Mike's Fish Room

[maddog10]

Ok, a walking tour of my fish room.

At the door! The rack you see is the center rack. (16) 20H tanks. Runs off its own air pump on top of rack. Rack has common sump that holds a little over 100 gallons of water. I am eventually going to use it for semi-automatic water changes. Extra sponge filters sitting on top.

Make a left! You can see the rest of the center rack (8) tanks per side. I have lights at the tops of the racks (not wired yet). Top row of tanks are bare bottom, to let light pass through. Bottom rows have substrate. Less lights = less electricity.

Looking down first aisle. Rack of (18) 2 1/2's on left, center rack on right and back rack with (4) 40Longs straight ahead.

Make a right! Can see the rest of the back rack. I have AquaClear 70's on all the large tanks. Everything else runs on air driven sponge filters and corner filters (with carbon) to keep the water clear. This is the larger air pump that drives everything except the center rack. I also heat the room and not the tanks. That little heater keeps the room toasty. Again less heaters = less electricity.

Make another right! Far rack has (2) 50's and (12) 10's and you can see the otherside of the center rack.

Heading back out of the room! Every room should have a dehumidifier, moisture can ruin a lot of things in a house.

Another view of the rack of 2 1/2's. I put holding females into a 2 1/2 until she spits the fry on her own. Some spit pretty early when they know the fry won't be threatened. I grow the fry out a bit and put them into a larger tank. Given space, fry will grow quickly.

I have a 75 and a 90 outside of the room. They are going to be used as "show tanks" with lots of rocks and lights. Don't have a lot of fish at the moment, the center rack is cycling. Will be able to move fish around in about 3 weeks, then the fun starts.

Hope you enjoyed my fish room. It is a work in progress, not finished yet!

Should also mention that it is 14'-10" x 11'-6" (about the size of a normal bedroom) there are 52 tanks in the room and I still have room to work.

 

[mscichlid]

Damn! Dude! That's hot! you are a closeted fanatic.! I would like to visit. Well planned! I'll have to go clean up my fishroom now and post pictures.

Well done!

Francine

 

[maddog10]

Thanks Francine. I would be glad to have people over to see it, when I get some fish in the tanks. Most tanks just have afra babies in them (cycling). BTW: Pikes like afra babies too.

 

[phishphorphun]

I really enjoyed the tour.

Hmm, now I have another reason to be jealous. :angry: Bad enough you have all that neat camera equipment, now I see you have this fantastic fishroom. :angry: :angry: :angry:

Can't wait till you get the fish filling these tanks. I look forward to an invite to check it out.

Seriously though, great tour. Thanks

 

[maddog10]

Thanks Bobby, you are welcome any time. Room is really dark, it took me a while to get any decent pictures. Once I learn how to use all of that camera equipment, I hope to get some better shots.
Moved 5 male peacocks into the show tank this morning. Going to let them settle in and go for another photo session. Keep an eye out for the photos.

Really considering taking over my whole basement, just think of the damage I could do then. :FIREdevil:

 

[Laxison]

Mike's fish room totally trumps the three tanks I have in my bed room....


Man, that is pretty neat! It's cool to see what other members go home to after going to a CCA meeting! I call for more posts of members' set ups! Maybe like a preview until we can see some of these on a tour

 

[SubMariner]

Dude, you have an awesome set up! It looks so clean and neat, man it looks good. I most definitely would like to visit. With all those empty tanks you have, I have chosen you to be my designated babysitter!

Anyways, thanx for the pictures because it gives me great ideas on how to organize my 17 tanks and build a nice aquarium room.

 

[maddog10]

Dude, you have an awesome set up! It looks so clean and neat, man it looks good. I most definitely would like to visit. With all those empty tanks you have, I have chosen you to be my designated babysitter!

Anyways, thanx for the pictures because it gives me great ideas on how to organize my 17 tanks and build a nice aquarium room.
[/b]

Thanks Richard. If I watched your fish they would probably all die, thats Murphy's Law. Besides they won't be empty much longer. The racks are fairly easy to buil and if you know what you are doing you can probably get them level (mine kinda are) :unsure:

 

[mscichlid]

BTW, I'm comparing prices on those 12 + power strips. Where did you get yours and were they expensive. I got my originals from a tear out and wired the plug. Since I got 2 extra gang boxes and 20 amp circuits intalled I want a couple of power strips prewired.

 

[maddog10]

BTW, I'm comparing prices on those 12 + power strips. Where did you get yours and were they expensive. I got my originals from a tear out and wired the plug. Since I got 2 extra gang boxes and 20 amp circuits intalled I want a couple of power strips prewired.
[/b]

Got mine from Jehmco. Don't notice how handy they are until you have one. Great item.

 

[myselfdotcom]

wow ..almost like a fish store...just without the business license!

 

[maddog10]

It has taken many months, but the lights finally got wired today. Makes a huge difference. Now that there is more light in the room, the fish don't know what to do.

 

[Charlutz]

It has taken many months, but the lights finally got wired today. Makes a huge difference. Now that there is more light in the room, the fish don't know what to do.
[/b]

Michael, I'd be interested to know if you see any difference in the fish with the increased lighting. I was at the OFNF warehouse a couple months ago and I was shocked at how small many of your peacocks and haps were coloring up. Just stunning fish colored up under 2". Red empresses and some of the bigger haps even.

I grilled Bob pretty hard about the care, and most of it was what is common knowledge -- clean water, good diet. I found it very interesting that there was typically only one or maybe two males colored out of the group. That led me to believe that the cause was not something that applied universally to all the fish in the tank, like diet but rather something that had to do with dominance. The one difference I could see was that there is very little lighting in the warehouse, especially for the bottom tanks. Also the fish aren't disturbed. My theory is that because of little light -- not unlike their natural environments where they live at depth, incidentally -- they need to be more brightly colored to be noticed by the females, so they color up earlier and more vividly. Not to mention the competition of being in a tank with 40 fish. That's my theory anyway. Not sure how many hours a day you are running your lights, but I'd be interested in any kind of evidence relating lesser light to coloration.

 

[maddog10]

I will take notice as to how they color up with the increased lights. I agree that lower light intensity seems to have them color up quicker and more vivid. Dominance does play a role in coloring males. Usually get a dominant male and 1 or 2 sub-dominant, remove one or all and more will color up (unless all that is left is females). You can go through and get a lot of males to color up if you have the space to house them. You can not put all the males together for long, eventually they will start to kill each other.

The low lights at the warehouse have definately helped to increase the quality of our stock. We get emails all the time from people we have shipped to saying that the fish we sent them looks better in the bag (after a day on a plane) than the fish do at their local store.

Funny, I never associated the low light to increased depth in the natural environment. Makes sense to me. I'll keep you posted.

 

[fishboy11]

Mike, ur fishroom along with pat's looks great. If i were older(only 16) i would have fishroom's like those. Right now the only rack i have built is my 10g rack. Next rack will be a rack for 8 or 12 20g longs(the best size growout tanks). Any possibility i could get some tank shots and maybe some fish shots. Especiallly males!

 

[maddog10]

I have some fish shots scattered throughout the forum. Will try to get some tank shots in the future. Thanks for looking.

 

[maddog10]

Update!

The double rack in the center of the room has been rebuilt and now holds 8 - 40 Longs.

To the right is the center rack of 40 Longs. To the left, I have replaced the rack with the 2 1/2's with a pair of 125's.

Looking down the backside of the double rack of 40 Longs. To the left is a rack of 4 - 75's.

The backside of the center rack of 40 Longs.

My CCA clock! I still heat the room (no heaters in the tanks). A second rack of 4 - 75's is to the right.

My dehumidifier. I am on my 3rd one!

Linear piston air pumps. They are VERY quiet. Notice they are on top of the racks, above the water level.

Every fish room needs a trashcan and an Oxygen tank.

 

[F8LBITE]

Wow dude your fishroom is awesome!!! I like the new setup with the bigger tanks, i wouldnt know what to do with my self if I had a room like that. What temp are the tanks at with the room heater only? Thats really something to be proud of dude .

 

[maddog10]

Right now I am keeping them cooler than I usually do. Temps range from 72-76 degrees.

 

[Lively]

Hubby and I were talking about putting some of my tanks in the basement, starting a fish room. I'd love to do a setup like yours - it is, as everyone said, simply amazing! The one thing I think I'd miss is seeing them all the time!

That is the coolest room!