Building New House with Fish Room- Wanting Ideas

[Salty in training]

I am now going to be building a new house and want to put a tank in the wall. The tank will be it's own fish room behind the wall.

I currently have a 175BF but will probably be going to a 250-300 gal.

Please list your wish list or ideas for a fish room.

What should I use instead of sheetrock?
Should the room be on zoned air conditioning?

Here are some of mine that I will be doing

Backup genset for whole house
floor sloped with drain in center
separate circuits for lights and pump
ceiling vent fan to suck out humidity
sink for mixing and R/O
shelving for gravity fed refugium

Thanks for any ideas,

Torrey

[RamPuppy]

well, my idea isn't exactly a fish room, but it is cool.. something I have always dreamed about when I build a house.

I like large open spaces, so my kitchen, living room, dining area, foyer, all, would be pretty much one large space, split level, with rooms being at slightly different heights, the foyer being the highest. As you walk in the front door, you would see a massive 1 or 2000 gallon tank located in a large central column. If you were to walk around to the right, you would go down a set of stairs into the kitchen dining area, to the left, you would still see the tank, but there would be a 2 foot tall retaining wall holding in a saltwater 'pond' under the tank. The pond would be the refugium, hosing mangroves, macro algaes, and other critters, as you walk around it, and down the stairs into the living room, the retaining wall becomes an acrylic wall, and you can view the refugium from underwater, it would 'plunge in depth in this area, all the way to the floor of the living room.

In the living room, you would have a larger viewing area of the main display tank, essentially, about 1 and 1.5 stories or so.

Stocking plan I will leave general, I am a big believer in creating realistic bio-topes, so the front of the tank, the 'shallow' end facing the front door and atrium, would be a shallow water back, or marginal reef zone, filled with appropriate species, the deeper part facing the living area would have stocking for the fore reef. and of course, there would be a sigle location in mind, such as tonga, or what not. The refugium would probably have some sea horses in it.

The pump room, sumps, filters and what not, would all be below in a 'basement' type room.

Of course, this is all dependent on me winning the lotto or something... one can dream! :)

[yarsrevenge]

Drain in the middle of a concrete slab and a deep wash sink. Run greenboard instead of reg. drywall.
>L

[prafferty]

There are alot of great threads with loads of pictures of fish rooms and setups that would help with you planning. Just go thru the pages and they are sure to be there or you could search. There really is no one answer.

[shanekennedy]

you can use greenboard instead of sheetrock
being zoned may not be worth price
definitely AC the room
ups, for when the power goes out & you're not home to start generator
space for frag & qt tanks
sewer plumbing near the tank so you can automate water changes & flush old water down drain

[Tmaxman]

Fishrooms I have built are lined with fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) which is designed for bathroom use. This prevents mold and mildew, is easier to wipe down, easily installs over drywall, and you don't have to worry about it peeling off the whall like drywall does when it gets soaked. It's $20 for a 4x8 sheet and about $10 to glue a sheet.

Make sure you leave enough room to work, the rooms always look bigger on paper.

Ventilation is very important. If A/C is not used, be sure it is heavily vented. If you are using a chiller, consider a fish room near a garage or next to a wall where you may be able to locate the chiller outside of the room. Chillers throw off a lot of heat, even for a small room.

Water access, sink, floor drain, and even a subpanel is a good idea in the room. Don't skimp on the outlets either, you'll always be searching for them.

[CrystalAZ]

In the living room, you would have a larger viewing area of the main display tank, essentially, about 1 and 1.5 stories or so.

This sounds really cool looking, but I don't know if they make an algae magnet big enough to clean that glass. :D

We are going to be building a house in the next couple years, and I am going to also have a tank with a fish room behind it.

I am going to build a large L shaped tank facing into the living/dining/kitchen area (I also like large open spaces) and there will be an acrylic divider to have one part of the L be reef and one part FO so I can have some angels and other non reef-safe fish in there.

The door to the room will be on the other end of the L. I will have a large sink in there, hammer-safe counters for breaking rocks, a floor drain, and an area for a large fuge and sump.

I'll also have some strong shelves for rubbermaid tubs to turn into grow-out tanks.

Do you think it is a good idea to have a vent to get rid of humidity? Won't less water evaporate if it is humid in there? Is that bad?

Crystal

[Mouse]

A nice countertop for fragging etc...
And a slot in the door for the wife to pass you some food...

[oncampus1]

Agreed on the sink and counter/work surface ideas. Don't forget a water source for your RO unit (tee off sink water supply?).

[firemouth4416]

You might consider a jumbo refuge tank in the room at the same level as the main tank. Get a used 125 and plumb it inline with 500-1000 gallons circulating between the tanks. You would also be able to go sumpless with a system like this. Just put a in tank circulation system in the main tank. Allowing slow flow between tanks would also let thinks settle out in the refuge. Take a look at www.oceansmotions.com for sumpless system ideas and sequence pumps for flow

[slipknottin]

You probably want to use an air exchanger also.

[JHardman]

A few things on my list...

1) Large tank for holding salt water, large enough to do a 100% change if need be. You may never have to do a major change, but when you are talk 200+ gallon tanks, it is pretty hard to make that much ASW fast if have to.

2) An air exchanger to help control humidity.

3) Lots of 20amp receptacles.

4) Cat5 wired into the room. Handy for computers, web cams, etc.

5) Storage space, cabinets and the like.

6) Sink system with a deposal in one. Handier than you might think.

7) Seal the floor and ceiling.

Make sure you get a good whole house generator with auto start, ATS and auto test runs. If you have natural gas there, that would be the fuel of choice, better than gas or propane. Over rate it too, the last thing you want to have happen is find that 5 years down the road you don't have enough power and have to start picking and choosing.

Personally if it wasn't too much more I would get the zoned AC too. Sometimes that is a "profit" item for builders, sometimes not.

[firemouth4416]

Disposal in the sink? POOR FISH!! At least you can salute and give them a proper burial when you flush them!!
Just kidding

[nf4sevenw]

forgot how to subscribe to posts. so i'll tagg along

[ReefMon]

Large built in RO & Salt water storage tanks, plumbed for easy waterchanges.

Dedicated fridge/freezer for foods & stuff.

Built in system of hospital & frag tanks.

TV & Stereo system.

Hands free intercom system for wife/family & front door communications. (don't you just hate it when you in the middle of something with both hands and the door/phone rings!)

[64Ivy]

Soundproofing! Really good soundproofing. And whatever the size of your workroom space, double it. You'll thank me later.

[RamPuppy]

CrystalAZ... I was kinda thinking with that big a tank I could jump in and do it! :)

(or pay some kid 5 bucks.)

would have to get a special set of swim trunks and add a washing machine sans detergent to the sump room. :)