Popular Post Struggle Posted February 3, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 3, 2021 We have been working on our new fish room for the past several months and thought we would share a little of the build with everyone. I'll update this thread as we go along and include individual tanks and the other walls as well. Rack System: 1-5/8" Pre-Galvanized Unistrut, 1/2" Hardware and 1/2" Plywood for the aquariums to sit on. Air: Central air system that loops through out each row of aquariums and throughout the room. Filtration: HMF Lighting: Fluval 3.0 Top Row Aquariums: (10) 10G & (1) 20L . Middle Row: (5) 20H & (2) 40B. Bottom Row: (2) 120G & (1) 60 Cube. Electrical: Each row is protected by (1) GFCI, has multiple quad outlets above the aquariums and is in PVC conduit & bell boxes. Substrate: Black Diamond Blasting Sand except for the snail breeding aquariums, they have crushed coral. All bottoms and sides of the aquariums are painted black. All aquariums but the dedicated snail breeding aquariums have plants. Several years ago when our kids started moving out we had begun a different fish room. We had it going for about a year and Michelle's mom moved in with us so out it went but the below photos are what it looked like. It was no where near the size of what we are building now. A couple of more kids moved out and fast forward to last year and we started out with a rack and a hand full of 10G aquariums. Well that didn't last long and we went full on into building a fish room. Below is the bottom row rack portion being built for the aquariums to sit on. We had planned on doing 30XH but we couldn't get them so we opted for 60G cubed in the middle of the 120G. Here is my wife painting the 1/2" plywood that all of the aquariums sit on. The following photos are of the progress made (when I remembered to take photos.) Our grandson had to make sure that Pawpaw's measurements were correct :). Here we are putting in the air valves, we installed (2) valves for each 10G & 20H. The 20L and 40B got (4) valves each. We are planning on a fry system on this short wall above the return vent. We are planning to run double air pumps and we have each wall & air pump to where a valve can shut off the air flow so that we can keep air going while working on different sections / pumps. We are finally installing aquariums! We had the bottom row aquariums delivered today and a 180G for the center piece on the other wall. If you have any questions please ask and we will do our best to answer them and we will keep updating this thread as we go. 15 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi_Aquatics Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Looking good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 (edited) Great to see how much progress you have made from the start looking great Edited February 3, 2021 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Wow looks like you guys put in a ton of work! Looks great! Should be amazing once it's fully up and running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S. Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Wow, looks great. What are you planning to do for water changes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted February 4, 2021 Administrators Share Posted February 4, 2021 That's a great looking fish room coming together. Always fun to see how others build theirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tetra Guy Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Looks great! I like your choice of the good ol’ made in USA Unistrut system to build your racks. I might copy you! 😊What tool are you using to cut the struts to size? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 22 minutes ago, Tetra Guy said: Looks great! I like your choice of the good ol’ made in USA Unistrut system to build your racks. I might copy you! 😊What tool are you using to cut the struts to size? Thanks all! I use a bandsaw to cut it and a tripod or saw horses to hold the strut. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 On 2/3/2021 at 3:30 PM, Ryan S. said: Wow, looks great. What are you planning to do for water changes? I really wanted to drill overflows in the back of the tanks and drain them to our outside flower bed but my negotiating skills were severely lacking. I may of lost the discussion when I said “I’ll just drill a five inch hole right here and here through the front of the house and we can plant some nice bush things to hide it if you want.” To drain the water we have a power head that has 50’ of python hose attached to it which pumps it into a 5 gallon bucket that overflows into a bathtub. We pump it into a 5G bucket so that we can catch any fry or scuds in the bucket that inadvertently get sucked up. At the present time we use aged water that is stored in 45G Rubbermaid trash cans which we pump to the individual aquariums to fill. In the near future one of the 120G will be used for water storage and filling from. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Fingers crossed that we have eggs in the very near future. These two have previously laid one time in the grow out tank and ate them pretty quickly. Now that they’re in their own 20H I’m curious to see if they eat their eggs quickly again. I’m hoping that they last a little longer since there’s no pressure or competition! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 What a pretty pair of angelfish! Hope they successfully breed for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 The angels spawned and 24 hours later decided to eat the eggs. They’re still young and only their second time spawning so there’s still hope for them to raise the fry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NordernAquariums Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 That color is awesome! Good luck breeding! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 The orange on that pair is something else. Are they always that vivid, or is because they're in spawning mood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 10 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said: The orange on that pair is something else. Are they always that vivid, or is because they're in spawning mood? The color is a little better since they are spawning, here’s a couple photos from today. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H20CultureLabs Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Very, very clean install. I love it! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 (edited) We went to the DFW Fish Expo last weekend and picked up some sterbai cory cats and another pair of xenotoca lyonsi. I am glad we showed up early as there was a hour and half wait to get in when we left. It was really nice seeing everyone come out and participate, it’d been a long time since anything like that had happened. The young angel pair spawned for third time yesterday and it looks like they are starting to figure it out. All of the eggs looked fertilized and they’re starting to pick off the eggs that are starting to fungus. This week I am thinking of getting the other rack done which will support (8) 10G, (8) 20H & (1) 180G. I also need to install the (2) 120G & (1) 60G cube on the lower section of the current rack. Big goals but we will see how it goes, lol. Edited March 7, 2021 by Struggle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted April 19, 2021 Author Share Posted April 19, 2021 I’ve been really slacking on this one. A couple of weeks ago our three sons came into town to visit and it had probably been three years since we had them all together at the same time. It was a great time and we ended up putting the second rack together that will hold the 180G, 20G tells & 10Gs on the open long wall. we got in our Chilatherina bleheri Rainbowfish that will be going in the 180G with the two eels. I’m hoping that they don’t become a expensive snack! It’s a horrible photo, those guys are really fast and don’t sit still. Our blue eye albino bristlenose have started spawning and they produced some fry. I’m thinking that we may need to try and raise some fry from the millennium rainbows in the next few months or so. The koi angelfish pair have spawned 4 or 5 times so far and have eaten the eggs every time. I think we’ll give them a few more and then start pulling them. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 1 hour ago, Struggle said: Our blue eye albino bristlenose have started spawning and they produced some fry. Those little fry are soooo cute! Any update on the angels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted April 19, 2021 Author Share Posted April 19, 2021 13 minutes ago, Hobbit said: Those little fry are soooo cute! Any update on the angels? They’re still eating their eggs after about 24+ hours, I’m going to hold out on pulling the eggs to see if they’ll parent raise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted September 20, 2021 Author Share Posted September 20, 2021 I’ve really been slacking and need to pick it up. All the fish, shrimp and eels are doing well. We ended up cutting the plywood for the for the 180G, 20T and 10G Caridina tanks set on. Now we just need to paint the wood, install the electrical, install the air air, paint tanks, install the tanks, install filtration, install the lighting, install substrate and cycle. In typing all of that out it looks like I have just about everything left to do. LOL! With the cooler weather coming I’m hoping to be more motivated to finish this rack up, complete the work bench area, install a fry rack and possibly a smaller 10G rack. (I know but it doesn’t hurt to wish 😂) On a side note, we’ve purchased our tickets for Auquashella Dallas and we are very excited to go. We have been to auctions and swaps before but nothing remotely close to this. I was hoping to have the 10G shrimp tanks cycled by then so that we could possibly try to pick up some high quality shrimp but I believe we’ve run out of time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted September 25, 2021 Author Share Posted September 25, 2021 We were able to get a good start on the air and power for the new rack. Hopefully we can get it completed this upcoming week. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted November 9, 2021 Author Share Posted November 9, 2021 We’ve made some more progress. The 180G tank is in full swing now and the shrimp tanks are cycling. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struggle Posted December 4, 2021 Author Share Posted December 4, 2021 After lots of back and forth with what to stock in the shrimp tanks we decided to go with the below Caridina shrimp. Unfortunately our tanks will not be done cycling until the end of this year so we’ll receive the after the first of the year and post photos then. Wine red Hino/No Entry Black Galaxy Fishbone Orange Eye Yellow King Kong Orange Eye Black King Kong (Black Devils) Red Pinto Spotted Head Black King Kong Mosura Red Fancy Tigers Pure Red Line 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevesFishTanks Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 Impressive and interesting design and use of unistrut. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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