ctaylor3737 Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 So since I have been building journals for a few of my tanks, I figured I would let everyone in on my current situation. So I have most of my tanks in a small office. It has been perfect so far for what I am doing. As it stands now I probably wont be able to set up much more tanks in there due to space and it being on the second floor. Due to recently getting a new furnace and clearing out my basement for insulating I finally decided to pull the trigger on finishing the basement and setting it up for a fish room. I have been debating this for awhile now but I live in Upstate New York and we have a wet basement, this is fine as long as your sump pump is working properly and you keep the moisture down. Once I got the pump replaced and added a backup pump I was ready to finish the basement and get my tanks up and running. This will take some time and I will be posting alot of pictures along the way, Right now I have got the walls framed in and the wire ran for the plugs. I thought ahead and added many dual outlets so I wont have to run power strips. This will be an awesome investment for what is coming later. I am insulating the walls starting tomorrow and will go and pick up the floor on monday. Tanks: 30G High Tech Planted, Co2 90G Discus Tank 55G Discus Tank for Fry Grow out Rack of 5 20L: 3 TB tanks and 2 PRL and Crystal tanks Rack with 2 40B for Discus Fry and breeding Bottom 2 rows will be as many 10G as I can fit. Single Air Pump powering all Sponge filters I will have a few HOBs on the tanks depending on what the inhabitants are. Want to keep it simple with just sponge filters and keep costs down. Probably will only have a few heaters in some of the tanks. Only need a few more 10g tanks, I have all the other tanks already. Picked them up from Craigslist and the $1g sale. I also have my rimless cube tanks that I am going to build some stands for. Will have a tank or two set-up high tech to have a nice planted tanks going. I have a 92G corner bowfront display I have upstairs that I keep stocked with nice plants. I am sure alot of this will change as I go, it will take me a bit to do the rest of it and get it functional. I do all the work myself on my days off so I really don't get alot of time to work on it. I have plans of breeding alot of shrimp to supply some of the local fish stores. They give me good prices and there is no one around that does it, Figured I would use this as incentive to build a bigger room. Always got to feed the MTS syndrome haha. The shrimp tanks will be kept pretty low tech for costs. I will be using cheap substrate for my Neos, and others. ADA Soil in all my TB tanks because its awesome! This is just a start more to add so follow! Tanks Already set-up to give you an idea of current livestock. 90G Discus- 20 Discus Most are juvies-mid growth still got alot of room to grow, Pigeon Bloods, Red Panda, 2 Snow whites, 2 Stendker Dark Angels, 2 Stendker Fire Reds, 2 Yellow Marlboroughs, White Faced Marlboro, Turquoise, 8.5G Sulawesi Cardinals/Breeding 4.5g Blue Velvet Tank/ Breeding 10G Carbon Rili/Red Crystals/ Berried 10G Cherries/Black Crystals/Breeding 5.5G Painted Fire Reds/Growing out 20L With Mischlings/ Growing Long post I know, but lots of good updates on my fish room, helps me keep track of my goals by writing this so its a win, win for me. h4n and High5's 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metageologist Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 Will be watching this evolve. Did you put your sump on a battery backup to avoid catastrophe. Have a gniess day. -Scott ctaylor3737 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 Sounds great! Pics would be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 Will be watching this evolve. Did you put your sump on a battery backup to avoid catastrophe. Have a gniess day. -Scott Yea, I did. Been planning a year for it but just recently decided to do it. Will be awhile before the tanks go down there, but got lot of progress already -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 I'll take more tonight! -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 Looking great, man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 very nice! You don't even have to completely finish the basement I would assume to have tanks down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayphly Posted April 27, 2014 Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 Can already tell this is going to look good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 very nice! You don't even have to completely finish the basement I would assume to have tanks down there. Yea only thing I want is the floor down, don't want to work around tanks. It's cold Down there too. I have all my supplies now to finish! -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 A few updates, due to selling a few unneeded items on CL I was able to buy,the foam, tape and plywood for the floors. Got most of it, installed today. Basement is already warmer or I just worked a lot today lol. This weekend should have the floor, in and starting on the drywall. I decided to put cheap carpet down due to having the padding already from the house renovation. The insulation on the floor and walls will keep any moisture problems away. I installed a battery backup on my sump also. Got a sweet deal on tanks. 10/ 10g tanks 5$ 29g for 5$ also. Should be right where,I want to be with the amount of tanks. I'll, also be installing a drain in the wall to make water changes a breeze. Also will have a line for pumping over water from the storage barrel. Want to minimize dragging hoses around. Should work good. I'll keep this updated finally coming together. Takes awhile being in school full time, a 2 yr old and a full time job lol -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 The top picture is the before, picture. Got alot done today. All water changes done I'm tired too much like work -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4n Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Very nice! Can't wait to see this finished! Hanzorz at Verizon.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 I have to tell ya man, I wish I had laid styro down before flooring! ctaylor3737 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfosgate Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Styrofoam before flooring?! *Facepalm* Sure wish that I had thought of that one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 This is great, as a fellow upstate NYer I have looked into the same thing My basement is dry, but does have the risk of flooding if the sump pump were to fail. Here are a few tips / ideas I have thought to incorporate into my future fish room 1. Have PVC drain lines run from the tank stands to the sump pump - makes draining the tanks easy. You could consider drilling the tanks, installing an overflow, so to do a water change all you would have to do is start filling the tank - but this will waste more water in the long run 2. Look into a heat exchange unit, i think the biggest risk with a basement fish room is the humidity, the heat exchange units blow the humid air out and save the heat then blow it back in as warm air (think thats the name of it) Looking forward to watching this progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 I have to tell ya man, I wish I had laid styro down before flooring! It already makes a difference. Doing tile in the future so didn't want it freezing. I have some cheap carpet I am doing first. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 This is great, as a fellow upstate NYer I have looked into the same thing My basement is dry, but does have the risk of flooding if the sump pump were to fail. Here are a few tips / ideas I have thought to incorporate into my future fish room 1. Have PVC drain lines run from the tank stands to the sump pump - makes draining the tanks easy. You could consider drilling the tanks, installing an overflow, so to do a water change all you would have to do is start filling the tank - but this will waste more water in the long run 2. Look into a heat exchange unit, i think the biggest risk with a basement fish room is the humidity, the heat exchange units blow the humid air out and save the heat then blow it back in as warm air (think thats the name of it) Looking forward to watching this progress I am installing a floor drain just in case when I do the tile. I am running a drain to the main house drain. I live in the Cicero swamp area so don't want to place more load on my sump. It runs all the time lol. I am having a closet by the sump that will have a 55g barrel with RO, will have a line installed to pump water over to tanks. Will have a small line to run to each tank. May just to one with a flexible hose haven't settled on an idea yet. Want to keep from dragging hoses and hooking them up all the time. Want an easy system that's not to complicated. Thought about a auto water changer but, I would rather do them. Don't mind it and I have the peace of mind not worrying about over flow or parameters off. Overall is coming together. Been studying rack builds, the goal of my project is to have a nice organized system that is all framed in and looks good. I have people over a lot to see the tanks so want something that looks good. Spending this much time might as well do it right huh? -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 If I end up doing a complete system I have considered having all of the tanks drilled, and using a system of valves be able to drain all the tanks at the same time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 If I end up doing a complete system I have considered having all of the tanks drilled, and using a system of valves be able to drain all the tanks at the same time I thought about that to and run them all into the drain, just have to pick a spot on each tank you want to take the wc to and just flip the valve. Would be pretty easy I would think to do this. Would be nice for my Discus Rack where I will be doing Water changes daily. I could also plumb it to divert to pump in the water also. Would take some planning but would be doable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 You also could leave the valves on the tanks open, and have one valve per row of tanks, then you open that and all the tanks get drained. You just need to talk to Han and have him make you custome intake guards with fine mesh ctaylor3737 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Also has anyone ever used LED Tape Lighting before? My idea is on my Low tech rack is to have low cost lighting as well. Someone suggested that I use tape LED, they are very cheap and actually put of decent amount of light. My idea is to run this tape under each shelf over the tanks. I could even split it up into two strips per shelf to ensure enough light. This would all be wired in through the rack and would only need one plug to power the whole rack. Would probably cost me less than 20$ to wire a whole 5 shelf rack If I am figuring right. I have found cheaper ones online through ebay also here is the one that is on amazon. Also sells a dimmer and remote control lol. http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-EVER-Flexible-Daylight-Waterproof/dp/B0085UPTT4/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1398892364&sr=8-13&keywords=led+tape+lighting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 You also could leave the valves on the tanks open, and have one valve per row of tanks, then you open that and all the tanks get drained. You just need to talk to Han and have him make you custome intake guards with fine mesh So this would work on pure gravity alone to drain the tanks? Then I just close it when I fill the tanks and use the same side of the plumbing but coming from the storage tank. Shrimp tanks ill probably just do manually, dont mind the weekly or monthly chore lol. Want to be able to move some of the racks around if I feel the need. The discus one I will have fry so want to make the water changes as simple as possible. I go to work at 0430 AM so the less time I spend in the morning the better. My discus have paired also so this is why the push for the room went forward! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Yea it's 100% gravity. You still want a valve per tank so that you can isolate them if needed ctaylor3737 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted May 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 Yea it's 100% gravity. You still want a valve per tank so that you can isolate them if needed Looking at a few of my tanks and I will be able to bottom drill my 29s. This is what my breeders will be in and fry. Drawing it up tonight to post and see what you guys think. Thanks for the ideas, I found an awesome thread on the strip lights. Decided to order a set and begin tinkering with them. Others have used it for high light and med light. Should be easy for me to hit low light, conserve energy and cost. Will save me enough for new livestock......oh what to get. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted May 1, 2014 Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 Yea that's the biggest thing I was running into, was the upkeep costs and effort so I was trying to be as efficient as possible in my design Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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