Garage fish romm?

[Jonathan Aquari]

I plan on attending petco's $1 per gal. Sale. I will use them to start up my fish room, but, is it ok to keep the tanks in the garage with the cars. Mother are electric

P.S.
I have the option of the basement. So I still have another option

Thanks

 

[tjudy]

Basement is a better option. It is hard to maintain a constant temperature in a garage, unless you take the dry wall off and insulate well and wall of the door and insulate it also. I have seen a fishroom done well in a garage, but the aquarist basically finished that space out as a room, and left a gap between the garage door and the wall of the fishroom to be a shed to hold his garden tools (accessed through the garage door, which slipped up into a space between the false ceiling of the fish room and the roof of the garage).

$1/gallon sounds pretty good, but it is usually not a great deal on smaller aquariums. I bought a 20H today for the regular price of $27. If you approach a small retailer with an offer to buy a lot of tanks all at once and promise to pick them up as they are delivered, you can probably get them for cost plus a 10-20% mark up. Large aquariums are another story.... $75 for a new 75 gallon is a good price. Grab a 300 gallon.... that's a steal!

 

[Jonathan Aquari]

Thanks. Because I plan on breeding apistos, and the water here in Rockville is basicly liquid rock with a ph of 8.3 . Other thank oakleaves l, are there any cheaper things to lower ph insted of buying backwater extract and acid buffer every 5 months.

 

[Jonathan Aquari]

also, how many A. cacatuoides/agasszi pairs or harems could be kept in a 33 gallon long

 

[slimbolen99]

I recently completed a fish room here at our house. I too was contemplating using half of a two car garage. It would have worked, but the expense of insulating it and adding plumbing and electricity wasn't feasible. Instead, we finished off a part of our basement, to code, and that way, if we ever move, all I have to do is remove the fish tanks, patch a few holes in the walls, and there's a nice new finished room in the basement (adding value to the house).

You can check out some of the questions I had, and the answers I was given by my local club here:
http://www.kcfishclub.org/forum/42-fish-rooms.html

And view the fish room build, start to finish, here:
http://www.kcfishclub.org/forum/42-fish-rooms/34363-brians-new-fishroom.html

I hope Ted doesn't mind me referring you out of his site.

Also, Ted had up quite a few fish room construction videos on his site; http://tedsfishroom.com/category/video-posts/teds-fishroom that would be very useful as well.

 

[tjudy]

The cheapest and most expedient way to soften and acidify water is to get an R/O unit. Tap water that is 'liquid rock' will not acidify with peat very well.

 

[tjudy]

In a 33 long I would keep a male with three or four females (of a harem species). Make sure that there are separate structures to anchor each female's territory, with sanctuary areas that are cut off from line of sight from the adjacent territories.

 

[georgedv]

Brian that room is something else. I would like to see the water change system in that room....especially how you get the water out of the tanks. Is this a just a hobby for you or commercial......great room enjoy it
g

 

[slimbolen99]

Hahahahaaa. No, it's not commercial, as much as the wife would like it to be. Just a hobby...if I ever make money on this setup, I'll be sure to let everyone know!

Can't remember if I put these photos with descriptions up there on the site or not, so here's the basic layout of the water change system...

Tap water can be filled directly into the water barrels, or trickled through this peat filter type bucket.

Lineup of barrels (six in a row).

Don't forget an overflow for your water storage tanks!

Water pump in "last" barrel.

Water pump can re-cycle the water from the "last" barrel to the first, thus ensuring a the water is properly treated (dechlor and pH down buffer).

If a valve is opened, instead of re-cycling the water, it can be delivered to the tanks. Here are a couple of pics of where it travels down and along the floor into the fishroom...

Water goes from the water storage barrels (via pump and PVC) through a flexible hose, up to this little contraption that also has a shut off valve. Water fills the tank, you shut off the valve when full, and go to the next. It takes about 4 minutes to fill half of a 75 gallon. Multiply that times eight 75 gallon tanks, and it takes close to an hour to drain and fill tanks; two to three times a week.

 

[slimbolen99]

To continue...

To get the water out of the tanks, I simply siphon the water out into the PVC drain under each tank, which then flows into the PVC I have going around the interior walls of the room (1" slope per 10 feet!). The water then drains into a floor drain in an adjacent room...

 

[veyndy]

Pretty neat set-up you have there! you can surely make a business out of this set-up! i'd love to have this set up in my home! i have been a fish-lover for quite a while and i have a couple of few tank already but not as neat as this ones you showed here! from the sound of it looks like its pretty efficient, unlike my traditional way of cleaning my tanks! takes forever! but it really is my hobby and i don't find it tiring at all maybe because i love what i'm doing, taking care of my fishes truly is my passion!