can turn it on and off without having to leave the fish room.

A bit more got done today although not as much as I'd like, I keep underestimating the amount of time things will take!

The air ring is finished, complete with a valve and silencer, in case I need to bleed off any excess pressure.

I'm almost there with the water fill pipework, just one more rack to do. I wanted to be really neat and hard plumb up as close as possible to the tanks, buts it's just slowing everything down and I've made a couple silly mistakes! For the next rack I might just get the valves somewhere behind the tanks then run a longer length of tubing to the corner of the tank!

Tomorrow I should be able to finish the water return, get the linear piston pump connected to the air ring to test, and hopefully setup my RO and HMA filters in the water room.

I've managed to get most of the setup in the water room done, just waiting on some cable to arrive so I can wire in a high pressure switch to the booster pump so it cuts off when the float valve closes at the top of the tank.

I only have a float valve connected to the RO unit, as I plan to fill 10% of the IBC with the HMA filtered water while I'm there as its mains pressure so hopefully won't take long, then leave the RO running unsupervised.

It's a 450 GPD unit so hopefully I'll be able to fill the IBC in a reasonable time.

I've also finished the air and return water plumbing in the fish room, I just need to test it before I push the racks back against the walls.

The tanks might have some water in soon!

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Take care,
Chuck

The pipework has been tested, the air and water plumbing seem to be good, so I've pushed the racks back against the wall and I'm now working on plumbing the sump into the large tank. Once that's done I'll level the racks and fix to the walls, then install the waste drains, before a test fill to make sure the tanks and stands are good.

The rack on the back wall only has a tank in the middle, both the top and bottom shelves will hold 3 smaller tanks, for breeding smaller fish and raising fry.

It's getting closer, I can almost see the end of carrying water upstairs to do water changes !

The picture looks a bit weird as I used a clip on fish eye lens for my phone to get everything into one shot.

your fish rooms looking great MarkW. I look forward to seeing more pics

Looking good bud! I am in the process of building my 3rd fish room..... and what I have learned over the years is there is always something I wish I did a little different and I never have enough tanks or room for them!

Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing fish in the tanks,
Chuck

Thanks everyone!

Chuck, any chance of a thread or a picture of your fish room? Three must have been a lot of work! Is it starting fresh with a current room, or due to a move?

Yeah, I'm upsizing from 2 mid size (170 litres ~ 40 USG) and 3 small (40 litres ~ 10 USG) to 16 tanks plus the 8ft one, and before there is any water in them, I've got them fully stocked in my head, and wanting more space. I'm already trying to figure out where I might be able to squeeze 1 or 2 more in !

MarcW wrote: ↑23 Oct 2018, 08:59 Thanks everyone!

Chuck, any chance of a thread or a picture of your fish room? Three must have been a lot of work! Is it starting fresh with a current room, or due to a move?

Yeah, I'm upsizing from 2 mid size (170 litres ~ 40 USG) and 3 small (40 litres ~ 10 USG) to 16 tanks plus the 8ft one, and before there is any water in them, I've got them fully stocked in my head, and wanting more space. I'm already trying to figure out where I might be able to squeeze 1 or 2 more in !

Sounds like you have a bad case of MTS.... as do I! lol
I just want/need more tanks and the only way to do that is build a new fish room. It will be a completely new building and it is in the early stages still so not much to show but I'll take pictures as it comes along...

Take care,
Chuck

Sounds good, it's nice to have a complete fresh start so everything can be planned to work and fit in just as you like. Good luck!

Just wondering if a good idea to fix the racks to the walls before water is added? Perhaps they will settle a bit and pull from the wall? Apologies if I've missed something...

Jools

Good idea Jools, I had previously fixed a rack to the wall before filling, but that holds 3 small tanks totalling about 100-120 litres so what you are describing probably wouldn't be an issue. However these are significantly heavier, I think your approach is correct, I'll level the racks (the floor isn't quite level), then fill with tap water before I fix to the wall. Good idea, thanks!

looking good wish I would have did this the first time around on my fish room instead of going on the final 3rd time lol
-Tony

Thanks Tony.

It's due to sites like this, as well as watching a lot of you tube videos, that have lead to this setup. I have heard that comment so many times, I wanted to try my best to learn from other setups to hopefully avoid some mistakes I would have otherwise made, and also try to make the room as efficient as possible. Currently its a bit of a chore maintaining my tanks around the house, I'm hoping they will be significantly easier to maintain in this room, leaving me more time to focus on breeding and enjoying the fish.

Plumbing for the sump is done, and there's water in the big tank!

The picture shows approximately 500 liters in the tank, I'll leave it at that overnight, if all looks good tomorrow I'll fill up and try out the sump plumbing. I've already tested the bulkheads are water tight, the wier has been half full for a few days.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have most of the work done and it'll be functional with just finishing off to do.

Fish soon......


Jools

Soon!

I've spent this morning trying to figure out how much water to put in the tank/sump without causing a flood!

I think I have it figured out, it's amazing how long it takes the water levels to settle after making small changes!

Just the rest of the tanks to test fill and fix to the walls. Then I'll be able to clip the waste pipe to the front of the racks.

Hopefully next weekend I'll get some fish in! I'm looking forward to getting them all out and photographed.

Then I suppose I'll have to take take a trip to Pier and see what they've got !

Looks really cool
Makes me wanna so it also!
Miss my fish

A bit more progress, the tanks have been filled and tested with tap water. The racks are fixed to the wall/each other, and the drains are in place and working.

Just a quick scrub out of the tanks, I'll start rinsing sand and putting filters in. Then it'll be time to turn the heater on and get things up to temperature!

I'm currently working on the lighting, each tank will have 2 strips of led lighting. The idea being one will be dimmed to 50% ish, and come on 15-30 minutes before the other which will be at full power.

These aren't very powerful but should be fine for my needs, I'm hoping to get some low light plants in the tanks soon, these should be fine for anubias, java fern and java moss based on my experiences using the same lights in other tanks.

The strips of leds are cut to length and placed into aluminium channels using the self adhesive backing. Once I've soldered the cables onto the ends, end caps and a clear plastic cover are attached.

It's very cost effective and simple to put together if you have a bit of experience with soldering.

With a bit of luck I might be able to start moving fish at the weekend, and maybe have a few new ones in a couple weeks!

are you using a large in line heater?

As there will be several tanks in the room, I will heat the room using an oil filled electric radiator.

I have several regular aquarium heaters so will be able to raise the temperature above that of the room in a few aquariums if needed.

I agree, Viktor. My father (an engineer) used to say that even if you tried to make a realistic estimate, then in reality the project would take e times as long and cost pi times as much as you thought. That’s the true definition of e and pi!
(e = 2.7, pi = 3.1, both approx)
My experience is the same.
Paul

Viktor Jarikov wrote: ↑05 Sep 2018, 13:45 This is a LOT of work and exciting at the same time! And yes, the same here. I've noted that I on average underestimate how much time something will take by a factor of 3x. Sometimes 2x, other times 6x. Let it be a task / project that I think would take 3 hours, or 3 days, or 3 months, or 3 years. Neither do I appear to learn. Welcome to the club of perpetual, forecast-handicapped optimists.

I am truly amazed at what an awesome job you are doing!
I have a back bedroom that in a few years I will be converting to my fish room. Nothing as fancy as YOUR room of course! I plan on leveling and probably reinforcing the floor and installing linoleum and vinyl baseboards, additional electrical outlets and wooden shelves. That way I can condense all my tanks scattered about my house lol!

Thanks Jodilynn. It's been a long time coming, I'm hoping to move at least some of my current fish in this weekend! It will be so much easier to maintain having them all in one room.

Enjoy planning your room, I made sure I read as many fish room threads and articles as I could, I got some great ideas from them and have hopefully made a better fish room because of it.

Good luck!

More progress this weekend, I've got the mattenfilters in the tanks and spent most of today washing sand!

The lights are all in place and working too. After putting sand in the tanks I replaced the tap water with my RO mix.

No fish just yet, I didn't want to rush and make a silly mistake, so I'll gradually move them in over the next couple of weeks.

I still need to clean some rocks and wood, then get them in the tanks along with some caves and plants, then I should be good to go.

Once my current fish are moved I'll work on the large tank, I need to buy some more sand and a few giant pieces of wood for that yet.