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The beginning of my fish room

Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
I am on admin leave from work for a while. So I decided to start finishing my basement and building my fish room. This isn't first full finishing job. Yes I know the studs are crooked I haven't tacked the down yet.


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Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
My basement is open space. The picture I posted is part of the front of the basement where the playroom and tv will be. I have a portion back half which 17ft x 15ft rectangle. I have 22 tanks. With half of them in use.
I really don't have a plan for rooms per se. I have a rough in for a half bath and haven't decided if I will add a door to the fish room.

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mscichlid

mscichlid

Founder
Door to fishroom is a plus. I like to close my door when the room is a mess or when I have people over who are not into fish, when I'm watching tv or other strangers are in the house. When I had certain foster dogs, it was also a good idea to close the door.
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Good stuff, Prince. If I had to redo my room, the first priority would be an easy water source and drain (the latter being the biggie). If you don't have a drain in the area, install one while the area is clear. It's a pain (and messy) to cut concrete, but you'll be glad you did before getting everything set up.

Insulation/vapor protection is something you also would want to look into before throwing in racks.

Most importantly, leave some room between the wall and the racks when you start laying things out. People told me to do so before I got setup and I wish that I would have. Makes later additions like auto-waterchanging and filtration much easier.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted, Prince.
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
Tony said:
Good stuff, Prince. If I had to redo my room, the first priority would be an easy water source and drain (the latter being the biggie). If you don't have a drain in the area, install one while the area is clear. It's a pain (and messy) to cut concrete, but you'll be glad you did before getting everything set up.

Insulation/vapor protection is something you also would want to look into before throwing in racks.

Most importantly, leave some room between the wall and the racks when you start laying things out. People told me to do so before I got setup and I wish that I would have. Makes later additions like auto-waterchanging and filtration much easier.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted, Prince.
Click to expand...
The bathroom ruff in is 3 to 4 feet from the possible fish door. Plus one of the main drains runs along the rear wall.
 
Hawkman2000

Hawkman2000

Members
Are you going to be implementing a continuous water changing system. You could tap an RO/DI unit in and plum it and hookups for supply and drain inside the walls, along with independant electrical circuits. Not sayin that all the plumming would be inside the walls, just a few hookups to make setup and maintanance easier.

Also, I reccomend against the steel joyces, moisture will condense on them and damage the drywall, as well as contribute to heat loss in the winter.

Something else to consider - If you take out all the existing vapor-barier and insulation, frame the rooms with 2x4, 1/2 inch of the walls, you can install R-18 or hard foam between the joyces and gain a good bit of square footage.

A friend of mine is a Class A contractor, and he does alot of basements. I help him from time to time and have alot of expirience with this.

I can also tell you how to create sound dampening wall and cielings if interested.
 
scientist0724

scientist0724

Members
dogofwar said:
Utility sinks are awesome... first thing that happened in my new fishroom.

Matt
Click to expand...

+1

I agree with Matt! It's the reason that my fish room is where it is right now. We have a utility sink in the laundry room and my fish room is just outside of it. Makes life to much easier.

Arlene
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
Hawkman2000 said:
Are you going to be implementing a continuous water changing system. You could tap an RO/DI unit in and plum it and hookups for supply and drain inside the walls, along with independant electrical circuits. Not sayin that all the plumming would be inside the walls, just a few hookups to make setup and maintanance easier.

Also, I reccomend against the steel joyces, moisture will condense on them and damage the drywall, as well as contribute to heat loss in the winter.

Something else to consider - If you take out all the existing vapor-barier and insulation, frame the rooms with 2x4, 1/2 inch of the walls, you can install R-18 or hard foam between the joyces and gain a good bit of square footage.

A friend of mine is a Class A contractor, and he does alot of basements. I help him from time to time and have alot of expirience with this.

I can also tell you how to create sound dampening wall and cielings if interested.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips but wood is old tech and harder for me to work with. The studs and track are all galvanized steel so I am not worried about rust. The 8" gains in some areas I would get buy removing the builder installed insulation are not the hassle. I haven't had any humidity issues yet and I have 6 tanks running down their now. The only difference from now and the future will be drywall and flooring. I may use bathroom grade drywall in the fish room though if the budget permits. I haven't decided on the flooring in the fish room it will be most likely tile.


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mscichlid

mscichlid

Founder
Ceramic tile is nice, but cost more. I used vinyl tile in mine. Cheaper and easier to install onself. Buy 10% more tile than measured.

Whatever you decide to do, please keep in mind if at any point you may decide to sell your house, the room should look nice when you tear it down.
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
mscichlid said:
Ceramic tile is nice, but cost more. I used vinyl tile in mine. Cheaper and easier to install onself. Buy 10% more tile than measured.

Whatever you decide to do, please keep in mind if at any point you may decide to sell your house, the room should look nice when you tear it down.
Click to expand...

I am thinking about some natural slate tile in 12 x 12 squares.


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A

AndyNarwhal

Members
I just painted and sealed the concrete floor on mine. However I wish I had graded the concrete to slope everything towards the floor drain first. An area rug down the middle works fine to pretty it up.

Makes it very easy to wipe up spills. And I don't worry if I spill water while cleaning tanks.

You may want to use a tool like Google Sketch-up to lay out some plans before you go crazy. You will need to submit plans if you want to get a building permit to make it all legal.

I ran into that problem when I had my electrical upgraded for the fish room. I started without a permit and the inspector (who was there to inspect the electrical work) made me tear out all my footers and replace them because I used the wrong lumber.

Andy
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
Well we ( my Dad) and I finished framing the walls, door and windows of the first half of the basement. I still have to box off the main support beam in that area. But that will wait until I am ready to complete the ceiling. Next week we start framing the rear of the basement to include the fish room and half bath next week. The basement was ruffed in for a full bath so I plan the take advantage of the shower/bathtubs drain and install a utility sink. I have roughly 210 square feet to work with for the fish room. But my wife also wants a work out room so I may give a 1/4 to 1/3 of the space to her. I any of you are considering finishing your basement your self or actually dressing up your fish room consider using steel framing. It's easy for a novice like me to use. I'll post pictures later.


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