New Fish Room ... the build!

As some of you know we bought a house and we are in the process of building a new fish room... this is a LONGGGGGG process but I know it will be worth it in the end . ...

The building ( where the fish are going ) is a very large insulated garage with a wood stove and ceiling fans ( about 900 sq. feet ) ! I'll post a few pics as soon as I can ( still moving ). Hopefully we can all share ideas. I've helped build a few of these but you can always learn something ... at least I hope I will

Drains in the floor and floor slanted so water drains to the drains? That is one thing that I wish my floor was designed to do. But no the water drains away from the drain, so I have to use a shop vac.

Congrats on the purchase, Sarah. So, where's your new home? Hopefully somewhere closer to where I live.

I think I would build something like Ted's fry keeper set up. Maybe even 2.
Would make it easier for keeping the little guys clean and save on tank space.
http://tedsfishroom.com/

I saw that Pat... something similar will be done but I don't like not being able to see my fry. That would drive me nutz.

The house is still in Glen Burnie... sorry yun... Point Pleasant A block from the water So, you can come by and then go have a drink at the 5 bars out here

okay the outside... this is the garage... not our house. There was some confusion on another site lol



okay... first off I have no water going to this building. So, temporarily Bill ran two lines from the house that I can put away when it freezes. Yes I will have water soon... but, for now I don't. Getting the tanks and racks set up are more important for now. He ran them from the basement lines into a slop sink we put into the garage.

Heat was another issue. While a wood stove will do the heavy lifting I needed back up in case we are gone for a while. So, we decided eventually we will put in a furnance... but again, temporarily I needed something. Something cheap that won't run me a fortune. Doing a bit of research... heating large spaces ( remember I am insulated )... was the hard part. I opted for these that are energy efficient.



DeLonghi EW7707CM Safeheat 1500W ComforTemp Portable Oil-Filled Radiator

They are doing a great job so far... on the energy efficient mode.

With a wood stove... we have figured out harder wood is better ( lololol so many jokes here )... we bought a cord of red oak for a very good price. It burns very nicely and evenly.

okay another way of heating was a dehumidifier... I went with the largest I could without going to the industrial level. The wood stove will dry things out... but I figured a dehumidifier will also help heat the place as well as remove any humidity issues. This is the dehumidifier we decided to do.


SoleusAir Energy Star 70 Pint Dehumidifier, with Straight Bucket, # DP2-70-03

Frank I can't redo the whole building lol... it's already built. We get to do the water system.... but in terms of spills... it's the old fashion way.

okay... so I have to move my tanks from my old place right ?

So in order to do this... we built another rack to slide most of my 50 longs into.... we bought this air pump, thanks to Sam... for 100.00 on ebay.



It should run my whole fish room... and it's pretty darn quite. For now we have to bleed a lot of the air Only uses 80 watts.

So, the first rack of about 6 to 8 racks... it's about 14 feet long and 4 tiers high. I'll post a picture later. We ran PVC and air valves. Painted the rack to try and keep the racks lasting longer....

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
I know you can get clear food service containers but don;t know pricing.
Plus it would still distort a little bit but you would be able to see through.

Are you able to set the temp with those radiator type heaters? The one I had did not have a digital thermostat and it was hard to set the top temp.
It would fluctuate too much. I would walk in one day and it would be 78 and a few hours later would be 82.
I ended up using smaller digital ceramic type heaters because I could set the temp I wanted. Uses more electric though.
Of course I am also only heating 136sq feet.

I also had something you might want to try. That Fish Place has a thermometer that is wireless. You could put the one part in the fish house and the receiver in the house. You could see the temp in there without walking down. I used to have one in each row of tanks and then the receiver was next to my chair in the family room. I also used it when going to OCA. Could keep track of the temp in the show fish while driving. Not sure on the range.

Congratulations on the purchase of your home!

As far as heating goes, I would recomend something like this -

http://www.target.com/p/sunpentown-...5362&kpid=12765362&ci_gpa=pla&ci_sku=12765362

We use similar heaters, and they work great.

Pat got both of your ideas covered. This was the only radiator type heater that had a thermostat radiator types do the best when heating larger spaces for extended times. But again, this is temporary... furnace soon, we need to run 220 first

In terms of monitoring it... Bill had an old "weather station".... he wanted a new one. So I got the old one and put it in the fish room. So I can monitor the fish room in my house. Something like this but it's older and not solar... http://www.theweatherstore.com/sowithwsbyla.html

If you wanted you could use a Jehmco style temperature controller on your radiators if you wanted more/better/different temperature control. Especially if you are using multiple radiators which will have the same issue as multiple in tank heaters without a temperature controller.

I'm getting pretty good control with the radiators with thermostats that I have


But... here is the first rack Holds 9 50's and then my 6 foot 75...and another 75.

Might be time to christen your new, um, garage (needs windows)

"Ville Kulla" has a nice ring to it don't you think?


.

Yeah I know I want windows actually... at least one :lol: !

I have tanks already in the racks.... but we still need to run auto water changes.... etc. Eventually the racks will be double sided but until the water gets run.... rack building is put on hold.

lol funny Sam cute name.

Consistency

You do recall its provenance of course. Just tell me your boat isn't named the Hoptoad.

lmao no the boat isn't named after pippi's fathers boat. I was actually going to get the whole crew tattooed on my back... but I stopped at pippi The boat, horse, monkey, the kids, tree, house etc.... glad I stopped :lol:

Go look at my classified ad Sam... need to know which one you want.