My Fish Room

My fish room is a 10x10 spare bedroom in the back of our house. It has been the catchall for years, but we kept saying I could have it for a hobby room. So I finally decided to take it over, in a big way.

Lucy the cat enjoys the carpet one last time

First of all, the carpet had to come out. I put in a plastic underlayment and a laminate wood floor. It was one of those kind that clicks together, and it wasn't too hard to do. That took a weekend.

Then I brought in a 55g tank I bought used off Craigslist, and a 6 foot table that had always been in the room and seemed like it would be handy.

Lucy returned to check the progress.

Then I added a couple steel shelves from Home Depot and set up plastic spawning tanks.

Lucy takes up what will soon be her nearly permanent post on the chair.

I filled the 55g tank with plants (real and silk) and became the girls sorority tank (an experiment which was not entirely successful since the girls spar almost as much as the boys do and I eventually had to separate them)

Then I discovered the shallow plastic tubs just weren't working out for me. Although they were cheap, they were hard to see into to avoid siphoning up fry while cleaning them, and they were too small to leave the father with the fry. I found an ad on Craigslist for a guy closing out his fish room and moving across country, so he was selling off the tanks. I bought ten 10g and 6 20g tanks. Then I rearranged the shelf heights to best fit the tanks in and leave room for working on them. I also replaced the thin MDF shelves with 3/4 plywood to support the heavier tanks.

Three ten gallons for spawning, two 20g tanks for growout, and two 10g on the top shelf for aging water to siphon down into the fry tanks on water changing day. Airpump, Brine shrimp hatcheries and microworms on the other top shelf. Airlines run down the middle.

Now the room is closed off from the rest of the house and heated by a separate heater to a regular 86 degrees, which brings the tanks up to 82 on the middle shelf, 78 on the bottom shelf.

To finish off I built a betta barracks using the Newby plans off the IBC website.

The filter has a pump to circulate the water to the jars, and a UV sterilizer to kill and bad stuff in the water to hopefully prevent a sick fish in the system from infecting every other fish in the system. It's not as complicated as it looks.

And now it's got 48 beanies and about 30 fish on it. The rest of the system is filled with temporary 2 liter bottles to prevent the drippers from splashing on the floor. I change water in the sump twice a week, and clean the beanie jars with a little siphon twice a week to get gunk off the bottom. The fish seem very happy, and much less stressed than when I was changing their jars every other day. One nice thing about the gutters is you can write the fish's info on the gutter below the beanie in wipe-off marker, and then change it when he moves.

And that's what the fishroom looks like right now. My next plan is to move out the table, which I never use, and add two more shelving units. One will get another recycling drip system with larger containers for the breeders to live in (jars are too small for them to live comfortably for a long period of time) and the other shelf can be for whatever I determine I need next. I'll probably have to switch to a bigger water aging container (like a garbage can) and a pump to get it to the tanks.

Now Lucy spends almost all her time in this, her very favorite room. After all, it's warm, there's fish to watch, and the dogs can't get in there (there's a kitty door cut into the door of the room). What more could a cat want?

March 27, 2006 - Update

Sure enough, I needed to make a few more changes. Freddys had a sale on 6.5 qt clear storage containers - $1.49 each! That's cheaper than beanies! They worked fine, but I had to dremel off the tabs that made the lids snap on tight - they were too hard to get back off. I also drilled two holes into the lid for ventilation and a feeding hole. Then I bought another pair of shelf units and set one up just to hold the breeder tanks. Each little tank got a piece of Java Moss or a bit of silk plant in there, just so the fish had something to hide in. There's still 6 empty tanks.

The other shelving unit got set up with two 20g grow out tanks, and room for another on top, but it would be hard to service a 20 up so high. I might be willing to do it though, I'll think about it. So that's that end of the room. Next I'm going to fit two tens under the 55g. Lots of tanks, lots of room to experiment. It's pretty packed for a 10 x 10 room, but not too crazy - I like to have a little room to keep things organized.

4/12/06

Ok, I added another cool thing - a big plastic garbage can with a pond pump in the bottom of it, and 15 foot of hose. Now on water changing day I just turn on the pump and go around with the hose filling tanks. This is SO MUCH BETTER than filling them with a hose from the sink in the laundry room. For one thing, the temp is perfect, the water is already dechlorinated and it has all the gas bubbles dissolved, and I dissolve salt in the water so the fry tanks all get water with 1/2 tsp of salt per gallon. I have the hose looped and hung on the rack above the can so it hangs down into the can through a hole in the lid, and I only turn on the pump when I need it.

And as you can see I already decided I wanted 10g spawning tanks on the easy to reach middle shelves and 20g grow out tanks on the bottom and maybe the top shelves. I'll need a ladder to get up and work on them on the top shelf, so I might reconsider. I figure the fry spend a month in the 10g, a month or so in the 20g, and then move to the beanies. So I need to have about as many 20g as 10g, although small spawns might stay in a 10g longer and still have plenty of room for grow-out. Like my spawn of 9 Copper/Brass are staying in their 10g. I'm sure my plans will all be foiled as I begin to fill up with fish!

I also decided to break down and buy full glass lids for every tank. Luckily they weren't too expensive through Dr Foster & Smith online. Now it's a lot more humid in the tanks and a lot less humid in the room.

April 15, 06

I rearranged my breeders, decided to sell a few I'd bought and decided not to breed. Anyway this left some room on the breeder rack which I'm just going to use to store cats :)

January 2007

The Bettas just didn't work out. Despite my best efforts it was death, disease, and deformities all over. My breeders were kicking off like mad from strange things - dropsy, tumors, and often just sort of fading away. In August our beautiful Lucy disappeared, and I didn't have my fishroom buddy anymore. I quit. The fish room was emptied, the tanks and racks went out in the garage, the remaining youngsters went to local pet shops. All I had left was my 55g, with the baby severums, and the remaining female and juvie bettas. We got another pair of kittens (all indoor, this time) and started raising them.

Then I spotted a pair of Convict Cichlids I liked. I needed a tank for them. Maybe one of the 20g would do the trick. next thing you know I had two racks, four 20g tanks, and a 6g eclipse on the top shelf for killiefish. So of course I needed a comfortable chair to sit in and enjoy the fish. The new kittens like the fish too!

Of course the 55g is still there.

And then I added a 40g tall plant tank in front of the window.

So the fish room has changed, and now it's more of a relaxing place to sit and watch the cichlids tend to their fry. There's new cats helping me take care of the fish. It's different, but I enjoy it more than ever without all the pressure of caring for the betta farm!

5/13/07

I got a deal from another club member on 6 15g tanks. I set up a rack for them consisting of cement blocks and 4x4 posts, with 3/4 plywood tops. It seems very solid. I want to use these tanks to breed some more fish. The first ones on my to-do list are the blue and the pearl gouramis. I hope with all my betta breeding experience I will have no problem breeding and raising them.

June 8, 07

That rack was really heavy, and some folks advised it might fall through the floor, so I removed it (and put it in the garage, where it is on a concrete floor, and built these racks out of 2x4s. The multiple legs will spread out the weight load, it's much lighter, but a lot more work. This shows the first section, which will hold 2 20s, and the second section, which will hold 3 15s. The center shelf isn't in yet, and there is one more section waiting to be added which will hold the other 3 15s. There is a long power bar across the back with 12 outlets to service the tanks, and I will be adding an air line with multiple outlets I can access to run the sponge filters.

June 10, 07

I changed the design slightly and screwed it all together. It went quickly, once I decided what I needed to do.

So now the fish in the 20s are going to move into the 15s, and the racks the 20s are on will be moved out to the garage. The space will be filled by a pair of big tanks I picked up today - a 55 and a 45 on a very sturdy homemade 2x4 stand. I will use the two big tanks for breeding fish that need more room, like the Congo Tetras, and for growout tanks for fry.

July 3, 07

The fish room as it stands today. Pairs of cichlids in the 15s, severums in the 55, and rasboras in the planted tank. And a big comfy chair to sit in and enjoy watching the fish. I need to get it a bit more organized and get the bric-a-brac sorted away, and it will be just right.

December 23,07

Merry Christmas! I picked up two used 29 gallon tanks from another club member. Now I just need to build a rack for them. I'm going to put them under my 55g, which had been sitting on a metal stand.

On advice from another member I decided to beef up the center supports a bit.

December 25, 07

Still working on it between cooking Christmas dinner and all the running around visiting relatives.

I added cross pieces under the center of the shelves, and uprights to the legs to support the new crosspiece. Mighty tested it for me. It holds cats up just fine...

Then I tried to fit the tanks in and found that although I had figured 30 inches for the tanks, and four inches for the center 2x4, the tanks didn't fit - not by much, but definitely it was too tight! No pictures of us swearing and scratching our heads!

So we pulled out the front leg assembly and replaced it with a T-shaped leg that included a 2x4 lengthwise between the tanks for support, and a 2x3 on the front, and that made enough of a difference to easily slip both tanks into place. The stand feels VERY sturdy.

The bottom tank on the left is tucked away behind the 15g rack, but not a significant amount when viewed from the front. I'm still trying to decide what to do with all this extra fish-space. I am considering getting into more African cichlids. The other african tank is the most entertaining group of fish in the fish room!

I'm also a little worried that when I plug everything in and turn it on I'll blow a fuse. We'll see.

stefrobrts@stephanies-mustang.com