Fish room buildout

[BadgerCichlid]

Inspiration

It’s all about this guy. For me, it always has been. The nicest LFS growing up in Milwaukee was Aquatics Unlimited, and they had a gigantic tank (years ago, now gone) with multiple arowana, oscars, etc. Ever since that pairing has been my dream tank.

I’ve tried growing out arowanas a few times and have not had success. Wrong tank mates too soon, too much flow stressing them out, etc. Finally, decided to get a dedicated 6’ just to grow this black aro out. Like any good fish-keeper, if I was going to do one 125g tank, why not fill up the whole space and do 4. That would allow me to consolidate some other tanks, buy some new fish, let’s go for it.

I’ve got it all built now, but still a ways to go to final stocking. Started this process running 9 tanks. Right now, I’m at 13 at just under 1,200g. After finishing my consolidation I’ll be at 10 for ~1,000g. Plan is to use this thread to talk about the journey. Over the years, I’ve really enjoyed following many of the threads others have posted on here and used them for inspiration. In that same spirit, I’ll try to write these up and post steps to the process every day or so until I catch up to where I’m at now.

 

[BadgerCichlid]

The room, the tanks, and the stockings

I have a 15’x9’ water room in my basement. It leads to another back storage room. Its conversion to a fish room started with a 225g aquarium in the nearby finished part of my basement. Of course, over time the water room becomes a spot for a 20g for quarantine, then a 55g too, then the 75g when I upgraded my office from it to a 135g. It was always a bit random and the tanks weren’t ones I was necessarily proud of, but they were the easiest to take care of because they were in close proximity to each other, there’s a drain in the floor, and a sink in the corner. I also have an 80g in an upstairs bedroom that was just a pain to clean and had run its course. That plus the desire for a proper Aro grow-out tank is what had this all come together.

Tanks before

• 225g – CA/Oddballs; As part of this process I’m also resetting this tank, maybe I’ll write a post on this one when I get to it.
• 135g – Peacock all male
• 80g – EBA/Angels/Tetras (closing this one)
• 75g (fishroom) – Mbuna (closing this one, maybe)
• 70g (fr) – Oscar & peacocks – reset tank for those getting beat up elsewhere. Strange tankmates for now, not ideal.
• 55g (fr) – Ngara harem (closing this one)
• 20g (fr) – Growout/quarantine (closing this one)
• 20g (fr) – Juvi female Trimac (closing this one, maybe)
• 5g – Pea puffer

Tanks after

• 225g – Festa/Trimac/Ornate Bichir/Atabapo Pike/SD/Black aro (once ready and until too large), we’ll see how they all play together.
• 135g – Peacock all male.
• 125g (fr) – SA #1; Aro grow-out + Green phatom; eventually Oscar home.
• 125g (fr) – SA #2; EBA/43xOrange Von Rio Tetra/8xRoselines (ik, not SA but they match the look and vibe)/L46/L134/L471/Long-fin red bushynose
• 125g (fr) – Afr #1; Ngara harem
• 125g (fr) – Afr #2; Mbuna + Syn. Petricola
• 75g – Maybe going away, maybe flowerhorn.
• 70g (fr) – Peacock all male #2
• 20g – Maybe going away. Maybe apisto’s after I move the trimac.
• 5g – Pea puffer

Writing this out, I’m realizing I may have a bit of an addiction I'll have more tomorrow on the design for the room and racks.

I don't have a ton of great pictures of the room below, but putting the few I have to show the evolution of the room:


Upgraded from just the little tanks to a 55g and 20g underneath. The 55g has been our "blue" tank. Rocks blue, decor blue, EBA. Was fun for a bit, but I really prefer closer to appropriate biotope. This being the backroom the kids were more involved in picking the decor. Below pic I was using it as a quarantine before I introduced a few peacocks into one of my main tanks. Later, I added a 20g tall, 70g, and another 75g, so the room was full.



Finally, a picture of the room with all but one tank moved out:

 

[jjohnwm]

Before: a bunch of tanks and only one single small quarantine/hospital tank? Bad idea.

After: a bunch of tanks and no quarantine set-up at all?? Monumentally bad idea!

Whatever else you do, you should have at least a couple of those tanks you are closing down ready to set up for quarantine purposes. Have a couple of sponge filters set up and mature in one or more of your bigger tanks, and be able to just fill up an empty tank and drop in one of those mature sponges every time you buy new fish. If you buy a lot of fish often, you need even more. If you see sad, sickly, emaciated, near-death fish in stores and just absolutely need to bring them home to "rescue" them...and we know you do!...then this critical plan becomes even more so.

 

[Sassafras]

I see empty, available wall space. Unacceptable!

I do totally agree with jjohnwm on the quarantine tank. It took me 30 years to set one up, but now I'd never be without at least one.

 

[Panosian32]

Thanks, both! Don’t worry, lots of tanks equals many seeded sponges and plenty of other seeded media. So if I had to stand up a large tank, I could in short order, heck, I am right now with 4 of them.

Haven’t been at it for quite thirty years yet, but it has been years. My experience is a 20g long is sufficient for nearly all quarantine situations on the way in. Realizing now that’s not on the after list, but that’s not going away. I’ve been using my 70g (the one in the most recent picture) and will continue to do so as a “get right” tank. For example, my Festae and Oscar spent years together and then one night the Festae turned on him - hence why he’s now in the 70 until he takes over one of the 125s. After the Oscar moves, of my fish that most often need to “get right” are the subdominant male aulonacara. I’m going to keep the 75g open for awhile until the 225g settles, and we’ll see what happens once I’m confident in that all. Bit of musical chairs for this year with the transition until everyone is at the right size and tanks are balanced.