Final leg of fish room build

[tolstoy21]

Sorry that I'm only posting some documentarian photos at the final leg of this build, but . . . . life gets busy and things get skipped.

Over the course of the past three years I've been transforming the dusty corner of my basement into a small fish room (it's approximately 10x12). I'm now in the final leg of this, finishing out the final wall. Over the course of those years I've framed, plumbed, insulated and electrified this little room (and bred some fish in it!). 

Probably about 90% of this room has been funded by the fish I've bred in it. So aside from needing to budget free time to work on it (I have a young kid, a day job, a dog, an old house that I'm also renovating), I also need to breed fish to cover the construction costs and the ongoing overhead of the already running half.

A goal of mine was to make this project self-sustaining, and aside from some initial money out-of-pocket to get this off the ground, I feel I've mostly succeeded at that goal.  When they say 'breeding for profit" really means "breeding to break even in your hobby" they ain't kidding!

It will be nice to finally have all the major construction out of the way so I can focus more on the fish part than the building part. But honestly, I'm not 100% sure which part I enjoy more. 😉 

Anyway, enough yacking! I thought I'd finally, and belatedly, share some pictures.

 

View from the outside above. My basement ceiling is a tad low, so instead of modifying a door and jamb to fit the low ceiling, I opted for one of those warehouse vinyl slat doors that they use on walk in freezers. Works great and I like that I can see into the room from the outside and not have to leave the door open to move stuff in and out.

 

Yes, that tank full of accidental green water above does have duct tape holding the cracked glass together! Somewhere in there is a small number of Asian Rummynose Barbs (Sawbwa Resplendens). I hope at least. I need to spend some time fishing them out and transferring them to a breeder box.  This room is a little hot for them at this point so they all need to be relocated to a cooler part of the basement (along with my shrimp).

 

This is the final wall to get insulated and sheet rocked. It will be the mirror-image of the finished wall.  I also have to finishing boxing in that asbestos-and-duck-tape-wrapped pipe. Old houses are fun aren't they?

Anyway, thanks for looking and reading thus far if you didn't TLDR this.

Edited October 14, 2022 by tolstoy21

[Guppysnail]

Wow that is amazing. Thank you for sharing. 

[Odd Duck]

Fish do love green water, don’t they?  😆 As frustrating as unplanned greenwater is for us, at least it does not damage to the fishies.

Looking good!  I’m planning to put a screen door on my Offish so I can still hear what’s going on in the room while keeping cats out of the room so less tampering will happen.  Cats love to tamper!  Fish don’t love being the tampering victims.

[OceanTruth]

Your fish room is looking pretty incredible! Amazing work on it so far.

Duct tape holding together a cracked tank?? Seems pretty hardcore to me. 😂 Only a hardcore breeder would so that I would say. 👍👍

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/14/2022 at 1:02 PM, tolstoy21 said:

Sorry that I'm only posting some documentarian photos at the final leg of this build, but . . . . life gets busy and things get skipped.

Over the course of the past three years I've been transforming the dusty corner of my basement into a small fish room (it's approximately 10x12). I'm now in the final leg of this, finishing out the final wall. Over the course of those years I've framed, plumbed, insulated and electrified this little room (and bred some fish in it!). 

Probably about 90% of this room has been funded by the fish I've bred in it. So aside from needing to budget free time to work on it (I have a young kid, a day job, a dog, an old house that I'm also renovating), I also need to breed fish to cover the construction costs and the ongoing overhead of the already running half.

A goal of mine was to make this project self-sustaining, and aside from some initial money out-of-pocket to get this off the ground, I feel I've mostly succeeded at that goal.  When they say 'breeding for profit" really means "breeding to break even in your hobby" they ain't kidding!

It will be nice to finally have all the major construction out of the way so I can focus more on the fish part than the building part. But honestly, I'm not 100% sure which part I enjoy more. 😉 

Anyway, enough yacking! I thought I'd finally, and belatedly, share some pictures.

 

View from the outside above. My basement ceiling is a tad low, so instead of modifying a door and jamb to fit the low ceiling, I opted for one of those warehouse vinyl slat doors that they use on walk in freezers. Works great and I like that I can see into the room from the outside and not have to leave the door open to move stuff in and out.

 

Yes, that tank full of accidental green water above does have duct tape holding the cracked glass together! Somewhere in there is a small number of Asian Rummynose Barbs (Sawbwa Resplendens). I hope at least. I need to spend some time fishing them out and transferring them to a breeder box.  This room is a little hot for them at this point so they all need to be relocated to a cooler part of the basement (along with my shrimp).

 

This is the final wall to get insulated and sheet rocked. It will be the mirror-image of the finished wall.  I also have to finishing boxing in that asbestos-and-duck-tape-wrapped pipe. Old houses are fun aren't they?

Anyway, thanks for looking and reading thus far if you didn't TLDR this.

Thanks for posting those pictures, @tolstoy21! I now have something to work towards!

Do you have any blueprints that you could post??

[tolstoy21]

On 10/15/2022 at 7:33 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Do you have any blueprints that you could post??

Sure.  I had these professionally done. They cost a FORTUNE!  

Nah, no blue prints. I'm not much of a planner. I just kind of have an idea and roll with it. Plus its super simple. Just some walls and racks and insulation.

I can elaborate on any aspect of it if needed. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

Ohhhh . . . . I just went through my phone and found some pics from last year that show some of the progress/process.

As you can seen, I'm kind of building around some existing racks, shown on the right. The exterior cement basement walls got 2" thick pink foam insulation sheets and a lot of gaps-n-cracks expanding foam to hold back drafts and seal/insulate the sill plate. The foam is glued to the walls and then secured in place with cement anchors (Tapcon screws). The interior walls will get normal insulation bats.

 

I'm not the world's best drywall taper, but I can get the job done decently. I sanded everything with a wet sponge to keep dust from getting into the air and into the tanks.

The wall footers are pressure treated lumber, cause, well, you know, leaks and spills and stuff. I also raised the drywall up off the floor by a few inches, cause, well . . . . leaks and spills and stuff. The eventual moulding to go in along the floor is made of PVC not wood, cause, well . . . .  you know why!

This is how I framed in that asbestos laden pipe. The asbestos is contained by being wrapped in duct tape (done by someone long before I bought the house), but I felt better also containing it inside drywall, so I don't bump it, get moisture all over it, etc. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by tolstoy21

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/15/2022 at 1:41 PM, tolstoy21 said:

Sure.  I had these professionally done. They cost a FORTUNE!  

Nah, no blue prints. I'm not much of a planner. I just kind of have an idea and roll with it. Plus its super simple. Just some walls and racks and insulation.

I can elaborate on any aspect of it if needed. 

🤣🤣