In Wall Tank Owners - What Construction Materials/Methods?

[ITR]

I'd like to get some input from those who have their reef tanks in a wall in regards to the proper building materials used on walls for high humidity.

Basically, I have a blank canvas. Right now or in a few weeks, the room that will be behind the tanks will be bare studs. When finished, the room will have a 180g, a 240g with sump, refug. & frag tank until I upgrade to a larger reef tank. I am trying to determine the best way to finish the walls and ceiling so humidity, moisture, & mold are not issues.

-What material did you use to skin your walls? I was leaning toward backer board for the walls and ceiling. I know this will be significantly more costly than drywall. How many used regular drywall and do not have any issues & if so, what sort of ventilation are you using?

-I know most applications using backer board generally have tile or tub surrounds covering them, but in my case, I would paint it like a regular wall. Can you tape and fill backer board prior to paint the same as drywall or do I have to skim coat all of it prior to priming & painting?

-What kind of insulation is recommended for a room with high humidity? Is there even a special kind? I plan on insulating the room even though 3 of 4 walls are interior walls for the simple fact that I will run an A/C only in this room in the summer months and the room adjacent to it has a wood stove (my primary winter heat source).

-What kind of vapor barrier do I use over the insulation behind the drywall/backer board?

-What other recommendations does anyone else have for this room? I have electrical outlets/circuits under control and I am in the process of searching for a proper humistat/vent fan combination.

[woodwrangler]

Been thinking of doing a similar thing in the future, and am interested to see some of the responses.

My initial thoughts:

-use of a special insulation is not required, I was planning on using a basic R19 insulation

-a simple vapor barrier consisting of 4mil plastic stapled to the studs

-use of paperless drywall. I know a lot of people use the green board for this application.

-depending on the size of the room, I was thinking of skinning the walls and ceiling with FRP, like you would find in a commercial restroom or kitchen.

-I think I would stay away from using the cement backer board unless you are planning on installing tile on the walls. To get a good paint/seal on the backer board you would probably need to skim coat the entire wall before paint.

-I have read some build logs that have used an epoxy paint on the walls, directly over the finished drywall with much success.

-Finally, I think the use of a dehumidifier/fan is essential

How large is the fish room?

[Oldtimer]

This ought to be an interesting thread. I'm in the process of creating my own fish room for a ~260 gal reef with main sump ~100 gal, a ~40 gal prop tank, ~40 gal cheato fuge, ~ 30 gal mangrove fuge (just for the heck of it) and a 65 gal tank as a holding tank/water change tank... so well over 500 gallons of water exposed to atmosphere. The room is in the basement and roughly 30% of the wall is exposed block wall so I just plan to seal it with a product called Thoroseal. I planned on going with green board for the walls. I don't know if it's worth insulating the 2 interior walls separating the fish room from the main living space on one side and the furnace room/workshop on the other side. I hadn't planned on it, but open to the idea. I don't know if I like using plastic on the studs even for interior walls for the simple fact that if water or moisture finds its way in there, then condensation will form and mold growth will follow. I plan to keep moisture out in the winter with an HRV (Heat recovery ventilator) and in the summer with mini split AC unit. The room will be sealed off from the rest of the house. I hadn't thought much about paint yet, but I like woodwranglers suggestion with the commercial paint... what does FRP stand for?

[nyvp]

i used hardybacker and had a pro skimcoat it nothing is going to get moldy with that stuff

[H20ENG]

Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic.
Its the orange peel textured white plastic paneling used in commercial restrooms. Good stuff.

[8BALL_99]

I used Greenboard and covered it all with FRP.. I siliconed all the joints and then used plastic trim everywhere including the baseboard. I even put an outdoor fluorescent light thats built for wet conditions. The floor is expoxy coated concrete. There are some pics in my Gallery. I think its about as water proof as you can get and still have electricty in the room.. Btw be sure to use GFCI outlets on any circuits in the room..

[ITR]

Hmmm.... I'm actually surprised and relieved to hear about not using backer board. Relieved because of the cost and relieved due to the labor of having to skim coat it before paint.

I didn't mention greenboard because I "thought" I read somewhere that greenboard is no longer recommended for high moisture areas as it once was.

H20ENG - How do you seal the seems on the Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic? Somehow, I am not to keen on having seems every 4 ft.

[elvictre]

I used green board & R19. Make sure all your seams are well taped and use a great primer like zinnser with high gloss paint over it. IMO the key is good ventilation. If you could have an exhaust fan push the air right outside the house you should have no problems.

Vic

[woodwrangler]

Green board is fine for wet/moist areas, and even better is the paperless "mold resistant" drywall.

DensArmor

[ITR]

Originally posted by woodwrangler
Green board is fine for wet/moist areas, and even better is the paperless "mold resistant" drywall.

DensArmor

I am going to look into this product. Based on their website, it looks like our local Lowes carrie it. I was just there today too.

[poppin_fresh]

Having moisture resistant products is good, just remember ventillation is key. Just because the mold cant grow on the face of the drywall, doesn't mean moisture is not seeping behind it in a place it CAN grow. I would ventillate (to the outside) any enclosed space subject to high humidity, like a fishroom.

[ITR]

Originally posted by poppin_fresh
Having moisture resistant products is good, just remember ventillation is key. Just because the mold cant grow on the face of the drywall, doesn't mean moisture is not seeping behind it in a place it CAN grow. I would ventillate (to the outside) any enclosed space subject to high humidity, like a fishroom.

Thanks,

I am in the process of sourcing a vent fan/humistat that will bring the moist air outside. My primary concern at the moment was getting the walls done as this was the next project.

[Oldtimer]

Originally posted by woodwrangler
Green board is fine for wet/moist areas, and even better is the paperless "mold resistant" drywall.

DensArmor

I'll have to look into this as well. I was at Lowes today and noticed Hardibacker and a similar product in 3' x 5' panels. They offered it in 1/4" and 1/2". The less expensive product was about $10 in 1/2". The Hardibacker was about $10 in 1/4" with no price listed for the 1/2". The sign said it was paintable. My understanding is that the skim coat is just for visual appeal or am I wrong?

[46bfinGA]

Stick with the Green board,that paperless drywall is heavy as hell. You can paint the walls with an exterior paint instead of skim coating.

[treny]

what would you do if you are just cutting a hole in a wall that is already there? I'm planning to put my 210 in a wall in my basement and wondering how the best way to do it. do I need to replace all the drywall around the tank???

[4everwet]

Treny- I'm setting up a fishroom in my garage and just getting started with sheetrock removal so I can go back with green board on all walls that will be inside the room. I'm trying to decide if I should use the garage ceiling inside the room or build a ceiling on the fishroom so the entire room is seperate?

[Lobster]

Originally posted by poppin_fresh
I would ventillate (to the outside) any enclosed space subject to high humidity, like a fishroom.

Is there any way to do this without venting air conditioning out too? Seems like if I'm venting the moist air in the fish room out of the house, there will be hot air from outside pulled in from somewhere to take its place.

[8BALL_99]

I dont run my Exhaust/Intake fans in the summer cause they blow all the AC out of the room.. I simply run a Window ac and this keeps the moisture down in such a small room.. But I really think you should cover the walls with FRP or something like it.. I would not just paint Green board in a fish room.. Way to much moisture.. Exhaust fans are great but you will probably never keep that room down below 65% humidity In the middle of summer if you have much water volume. The walls should really be as water proof as you can get them.

As far as the FRP joints.. They sell trim that both peices slide into. They also have corner peices. It doesnt look bad at all.. Its the same stuff thats used in any commercial kitchen its Code. Alot of commercial bathrooms use it also.

Lowes also sells some plastic sheeting thats softer and cheaper then FRP. Its alot easier the scratch or cut though. Could be an option if your trying to save on the Cost...

[46bfinGA]

FRP is nice but very very expensive.Im going to just paint my room with an exterior latex paint. Should work fine.

[jnarowe]

I can add a little bit to this discussion:

FRP is fairly expensive and IMO doesn't provide 100% sealing. With all those joints, I question its integrity against vapor. My tank room is decent size and after thing about it long and hard, I went with green board. BTW, I think that is really not that much better than regular drywall, and may be more of a marketing tactic than anything else.

Having said that, I was paranoid to use the regular stuff. Once I put it up and did the taping, I painted the ceiling and walls with yacht bilge paint. This provides a cleanable 100% sealed surface.

I also looked into insulatioin and originally was going to foam in everything. But further research determined that the foam would actually broadcast noise and this was a key concern. I spent a lot of effort on noise abatement and the resulting construction is what I gleaned from that study:

1. I installed a second 2 x interior wall with the studs offset from the original wall. This keeps the sound from vibrating through the attached materials.

2. I then foamed around evey wall penetration like light switches, plugs, etc. When viewing graphic represntations of sound traveling through a wall, it is these points where most of the sound comes from.

3. I installed classic insulation w/vapor barrier in the walls and ceiling.

4. Greenboard over that.

5. Yacht bilge paint. (YOU MUST VENTILATE!!) this stuff is extremely high VOC.

In this pic you can just barely see the secondary wall studs.



Here is the finished paint.



One note about ventillation: This is indeed a must as has been previously mentioned, but beware of humidistats. If it gets humid outside, and you have a vent fan running on a humidistat, it will cycle on and off continuously. I had to turn off that part of my controller, and just use temp. to kick the fan on.

I also used an exterior steel door with weather stripping for the tank room door. My room is completely isolated from my house.

[46bfinGA]

How was the humidistat effected by the outside humidity? Do you have a fan bringing in air also or just vents from the outside that open once the fan comes on?

[8BALL_99]

The thing is if you have a humidistat set for say 70% and its 68% outside then it will kick on every couple of mins.. Ofcourse if you have your Humidistat set lower then outside humidity it will just run 24/7.. Or if its raining outside they will also run non stop. Blowing all your heating or cooling out :|

FWIW you glue frp to the walls so under all the joints the wall is covered with FRP glue.. Its also waterproof.. I also siliconed all the joints . If this stuff is installed right you can spray the walls down with a hose pipe.. Thats why its used in kitchens.. I had to put 200 4'x12' sheets of the stuff in a sports bar that rents to me..

[jnarowe]

yeah check the picture. if your tank room is sealed off from the house (which I believe it should be) you need to provide replacement air. I have an attic style vent which is positioned under my deck, supplying the tank room with fresh cool air.

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by jnarowe
yeah check the picture. if your tank room is sealed off from the house (which I believe it should be) you need to provide replacement air. I have an attic style vent which is positioned under my deck, supplying the tank room with fresh cool air.

Ohh I see the vent right next to the fan. Duhhh! That is basically the same way I plan to do my room only difference would be the vent will be on the opposite side of the room. I was hoping that would cause the air to move across the room a little better. Not sure if it would make a difference?

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by 8BALL_99
The thing is if you have a humidistat set for say 70% and its 68% outside then it will kick on every couple of mins.. Ofcourse if you have your Humidistat set lower then outside humidity it will just run 24/7.. Or if its raining outside they will also run non stop. Blowing all your heating or cooling out :|

So using a thermostat to control the fans would eliminate that? Im also using a Window AC unit in the summertime.So I guess the exhaust Fans should only be used in the winter? GA. doesnt have very cold winters so Im guessing my AC will run most of the time.