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Fish room

NikkiT

NikkiT

So, mike and me took the plunge and bought a big tank. Delivery will be in 4-6 weeks, depending on when the tank is ready and when we are ready. This is the final upgrade. Display is 210.

We are taking Ethan's advice, and putting all of the filtration in the basement rather than trying to put it inside the stand. As such, by the power vested in me as one half of the duo commonly known as Mike and Nikki, I have determined that it is time for a fish room.

The frag tank will be tied in (because we are lazy) and will probably be 70-80 g, and there will be a sump with a fuge section, or a separate fuge.

I am looking for suggestions. We know we want to house the ro/di unit in the fish room, a qt tank, a frag tank, a top off tank and the eqpment for the display as well as a slop sink. If you were us, what would you put in the room and why? How is your fish room laid out, and what do you and don't you like?

I will be hiring an electrician and possibly a plumber, I know I want the fish room on a separate circuit, if you have a suggestion for either, please pass along.
 
qwik

qwik

Congrats on the new and final,?,tank upgrade. I do not have a fish room but if i was planning one i would go bigger than needed . It would be nice to have that extra space in the futurewhen it is needed. I would also try to make water changes as easy as possible for when life gets busy sometimes . Also keep in mind that you are newley married and will probably be taking vacations so planning on a way to let thetank run a few days on its own will be nice. And not in the room but most important a generator,we all know how great jesey power and storms mix.
 
greybolt03

greybolt03

All I have to say is stop by Darren's (dnov99) on your way to sunnys (monroereef) two of the nicest systems I've seen and will give you all the ideas you need for a beautiful successful system
 
jgraz

jgraz

I can't speak for Darren's room, but Sunny's is indeed very nice, as is Ray's(r2reyzer). Maybe they have some input.

I also agree with the go bigger then you need/think. Also if your hiring a plumber, you might as well set up a line that will drain the waste from PWC's right to the sewage line.
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Great decision to plumb into the basement, you will absolutely love it. A couple of suggestions I have off the top of my head is make sure you have enough room to alter things as you go (hopefully you won't have to). Plan ahead as much as you can. Great idea to have a seperate circuit for the fish room and I would suggest even a second one while you are at it. I may be wrong, but it may be only pennies more (well maybe a little more!)while you are already running a circuit to run another for bacxkup/safety, but that would be the time to do it.

Automate, Automate, Automate, plumb in a way where you only have to turn the valve to drain and then turn another to fill with fresh water. Add a holding/mixing station in there. I would suggest 2 55 gallon drums, use one to hold RO water and the other to mix salt water. It is nice to always have emergency water on standby, even if it is only ro.

Consider some means of ventilation/drying. I have a 100g rubbermaid and a 30 fuge and I get condensation and salty scum all the way across the basement.

That is all I can think of right now, CAN'T WAIT to see this!
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Excellent suggestions qwik. Bigger is always a better option with almost everything in this hobby, and a fish room is no exception. An emergency generator is also a good idea, especially since your system is getting bigger and there's more equipment to run.

I'll also add a few suggestions:

1. Coat the walls & floor with a good waterproof epoxy paint. Drywall doesn't do well with moisture. Make sure you install good ventilation and/or dehumidifier in the fish room too.

2. Water changes and cleaning equipment is the hardest maintenance work you will do... so make those as easy/convenient as possible and automate whatever you can. Plan to have a RO/DI reservoir with a float switch hooked up to your RO/DI unit. Elevate the RO reservoir so that you can install a bulkhead/valve at the bottom and let it gravity feed (or install a pump inline) into your salt mixing container. You could also install a second bulkhead/valve in the RO reservoir so that it would either be your ATO, or keep your ATO container full automatically.

3. If at all possible, have a drain installed in the floor. A slop sink is a good idea, but a floor drain will also prevent floods. Of course the sink would have a faucet too, which will make cleaning equipment easy. I'd recommend having a hose bib attachment on the faucet too if you can.

Beyond that, I like what Ricwilli did with his basement setup. Take a look at his ToTT thread and steal some good ideas from him.

Edit***** Seems Don had some similar ideas and posted right about the same time as me. ;)
 
dnov99

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
Well mine and Sunny's were both designed by Ethan from AO, so if you are going with him, I believe you will not need any further advice as he will cover all the bases for you. He is the man for these types of jobs!!!
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Thanks everyone. Yes we are going with Ethan from AO to design and plumb it. We just wanted to ask to see if there was anything we are missing. We have a good amount of room to work with so we are going to use all of the room. We have a generator that we have owned since 2009 when we lost power and had a tank crash, but we might look into one of the natural gas models down the line. There will be a slop sink in the room to facilitate RODI as well as an auto water change setup. The three main things I am looking for now are a return pump, skimmer, and sump. Have a lot of choices, just wondering what to go with.
 
Edwardw771

Edwardw771

NJRC Member
Make sure you have easy access to the sump so vacuum it. But like Darren said Ethon will cover all the fish stuff.

Humidity was a huge issue in my basement until I put in an 8 inch restaurant type ventilation fan.
 
Last edited:
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
dnov99 said:
Well mine and Sunny's were both designed by Ethan from AO, so if you are going with him, I believe you will not need any further advice as he will cover all the bases for you. He is the man for these types of jobs!!!
Click to expand...

+1
 
AJ1080

AJ1080

I like what Taz said about adding 2 circuits to the room, not because you will use that power but because if you have one device trip that circuit, everything on your tanks will go off. Im not talking about a full power outage from the power company but more so a tripped circuit from a piece of equipment that goes faulty.

Good luck and and cant wait to see this!
 
r2reyzer

r2reyzer

I'm sure you are in good hands with AO.

The one thing that I did when I initially did my plumbing is to make sure you accomodate expansion. My return pump is plumbed to a 5 outlet manifold with balls valves and union fitting on each end. Originally, I was only using two outlets (one to the main tank and one to the frag tank). As time passed, I ended up using 2 other outlets...one for a reactor and one for a display refugim. I still have one left just in case I need it for whatever comes down the road.

BTW, I love the Reefflo pumps. There very quiet and very electrically efficient. And you can purchase one that may have more flow than you need, and throttle it down with a valve. That way, in case you add something down the road, you still can the increase the flow with the valve.

Good luck with the fish room!
 
Olivier

Olivier

Mike and NikkT,
4 -20Amp GFI outlets use 12Gauges or larger (10gauge) wire is better. also call CODFATHER and ask him about painting and sealing the room wall, ceiling from moisture.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Yeah we already joked when we got it in the house we would take pictures of Nikki inside of it. Will have much more detailed thread up in tale of the tank when we actually get this things rolling. As it stands now we are probably looking at mid July between getting the tank and getting the house setup.
 
arvin

arvin

NJRC Member
Edwardw771 said:
Make sure you have easy access to the sump so vacuum it.
Click to expand...

+1. When I did my fish room, I made a stand and put the sump inside the stand and fuge on top of the stand. It looked neat. But what I didn't realize was that most maintenance activities happen right out of the sump - vacuuming debris, cleaning the sock, cleaning the skimmer, water sample for testing etc. Every time I have to reach into the stand which is always a PITA. I highly recommend a open sump design.

I am using Reeflo pump and I really love them for their energy efficiency and silent operation.
 
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