My 16 meters (50 feet) rack setup with 76 Tanks, Green Wall and 2 Terrariums BUILD AMSTERDAM

MikeDutch · May 25

New project is starting 😉

After having a bunch of tanks at home, I am going to expand to the garage. Leaving the 7 tanks in my house and expanding, my garage is fairly big and I also have a gym inside, so on one side it will be a full aquarium rack, on the other side the gym.

I got 2 big tanks +300L (+80 gallons) connected to a sump. All other tanks are stand alone with air filters, drip and overflow. I also have 2 terrariums and want to grow plants out of the bigger tanks (5 tanks in total that are +200 Liter).

Rack specs

Build 7 racks of each 1.70 x 50 x 200

Tanks (36 in total)

2 x 350 liters (on 250 liter sump)
4 x 200 liters (on airfilters)
26 x 45 liters (on airfilters)
4 x 25 liters (on airfilters)

Tasks

Setup rack and paint black
Add waterproof paint to all boards
Glue fishtank mats
Drill all tanks for auto drains
Add pipework behind rack (pvc / air / irrigation)
Add air filters to tanks
Add dripping to tank
Install switch boards to control all electrical component
Add 2 new electrical groups with redundancy

Order (mostly done)

Sponge filters
Heaters (all Aquael)
Lamps Chihiros mostly
Linear Piston Air Pump
Rainbird drip system
Co2 system Chihiros + ph measurement
Sump (heaters, temperatuur
Paint, diffusers and all small materials

Breeding
I want to start breeding

Various Sulawesi Shrimp species
L Numbers
Corydoras
Pencils
Cichlids

I am still figuring out which ones goes best with others and how to setup the tanks. Over the next 4 weeks we will build the racks, electricity, pipework and such. We hope to have water in them by end of June, so we can start breeding after summer (September) since we will be out for summer mostly.

I added some setup sketches and pictures to start

Any tips on

* How to setup the racks (i did watch a trazillion movies)

* What to breed and combine

* If the setup is smart to do so, on the work space we will add a sink as well.

* BTW I am not breeding for a living, its a hobby. My local fish stores are becoming friend, they can have some and help me with breeding techniques.

Thanks for reading and your help 🙂

Edited June 12 by MikeDutch

Whitecloud09 · May 25

On 5/25/2024 at 5:01 PM, MikeDutch said:

New project is starting 😉

After having a bunch of tanks at home, I am going to expand to the garage. Leaving the 7 tanks in my house and expanding, my garage is fairly big and I also have a gym inside, so on one side it will be a full aquarium rack, on the other side the gym.

I got 2 big tanks +300L (+80 gallons) connected to a sump. All other tanks are stand alone with air filters, drip and overflow. I also have 2 terrariums and want to grow plants out of the bigger tanks (5 tanks in total that are +200 Liter).

Rack specs

Build 7 racks of each 1.70 x 50 x 200

Tanks (36 in total)

2 x 350 liters (on 250 liter sump)

4 x 200 liters (on airfilters)

26 x 45 liters (on airfilters)

4 x 25 liters (on airfilters)

Tasks

Setup rack and paint black

Add waterproof paint to all boards

Glue fishtank mats

Drill all tanks for auto drains

Add pipework behind rack (pvc / air / irrigation)

Add air filters to tanks

Add dripping to tank

Install switch boards to control all electrical component

Add 2 new electrical groups with redundancy

Order (mostly done)

Sponge filters

Heaters (all Aquael)

Lamps Chihiros mostly

Linear Piston Air Pump

Rainbird drip system

Co2 system Chihiros + ph measurement

Sump (heaters, temperatuur

Paint, diffusers and all small materials

Breeding
I want to start breeding

Various Sulawesi Shrimp species

L Numbers

Corydoras

Pencils

Cichlids

I am still figuring out which ones goes best with others and how to setup the tanks. Over the next 4 weeks we will build the racks, electricity, pipework and such. We hope to have water in them by end of June, so we can start breeding after summer (September) since we will be out for summer mostly.

I added some setup sketches and pictures to start

Any tips on

* How to setup the racks (i did watch a trazillion movies)

* What to breed and combine

* If the setup is smart to do so, on the work space we will add a sink as well.

* BTW I am not breeding for a living, its a hobby. My local fish stores are becoming friend, they can have some and help me with breeding techniques.

Thanks for reading and your help 🙂

Wow, I can’t wait to see how it turns out @MikeDutch! Awesome!

Tony s · May 26

On 5/25/2024 at 5:01 PM, MikeDutch said:

Add waterproof paint to all boards

Try outdoor deck stain. It usually comes with a sealer in the stain

MikeDutch · May 26

On 5/26/2024 at 1:54 AM, Tony s said:

Try outdoor deck stain. It usually comes with a sealer in the stain

Thanks great tip 👍

So I am thinking to add a pretank for the auto drip system. This wat I can add a dosing pump to the whole system, what would you recommend to add ? Since I got various tanks with various fish and shrimp. I can use this for general and then add tank specific (like high PH with sulawesi shrimps) as well.

Btw water is very good in Amsterdam. No chlorides and ph is good

Edited May 26 by MikeDutch

Beardedbillygoat1975 · May 26

You can look to the reefing world for autodosers, I often see them on reefing forums and on social media forsale like on Facebook Marketplace etc.

It’s a great project, well thought out. Is the garage well insulated? I think my previous 20 tank setup initially I thought it’d be warm enough. I ended up adding a lot of insulation as I upgraded finally using R rated insulation panels on the side of the racks and above. Next time I’ll use a false floor to allow warmer air to form under the racks I think. Heated floors would be a dream.

I’ll be following along! Have fun!

MikeDutch · May 26

On 5/26/2024 at 7:27 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

You can look to the reefing world for autodosers, I often see them on reefing forums and on social media forsale like on Facebook Marketplace etc.

It’s a great project, well thought out. Is the garage well insulated? I think my previous 20 tank setup initially I thought it’d be warm enough. I ended up adding a lot of insulation as I upgraded finally using R rated insulation panels on the side of the racks and above. Next time I’ll use a false floor to allow warmer air to form under the racks I think. Heated floors would be a dream.

I’ll be following along! Have fun!

Thanks, i got a chihiros autodoser already in, one with 4 containers 😉

On isulation I am thinking to do something new. I will do the backwall and add a meter in front of the racks a black heavy curtain that made for isolation. So I can open it when its warm and close it in the winter. Will paint the ceiling, floor and walls black, should look nice 😉

I am planning to fully renovate the garage in 2 years, I am on the permit proces now, Its hard in Amsterdam 😉 Then i will add floorheating for sure. so this setup if for the next 2 years, I got a place to store it during renovations.

Thanks for the heads up !

MikeDutch · June 12

Last weeks we worked on

* Getting the racks all spray painted black
* Making the boards and painting them with waterproof painting
* Ordering all tanks, so we got now
** 60 tanks of 50x30x30. - 20 tanks Caridina - 20 tanks Nepo Caridina - 20 tanks various fish
** 8 tanks of 100x50x50
** One large tank of 160x40x60

We want to add 2 large tanks of 200x50x50 . We also added a greenwall section in the middle and started cloning monstera plants. We have another wall of 2 meters which we want to add plants to, these will be in the flexible bags that you can hang on the wall, the current wall is made out of hard plastic bags.

The plan now is to add a curtain on the front that we can close so we can keep heat in, while we still have a meter to walk in front. We are also making 2 work spaces with sinks and storage on the left and right side. We also adding a RO water system with a 200 liter storage .

Tomorrow we going to add the tanks and start drilling the drains and such 😉

QUESTIONS

- Caridina : I want to add auto drip with RO water to fill up tanks and add a water drain, have a very slow drip, just to fill up the evaporation, is that enough
- I want to add a drain to every tank that can drain 50% , this is for a large waterchange, so I can open the valve and then have the dripper fill it up gain (dripper is adjustable) or should I add a floater in there that fills up automatically to the right amount?
- I ordere 4 pleco tanks (more shallow) where I want to breed Pleco specifically, we just have the first breeding groups in (22 times L134 and 8 L333) , anyone experience with Pleco shallow tanks, would you add extra current? I have 2 filter sponges in there

Edited June 13 by MikeDutch

Beardedbillygoat1975 · June 13

Pleco tanks need wood and current. Hypancistrus will be the ones needing 50% water changes. You can put powerhead pumps on sponges if that’s how you’re filtering them. Those sponges will get dirty quickly. I usually use canisters on pleco tanks. Provide current, filtration- bio, mechanical and with some Purigen chemical.

Caridina will not need big water changes so I’d focus on the Neos and the Fish for your water change system. The drippers for Caridina like an auto-tipoff makes complete sense. That’s where a float valve could be very useful. I know Mark’s Shrimp Tanks has gotten away from even the going wisdom of 10% weekly water changes on his Taibee shrimps and is just doing top offs with R/O. He’s letting moss and plants do the nutrient export for the tanks which makes a lot of sense.

MikeDutch · June 13

Some updates 🙂

drilled holes in 9 big tanks

added bulkheads

used styrofoam as mould, its perfect since the water wont escape

Unpacked 40 aquariums

added foam under aquariums

Tomorrow planning to

- paint wall black
- finalize electric work
- start plumbing
- move big tank to rack

On 6/13/2024 at 3:23 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Pleco tanks need wood and current. Hypancistrus will be the ones needing 50% water changes. You can put powerhead pumps on sponges if that’s how you’re filtering them. Those sponges will get dirty quickly. I usually use canisters on pleco tanks. Provide current, filtration- bio, mechanical and with some Purigen chemical.

Caridina will not need big water changes so I’d focus on the Neos and the Fish for your water change system. The drippers for Caridina like an auto-tipoff makes complete sense. That’s where a float valve could be very useful. I know Mark’s Shrimp Tanks has gotten away from even the going wisdom of 10% weekly water changes on his Taibee shrimps and is just doing top offs with R/O. He’s letting moss and plants do the nutrient export for the tanks which makes a lot of sense.

Thanks for the tips! I considered adding less species per tank and keep things simplier. Using neo/corydora for cleaning the bottoms. Keeping Plecos in an isolated tank seems best. Would you combine canister and sponge (i got a loop already anyway) for the pleco tanks? with a 200l tank I would need to got for a large canister or can I connect all 4 pleco tanks to 1 sump . i can convert one to 200 liter tank to a sump easily and add 4 pumps to each tank.

Tony s · June 13

All I can say (because you passed my level of knowledge a long time ago in fishkeeping 🤣) is just WOW. you must be having a great time with all this. I always liked putting together big projects.

Beardedbillygoat1975 · June 14

I would say one large sump would work but then if there’s a problem it would difficult to isolate. I’d rather have individual filtration per tank. I know that Eric Boddrock (sic) has sumps for some of his racks and he’s one of the most successful breeders of catfish I’ve known. He also has a very specific quarantine process so he knows there’s nothing before he puts them in his system.

MikeDutch · June 14

We had an old isolated window left, which we used to make a window in the work area. This way we keep connected to the rest of the room and we can keep an eye on the entrance room ; )

We empties the 350L tank into 4x 200 Liter tanks, we have 4-6 filters already running for a while so we could use them in the 4 new tanks. We separated the panda corydoras (top right with filter sand) , the L333 breeding group (top left) , guppies (right bottom) and Spotted Conjo Puffer in separate tanks, give them a bit more privacy 😉

We decided to make the old tank rimless, it will have an open top with monstera growing out of them and we thought I will look better, used a handgrinder to cut the plastic of this old Juwel tank.

MikeDutch · June 14

On 6/13/2024 at 3:23 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Pleco tanks need wood and current. Hypancistrus will be the ones needing 50% water changes. You can put powerhead pumps on sponges if that’s how you’re filtering them. Those sponges will get dirty quickly. I usually use canisters on pleco tanks. Provide current, filtration- bio, mechanical and with some Purigen chemical.

Caridina will not need big water changes so I’d focus on the Neos and the Fish for your water change system. The drippers for Caridina like an auto-tipoff makes complete sense. That’s where a float valve could be very useful. I know Mark’s Shrimp Tanks has gotten away from even the going wisdom of 10% weekly water changes on his Taibee shrimps and is just doing top offs with R/O. He’s letting moss and plants do the nutrient export for the tanks which makes a lot of sense.

Sweet thanks, I was reading about that as well, Caridina only top offs 😉 . I am thinking to drill the tanks anyway, now I drill them at 60% height, so I can add a tube that I can rotate, this way I can quickly do a +70% waterchange if I ever want to without a hassle. For the caridina I want to add a large UGF en a Sponge with small media box and give them some hiding spaces with moss on it, like half a coconut.

For the fish and Neo I am thinking to do a continues drip system, all tanks will have an overflow, so I can just have them refreshed continuously. I found this calculator for it https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php

Thanks for the heads up Billy

MikeDutch · June 16

we adjusted the steel shelf holders today so we can lower the rack shelves almost to the bottom, for the looks this is even better 🙂

We picked up a bunch of plants for the green wall.

We moved the big tanks to the new rack and filled another two 200l, forgot to take pictures 🙈

Worked ar my new tank at home and filled it with water and installed a chihiros 130 wrgb.

MikeDutch · June 18

Today we painted a part of the wall black, super happy with the looks! We cleaned up the space a bit and made a plumbing plan.

We looking into buying lamps now, found similar to hygger lamps on ali, thinking to order 28x75cm and 10x100cm to start with as well as 8x50cm grow lamps for the plants that will grow out of the tanks.

MikeDutch · June 25

We did some work again this week 😉

- Painted ceiling black
- More tanks arrived 😉
- Installed greenwall partly

We ordered a bunch of lamps on alibaba, around 100, they will arrive in 6-8 weeks.

This week we will focus on

- Installing and painting more racks
- Installing osmose RO system
- Drilling holes in 60 45Liters
- Installing Jacuzzi , so we can enjoy the view in style

MikeDutch · June 25

I got a friend with a fishstore and anoterh friend who is into shrimps, we came up with this list. The idea to start filling the tanks end september and start ordering fish end of august.

We created this list of fish and shrimp together with promting AI. We will have 6-8 200L tanks to breed and 20 small tanks for other stuff like medication. We also have around 15 small hatching tanks and some breedingboxes that can hang onto an aquarium

// TANK SETUP FISH

-- 200 Liter Tanks (6 Tanks)

1. Tank 1: Zebra Pleco (Hypancistrus zebra, L046)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, several caves or PVC pipes, flat stones, driftwood.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 26-30°C, pH: 6.5-7.5, GH: 5-10 dGH, KH: 2-5 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Leave the eggs in the tank within the caves. The male guards and fans the eggs until they hatch.

2. Tank 2: Leopard Frog Pleco (Peckoltia compta, L134)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, caves of varying sizes, driftwood, smooth stones, moss.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 24-29°C, pH: 6.5-7.5, GH: 5-12 dGH, KH: 3-5 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Leave the eggs in the tank within the caves. The male guards and fans the eggs until they hatch.

3. Tank 3: Golden Nugget Pleco (Baryancistrus xanthellus, L018)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, large pieces of driftwood, multiple hiding places, flat rocks.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 24-28°C, pH: 6.0-7.4, GH: 5-15 dGH, KH: 2-5 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Leave the eggs in the tank within the caves. The male guards and fans the eggs until they hatch.

4. Tank 4: King Tiger Pleco (Hypancistrus sp., L066)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, mix of caves and PVC pipes, smooth stones, driftwood, moss for cover.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 25-29°C, pH: 6.0-7.5, GH: 2-10 dGH, KH: 2-4 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Leave the eggs in the tank within the caves. The male guards and fans the eggs until they hatch.

5. Tank 5: Orinoco Angel Pleco (Hypancistrus contradens, L201)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, numerous hiding places with rocks and wood, plants like java moss.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 24-29°C, pH: 5.8-7.2, GH: 3-10 dGH, KH: 2-4 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Leave the eggs in the tank within the caves. The male guards and fans the eggs until they hatch.

6. Tank 6: Boeseman's Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia boesemani)

- Ratio: 8 females / 2 males, Minimum Tank Size: 200 liters

- Tank Setup: 2 sponge filters, densely planted with fast-growing plants, floating plants, open swimming space.

- Water Parameters: Temperature: 24-28°C, pH: 7.0-8.0, GH: 10-15 dGH, KH: 4-6 dKH

- Egg Hatching: Remove the eggs after spawning. Collect them from plants or spawning mops and transfer them to a separate hatching tank with similar water parameters.

-- 45 Liter Tanks (Smaller Species)

1. Tank 7: Green Laser Corydoras (Corydoras aeneus)