Here is the start of my fishroom!

[Mr Wild]

We have converted half of our garage to a fishroom.

At present we have installed and plumbed in 14 x 2.5ft tanks on a gal dipped metal stand with a large 4ft sump.

Some pics follow:

Help please will not let me upload files and they are way below limit!

[Vspec]

Orsome, look forward to it.

Might be a redundant question, however is it in the correct format? If not try photobucket

[swampy1972]

+1 for using photobucket. If very easy to use and you don't have to worry about resizing pics..

Just copy and paste the IMG link from the image details into your post.

Can't wait to see your fish room ;)

[Mr Wild]

ok here goes.

Pic 1 this one shows the entrance to the shed and the nre gyprock wall with bifold doors we used as the entrance to the fishroom. We had them lying around from an old house and they gave me a wider than normal door width.

http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0006.jpg
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0005.jpg


This one shows the first tank stand we have already installed, there will be a further 2 in total to fill the room. These tanks hold 100 working litres each. There are 14 that are plumbed to a 4ft sump. You might have seen in the previous picture I have room under the stand this is because the 4ft sump was allowed to sit under one end. I am going to build a long timber tank under the stand using a pond liner and age and aerate water in that to use the space.

http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0001.jpg

[Mr Wild]

Next one shows the other end the room it is 3metres x 6metres. My son is installing the sink for me. Along the right hand side I am having a 2 tier rack with 2.5x2ft tanks, they hold more water than a 3ft. They are still to be fitted.
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0000.jpg

This end shows the area where I will have 3 x 4x2 tanks on a 3 tier stand the current water ager tank will go into the shed next door.
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0002.jpg

Finally my son, I must say without him doing the plumbing and lifting this would not have happened.
You can also see a vent in the wall. The plastic cover is removeable and I have filled the gap with insulation in summer I can remove that and open it up.
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0004.jpg

Also I have raised the lino up the wall for large spills and behind the big green bucket there is a drain of about 3in wide x 1 inch high so I can sweep bill spills out asap.

The whole room is insulated with rating 3.5 insulwool and covered with 10mm gyprock then painted to protect from moisture.

Any questions happy to answer otherwise I will update as the room progresses.

They are get wet this Sunday! Hope his plumbing holds! lol

[Vspec]

good work. Run me through the plumbing. Did you factor in unions so you can remove whole sections if required?

[swampy1972]

Awesome effort Kath. Looks like your son has definately earnt his Xmas present this year! :D

I see an oil heater in there so are you looking to heat the room rather than the sump? My mate has recently finished an insulated room and the temp difference is astonishing. He heats his sump with 4x 500W heaters but his power bill has dropped significantly purely because the heat is now retained so the heaters work alot less.

We just went out to buy a heater for my Mum - looking at an oil heater, but were put onto a ceramic plate convection heater. Same wattage but claimed to be about 50% more efficient to run. It was a bit more expensive to buy but it does an amazing job.. maybe something to look into.

Keep the pics coming ;)

[Mr Wild]

good work. Run me through the plumbing. Did you factor in unions so you can remove whole sections if required?

Each tank can be isolated both with water being removed and added, incase of disease.

[Mr Wild]

Awesome effort Kath. Looks like your son has definately earnt his Xmas present this year! :D

I see an oil heater in there so are you looking to heat the room rather than the sump? My mate has recently finished an insulated room and the temp difference is astonishing. He heats his sump with 4x 500W heaters but his power bill has dropped significantly purely because the heat is now retained so the heaters work alot less.

We just went out to buy a heater for my Mum - looking at an oil heater, but were put onto a ceramic plate convection heater. Same wattage but claimed to be about 50% more efficient to run. It was a bit more expensive to buy but it does an amazing job.. maybe something to look into.

Keep the pics coming ;)

Got a few things on the boil there. I will have twin 500wt in the sump as well as the oil heater. We are currently looking at the whole house going solar and putting back to the grid so I may not need to worry but we wille see. I thikn even though it might chew a bit of electricty I will be turning off 9 heaters I have now so I am hoping to see no change or even a slight drop in the bills!

Also as every wall will be tanks and water and even the space under the first stand will be a timber tank and water I am thinking once it gets up to temp it will take less to keep it there.

[Mattzilla]

looking good!

[scott bowler]

nice work kath it looks good , keep the pics coming .
looks like you well and truely have the bug now lol

[Mr Wild]

Its a disease! Yep I got it!

[Vspec]

good work. Run me through the plumbing. Did you factor in unions so you can remove whole sections if required?

Each tank can be isolated both with water being removed and added, incase of disease.


Dont strain yourself on the reply now kiddo..lol

[Mr Wild]

Last count was 19 universal joints after that I am no techo! LOL

[swampy1972]

It sounds like you've got all well thought out.. I'd love to hear about the process of solar conversion if you go ahead with it.
The room my friend has certainly retains the heat, so rest assured you should notice a difference. He kept a thermometer in the room as an experiment and it's generally stable at 27C and that's without the need for an oil heater. He's noticed a decrease in his elec' bills even running the same heating setup, so you should be well in front.
Just a thought, but I think you can hire power consumption meters from your local councils to track where you save $$. It would be an interesting study to see what difference all your hard work's done.
Keep up the good work ;)

[aequifasciatus]

Kath it might be worth looking into a small reverse-cycle airconditioner and a good quality thermostat in lieu of the oil heater. I ran them in my fishrooms. The A/C fan disperses the air much more evenly. A/C's also remove humidity so no mould.

Just a thought :D :D :D

Aequifasciatus

[Mr Wild]

Thanks for the that I will follow up on those suggestions. A friend of mine has the reverse cycle in his room seem to work a charm, need to sell a few fry to add to the building fund!

Happy to let you know about the electricty back to the grid if it all goes ahead. No worries

[Mr Wild]

Couldn't wait and I ended up with a bit of spare time so we filled her up today. Luckily we can isolate tanks and drain as 2 have a slight leak at the drill hole so they are being left to dry again so they can be dealt with.

Thats what happens when you use family labour! LOL

[swampy1972]

Bugger.. :(

Hopefully an easy fix, eh.

[Mr Wild]

Yeah should be swampy or so I am told!

[Vspec]

2 have a slight leak at the drill hole so they are being left to dry again so they can be dealt with.

what was the reasoning for this do you know, were these freshly drilled &/or not tight enough, or just oversized?

Is it just a slow drip, or a flow

Sometimes it can take a few days for the rubber seals to bond correctly to the glass at any rate, if it doesn't stop within 48hrs, then i usually investigate.

[Mr Wild]

We left the tanks to dry for a week, the leak started when the tanks were full once the full weight of the water was on the joint.

The way this is drilled in through the bottom made positioning the T sections and pipe a little tricky but we have fixed this now.

Should be moving fish in this weekend!.

[swampy1972]

Can't wait to see your progress pics Kath. Good to hear it was only a minor hiccup.

[Mr Wild]

Finally got around to taking an extra pic today.

I apologise in advance it is not a good pic, the lense keeps steaming up and the fluro lights make hard work of getting anything better. Any way I hope you all enjoy.

http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Wildy_2010/Fishroom/0028.jpg

This opposite side of the room from the pics above, 10 tanks each holding 188litres.

These are run as individual tanks with simple sponge filters for bio filtration and air.