hi folks
im thinking of bulding a fishroom in my garage. its gonna hold 20 tanks 900x400x400mm each. im hoping to keep alot of s american fishes eg.tetras,corys,ancistrus,etc as well as a cichlid and livebearer tank eg mollies,guppies,platies. anyone have any advice/info on the plumbing, filtration(central or individual filtration??), heating and layout? i want to keep costs as low as possible so any diy info will also be helpful. tks
diy fishroom
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MatsP
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I haven't built a fish-room, but here's some thoughts to consider:
You'll want to have a filtration system such that you can isolate individual tanks (or at the very least a small set, say 4-5 tanks) so that you can treat a single or a few tanks with medications etc, without having the medication spread to all other tanks. Of course, if you have a single or a small set of mid-size external or internal filters that you keep matured by running in conjunction with the central filtration system, then all you need is a way of "turning off" the central filtration and add the "temporary" filter to an individual tank that needs special treatment.
Also consider that if you're going to buy in new stock fish now and again, you'll need at least one, probably a couple of, quarantine tank(s). These need separate filtration or you'll end up spreading any decease...
Of course, you'll also have to consider that the different tanks will require different temperature and perhaps also different water conditions (not so much if all the fish are south american, but certainly if you start going for Malawi or Tanganyika Cichlids).
Of course, if the room isn't particularly large, and reasonably well insulated [and you do want it reasonably well insulated so that it's not dropping in temp too much in winter and getting too hot in summer], the whole room will be at some fairly high temperature by the other tanks "leaking" heat, so you will have to watch out if you're planning to keep the cooler water fish, such as some Ancistrus, Chatestoma, Otocinclus species.
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Mats
You'll want to have a filtration system such that you can isolate individual tanks (or at the very least a small set, say 4-5 tanks) so that you can treat a single or a few tanks with medications etc, without having the medication spread to all other tanks. Of course, if you have a single or a small set of mid-size external or internal filters that you keep matured by running in conjunction with the central filtration system, then all you need is a way of "turning off" the central filtration and add the "temporary" filter to an individual tank that needs special treatment.
Also consider that if you're going to buy in new stock fish now and again, you'll need at least one, probably a couple of, quarantine tank(s). These need separate filtration or you'll end up spreading any decease...
Of course, you'll also have to consider that the different tanks will require different temperature and perhaps also different water conditions (not so much if all the fish are south american, but certainly if you start going for Malawi or Tanganyika Cichlids).
Of course, if the room isn't particularly large, and reasonably well insulated [and you do want it reasonably well insulated so that it's not dropping in temp too much in winter and getting too hot in summer], the whole room will be at some fairly high temperature by the other tanks "leaking" heat, so you will have to watch out if you're planning to keep the cooler water fish, such as some Ancistrus, Chatestoma, Otocinclus species.
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Mats
