Fish Room in a Mechanical Room?

[thewalkingdad]

I'm curious if anyone else has their fish room share a room with their mechanical room. For example, my mechanical room has my HVAC air handler, water heaters, and water softener. This mechanical room is positioned directly beneath where my tank will eventually go.

Is there any reason why this is a bad idea other than the fact that salt water and electricity don't mix well? The room has a drain in it in case of a spill.

My concerns are pretty general. Will I burn down my house? Will this equipment let off toxic fumes that will pollute my sump and the tank directly above?

 

[Biglew11]

your

I'm curious if anyone else has their fish room share a room with their mechanical room. For example, my mechanical room has my HVAC air handler, water heaters, and water softener. This mechanical room is positioned directly beneath where my tank will eventually go.

Is there any reason why this is a bad idea other than the fact that salt water and electricity don't mix well? The room has a drain in it in case of a spill.

My concerns are pretty general. Will I burn down my house? Will this equipment let off toxic fumes that will pollute my sump and the tank directly above?

i don't have a large tank or fish room to speak from experience, but things i would think about would be for high humidity in the fish room mechanical room, solvable with extra ventilation, dehumidifier. gas appliances if not running properly could potentially give off carbon monoxide gas, which is harmful to all living thing, so you should already have a couple detectors. if running normally there should be no poisonous gasses to pollute the tank.

 

[Amado]

I met a reefer that was closing down his fish tank.
He build the sump fish room in the same room as
His furnace. He caused like 10k in damage and the furnace/ac unit needed to be replaced. The salt water
Rusted everything. So after seeing that I would never
Put them in the same room.

 

[thewalkingdad]

your

i don't have a large tank or fish room to speak from experience, but things i would think about would be for high humidity in the fish room mechanical room, solvable with extra ventilation, dehumidifier. gas appliances if not running properly could potentially give off carbon monoxide gas, which is harmful to all living thing, so you should already have a couple detectors. if running normally there should be no poisonous gasses to pollute the tank.

Good call. I live in a SUPER dry climate, but I'll need to keep an eye on the humidity.

I met a reefer that was closing down his fish tank.
He build the sump fish room in the same room as
His furnace. He caused like 10k in damage and the furnace/ac unit needed to be replaced. The salt water
Rusted everything. So after seeing that I would never
Put them in the same room.

Valid concern. I've thought about keeping a top on the sump to help cut down on evaporation. When we built the house, according to "code," we couldn't put a bathroom vent fan in there. The builder actually put one in based on my request but was forced to take it out prior to occupancy. I might put one back in there.

 

[Jmass015]

Yeah watch humidity and get a humidity controlled bath room vent/fan.

 

[BrandonS]

As long as the appliances are venting properly you shouldn't have to deal with excess Co2 coming from the combustion.

 

[BrandonS]

Good call. I live in a SUPER dry climate, but I'll need to keep an eye on the humidity.



Valid concern. I've thought about keeping a top on the sump to help cut down on evaporation. When we built the house, according to "code," we couldn't put a bathroom vent fan in there. The builder actually put one in based on my request but was forced to take it out prior to occupancy. I might put one back in there.

That is probably not to mess with the drafting of the furnace and water heater. If you vent fan to much it will actually suck the combustion gases into the room.

 

[Super Fly]

my sump has been in furnace room, sitting right next to it on the floor, for 3 yrs w/o any issue. Was concerned at first and been keeping an eye on rust but have yet to see any. I keep the drain section well covered to minimize splashing and salt creep. Not sure if those who have issue is because their setup is different than mine but my DT is located on same floor w sump pipes running thru the utility room wall. Perhaps folks w DT on 1F w. sump in basement r having issues from too much water flow/splashing?
oh & re. potential toxic fumes, it hasn't affected my sump/DT...

 

[Biglew11]

That is probably not to mess with the drafting of the furnace and water heater. If you vent fan to much it will actually suck the combustion gases into the room.

you could do 2 vents, one to vent the humid air out, and the other to let fresh air back in.

 

[BrandonS]

you could do 2 vents, one to vent the humid air out, and the other to let fresh air back in.

just wouldn't want to power vent in and out i would say. Also not sure of total space volume. If you have a 1000 sqft mechanical room then it probably won't matter.. The water heater and most furnaces use drafting which is easy to mess with. A high efficiency furnace would have a sealed external air supply so that would be fine and a tankless water heater wouldn't matter. But conventional it gets easy to mess with it.

 

[ca1ore]

My sump/fish room has shared space with the house mechanicals for most of the last 22 years …. without any obvious case of one affecting the other. Manage humidity as necessary and try to minimize aerosolization of salt water and you will be fine.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I'm curious if anyone else has their fish room share a room with their mechanical room. For example, my mechanical room has my HVAC air handler, water heaters, and water softener. This mechanical room is positioned directly beneath where my tank will eventually go.

Is there any reason why this is a bad idea other than the fact that salt water and electricity don't mix well? The room has a drain in it in case of a spill.

My concerns are pretty general. Will I burn down my house? Will this equipment let off toxic fumes that will pollute my sump and the tank directly above?

like this?

There's more info on the progression of transforming my mechanical room to a fish room. It's still ongoing but it'll house my quarantine tanks, ATO reservoir, the bulk of my controllers etc.. while i think most of your concerns are reasonable, they aren't founded with how most of those things work. Like the equipment in the house mechanical room poses no danger to your fish stuff. Fire hazards would only come from poorly designed and utilized electrical installations (run dedicated 20 amp lines for your fish equipment). Manage humidity if it's excessive based on how you plan to do your setup and what types of water storage etc you plan on locating there. Unless you locate a rather large sump that you plan on forcing a lot of evaporation from you shouldn't encounter a lot of humidity issues. But those can easily be planned for. Good luck!