Moving and getting a fish room!

[Biulu]

Hi all,

Will be moving into a home in Nepean in November and will be having a roughly 3 x3 metre space as a fish room available to me.

Laundry room is right next door so am planning on getting the water lines extended to facilitate water changes. I have a couple of questions with regard to the set up/design.

My idea was to install an industrial sink with a faucet that allows me to attach a python for water changes and build a counter top around it for other (cleaning) tasks. The room doesn't have a floor drain and somebody mentioned to me that it would be good to let the sink sit as low as possible to make use of gravity for water changes. However, that would make it harder for me to use the sink for other purposes than just as a drain.  Could I e.g. build a type of retaining wall on the bottom into which the sink drains? Is it difficult to do water changes for tanks on the lowest shelf when draining into a sink? Any thoughts?

With regard to racks: what do you consider to be the minimum space necessary between the tank and the other shelf for easy access? I have heard suggestions like: enough space to stick my head in between, or being able to easily reach the back of the tank with my arm.

How far do you recommend the lowest shelf to sit from the ground up? Again to facilitate works and viewing?

And last question: what is the single best tip you would give somebody that wants to set up a fish room?

TIA! Eleonore

[Dan]

One option you could do would be to have a sump and pump system. Basically you have a container that sits on the ground, you have a pump in it that empties the container to your sink/drain, and then you can do your water changes into that container. If you do this, you don't need to have hose from the pump in the sink, you could hook it up underneath the way a dishwasher would hookup.

[lucius]

I use pumps for my fish room.

For starters, I have a 55 gallon tote in which I fill up via the basement sink faucet.  I use a safe drinking hose from the faucet to the tote.  I use the faucet to adjust the temp and once the 55 gallon tote is full, I treat the water with Prime.  I also use a water circulation pump in the tote to help the Prime mix in and I usually run the circulation pump for five to 10 minutes.  Depending on how much water I'm changing, I refill twice or three times.

Pump # 1 is a Mag 5 that pumps the water from the 55 gallon tote to which ever tank I'm doing a water change on.  I use the Python hosing.

Pump # 2 is a Mag 9 that I place directly into my larger tanks.  The pump has a pre-filter sponge on it so I don't have to worry about fish or shrimp being sucked down the drain.  The water goes through a second safe drinking hose and connects to a DIY tap I made.  I use the tap to rinse my filter media.  Here's an old pic of my DIY tap when the sink was nice and clean. 

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For all of the above, I also use the Gardena quick connects to save time.

Pump # 3 is a smaller pump for my smaller tanks.  Because the pump is a bit smaller, I can't use a regular hose so I just use clear tubing and push the tubing onto the outlet of the pump.  To prevent fish from being sucked in, the pump is placed in a large media bag with a draw string and the draw string is tied around the tubing.  The other end of the tubing goes into my floor drain.

You can do water changes even if the tank is sitting on the ground with a pump.  This tank can be used for quarantine, culling, fry, extra plants or whatever.  In my fish room, the tank siting on the ground (no heater) is two degrees colder than a tank (also no heater) that is 48" high so I use it for cold water species.

As for the clearance above the tanks, IMO you should be able to stick your head and part of your shoulder in for ease of maintenance.  You will also need to figure out what type of lights you will use.  If they sit on top of the tank, then you can get away with a lower shelf above.  But if you are hanging lights, then you will need to increase the height for the light fixtures.

 

[Biulu]

Great replies so far! I am starting to get some ideas.

[Jody]

Hi Biulu,
  Great topic!
So I am in a situation where my floor drain isn't an option to use, and just have to connect to my laundry sink.
   I use the python as is for the most part and it works well, even on lower tanks. Often for my smaller tanks I drain the water into a bucket and have the python drain from there. I find this allows me to clean the tanks better, without draining the water in 2 seconds.
  You could do the same with a pump in the bucket.
   As far as spacing on racks give yourself a lot of working space. I don't do anything less than 12" (except on the 5 gallon rack, but they are small and don't need big access, though there is still about 8"
   When I built my racks I gave myself lots of storage room at the bottom, since I knew with the ceiling height of the basement I wouldn't be able to do 3 rows of tanks with room to work. So my low shelf of tanks on most of my racks is about 2 ft high at the bottom.
Jody