Pharaoh's New Fish Room Build

Pharaoh

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Well, as many of you have probably seen, I am apparently a bit of a mover and a shaker when it comes to fish tanks, fish rooms and plumbing. I'm a bit of a tinkerer and I'm always wanting to try something new. This causes me a lot more work than I should really have, but hey, it's what I do.

In July of last year, the wife and I moved back to the south side of town. I decided that after the move, I would design the fish room to be a breeding setup as I have recently began serious participation in the breeding program through out local club. Of course, the fact that I am the chair might have something to do with it. Any who, this gave me the opportunity I wanted to start from scratch with the setup and expand.

Our new house is a tri-level, meaning that half of it is a two story and the other half is on a crawl space. The "basement" as I call it contains the laundry area, some closets, and a bathroom. Other than that, it is mine to control for fishy business. I don't have a whole lot of room, but I think I can deal with it....for now.

Here is a quick shot of the space I was starting in. Not a very good shot, but a little taste of what's to come. In the photo, we tore up the carpet on one side of the room and were putting down vinyl flooring.

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Tanks:
I decided to setup most of my racks with 20g high tank. I know 29s are more of a preferable tank size, but since the ACA was in town this last year, I got a great deal on them. I had a few 40 breeders lying around, so I figured them into the room as well.

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Filtration:
Since I was going to a full scale breeding setup, I decided that sponge filters and a large air pump were the way to go. I couldn't imagine my energy bill if I had run power filters on every tank. But overall, the setup is simple. PVC around the room with air valves tapped it; all powered by a moderately sized air pump. for the sponge filters, I went with Swiss tropical sponge filters. If you haven't used them before, I highly recommend them. There's something about the up tube design that works really well. Other than that, the filters are pretty basic.

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Next installment... Setting up the filtration

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Pharaoh

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Next up came putting up the central air line system. This as a simple 3/4" PVC air line that I ran around the room. I originally powered the fish room with a Danner AP-40 air pump that I'd had for a while. By the time everything was setup, I realized that this pump wasn't nearly enough to handle all the tanks I was planning to run. I then switched over to a Jehmco linear air pump capable of running up to 80 or so tanks. I figure with all the tanks I plan to run, egg tumblers and potential expansion, that should be good enough for what I need.

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I drilled and installed five or size air valves every foot or so. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have put more in as it is a huge pain to put in additional outlets now.

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Here is where I initially planned on putting the air pump. But do to some serious lack of attention I gave this plan, it never dawned on me that tanks might get in the way. So, I had to run a hose to the other side of the room away from the tanks. You actually get a sneak peek at the stands I built.

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This is the original Danner pump installed on the shelf. Not only did this pump not put out enough air, but it was really loud to be out in the open. I measured the dB it was putting out and if I remember, it was somewhere in the high 90s. I want to say 97-98 dB.

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Here is the Jehmo pump that I put in a couple of months later. This thing puts out tons of air and it is ridiculously quiet compared to the other pump. The only time I hear it is when I stand right in from of the output side. Even for the money, this was a great buy and an awesome value. I would highly recommend it.

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Next installment.....Stands and tanks.

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Pharaoh

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Now up is the building of the stands for the fish room and the installation of the tanks. I went with the standard setup on these tanks as I'm confident in the ability of these stands to hold the weight. And.....they are extremely cheap to make. I was confident with the wood stands as I have built many that have served me well.

Prior to moving, I pondered going with steel racks to hold all the tanks. I was looking at some of the industrial grade racks that were capable of hold weights in excess of 2,500 pounds per shelf. On paper, this shounds like all the support you would ever need. If you see them in person at the store, they don't give you that same warm and fuzzy feeling. I could literally tweak the metal shelves with my hand. Now I know that they will hold, but as most of us know, the warm and fuzzy feeling is priceless.

Ultimately, the decision between metal and wood racks came down to two variables; cost and design capability. The metal shelving was no doubt more expensive. I estimated that it would cost me at minimum, $500 to build the initial rack with the industrial shelving. Compare that to $50 dollars in 2x4s and screws and the choice seems very simple. Regardless, I'm willing to spend a little extra money if I will get some sort of benefit from it. Unfortunately, when looking at the dimensions of the racks more issues came into play. Gorilla racks and the like are build on exact dimensions. A 4 foot rack is exactly 48 inches between the pillars. Where this becomes an issue is most tanks aren't exact. For example, a 20H is 12.5" wide. Four wide they are 50", so four will not fit on one rack. This would require me to stack the tanks in grooups of 20-20-20-10 per rack. Not good for the plumbing. This coupled with the need to maximize space, 2x4s were the way to go.

That being said....

The start of the stand. Yes, I know the truck is totally awesome and no, you can't have it.

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Broke my square.... was a valiant soldier that was lost fighting the good fight.

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Isn't this the kind of thing that just grinds your gears? The last screw of the stand and the battery dies...

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First stand half painted and in the room. Notice that the flooring is down. I don't have any other pics while installing. Also, you'll see that one of the uprights on one side of the stand is offset. I did the same on the other side. This allowed me to build the stands independently of each other, but reduce the length by 1.5". Space is critial as there is a door to the left of the stand and I was trying to get my bang for the buck.
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My other house sold sooner than expected. For a moment I thought I was going to have to use some spare 29s borrowed from a local fishkeeper.
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Instead, I postponed a bit and got my tanks from the ACA held in Indy. So, I started loading them up.

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Second rack installed

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More tanks...

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All 20Hs installed and airlines run

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Sponges and lids put on. Tanks half full for the 24-48 leak testing. I saw a few leakers at ACA, so I was cautious about filling them up right away.

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Passed the leak tests at half and full for 48 hours each and holding well. The closing date for the old house was impending, so I had to move fish quickly.

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Impromptu 40 breeder I had to put on the stand while moving fish

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40 breeder stands. 4-40 breeders in this corner.

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Painting the backs before installing these. I learned my lesson.

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Filling up the rest of them

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I fonally got around to removing the 40 breeder on top and installed the 10Gs. The rack is officially full.
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Few full rack shots.

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A little love for the Monster!!!!!

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Now. I had to force this project along as I didn't have time to take it piece by piece. We honestly weren't expecting to sell the old house so quickly. I figured I had a few months before it would sell. I had to rush quite a few things; painting tanks, plumbing, etc. But.... we'll get to that.

Next installment... Plumbing and/or Lighting.

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Pharaoh

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Ok, time for the next update. At this point, I have everything built, and all the tanks on stands. But.... in my hurry to get all my fish moved into the new house, I did not get to plumb the tanks. So that's what happened next.I don't have a sump pit in this house....yet, so I had to make due with what I have. That being the case, I had to go with more of a WC plumbing system than a drip system or auto WC system. It is still quite a bit manual for now. I have a potential work around for it, but I haven't gotten that far. Probably 6 months out on that plan.

Soooo... I began tearing down the rows of 20Hs one by one. I had to move and shift fish from tank to tank so I couldn't just tear down the whole setup at once.

Took the opportunity to paint the tanks as well. This made a huge difference, IMO
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Some of the plumbing. Not all of it. I tend to get really involved and focused on plumbing and always forget to take pictures. so you'll have to live with what I got.

Side note, I left some extra PVC here for when the 10Gs get attached to the plumbing. They awill be separate, but drained through the same final tap.

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Here is where I ran the plumbing through the stand for the bottom row. Height is an issue in this fish room, si I had to make it work. Of course, after doing this, I actually like it more than what I did before, so I may convert the upper rows to something like this. I like the look on the front of the tanks much, much better. Plus, I don't have to reach behind the rack to shut off the water.

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I had to use this valve on the bottom row vs the normal valves as I can't really reach the back of the tanks. This will let me turn on the drain from the front.

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Tearing down the setup I just installed.

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Here are my intake strainers that I built to keep fish from going down the tubes and regulate how low the water will get should I walk away and forget what I'm doing. when I start draining the water. Of course, there's no protection for fry, so I still have to watch for that.

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On to the drilling setup. I borrow a drill press as set to making this easier than I have seen it done in the past. Most people just use a corded drill. I've done it that way, it sucked, I needed a better solution. And this is it. It was bit difficult to firm up so it would cut straight, but little ingenuity and a few 2x4s will get you a long way. IMO, this was the perfect rig for drilling 27 tanks in the exact same spot every time. Sorry for the sideways pictures. I'll fix this at some point.

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Intake strainers installed and test filling.

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Tanks painted, installed and filling. You can see a fairly good comparison of the painted top row vs the non-painted lower rows. This is so much better looking when you are going for the clean look. It gets better with the lights installed.

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Almost there....

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Tanks filled with sponges installed and waiting to get to room temp. Approximately 78-80* on the top row.

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Pharaoh

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so this is where it gets a bit hard to break things up. In the middle of drilling and plumbing all the tanks, I decided to start working on lights for the tanks. I chose to give the cheap-O LEDS from eBay a shot and see how I liked them. I don't really have plants, so there was no need to pay attention to PAR values or anything like that. I just need to see the fish.

I bought three rolls of the 5050 SMD LEDs, a dimmer, some connectors, PS adapter connector and a power supply. Total bill was right around $60. After the fact, realized the dimmer and the connectors were useless and I could have saved myself $6-10. But, when you're shooting from the hip, these things happen.

Here are the rolls of LED. I bought the non-waterproof kind. Didn't feel the necessity for water proof ones. I have lids. plus, I know where to get coating that is way better than what they most likely used.

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Here are the LED on a trial run just to see if they worked and how bright they were. Let's just say they were sufficient.

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FF a few and I have the first row installed. I simply used furring strips ($0.69), attached the LED via the sticky on the back and then screwed the strips to the bottom of the row above. Mounted to the ceiling on the top row. No reflectors, no fancy stuff. This is a fish room and I'm not growing plants. I'll get a pick of the LEDS installed on the furring strips soon. I thought I had one already.

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Top row installed

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You retain so much more of the light ad you also have a background to make the fish contrast for visibility.

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Here's a pic with the room lights one. doesn't look as good. Normally, I just work down there with the light from the tanks. That way I enjoy the fruits of my labor.

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just so you could see that there is plenty of light.

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Notice the drilling and plumbing going in. The last two pics are backwards. apparently.

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Final note on the lights. I have my lights positioned roughly 8" from the tops of the tanks. It is further on the 10Gs. I did a test on these just to see if they would grow java moss for fry. turns out, these LEDs will sustain java moss in the 10 gallon. Now, I said sustain, not grow. It will probably grow in the 20Hs as they are closer to the lights. That is the next test.

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Pharaoh

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OK, so this is "basically" the final installment on this project. I pretty much renovated one side of the fish room to accomplish a couple things; make the room a bit smaller and lower the area to be heated and to allow for a few more tanks. Hopefully, I can get this in some sort of chronological order.


First off, I built a new stand to try with my 40 breeders. I wanted to test out having the tanks set sideways. Turns out, it isn't all that great. With the required support that they need, it is difficult to reach the back of the tank without extensions. So this will change the ultimate direction of my project further down the page.

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As you can see, It was initially installed on the half wall. I learned two things. It is difficult to reach things from the front and with the tanks positioned like this along the entire future wall, I would have a very narrow walkway in the room. It would be difficult to remove/repair any tank issues.




Here is the initial tear out and tank relocation phase of the remodel. Come to find out, there is block behind the wall. This cause a major revision in the blueprints.

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Then I began framing the wall in. Due to the block, the wall had an odd thickness. I had to basically build two wall with a space in between to match up with the old wall.

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At first, I tried to leave the front on the bulkhead to save some time. Didn't work out, had to remove it anyway. Sometimes it is better to just go all in than try and dance around it.

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Bulkhead installed and drywall going up. I actually started in a different order than shown, but this is how it makes sense in the walkthrough.

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Next you'll see that I ended up having to build a custom fit door & frame due to the width and height of the wall. It is hard to see, but this door is actually 5" shorter than a normal opening due to the main floor joists that ran across the room.. This was a bit of a PIA, but it ended up looking much better than I though it would. Also some shots of priming and painting.

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Here is the finished product with the walls painted and the trim put down.

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Finally got to move the 40brs back from the other colder side of the room. As stated about, setting the tanks longways, would have been a huge PIA, so I stuck with the normal way. I think it looks great.

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I'm sure there will be some changes to my setup and design over the next few months. One of which might be drilling a few tanks and setting up a drip system, but I'm not 100% committed to that just yet. We'll see.


At this point, all I really need to do is wire up some LEDs. Of course.... seeing as how I just started a job that specializes in high quality, custom engineered LEDs, I might have some petty cool stuff to show off in the near future. Thanks for reading and being patient while I pushed through this project.

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wednesday13

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anxious to see your skills pharoah! i'm always trying to better my setup aswell. Pics of your last setup inspired me to put a sump pump in my basement for super easy water changes. I'll have to try out some Swiss Tropical sponges, 6 months ago i added hydor sponges to 90% of my tanks as addons and the difference in water params and clarity is unbelievable even up to 180gal's. I think they are very underrated on our site, i myself thought they were a hoax until i had a canister break in a 90 gallon leaving only one sponge running. Tank has been clean ever since.
 

Pharaoh

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anxious to see your skills pharoah! i'm always trying to better my setup aswell. Pics of your last setup inspired me to put a sump pump in my basement for super easy water changes. I'll have to try out some Swiss Tropical sponges, 6 months ago i added hydor sponges to 90% of my tanks as addons and the difference in water params and clarity is unbelievable even up to 180gal's. I think they are very underrated on our site, i myself thought they were a hoax until i had a canister break in a 90 gallon leaving only one sponge running. Tank has been clean ever since.
Thanks. The sponge filters are very simple in design, but that uplift tube is awesome. IMO, it perfectly breaks up the air to get consistent bubbles/flow. This means no huge bubbles splashing water out of the tank and no air stones to plug up
 

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looking forward to more
 
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