Fish Room Re-Build

[bh750]

I’m fortunate enough to have a dedicated 8x10 room behind my 220 gallon tank. Its’ time to redo it. Been thinking and planning a lot and figured I’d bring you all along for the ride in exchange for ideas and advice. This tank and room was originally setup almost 17 years ago. Many mistakes, problems, outages, crashes I’m still at it.



First, the “why”?


My sump is currently under the display tank. I hate it. It has bracing every 2 feet and hard to get to, work with. It’s the bane of my existence. I’m pretty handy with wiring so I’d also like to re-do the wiring, automation, and monitoring. I have an Apex which isn’t even connected to the wife anymore. Time to get that back in place. I stopped doing water changes and took my skimmer offline almost 3 years ago to battle Cyano and Dinos. Worked but also left me with low less than desirable water quality. Also want easier access to things like my UV sterilizer, Carbon/GFO reactor, and system of fuges. Oh also b/c its fun to design and build!



Below are some sketches I’ve done on what I’m thinking, along with some pictures of the room as it is now. My sump is a 4' long 75g glass tank. I just watched BRS’s Top 29 Plumbing mistakes and already the design is changing. Planning to do this over a course of weeks maybe months. So I have the time.



Hope this is enjoyable and of course welcome any and all feedback!


First sketch is of the entire room. The top of the sketch shows fuges/holding tanks. I currently have 4 x 10 gallon tanks in place today. I want to relocate them to above as shown, And thinking about adding a 2nd row. Since I have the space I want as much room as possible for live rock, pod/critter propagation, and also QT/Specimen tanks. That last reason is why I want to have individual control of a tank.



For my manifold I'd love some high quality ball valves that dont break the bank. If I get like 7-10 of the ones from BRS that would be a big cost. But also don't love the $4 ones from Lowes that are hard to turn.




In this shot display tank and fuge are on the right side. Electronical panel is straight back in black.



So the wall next to the Sink is where my sump will go. To the far left the green container is my auto top off.

 

[Snoopy 67]

#1 PRIORITY, by now you know this, Get it off the floor onto a bench.

 

[bh750]

#1 PRIORITY, by now you know this, Get it off the floor onto a bench.

Hi Snoopy67 - I actually wasnt planning on that. Do you mean to prevent the coldness from floor during winter? I've had this sump on the floor for 15 years and never have a problem keeping the tank warm. Only keeping it cool in summer. But now that you have me thinking about it - it costs me way more keeping it warm. Hmmmm, ok thanks

 

[Sean Clark]

Following along.

 

[Snoopy 67]

My train of thought had nothing to do with heat, unless it applies to the heat needed to get your back back in shape. I'm of the age where under tank duties have an adverse affect on how often they get done.
If I had a bench style sump I would have -0- problems doing whatever needed to be done.
Take it from someone who has the experience.

 

[Sean Clark]

I Absolute agree. Working at a nice bench height makes things so much nicer.

 

[bh750]

Ah I see what you're saying now. Yes, I would love that too. But two reasons I dont think I can:

1) I would need to change to a HOB overflow. RIght now my internal, drilled overflows come out of the bottom of my tank maybe 18" above the top of my sump. I need to also create a slight downward angle across the room. So at best I'd be able to raise a foot. Maybe?

2) I want room for other stuff above the sump. Above it I'll have a work surface. I will be able to raise it up completely giving me full access to my sump. I'm ok with working on the floor --- I think

 

[bh750]

So here's an updated plan for the water leaving the sump to fuges, qt tanks, various equipment, drain for water changes and back to the display. I plan to have one pump just dedicated to circulating the display. Then a 2nd pump, on a different gfci circuit, feed the other stuff as well as the display.

Hopefully you can read this. Called out usage of ball valves vs gate valves and (maybe overdid it) unions. Water returning to the sump from everything will be next.

Open to any and all criticism and suggestions!

 

[vic5hands]

i would start with a couple of pieces of plywood on the walls and go off of that

 

[AlexG]

I would suggest a sheet of 6mil plastic in front of your main electrical panel as its well within the splash zone of the aquarium and the sink. The outlet by sink should be in conduit, GFCI rated, and have an outdoor cover on it. The extension cords and hanging wires should be secured. Are you storing your flipper magnet scraper on the main electrical panel door? If so I would recommend a safer place to store it when you redesign the fish room. While I understand this system has been operating 17years it can't hurt to do some upgrades to protect against accidental electrical faults. I would suggest with the utility sink raising it off the floor higher. I raised my utility sink 8" off the floor so I no longer have to lean over the sink to when I am using the utility sink which has been great for my back.

 

[tdyrkacz]

make sure you have a dehumidifier there as well. Especially since you have the electrical panel in the same space. I recently build a small sump room in the basement which is used to filter 2 tanks on the 1st floor. Here are a few photos.

 

[bh750]

i would start with a couple of pieces of plywood on the walls and go off of that

- Do you mean along the back, cement wall? I was thinking of finishing off the two unfinished walls. Maybe I use this opportunity to finally do that.

I would suggest a sheet of 6mil plastic in front of your main electrical panel as its well within the splash zone of the aquarium and the sink. The outlet by sink should be in conduit, GFCI rated, and have an outdoor cover on it. The extension cords and hanging wires should be secured. Are you storing your flipper magnet scraper on the main electrical panel door? If so I would recommend a safer place to store it when you redesign the fish room. While I understand this system has been operating 17years it can't hurt to do some upgrades to protect against accidental electrical faults. I would suggest with the utility sink raising it off the floor higher. I raised my utility sink 8" off the floor so I no longer have to lean over the sink to when I am using the utility sink which has been great for my back.

Great stuff. I'm always worried about elec accidents, esp since I did alot of this myself. My thoughts...

-- love the idea of the plastic in front of the electric panel. I'll add that to the list.
-- Outlet by the sink is GFCI but yea those bare wires I guess arent good?
-- All of the hanging wires will def be secured and organized. When Im done with this move I will focus on all of the wires. Part of the reason Im doing this is how inaccessible everything is. With the sump move I'll have better access and better ways to run all of the wires.
-- Good catch on the flipper magnet. Yep thats an old magfloat. I'll take that off
-- Never thought about raising the sink. great idea. I will do that, def always leaning over.

make sure you have a dehumidifier there as well. Especially since you have the electrical panel in the same space. I recently build a small sump room in the basement which is used to filter 2 tanks on the 1st floor. Here are a few photos.

-- Oh yea, I've been through some bad times over the years. At first had nothing for years. So got mildew on the walls, everything was always damp, some things on the elec panel got rust. Had to have all of that remediated. When I built the room I had an exhaust fan installed on a humidistat. Then noticed it ran 24/7. So I deactivared it and installed a humidifier. I went through 2 of them -- both broke! FInally this year i installed a more powerful, quieter fan (plus the old one was shot). I have the humidistat set to 70. Runs most of the time until now with it so cold and dry here its not an issue.

 

[AlexG]

- Do you mean along the back, cement wall? I was thinking of finishing off the two unfinished walls. Maybe I use this opportunity to finally do that.



Great stuff. I'm always worried about elec accidents, esp since I did alot of this myself. My thoughts...

-- love the idea of the plastic in front of the electric panel. I'll add that to the list.
-- Outlet by the sink is GFCI but yea those bare wires I guess arent good?
-- All of the hanging wires will def be secured and organized. When Im done with this move I will focus on all of the wires. Part of the reason Im doing this is how inaccessible everything is. With the sump move I'll have better access and better ways to run all of the wires.
-- Good catch on the flipper magnet. Yep thats an old magfloat. I'll take that off
-- Never thought about raising the sink. great idea. I will do that, def always leaning over.



-- Oh yea, I've been through some bad times over the years. At first had nothing for years. So got mildew on the walls, everything was always damp, some things on the elec panel got rust. Had to have all of that remediated. When I built the room I had an exhaust fan installed on a humidistat. Then noticed it ran 24/7. So I deactivared it and installed a humidifier. I went through 2 of them -- both broke! FInally this year i installed a more powerful, quieter fan (plus the old one was shot). I have the humidistat set to 70. Runs most of the time until now with it so cold and dry here its not an issue.

Here is a video about the humidity control systems I had in place for my last fish room. I am more or less doing the same control measures today for my new fish room except I am not using an exhaust fan at the moment and just a whole house dehumidifier. Eventually I am going to add an HRV system in the basement as a backup humidity control but more for CO2 reduction.

 

[Dave-T]

So here's an updated plan for the water leaving the sump to fuges, qt tanks, various equipment, drain for water changes and back to the display. I plan to have one pump just dedicated to circulating the display. Then a 2nd pump, on a different gfci circuit, feed the other stuff as well as the display.

Hopefully you can read this. Called out usage of ball valves vs gate valves and (maybe overdid it) unions. Water returning to the sump from everything will be next.

Open to any and all criticism and suggestions!

Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions but do have some questions. I’m also in the process of building out a fish room in my basement.

Why multiple fuges?

Isn’t it a problem having quarantine tanks plumbed into your sump?

What software did you use for the design? Your images look great!

 

[fftfk]

make sure you have a dehumidifier there as well. Especially since you have the electrical panel in the same space. I recently build a small sump room in the basement which is used to filter 2 tanks on the 1st floor. Here are a few photos.

Question about your setup - how loud are your iwaki pumps on the table? I tried a setup like that and my single iwaki was so loud I could hear it upstair.

 

[Doctorgori]

jI just and I mean just completed my fish room rebuild…
I used that 1/4” melamine board for walls, really nice for salty splashes and wipe down
I didn’t catch your bulkhead sizes but my mistake was using 3/4”, works but no margin for error ( slow drains, imbalanced flow, et)
A DC return pump made flow adjustments easier against height and pipe head pressure variances

 

[tdyrkacz]

Question about your setup - how loud are your iwaki pumps on the table? I tried a setup like that and my single iwaki was so loud I could

Question about your setup - how loud are your iwaki pumps on the table? I tried a setup like that and my single iwaki was so loud I could hear it upstair.

I would say they are loud. I can hear a hum on the main floor.