Darkdep's Fish Wall

[darkdep]

Hi everyone, for those who don't know, many months ago I made the decision that I wanted to organize my growing collection of tanks better, and after discussing possibilities with the wife we decided to redo most of the tanks and, combined with some basement reno, construct a Fish Wall.  (It's really my fish room but since other things go on in there I didn't think the name was appropriate).

Thus began the biggest construction project I've ever started in my life. 

The existing basement had a very 70's look to it, with stipple-covered walls, old pine panelling, and some hideous lights, so we decided to start by ripping all that out.  Once we started, we discovered more and more problems with the basic construction of the existing walls.  The electrical wires were running behind the studs against the concrete; no plastic vapour barrier in place, insulation that was rotting in places, and lack of tarpaper in a lot of spots.  So down to the bare concrete we went.



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[darkdep]

Once most of the existing stuff was ripped out, new wall frames were built for the bottom, and tarpaper was put in place.

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[darkdep]

You can see here the new wall under construction in contrast to where we stopped (for now).  The far wall was how the whole basement looked.

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[darkdep]

Next to do was to redo all the electrical wiring.  Because where I was rebuilding was in the middle of a circuit run for both lights and power, I had to continue them up into the ceiling where they went before.  Still, I managed to rework the wiring a bit to be more ideal for what I was doing.  I split a power circuit into two branches, one of them fully GFCI protected as they would be behind the tanks.  Any water splashes will shut them down safely without burning my house down. 

Also managed to remove the old boxes for the dungeon wall lights, and run a light circuit to the new pot lights.

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[darkdep]

After all this was done, it was time to insulate using new fiberglass insulation, and add a layer of plastic vapour barrier. 

You can see the new pot lights, a significant improvement to the lighting situation.  They're much brighter than the old lights, and they don't take up any wall space.

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[darkdep]

Time for Drywall.  This is my first time hanging drywall (I've done repairs in the past, but not a room).  As you can see I put the wrong side out for the first sheet, but it didn't matter later.

My daughter made me a picture while I was hanging the drywall and I promised I'd show everyone. 

It's HARD to guage where to cut the holes for outlets.  I screwed up a couple times.  Luckily I was able to fix up most of the goofs.

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[darkdep]

Note for those doing this.  Do not try to use the scrap pieces to fill in big spots.  You will kick yourself come jointing time.  My wife happens to be really good at drywall mudding and she almost killed me when I gave her this wall to deal with.

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[darkdep]

Walls are up, and wife painted a nice shade of blue that we thought would look nice behind the tanks.  Lights are looking good against the new walls too, and now have outlets all tidied up.  You can see where I am still a little off on some of the holes for the outlets...sigh.  At least they won't be visible behind the tanks   Seriously, I'll clean those up.

Look at the awesome job Michelle did on those walls!

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[darkdep]

Time to start building the racks for the tanks.

Basic construction design is to use doubled up 2x4's with 1/2" plywood tops on the frame.  1/2" styrofoam will be used on top of the plywood to absorb any unevenness in the top.  Platforms were constructed and lots of screws and angle brackets used to attach the uprights.  Nothing terribly fancy here, it's all for strength.



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[darkdep]

Two seperate racks are being built.  One will hold 6 40gallon Breeder tanks (36" x 18" x 15") and the other will hold two 75gallon (48" x 18" x 21") tanks.

They are now in their places on the wall and have been primed white for water protection.

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[darkdep]

It was a lot of work to get these all downstairs.  All tanks are brand new. 

It felt pretty cool to have these all new in one spot

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[darkdep]

Next for some lighting.  Decided to use standard shop lights for the 75gallon tanks.  I picked up some hangable dual T8 shop lights from Cdn tire for $19 on sale. 

In order to hang them NOT on the chains they came with, I had to disassemble them slightly.  In the process, I got to see the inside, and discovered they are wired EXACTLY the same as I had been doing when I built these up myself.  So, if you want to do custom fluorescent stuff, buy a shoplight and disassemble it...it's much cheaper than buying the components.

Once up in place, I cut the dangling switch so it was only about an inch or two below the bulbs.  I ran the power cord down to a power bar mounted on the rack and tried it out.  So far so good.

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[darkdep]

At this point, I put a couple of the 40's in place and filled the first tank; as I needed to suddenly move the inhabitants of a bedroom tank that developed a filter leak and the wife wanted them OUT!

40gallon tanks are fitting perfectly and new tank is now filled with water.  So far the new electrical and racks are working well.

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[darkdep]

Now have the second shop light mounted in the same way as the top one for the bottom tank.

I ended up making the fit too tight for the bottom tank...it wouldn't fit.  Damn black tank frame was too wide...I had to shave about 1/2" off of the side of two of the uprights.  What a pain that was!!!

I used my Dewalt router with a 3/4" straight bit to do some hand trimming.  Close up it's pretty choppy looking.  After repainting it's not too bad.

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[darkdep]

At this point, I had to go away for vacation!  But at least the tanks are in place.  Here is what it looks like today, with a pic of the first inhabitants.

Right now the plan is:

- The 75gallon tanks will be filtered with independant Magnum 350 Bio-Pro canister systems.  The Magnums will be charged with Seachem Purigen for Chemical filtration.
- All tanks will run appropriate sized Eheim Jager Heaters.
- 40gallon tanks will run Aquaclear AC 70 HOB filters; their media will consist of AC Sponge, Polyester Floss, Seachem Purigen, and Seachem Matrix.
- Each tank will have the vendor's standard sliding glass cover to prevent jumping and minimize evaporation.
- Lighting for the 40gallon tanks is still to be determined, but will be a custom built setup of some kind.
- All lights will run to a single power switch so I can turn the entire thing on and off with one click.
- A custom PVC Pipe job is still to be installed, which will run to each tank.  This will allow me to connect a hose from a single spot to the sink, and allow me to perform water changes on multiple tanks at the same time.  A single port for a gravel vac will be part of this system, so it will be permanently attached to the side of the racking unit.  Valves will control which tank(s) are being worked on.

Although not shown in any of these photos, a custom cabinet on the other side of the room holds a collection of 10gallon tanks which are used for fry raising/growout.




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[RoxyDog]

Nice job DD.    Since I am only around the corner from you, do I get to see it first?  heehee

[darkdep]

Total cost is a little hard to determine; as part of this project I broke down and sold off a lot of my existing tanks and equipment, including my 90gal slatewall/custom cabinet tank that I built.  I recovered a lot from all of that.

I spent about $1000 ish on the new tanks, and several hundred on the reno pieces.  Rack wood wasn't toooooo much really (probably a total of about $100 or maybe a bit more).  Lighting so far has been $40

I still have a lot to buy (filters, mostly). 

Another thing that I haven't mentioned yet is there will be a custom faceframe put on the entire works once all the guts are in place to give the entire setup a built-in look with sliding doors, etc.  That'll be later, but is part of the plan.

[pitabread]

Wow, that looks really awesome!  At first I thought that maintenance was going to be a pain, but that PVC piping plan sounds ideal.  Can't wait to see how it all looks when everything's in place.

[babblefish1960]

Looks lovely DD, tell Michelle her colour choice is perfect, and tell your daughter what a wonderful picture she had put on the wall.

It has come so very far, good job, you may regret the GFCI's, but that's just me, maybe they'll work for you, but they are too sensitive around little bits of water.

Keep up the work, holiday's over, so grind away, we all expect great things from this including an actual article. Cheers there tall fella.

[BigDaddy]

For the 40's lighting, if you aren't growing plants... I'd recommend a single T5HO bulb over each.

AC carries them in 36 inch lengths for $10 each, and they are quite bright for the amount of power they draw (39W) so it won't kill your pocket book.  You could easily wire 4 of them to a single workhorse 7 ballast, which would also cut costs.