Fish room suggestions/recommendations:

[preston_brown]

Hello everyone:

I'm embarking on a renovation of my house. Part of the renovation involves moving my 200 gal reef tank (empty for a year plus, since an ice storm) into its own dedicated fish room, with a view of the front pane through the wall into my office. This will be a large walk in closet type room. Some of the things I have already thought of:

1. Tile the floor, and extend it up the wall a foot or so. Make it like a large shower floor. Gently slope towards the center, and put a drain in the middle.

2. large utility type sink with drawers and shelves on one side of the room. Does anyone have suggestions on cabinets and/or cabinet hardware that would be acceptable for the humid salty environment?

3. Lots of power

4. No hood over the tank, but suspended metal halide pendants. I plan on trying to re-use my PFO ballasts and Spiderlight reflectors. Anyone have an idea on the best way to retrofit these as pendants?

5. I've been having lots of thoughts on humidity and heat control. In the old location (my living room), the tank evaporated so much water, and the air was considerably salty, that the brass floor registers quickly corroded, and the return air grill in the next room over RUSTED. We don't need those kinds of things occurring again. I'm thinking this means that ventilation to the room must absolutely include negative air pressure, i.e. any air flowing goes in, not out. How have others handled this in the past?

6. Should I build an open stand out of thick wood, or have one made from steel, powder-coated or something like that for rust resistance? I'm thinking that it might be able to be more open, with no center bracing, thus allowing better under-tank access.

Any other suggestions? The size of the room is fairly fixed, but construction on it has not yet started. I need to nail this down in the next week or so though, so I'm looking to get as much input as possible quickly.

Preston Brown
[email protected]

 

[wade1]

BTW- I still have all your RO filter replacements!

Wade

 

[wade1]

Suggestion 1 - Use greenboard or other resistant walling substance in order to prevent damage to the surrounding walls.

Suggestion 2 - In place of tile, use concrete flooring thats been well sealed (not sure if thats possible, depending on which floor its on)... having the grouting makes leveling things difficult and allows water to pool some. But, if you do use tile, make sure you seal it and the grout REALLY well to make it last.

Not much you can do about humidity in the room, aside from a dehumidifier or a/c dumping directly into it. The only other option is a good quality heat exchanger that transfers inside air out and vice versa... costly but saves most of your temperature and removes alot of air.

As for the stand, go with wood... wood won't deteriorate unless its sitting in a pool of water, where metal (unless you powder/rhino coat it and make CERTAIN not to scratch it) will always corrode with time. Thats not to say that it won't last 100 years, but so will wood. You can buy epoxy/sealants that work very well.

If possible, bring your power in from above so that your outlets are higher off of the floor and the wiring all runs up. It will help in the emergency spill not to be standing in water near outlets.

Have you done anything about a generator?

Good luck with it! I'd like to see the progress...

Wade

 

[preston_brown]

We will be installing a 15KVA stand-by generator. I am thinking of having a low-speed quiet extractor fan run all the time in the fish room, which should pull air conditioned air from underneath the door into my office, and I hope should be sufficient to cool/dehumidify the room. Point is, you don't want to pull too much, and get rid of all your air conditioned air.

Would a self-contained unit make more sense physically and/or economically?

Thanks for the suggestion for the cement floor. I will definitely evaluate that possibility.

 

[wade1]

I doubt a self-contained a/c would be efficient in any direction...

One thing about pulling air into the office... if you have alot of computer equipment in there, it might cause some deterioration of it... I noticed odd things rusting/corroding when I had a simple 20g tank in my office.

Wade

 

[Anonymous]

1. I like the concrete suggestion. Their are a number of coatings you can get to seal the concret. Look into the paints that are used in mechanic shops. Go for non-skid if you can find it.

2. I would skip the cabinets and go with shelf units. Wood should br OK if you use exterior grade and paint it. If you would prefer to purchase go with plastic.

3. Go wit a couple different circuits so you can sepererat critical systems.

4. The simpilist way would be to affach them to a frame over the tank. make the frame on a slide or pully system so you can move it out of the way.

5. I would seal the room of from the rest of that house as best you could and get a dedicated AC unit. Add a dehumidifer and a vent van that is set to com on at a pre determined humidity level.

6. IMO wood would be the best option. Go with an exterier grade and do not forget to cross brace.

 

[Anonymous]

Take lots of pics!

(back to dreaming of having my own fish room!)

B

 

[liquid]

Here's a good article: http://www.reefs.org/library/article/wa ... hroom.html

Specifically read Brian Ferguson's post.

Shane