Temperature/Humidity controlled detached garage converted into man-cave with tanks.

RequiemTCE

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 15, 2011
81
0
36
Portland, OR
So I recently got a new property and moved into it, and there was a detached garage that was in an inconvenient place for some disabled people in the family, and a garage got added on to the main house, making the old garage redundant.

This meant that it was now my man-cave. :naughty:

I moved during the summer(last summer), and it became immediately obvious that the temperatures in the garage went over 90F, which obviously will not work. The infallible matriarch deemed that I had $5,000 for the mancave. I started by running 100A 120V and 35A 240V out to the garage. The 100A 120V circuit goes to a lug box with 5 20A/120V circuits(ceiling lights/projectors/microwave/fridge/kegorator, then all 4 N/S/E/W walls each at 20A with 2 GFCI outlets each) and the 35A 240V goes to a 28,800 BTU air conditioner. The air conditioner kills it, it's almost September and it has performed admirably throughout the summer so far.

The garage was just a garage. No insulation, nothing. One 15A circuit running out to it for the garage door. Unfortunately I lost the phone that had the before pictures of the garage. But anyway, with the imposed $5,000 budget(much of which had already been spent on the materials/tools to run the electrical circuits out to the garage and purchase the air conditioner), that meant that the entire project was DIY and paying friends with beer and whatnot.

As you can see, at all times we observed the strictest of safety precautions.
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So anyway, here's the "finished" product. At some point I decided I didn't care about the wood paneling anymore and just wanted to get my stuff in there, so there's a lot of bare insulation.

~550G total(180+150+80+100 of 220g sump+canisters+UV+PVC), 12GPH drip with 1 micron sediment filter and BRS chloramines monster, 90,000+ UV exposure on every return to all 3 tanks.
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RequiemTCE

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 15, 2011
81
0
36
Portland, OR
Too late to edit - 1 XP3 doing mechanical in each tank.

And the reason you see that catch in the PVC for the drain outside is that I actually saw a field mouse swimming around in the sump one time. It got out on it's own(with some chasing), but still, not cool!

Also, there's one Hammerhead Gold Hybrid(with the Barracuda impellor) running all of it. You can see it in one of the pics which I will repost below. ~1500GPH to the 180, ~1200GPH to the 150, and ~300GPH to the 80. The differentials come from the 150 being taller than the 180(1500 to 1200) and the diameter of the vinyl tubing for the return to the 80 being much smaller than to the 180 and the 150(this can also be seen in the picture that shows the return manifold on the sump.)



With regard to that particular picture, you may notice that when that picture was taken I had a fourth manifold output going to a big 80W UV sterilizer sitting on top of the sump that drained directly back into the sump. That was before I installed the 3 individual UV sterilizers (57w/57w/36w, 150w total) on the returns for each tank seen in other pictures; It's no longer in place.
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
Looking great! Whats the skinny pike cichlid looking fish with the yellow bands on its back? Looks awesome and I dont think ive ever seen one
 

RequiemTCE

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 15, 2011
81
0
36
Portland, OR
Looking great! Whats the skinny pike cichlid looking fish with the yellow bands on its back? Looks awesome and I dont think ive ever seen one
Thanks! :D

Crenicichla acutirostris

Very lucky local find and it was NOT cheap!!!!!!! It's quite a bit larger now, it was about 7" in those pics and it's more like 12" now. I've been power-feeding it every time it begs, about 5-6 massivore a day. Has filled out a lot too, doesn't look so skinny anymore, but it will always look skinny compared to a lugubris-type body format.
 

RequiemTCE

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 15, 2011
81
0
36
Portland, OR
Here's a more recent picture(less than 40 days old) of the pike. It's in the background compared to other fish so it doesn't look as big as it really is, but you can see that it's filling out and starting to take on the more classic pike shape, although still relatively slender. I'll take a better picture when it's closer to the front glass and post it later when the lights turn back on.

Pardon the algae, with my Fluval full-spectrum LEDs, it's pretty difficult to stay on top of algae. The fish sure look good under those lights though.

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darth pike

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Apr 3, 2008
3,231
336
122
Korriban
Love the pike as well ... did you run a dehumidifier? I shuddered seeing the electronics in there.
 

slippery slimecoat

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jan 26, 2012
928
444
87
New York
Here's a more recent picture(less than 40 days old) of the pike. It's in the background compared to other fish so it doesn't look as big as it really is, but you can see that it's filling out and starting to take on the more classic pike shape, although still relatively slender. I'll take a better picture when it's closer to the front glass and post it later when the lights turn back on.

Pardon the algae, with my Fluval full-spectrum LEDs, it's pretty difficult to stay on top of algae. The fish sure look good under those lights though.

View attachment 1032014
What kind of Syno is that? Nice man-cave!

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