Fishroom Build (with pics)

[nacra99]

Are you going to have central air and heat in this room or heaters and chillers in each tank?

With the amount and size of tanks that i plan to have in there, it might no be a good idea to heat/chill individual tanks.
I keep the house slightly cooler than what i want the fishroom to be so i figure i would have a separate heating / cooling system for the room and not tap from the main HVAC system.
I had the garage wired in such a way where i have reserved a single outlet on a single 20A breaker. That way i can simply plug in a portable unit to heat / cool the place.
I insulated the heck out of the walls and ceilings of the room and am waiting for my garage door insulating kit to arrive. So hopefully it won't be too difficult to keep the garage constantly conditioned.

[nacra99]

I'm envious. I think you did a great job. I just noticed 1 slight issue....plumbing? .....an auto waterchanging system might be the most awesomest thing you could do!

Yeah... unfortunately i have been torn about that. The laundry room is adjacent to the other half of the garage and it wouldn't take very much to run a python to the tap / drain over there. But then again it would be nice to have its own dedicated sink in the room for things like, as you mentioned, automatic WC systems. For now i'll try to do it without a dedicated sink. Besides if i were going to sell the house in the future, it would be pretty interesting to try to explain why there is a sink in the garage.
But if it comes to a point where it is necessary, i'll just punch a hole through the wall and run a waterline / drain to the laundry room on the other side.

[trbkrb]

Your fish room looks great!

To most women with a guy that works outside or in a garage, a sink in the garage would be a big plus! I wish I had one, then I wouldn't have to clean the kitchen sink with a bleach cleaner after washing my greasy hands or cleaning fish tank stuff.

[nacra99]

To most women with a guy that works outside or in a garage, a sink in the garage would be a big plus!.

Unless he would rather spend all his time outside and none inside with her!!

[fshfrk]

Put one of these in there. I really like your new fish room.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=plastic+utility+sink&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=15443627049903661712&ei=TlGvTLySFtPcngfh4IGpBg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ8wIwAA#

[fshfrk]

Maybe one of these too.

http://www.airexchanger.org/airexchanger-humidity.php

[nacra99]

Yeah... the de-humidifier is definitely high on my list.

[nacra99]

Alright.. Epoxy is down and the construction is complete!


The floor came out pretty well! *pats self on back*


Tomorrow.... Tank Rack building!
More to come.

[specialone0812]

very clean and neat. great job.

[freespool]

The floors look awesome. when you are done, is there going to be a tour?

[cichlid1409]

very nice! cant wait to see some tanks in there.

[fshfrk]

Yeah... the de-humidifier is definitely high on my list.

Yea I know someone with a fishroom and it gets covered in black mold in the winter. I really don't even like to go in it in the winter.

The floor looks great. Can't wait to see the racks.

[justdoit]

That looks great. You can be proud - can't wait to see tanks all setup

[nacra99]

Well.. made it out to Home Depot to pick up some lumber and spent sunday afternoon cutting it all to size. Thank God for circular mitre saws.


Hung up all the plans for easy reference


Remembered to pick me up a 5 lb box of deck screws


Thats as far as i got on sunday evening before everything had to stop because the Next Iron Chef was on TV.
This is only half a rack against that wall. It's designed to hold four 75 gal tanks and two 40 gal breeders. The full rack will be able to take eight 75 gal and four 40 breeders.


Now is a good time to start thinking of what coating and what color to use.....clear spar urethane or varnish is high on my list.... suggestions welcomed.

more to come

[nacra99]

This was kinda interesting to me. Perhaps i just haven't been around too much, but to me, this was simply brilliant!
My floor as sloped unevenly so i had a hard time blocking and shimming the horizontal pieces in order to get it perfectly horizontal so that i can screw it in.
After watching me struggle for a bit, my friend finally walks across the room and pick up an old paint swatch that i had lying around.
He pulled out a couple of sheets and presto!
Instant adjustable temporary shim!!!! Raising and lowering it is as simple as furling and unfurling sheets of paint swatches!