# help with Some tips for a new fish room



## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

I am going to create a fish room in my garage. I will take about 30% of the garage space. I will have some 20 gallon tanks and 30 gallon tanks mainly for breeding.

I will also have some vivariums in there too. I will be closing it with a plastic because I do not want the door to be permanent. Is plastic good to insulate the room and do not loose a lot of heat?

Also about water changes I will be preparing water in water tanks is there a good DIY of automatic water change or the best thing is to siphon the water your self to remove any detritus in the bottom and then pump the water in. The new water should be heated or not since mainly I will be having fry?

As a stand what is the best to use? My wife's father told me to make two holes for each aquarium in the wall, use two iron pipes and then use wood to hold the aquariums. Is this good or is it better to use a stand?

I think as for filters the best thing to use is box filters in each aquarium. Is this good? I asking this because I do not want 1 filter to filter all the aquariums because I 1 will be sick I do not wish that all my stock will die!!

As for heaters I will be using 1 on each aquarium hoping that the room will be heated and good insulated. 

As for the roof I will have wood. Should it be a problem because I think there will be evaporation in the room and it will be on the wood?

What should I use for lightning?

For now that is it 
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

*hmmm*

lighting is usualy best with cheap t-8 shop lighting 48" with 6500 kelvin bulbs if you have plants..usualy very cheap...as far as stands i like presure treated 4*4s and 2*4s to make a decent but cheap rack..you can buy heavy duty racks at home depot and reinforce them with 2*4s but not as cheap.plastic will work for insulation like a green house but remember that heat rises and cold air sinks so dont leave any leaks on the floor or what not.a wood ceiling will require a weather and mold resistant paint.and maybe invest in a dehumidifier.filters can be alot of things but i find sponge filters to work out great on a gang valve.the box filters work but they are a pain to clean and you usualy dont want carbon in the quarintine and treatment tanks.i also like the plastic gutter cut to the top of the aquarium and airline that powers a low flow intake.then you can have your cake and eat it too..


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## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

so plastic is better as a top instead of glass?

Regarding the air pump should I get 1 for about 4 aquariums?


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

*oh*

oh ...the plastic is for the DIY filters...i actualy like glass or open top the best as they are easy to clean with a razor and dont warp from heat or UVB.and a good luft pump can power everything...if you are going to buy a regular air pump from a pet store you can usualy get away with about 6-10 tanks each..million air ,or airpods,catalinas and elites all work for samller aplications.


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

This sounds awesome and I am hereby demanding a picture log of the whole project 

On my opinion of the project I think much can be said for the use of 1 filter and heater system a complete rack, not only will you save the money on not having to buy a set of equipment on each tank and the extra savings from the energy you will save. But you will save time maintaining the tanks with 1 giant sump for the whole rack and add extra water volume, of course this will involve you maintaining a strict quarantine procedure for entry into the racks but in my opinion will be less over all work.

Also with this sort of setup you can easy add a auto top off system that comes from a container with preconditioned water, and then you can add a drip drainer so in effect you can have a constant water change going on which will also be a major help on the maintenance of the whole system.

I think just from a cost savings this will be the obvious choice for your system, you will save money by not buying filters, not as many heaters, only needing one light (if you want extra nitrate removal with plants by just lighting the sump instead of each tank) and also not needing/ or needing less air pump.

Good luck and keep us updated!


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

*sumps.*

if your breeding your own fishes then a sump works out ok...but if your like me and have numerous fishes from various persons and or petstores no matter how reputable you will want seperate filters.i personaly heat my house and room so i dont need a heater in each tank.just keep myself warm.


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## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

The problem with 1 sump is that I have to user 1 specific water parameters and knowing that my water at home is hard and with high ph I cannot go for catfish/american cichlids breeding. That is the only problem. Also I what I was going to do is when the fry is free swimming I will remove the parents and slowly change the water to a hard and high ph so they do not take a shock. What do you think?


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

*well*

like i said i dont care for the sump system in generaleven though it saves a few dollars.yeah thats exactly what your aiming for...a soft water to stimulate breeding and a upbringing of the fry in a gradual change twords harder water is good..although some of your south americans wont tolerate the change most will.


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## GraphicGr8s (Feb 22, 2011)

Use the sponge or corner filter in your breeding tanks. You need to be able to control parameters in each individual tank to induce spawning. You could use a sump for your grow out tanks though. 
Personally I would never ever use PT for anything near my fish tanks. Good old kiln dried pine is just fine for it. PT leaches chemicals up to at least one year after it's treated and possibly longer.


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## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

what is PT please?


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Maybe over estimated the size of your project, how many tanks are you looking at getting? If you get multiple racks of tanks then you can easily adjust pH on a per rack basis in the pretreated water for the auto top off. But if you are only looking at one rack then it might be a waste of resources.

Also you can always disconnect a tank from the system to adjust its parameters for spawning, then once the job is done reconnect it to the system.


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## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

well for now I think that I am going to do a rack with around 6x 15or20 gallons and 3x 30 gallons. Still not sure about the sump. Practically what I was thinking and maybe this should work fine I was going to make the breeding tanks with a specific low ph and gh and the rearing with high ph and gh which is my tap water source. But I need to do the change in the small tank (15 or 20 gallon tank) gradually that it takes around 2-3 weeks and when the fry is completely adapted to new water parameters I just move them. The parents will be removed from tanks as soon as they will become free swimming.

What do you think?


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## GraphicGr8s (Feb 22, 2011)

migdem said:


> what is PT please?


Pressure Treated lumber. It has chemicals in it to resist wood boring insects. It's safer now but still if it can kill termites……

Not something I want around my fish or my child. When I work with it it's with a mask and gloves these days. And I try not to work with it at all if possible. The old formula was CCA. Chromated Copper Arsenate. It's been improved some but I still like to err on the side of caution.Alkaline Copper Quat is the latest iteration but it's not been around all that long and the fasteners are treated different than for CCA.


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Sounds pretty good, what species are you looking to breed? Or still undecided? If its a small enough and clean enough species you can probably go down to 10 gallons for the breeding and first part of grow out, 20's for the 2nd stage of grow out and the 30's for holding, man I wish I had the time money and space for something like this. Hell I just wish my bolivian rams would stop eating their wrigglers.


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## migdem (Jul 4, 2008)

I was thinking of breeding angelfish and catfish such as ancistrus and pekoltia. As breeding I beleive these fish requires ph of 7 or low so I start with this but then after they hatch I will start changing water to ph8 and gh around 16.


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