Fish room heating and ventilation help needed!

[Johnnyracer72]

Hello all, Im not afrequent poster here, but Im a 37 year fish keeper. We are finishing our basement, Im building a FISH ROOM! The fish room (which is not even framed in yet, but should be this week, so I don't have much time to decide heat and ventilation) is 16 feet by 12 feet. There is a closet with a sink connected to this fish room. My plan is to have two 450 gallon, 8 foot tanks and a double stack 125 stand and most likely a triple rack of 40 breeders. So around 1200 to 1300 gallons of water in this room. These tanks will be covered, not rimless or open top. I 100% will be heating this room, not the individual tanks.

My questions here are for heating and humidity control. The room will be built with insulated doors, spray foam ceiling insulation and normal fiberglass wall insulation. I'm thinking this room will be pretty sealed and tight to keep temps at 78 degrees at all times. This room will not be connected to my homes HVAC system. It needs its own heat and venting.

I've thought about a mini split heat pump for this room, but the cost is $5000.00 for this one room and this room will NEVER need cooling, so I feel the mini split is awaste of 50% of its abilities and expensive.

A friend mentioned an HRV or ERV venting system with some kind of electric heat blower... I like the idea of this HRV/ERV ventilation.

So, for all who have built a fish room and accounted for heating and ventilation, please chime in!!

I hope to be posting up pics of the fish room over the next few months as it gets constructed and setup.

It's gonna have RO system, auto top offs, mixing station (for the 1 salt tank Im planning)

Thank you for any input!!

 

[Trouser Bark]

I have roughly the same volume of water in my fish room but the room is on the same heating system as my home and temps are maintained w/ in-floor heat. I don't know anything about the other systems you refer to but can tell you that in my home at least there have been no temp or humidity issues although I live in a semi-arid environment which limits potential problems naturally.

 

[Johnnyracer72]

Thanks. Good to know that volume has not been an issue.

 

[Trouser Bark]

106g / 60g / 60g / 800g

The 106 and one of the 60's is open top. The other two are covered. Relative humidity at this moment is 34% and room temp is 72*f.

One of the important keys will be normal humidity levels in your area. If you're starting out high you may want to think about a dehumidifier for the summer months at minimum, JIC.

 

[Johnnyracer72]

Thanks. I'm wondering now if a mini split would be able to handle the dehumidification of this volume of water in this size room.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Thanks. I'm wondering now if a mini split would be able to handle the dehumidification of this volume of water in this size room.

They're fairly inefficient dehumidifiers, it's basically just running on a cool mode, and dumping the heat outside. Unlike a dehumidifier which removes the humidity and also has a net warming of the room.

 

[Johnnyracer72]

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm going with mini split ac/heat and a portable dehumidifier with drain pump and plum that into my drain system.

Also, just pulled the trigger on TWO new Tsunami tanks, both are 96X36X30 with corner overflows and aluminum stands. Pretty psyched, things are moving forward!!!