New Fish Room Design

[aquachris]

So I might be able to build a dedicated fish room if I can get management to approve the whole thing. I have a big finished area in my basement not being used. The downside is only way up and down are stairs (had tiny basement windows, I might plan on having one setup for egress for safety and possibly for another way in for big objects like tanks lol). I don't know how big I want to go, I have probably 300 to 400 sq ft I can work with without having to tear down existing walls. Of course being a basement means I have the supports to work around. 

So my dilemma is all the planning. Probably won't completed until 2022 but I need to think of all the caveats in a design. Any ground up helpful information y'all can point me to?  I know Michael's Fish Room/Cory from Aquarium Coop has great resources on his setup that I will be studying greatly, but I really want to get all the "I wish I had done xyz" before designing too much. I can do a lot of the work myself, and some I can hire out very affordably. 

Also I want to make sure I can service all the tanks easily... I'm a slightly bigger guy so need to account for tummy space lol.

[Fish Folk]

Here’s some threads on the Forum here…

 

 

 

 

 

[Jimmy]

On 8/14/2021 at 6:04 AM, aquachris said:

So I might be able to build a dedicated fish room if I can get management to approve the whole thing. I have a big finished area in my basement not being used. The downside is only way up and down are stairs (had tiny basement windows, I might plan on having one setup for egress for safety and possibly for another way in for big objects like tanks lol). I don't know how big I want to go, I have probably 300 to 400 sq ft I can work with without having to tear down existing walls. Of course being a basement means I have the supports to work around. 

So my dilemma is all the planning. Probably won't completed until 2022 but I need to think of all the caveats in a design. Any ground up helpful information y'all can point me to?  I know Michael's Fish Room/Cory from Aquarium Coop has great resources on his setup that I will be studying greatly, but I really want to get all the "I wish I had done xyz" before designing too much. I can do a lot of the work myself, and some I can hire out very affordably. 

Also I want to make sure I can service all the tanks easily... I'm a slightly bigger guy so need to account for tummy space lol.

Welcome!  I’m working with about 60 square feet so anything is possible. Please follow along on my build and don’t be afraid to ask questions or directly message me.

I’ve been dreaming up this build for a long time and I’m doing all the work myself. Down to electrical.

im creating a room around what I want and it’s influenced by many others builds I’ve seen on YouTube. Some would never use less than 8x8 space but I’m going to make it work. I believe Micheal’s room isn’t much bigger than mine, deans is 10x10. Wish I could find an example of it but there’s a noteable guy I’ve seen who has accomplished amazing breeding feats with a hodge pod of tanks in a basement laundry room. 
 

 

[Gideyon]

I don't have a fish room. Not sure if I'll have one for maybe 10 years, or 18. 

But I do have one concern based on what you wrote. 

It sounds like the basement is underground without a walkout?  If so, you need a way to dispose dirty water. Personally I don't want to use my drains.  What I'd look into is maybe easy access to the sump pump and have dirty water drain there. It's also a good way to routinely check your sump pump. 

Temperature control also.  My basement is at 72 degrees even when it's 100 outside. So my tank's unheated temp is 70.  Even though I have a 50 watt heater for my 10 gallon, it really struggles to get it above 75. 

I've heard of people just heating their whole room instead of heating the tanks. Oil radiator heating is the best. But it's trial and error to find the right setting.  

[aquachris]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:43 AM, Gideyon said:

I don't have a fish room. Not sure if I'll have one for maybe 10 years, or 18. 

But I do have one concern based on what you wrote. 

It sounds like the basement is underground without a walkout?  If so, you need a way to dispose dirty water. Personally I don't want to use my drains.  What I'd look into is maybe easy access to the sump pump and have dirty water drain there. It's also a good way to routinely check your sump pump. 

Temperature control also.  My basement is at 72 degrees even when it's 100 outside. So my tank's unheated temp is 70.  Even though I have a 50 watt heater for my 10 gallon, it really struggles to get it above 75. 

I've heard of people just heating their whole room instead of heating the tanks. Oil radiator heating is the best. But it's trial and error to find the right setting.  

Yes its below the drains right now.  I would see about having it go to the sump pump from a floor drain ideally.  And same thing, it is always nice and cool downstairs, I would try to heat the room instead of individual tanks.  I have three pairs of breeding angelfish, so I would be targeting a higher temp than most (80F)

[ArchwayAquatics]

I haven't built a dedicated fish room yet, but I've built the garage on my house and finished our walk out basement to a master bedroom suite. The bathroom in the basement is below grade. While I'm happy I went with extra insulation for the walls (I've learned it's hard to over-insulate), I wish I'd have sprung for the under-tile heating elements. We don't have the worst winters in MO but the chill off the floor in winter is brutal. If you go with something other than bare concrete floor, consider something like that to help keep your temp stable? 

The garage is more like a swiss army knife that poses as a garage. It's man cave, craft room, office, storage, greenhouse for the garden in early Spring, and now houses extra tanks. Biggest lesson learned there that seems highly transferrable to the aquarist hobby is over planning the electric is about as tough as over-insulating. Oh, and outlets belong on ceilings as much as they do on walls! Surface mounted boxes with flex conduit runs make for easier reconfiguring down the line if things evolve unexpectedly. 

From conversations with locals, reading forums, and YouTube, venting/moisture control seem to be a common topic for basement builds. Overshooting here, too, may be worth considering depending on your situation.