fish room help

[rojowe]

hard to say, adv vs disadv
if one tank gets ich your looking at potentially all tanks getting ich, if the pump burns out or something all your tanks are without flow, it would definitely be nice however to only have to clean one main sump, easier water changes

this one may come down to personal preference

 

[henria86]

hi,
sealing up the basement, use a sealer on the walls, an water proof the celing an have a powered vent on a timer on invertals so it will help the dampness.
the power outlets on a seperate breaker, an have extra outlets put in the wall with gfis an non gfi... an figure a location for a air pump or a blower that is away from the fish room if it is loud or hums..

 

[cchhcc]

for a fish room, what would you recommend for a central filter set up?

First, keep a sponge or two in each tank in case you have to take a tank "offline." Also, the are great grazing sites for fry. So you'd need a good sized air pump to run all the sponges. I purchased my last couple of large air pumps from www.Jehmco.com and they worked great.

Next, drill all the tanks for drains so you can use a central wet/dry filter. For a sump it would be easy to use a Rubbermade horse trough. The bigger the better, but a 150 gallon trough would be the minimum. They make a 300, but it's footprint is huge. You could definitely connect two 150's if necessary (they come already fitted with bulkheads).

Basically, you'd have a huge container of bioballs (a plastic garbage can or two) as your biofilter. Water would be drained into the sump, preferrably into a prefilter sock. Then a medium sized pump would circulate it over the biomedia (a submersible would be fine). A very large return pump would be used to return water to all the tanks. Of course you could arrange for just one pump to be used if the drain lines fed directly into the top of the biomedia. However, than can be difficult in most large setups since the bio-tower would be so high.

As for heating, it could all be done in the main sump. Also, water changes could come out of the sump rather than the tanks.

Honestly, the guys at Jehmco can talk you through it all AND sell you everything you need. I'm not affiliated with them, but I have been a customer for about ten years now.

 

[dogofwar]

Ditto on help from JEHMCO.

I'm a fan of coupling box filters with sponge filters (which is how I have my 50+ tank fishroom set-up): there will be much less to siphon in tanks. Air-driven filters are the way to go. I also have DIY above the tank dump filters on some tanks (both a filter and a lid / cover)...

I don't have central filtration but I have an auto water change system. Most of my tanks aren't drilled so I have a central drain and each tank has a DIY PVC overflow. I feed the tanks with water via a garden hose and drip emitters (like you use in the garden).

I covered the ceilings and wall of my place with black plastic to keep the moisture in the room. I use small fans to keep circulation and have had good luck with mold so far. It probably also helps that there's a furnace/AC outlet in the room, which sucks out moisture. I heat the room with a space heater and also heat a couple of large tanks (ambient heat).

Good luck!

Matt

 

[hmt321]

It would be easy to install some removable plywood panels along the bottom 3' of the walls. to gain future access to the stud space to run drains, supply water, and power.

1/2" ac exterior plywood will hold up well to an ocasional wetting, you can run a horizontal 1x4 at about 3' off the floor and a 1x6 horizonal at the floor. every 36" on center run a 1x4 vertical, screw the plywood panel at the top and the bottom to the studs and then run some cove mold to hide the screws.

i did this for a dentist office several years ago so he could easily move equipment around as needed with out the mess of sheetrock work.

 

[troybernard]

I was thinking of just doing the whole thing in exterior wood sheeting. That way I could remove whole walls if needed. It also costs about the same as sheet rock where I am.

 

[troybernard]

Ditto on help from JEHMCO.

I'm a fan of coupling box filters with sponge filters (which is how I have my 50+ tank fishroom set-up): there will be much less to siphon in tanks. Air-driven filters are the way to go. I also have DIY above the tank dump filters on some tanks (both a filter and a lid / cover)...

I don't have central filtration but I have an auto water change system. Most of my tanks aren't drilled so I have a central drain and each tank has a DIY PVC overflow. I feed the tanks with water via a garden hose and drip emitters (like you use in the garden).

I covered the ceilings and wall of my place with black plastic to keep the moisture in the room. I use small fans to keep circulation and have had good luck with mold so far. It probably also helps that there's a furnace/AC outlet in the room, which sucks out moisture. I heat the room with a space heater and also heat a couple of large tanks (ambient heat).

Good luck!

Matt

What is DIY above the tank dump filter

 

[troybernard]

What do you guys think of auto top offs and the diy overflows to drain do water changes.?

 

[troybernard]

I am thinking of putting 3 feet of space between the racks, do you think this is enough to move around

 

[hmt321]

What do you guys think of auto top offs and the diy overflows to drain do water changes.?

Drilling acrylic tanks is simple, drilling glass is easer than you think.

if you are going to have fresh water tanks, and your city water is decent

a drip system is a no brainer, you can drill a overflow into the back of the tank very simply

there are several utube movies showing people drilling tanks, I drilled my 125 gal tank after i watched one, it was easy, just go slow.