By Donna M. Recktenwalt
You’ve decided that it’s time to build (or to redesign) your fishroom.
It’s an exciting, and daunting, prospect. But before you get carried away, let’s review some of the basics.
By definition, a fishroom is a place where you keep and maintain fish. It may be as simple as a couple of tanks in the corner of the living room, or as complex as a room (or even a separate building) specifically designed for aquatic use.
What do you need for a fishroom? The same things you need for a single aquarium. A location. Tanks and stands. A supply of clean water and a place to dispose of dirty water. Some way to keep the water clean. Power for lights and pumps. A place for storage..
The Location
Location of the fishroom is important. You want it to be easily accessible so you will spend time there feeding and observing your fish and doing maintenance chores. At the same time, you don’t want it to endure excessive traffic, noise, or pollutants, such as cooking and chemical odors.
However, a fishroom may be located anywhere, assuming that it meets a few basic criteria.
Flooring must be durable enough to contend with water spills and rough treatment, and strong enough to bear the combined weight of all the tanks, stands, and water. If your floor is a concrete slab, this is no problem; if you’re planning to put the fishroom on wooden flooring laid over joists, you may have to carefully consider both the total weight and its proper distribution; free standing floors are designed to bear specific maximum weight loads. Study the area you plan to use and check your local building codes to determine what extra supports you may need to add.
Temperatures. The average temperaturesin the fishroom must be neither excessively cool nor hot. They should lie within ranges tolerable to the fish, and be easily warmed or cooled as needed. In some cases, this may require the use of an air conditioner or supplemental heat, or the addition of insulation or ventilation.
Tanks and Stands
Tanks may be whatever you can build, buy, or otherwise acquire. Having tanks in uniform sizes and capacities may make stand design or usage more efficient, but is not necessary.
Whatever tanks you use, you’ll need strong stands to hold them and their contents of water, gravel, plants, fish and decorations, stands that are wide enough to utilize the length of lights you plan to use, deep enough to properly support the tanks, and tall enough to allow you adequate working room for catching fish, changing water, and tank maintenance.
If you’re handy, you can build your own stands from 2×4 lumber or from cinder blocks and 2x12s. The commercial heavy duty stands sold at lumber yards are strong enough to bear the weight, come in 3- and 4-foot lengths, and can be grouped together to produce longer units.
Both vertical and stepped designs are possible, usually with the smaller tanks at the top and the larger ones at the bottom. Tanks may be side by side or “ends out,” to maximize use of available space. Individual shelf height is dependent on the size of the tanks, the lighting arrangement, and your own working “comfort zone”.
Water, Filtering, and Heating Systems
The water. We’re less concerned here with what kind of water you have than how you will get it to and from your tanks. For smaller fishrooms, aging and moving water using buckets or plastic jugs may be adequate. For larger fishrooms buckets may prove utterly impractical, and the use of large heavy duty plastic or fiberglass containers may better serve for water storage, with delivery accomplished via hose and submersible pump.
Some larger fishrooms use centralized water systems that automatically provide fresh or filtered water, and remove waste. Although such systems are more costly and time-consuming to install, they generally result in cleaner tanks with less work. On the downside, all tanks on a system share the same water at similar temperatures, the same chemistry, and in the case of disease, exposure to the same pathogens.
The filtering system. There are two basic types of filtering systems for fishrooms: central systems, and distributed systems.
A central filtering system utilizes a single pump and filter to process all the water from a series of connected tanks. Central filtering eliminates the need for individual tank filters and heaters, thus reducing maintenance time. It does require a better, more complex, high volume filter, a water pump, and PVC or similar piping for water distribution and collection. It may or may not require drilling the tanks, a tricky proposition. For use with air, PVC piping may simply be friction fitted; for use with water, gluing with proper adhesive is essential.
A distributed filtering system utilizes individual filters for each tank, all of them driven from a centralized air pump or pumps that feed the system using PVC pipe or airline tubing. With this system, the fishkeeper can use airstones or any of the various types of air driven filtersundergravel, box, or sponge. A central air supply requires a large air pump(s), an air compressor, or an air blower. Large air pumps can run up to 30 tanks or so, depending on size, and are fairly quiet. Air compressors drive small volumes of air at high pressure (measured in pounds per square inch [PSI]). Air blowers provide a large volume of air at low pressure (measured in cubic feet per minute [CFM]).
Heating. If you’re using a central filtering system, you can install a heater in the filter sump or the supply tank to heat the water for the entire system, but not all tanks will be exactly the same temperature. Especially in larger systems, tanks at the far end of the delivery line may be somewhat cooler. Alternatively, the room can be heated, or you can use individual tank heaters as needed.
The Power Supply and Lighting
Whatever your fishroom plans may be, you will need power, for electricity will drive many of the systems, from lights to pumps to heaters. Most circuits can manage at least 15 amps of power and a small fishroom will seldom require more than this. Be certain to always follow the basic rules for electrical safety; installation of a ground fault interrupt plug is highly recommended.
Although most of us manage with what we have or can scrounge, general agreement if you’re starting from scratch is that 4-foot long, two tube commercial fluorescent fixtures (“shop lights”) are the most economical bet. They’re inexpensive (sometimes even free) and widely available. Standard fluorescent bulbs work quite well for aquaria, but you can replace them with other types if you like. Smaller sizes of fluorescent fixtures are also available, but are more expensive.
To simplify operation, be sure to include an automatic timer in the system if at all possible.
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter, December 1998