Marc's fish room build

[stuby]

Looking good bud! I am in the process of building my 3rd fish room..... and what I have learned over the years is there is always something I wish I did a little different and I never have enough tanks or room for them!

Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing fish in the tanks,
Chuck

[MarcW]

Thanks everyone!

Chuck, any chance of a thread or a picture of your fish room? Three must have been a lot of work! Is it starting fresh with a current room, or due to a move?

Yeah, I'm upsizing from 2 mid size (170 litres ~ 40 USG) and 3 small (40 litres ~ 10 USG) to 16 tanks plus the 8ft one, and before there is any water in them, I've got them fully stocked in my head, and wanting more space. I'm already trying to figure out where I might be able to squeeze 1 or 2 more in !

[stuby]

Thanks everyone!

Chuck, any chance of a thread or a picture of your fish room? Three must have been a lot of work! Is it starting fresh with a current room, or due to a move?

Yeah, I'm upsizing from 2 mid size (170 litres ~ 40 USG) and 3 small (40 litres ~ 10 USG) to 16 tanks plus the 8ft one, and before there is any water in them, I've got them fully stocked in my head, and wanting more space. I'm already trying to figure out where I might be able to squeeze 1 or 2 more in !

Sounds like you have a bad case of MTS.... as do I! lol
I just want/need more tanks and the only way to do that is build a new fish room. It will be a completely new building and it is in the early stages still so not much to show but I'll take pictures as it comes along...

Take care,
Chuck

[MarcW]

Sounds good, it's nice to have a complete fresh start so everything can be planned to work and fit in just as you like. Good luck!

[Jools]

Just wondering if a good idea to fix the racks to the walls before water is added? Perhaps they will settle a bit and pull from the wall? Apologies if I've missed something...

Jools

[MarcW]

Good idea Jools, I had previously fixed a rack to the wall before filling, but that holds 3 small tanks totalling about 100-120 litres so what you are describing probably wouldn't be an issue. However these are significantly heavier, I think your approach is correct, I'll level the racks (the floor isn't quite level), then fill with tap water before I fix to the wall. Good idea, thanks!

[Tony4143]

looking good wish I would have did this the first time around on my fish room instead of going on the final 3rd time lol
-Tony

[MarcW]

Thanks Tony.

It's due to sites like this, as well as watching a lot of you tube videos, that have lead to this setup. I have heard that comment so many times, I wanted to try my best to learn from other setups to hopefully avoid some mistakes I would have otherwise made, and also try to make the room as efficient as possible. Currently its a bit of a chore maintaining my tanks around the house, I'm hoping they will be significantly easier to maintain in this room, leaving me more time to focus on breeding and enjoying the fish.

[MarcW]

Plumbing for the sump is done, and there's water in the big tank!

The picture shows approximately 500 liters in the tank, I'll leave it at that overnight, if all looks good tomorrow I'll fill up and try out the sump plumbing. I've already tested the bulkheads are water tight, the wier has been half full for a few days.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have most of the work done and it'll be functional with just finishing off to do.

[Jools]

Fish soon......


Jools

[MarcW]

Soon!

I've spent this morning trying to figure out how much water to put in the tank/sump without causing a flood!

I think I have it figured out, it's amazing how long it takes the water levels to settle after making small changes!

Just the rest of the tanks to test fill and fix to the walls. Then I'll be able to clip the waste pipe to the front of the racks.

Hopefully next weekend I'll get some fish in! I'm looking forward to getting them all out and photographed.

Then I suppose I'll have to take take a trip to Pier and see what they've got !

[grokefish]

Looks really cool
Makes me wanna so it also!
Miss my fish

[MarcW]

A bit more progress, the tanks have been filled and tested with tap water. The racks are fixed to the wall/each other, and the drains are in place and working.

Just a quick scrub out of the tanks, I'll start rinsing sand and putting filters in. Then it'll be time to turn the heater on and get things up to temperature!

[MarcW]

I'm currently working on the lighting, each tank will have 2 strips of led lighting. The idea being one will be dimmed to 50% ish, and come on 15-30 minutes before the other which will be at full power.

These aren't very powerful but should be fine for my needs, I'm hoping to get some low light plants in the tanks soon, these should be fine for anubias, java fern and java moss based on my experiences using the same lights in other tanks.

The strips of leds are cut to length and placed into aluminium channels using the self adhesive backing. Once I've soldered the cables onto the ends, end caps and a clear plastic cover are attached.

It's very cost effective and simple to put together if you have a bit of experience with soldering.

With a bit of luck I might be able to start moving fish at the weekend, and maybe have a few new ones in a couple weeks!

[kvnbyl]

are you using a large in line heater?

[MarcW]

As there will be several tanks in the room, I will heat the room using an oil filled electric radiator.

I have several regular aquarium heaters so will be able to raise the temperature above that of the room in a few aquariums if needed.

[Mol_PMB]

I agree, Viktor. My father (an engineer) used to say that even if you tried to make a realistic estimate, then in reality the project would take e times as long and cost pi times as much as you thought. That’s the true definition of e and pi!
(e = 2.7, pi = 3.1, both approx)
My experience is the same.
Paul

This is a LOT of work and exciting at the same time! And yes, the same here. I've noted that I on average underestimate how much time something will take by a factor of 3x. Sometimes 2x, other times 6x. Let it be a task / project that I think would take 3 hours, or 3 days, or 3 months, or 3 years. Neither do I appear to learn. Welcome to the club of perpetual, forecast-handicapped optimists.

[jodilynn]

I am truly amazed at what an awesome job you are doing!
I have a back bedroom that in a few years I will be converting to my fish room. Nothing as fancy as YOUR room of course! I plan on leveling and probably reinforcing the floor and installing linoleum and vinyl baseboards, additional electrical outlets and wooden shelves. That way I can condense all my tanks scattered about my house lol!

[MarcW]

Thanks Jodilynn. It's been a long time coming, I'm hoping to move at least some of my current fish in this weekend! It will be so much easier to maintain having them all in one room.

Enjoy planning your room, I made sure I read as many fish room threads and articles as I could, I got some great ideas from them and have hopefully made a better fish room because of it.

Good luck!

[MarcW]

More progress this weekend, I've got the mattenfilters in the tanks and spent most of today washing sand!

The lights are all in place and working too. After putting sand in the tanks I replaced the tap water with my RO mix.

No fish just yet, I didn't want to rush and make a silly mistake, so I'll gradually move them in over the next couple of weeks.

I still need to clean some rocks and wood, then get them in the tanks along with some caves and plants, then I should be good to go.

Once my current fish are moved I'll work on the large tank, I need to buy some more sand and a few giant pieces of wood for that yet.

[SLIMESLAYER10]

what are you thinking of stocking the big tank with?!? or will we just have to wait and see

[MarcW]

In the big tank I'm planning 4-6

L095

, and a group of Geophagus or similar, maybe a

L330

too.

The only thing I'm set on are the L095, I'll see how they settle in before deciding on any other fish for that tank.

Unfortunately the shop which had some a while ago has sold them, they may be able to get some more in a month or two, I'm going up there on Friday so I'll see if I can arrange an order for them then.

[Fundulopanchax76]

As we can see you have a lot of money ? Excuse me Marc, but what do you work ?

[MarcW]

It took a lot of saving, I just have a regular IT job.

Some plants arrived today, I got java fern, regular and narrow leaf, a couple types of lotus/lily, some anubias hastafolia for the big tank and some nana petite, to scatter around on bits of wood. They are just thrown into a tank for now until I get around to sorting them out.

I don't have a great history keeping plants alive for long, but I'm hoping these will do well! I have some java moss in another tank which I'll also portion up and spread around the tanks, hopefully some Cory's or tetras will spawn in it!

[MarcW]

We have fish!

You may have spotted one of them in an ID thread.

I have moved all my current fish:

L128

4 adults (only 3 pictured as the alpha male wouldn't leave the cave!) and the 6 F1 young, now in separate tanks. The young have grown well with the biggest just over 4 inches TL, no where near as chunky as the adults but growing well.

Centromochlus schultzi

4 adults growing well, with a really nice yellow to them.

Corydoras loxozonus

7 adults now in their own tank to being a breeding attempt.

Ancistrus sp(l393)

young growing out.

Aphanotorulus ammophilus

feeding up to try and breed in future.

Hypancistrus sp(l260)

adult breeding group, and 6 new young to grow on.

Spectracanthicus zuanoni

these have put on some size in the past year, I'm fairly sure I have at least one female.

Pseudohemiodon apithanos

New fish:

Tenellus trimaculatus

group of 10

Corydoras sp(c123)

group of 10

I also bought some cardinal and costae tetras to look nice when you can't see the catfish!

I still have plenty of room, 8 empty tanks, but I'm restraining myself, and trying to enjoy planning the hardscape/plants/fish, and not rush out and buy fish just because I have some room!

Most tanks will have plants in them, I'm experimenting with a few types of Anubias, Java Fern, Echinodorus (which I'm planning to let grow out of the large tank), and some floating Indian fern. Once I get around to it, I'll get pictures of the tanks, but for now I've added some fish pictures for you!

[MarcW]

The woodcats now, as I could only attach 5 pictures to the previous post!

[panaque]

Very nice! I especially like the Tenellus. I look forward to future updates on them.

[MarcW]

Thanks!

There's a couple more pictures of them below for you!

They don't appear to have settled in yet, I've had them since Friday afternoon and spend most of their time all huddled in the corner as you can see in the pictures. They'll go further afield for food but always go back to the corner.

Maybe I need to add more shelter or plants for them to feel comfortable, or maybe the big tetras are intimidating them?

[Bas Pels]

I was them at Utaka in a 500 liter tank with a lot of Hemiodon sp (a large, innocent tetra)

All were hidden under half a pipe with the round part upwards. The pipe was some 20 cm deep, and they were at the end, deep in the cave.

I don't remember seeing any wood in the tank, but where dorids and woodcats are closely related, woodcats prefer wood, and dorids might prefer stones.

I would suggest adding a few of these caves.

[MarcW]

Good idea thanks Bas, I have a few large caves that I could add.

I'll add them to the tank later on and see how they are in the morning.