Anyone renovating fishrooms this spring/summer??

[Mugwump]

I know that ours is a work in progress most all the time...but we're thinking of changing things around a bit.....adding, moving and/or replacing some tanks, and the general layout a bit...

[BallAquatics]

I know that ours is a work in progress most all the time...

It's the same here.  I'm going to move my racks so they run north to south from their current east to west orientation.  I'm on concrete in a converted 2 1/2 car garage so the floor supports are not a concern.  I think it will allow for more efficient use of the room, (ie MORE TANKS), and easier plumbing of drains for a possible automated water change system.

Dennis

[Mugwump]

I know that ours is a work in progress most all the time...

It's the same here.  I'm going to move my racks so they run north to south from their current east to west orientation.  I'm on concrete in a converted 2 1/2 car garage so the floor supports are not a concern.  I think it will allow for more efficient use of the room, (ie MORE TANKS), and easier plumbing of drains for a possible automated water change system.

Dennis

Cool....our room isn't really ideal for plumbing, but I have an idea on how to make it work...??..maybe...LOL....it'll involve some serious tinkering.....

[BallAquatics]

....it'll involve some serious tinkering.....

That's half the fun!!!

Dennis

[Mugwump]

....it'll involve some serious tinkering.....

That's half the fun!!!

Dennis

Yes it is...LOL...

[b125killer]

I'm planing on moving all the tanks in a different part of my lower level and enclosing it to make a new fish room. Then I'll redo the air system. and maybe have a better pump by then. I want to try and heat the room and not the tanks so much. I'm hoping I can cut back on the heaters being used. Most of my tanks have Led lighting so I'm doing good there. I want to get my electric bill lower. I also want to get some more smaller tanks for the guppies that I don't want to cross breed. I kind of like the 2.5 gallon tank that the Japanese blues are in. It's much easier to work with.   

[Frank The Plumber]

Per funding limits. Maybe.?

[P4Angels2]

OMG I really hope that we don't have to renovate our fish room.....Took us 2 weeks to get it set up the way it is now!!!

[PaulineMi]

I've been doing a lot of putzing around with my tanks, set ups and learning about more efficient way of doing things.  I never thought it would happen but I was actually enjoying looking at all the plumbing stuff at a big box home improvement store today.  Lol.

[BallAquatics]

.....I was actually enjoying looking at all the plumbing stuff at a big box home improvement store today.  Lol.

Cha-Ching!!!  You're officially a card carrying member Pauline.  LOL LOL 

Dennis

[Mugwump]

We'll have to send her a bumper sticker......

[Frank The Plumber]

I am working on automation.

Less me, more free me.

I am putting together a design for a tower unit. I most likely will end up with several towers in my room.

I plan to build a couple of central systems.

The drain for the tank will consist of a hole in the tank and an over flow tube which will have a female adapter at around 2 inches in height from the base, I then put in a male adapter and the riser tube. I can unscrew the riser easily this way to drain quickly or change heights of water. All tanks would still use sponge filters to keep a redundant system in case of a central system failure.

For the fill I am going to use toilet fill valves within the tank. I can get these fairly cheap. They automatically will stop the tank from ever over filling. 99.9%. To keep junk out of their seals I am using a sediment filter, not a very efficient one just enough to keep the junk out of my fill valves.
I will have the tanks drain into a sectioned sump. The first section being a raw dump and collector, I most likely will have a sediment filter pad at the top of a media compartment for removing sediment efficiently. From this sump I will pump my water up and drop it through my first tower. This tower will be an ozone reactor tower made of SDR 35 Piping and the media will be glass. The unit will feature several injection points and a vent away system to send away the gases. The sump below this unit will be sealed, a second pump will lift this water into the next tower, again SDR 35 and glass media. This tower is an ozone scrub tower. It will have the vent away but will be injected with ambient air. I plan to choose my monitoring devices but am not yet sure of which I want to use. This tower dumps into a sump which then pumps the water back to the tanks through a canister with a carbon matrix filter as a final scrub of ozone.

I plan to introduce fresh tap water into the ozone reactor tower, the chlorine should be ozonized. I plan to install a drain within the sump chambers to allow excess water to drain. I think the system will be efficient in that it saves me a good amount of water, heating the water and my time. I can use Eheim pumps which are extremely efficient. I used 4 Eheims for my entire 3000 gallon marine system in my shop, they only used 1.6 amps or some low number to operate.

[BillT]

Sounds cool Frank.

What is SDR 35 piping? Not familiar with that.

Not sure if the ozone will destroy the chlorine since both are oxidizers, but the charcoal should. Surprisingly, UV does also.


I just figured out a problem with my main flow through system. The flow was getting progressively worse, pressure was going down. I replaced my particle filter, took apart my solenoid valve and put it back together, same for my pressure reducer (my delivered pressure is ~70 psi) over a period of a few days. Finally, I replaced one of my carbon filters and I now have huge pressure. I will have to dial back my pressure regulator now. I am glad its fixed but feel stupid it took me so long to figure out what the problem was.

Now I can think about cutting material for new tank lids, and installing some of the Poret foam material I got from Dennis's friend, Stephen Tanner. I want to set up a couple of HMFs in a couple of 100+ G tanks I have and use more porous Poret material to subdivide them. Should be an interesting experiment and will create some virtual tanks for me. Then I can move some fish around and start breeding some F2's of some species I have.

I am also going to set up several Moina (small daphnia) containers with different forms of simple filtration (sponge filters and moving Kaldness media mostly). I want to make large high density cultures (~2-3 liters) of Moina that are easy to sustain. I often have small Moina cultures (~100-200 ml) going at very high densities, but I don't usually get large ones to work so well. Eventually I would like to have 40-50 G cultures producing well. I think the reason the smaller cultures work better is better ammonia control.

[Frank The Plumber]

SDR 35 is a more stable type of plastic piping used under ground for sewer lines etc. It is also less photo reactive and tends to not break down. I'm hoping it will last longer than PVC in exposure to O3. There is a highly resistant blue tubing out there but it is yowzers in cost.

[greydragon]

all i do is drain the tanks and clean them up and the area around each tank then reset each tank