2026 in the big fishroom

[GaryE]

It's a rainy day and I can't get much done, so here I am, online. I took some quick snaps of my fishroom, following on the thread about emergent plants in it. It should give an image of my fishkeeping folly, or as my wife calls it, the Fish Palace. It's not very regal, but it's a lot of fun.

Photo one is outside, looking at my young oak tree, otherwise known as the free botanicals source. The fishroom is inside the white building - a garage.

Then we enter the door, looking past one nearby window to one side and one back light source.

We then angle to the left, and see rwo 75s, 3 40s and a 120 gallon.

Standing at the back, the doorway shows. You may spot an exercise bike. My personal rule is that if I'm going to sit and observe a tank, then I should get my legs moving while I'm at it. So I move the bike around and point it at different vistas.

 

[GaryE]

Onwards we go. Here's a better view of the north wall corner.

These are 20 gallon tanks backing to a window, high enough I still have access. The painting on the front is a trick my daughter did. I discovered that since I don't like to fill tanks to the top (I keep many fish that jump), light paint coated over with darker creates a really nice lighting effect.

You can also see a teabag in a tank - a rooibos or green tea bag will give you tannins. Rooibos gives a reddish tone, and slower to colour the water green tea gives a dark tannin effect.

The window plants get a bit wild, but are droopy because I just moved their tanks.

And finally, every good fishroom needs a workspace. That's mine, beside the brine shrimp hatcheries.

 

[TwoTankAmin33]

Very nice set-up, but,unfortunately not for me. I need a few things is lacks. Bear in mind that I set up my first tank shortly before turning 53. My first two under tanks went up before I turned 55. I used to work on them sitting cross legged on the floor and could stand back up unassisted. That did not last much longer which led to the rules below.

1. No tank bottom lower to the ground than 12 inches. (This means I can sit on a stool to work in the tank.)
2. The space between the top of a tank on one level must have at least 12 inches of clear space above it before the bottom of the next higher level begins. I usually have more.
3. The most steps a ladder can have in order to work on any tank is 3. This includes the top top.

I am now working to change #3 to say:
3. No tank can be so high above the floor that a small ladder or step stool is needed to work in it.

My max number of tanks has been 28. We have no basement, we have no garage. only a carport..My tanks are in 2 buildings and 4 rooms year round and there used to be a 5th room from the end of May to Oct. or when nighttime temps are always below 55F and into the 40s often.

I am jealous of your space but not of how much you have to keep track of and how much work it must be.

I also do not do any plants I cannot fully submerge. Your Mrs was smart to banish you and the tanks to the garage. I am not married and have had as many as 9 tanks in my bedroom and 3 in the bathroom. Today it is 5 and 2

Bear in mind the words of wisdom from the Little Feat song.
"So you know, that you are over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill."

 

[Jennet18 76]

@ GaryE, I am slightly envious, however would never manage to keep up with the work all of that would entail, so as TwoTankAdmin said - I am very definitely over the the hill, so my dream would be to have something more manageable.

I really wish I had a garage like at my parents old house. A very generous four car garage. My Dad built it knowing it was possible he would be in a wheelchair after he retired.

I would be able to put large enough aquariums in there on just one level to meet my current wishes, and sit in my favourite armchair that is a swivel chair and be able to gaze in whichever direction my fancy took.....

I would of course keep a kettle in there to top up my caffein intake in the morning, and my strong dark good quality rum intake in the evening.

 

[GaryE]

There are many ways of setting up a room. My tanks can be high up because I'm 6"3. That also means I have a good reach. I can have 4 and 5 foot high racks. I go with one foot off the floor for gravity draining, but prefer higher. In my previous set up, I would have had to crouch for low tanks, so that was out. My knees sound crunchy. Now, I have a wide open floor for good sightlines.

I started fishkeeping at 8, not at 53. So keeping track is second nature now. For work - I have a personality where I don't sit still well. I need to work, and love to work. Since I'm retired and am lucky enough to still have my health, I get the basics done quickly, and the fishroom is my fun space. I have my music out there, and it goes on when I enter the room. I generally go out at around 8 am, and am back in the house by 11. Many days, I don't get back out, but not all. Sometimes I have a good thing going on and stay out til 13h. In the evening. I drop out for a short time to feed the nocturnal fish, lock up and listen to the crickets all around.

I did half the tank water changes this morning, and that took 2 hours. The other half, the larger tanks, took 2 and a half yesterday. That's not a big chunk of time over the course of a week. I have 5 days a week to do the straight up fun stuff - fish breeding, tending to plants, etc.

I am fortunate to have an understanding partner. She put up with in house fishrooms for many years. One thing that matters is I had tanks when we met, and she says she'd rather have me stick around the house than living the rarely at home life I did when younger. We all have different stories and lives. And different fish set ups.

Bear in mind the words of wisdom from the Little Feat song.
"So you know, that you are over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill."

I'll go with my old sometimes neighbour the late great Leonard Cohen's line: "you ache in the places where you used to play". We have to work within our limits.

 

[Tomsfish18]

I like it all but the exercise bike [ not retired yet and get my fill of climbing ladders or scaffolding].

 

[MattW39 154]

or as my wife calls it, the Fish Palace

Petition for a sign above the front door.

 

[Fishmanic39 155]

With so many tanks, you should consider adding sophisticated plumbing to do automatic water changes. At one time I had 5 tanks but am now down to 2 tanks— a 5 gallon for my Betta and my 29 gallon with 5 Black Skirt Tetras, a peppered cory, a Bolivian Ram and several juvenile BN Plecos and 3 adult BN plecos. I like to keep tank maintenance simple and easy as I age.

 

[GaryE]

In the 3rd photo. there a whitish hose on the floor. It extends to a drilled garbage can used as a settling bin. It's around 3 inches in diameter, so it flows fast. The water and any sand/debris falls into the bin, and the wastewater continues into another hose into the drain and out. It saves my plumbing.
I could have drilled and plumbed, but it's expensive to build, and once built, can't be moved on a whim. Moving tanks is something I do, while I still can.
When I next win a lottery (I've already won $5 this month) I'll do a fancy plumbed automatic water change Fish Paradise. I'd even tile the walls. But for now, I do enjoy moving things around.

 

[JuiceBox5214 5]

How does it feel to be living my dream?

 

[JuiceBox5214 5]

Beautiful room! I love to see the dedication and hard work that goes into setups like these

 

[GaryE]

I had thought about writing a post/thread starter on what was once 'fishroom culture'. In the city I lived in until recently, Montreal, there was a fishroom subculture. In the early 90s, the clubs were large, with 150 attending French language meetings, and 75 to 100 at the monthly English meetings. That fell to a low of 15 at each by 2005, although the French club had climbed back up to 50 monthly with 200 at large annual auctions or so when I subtracted myself by moving east.
It was quite normal to be invited to fishrooms by other members, and my rough estimate is that there were more than 30 fishrooms in the 50 tank plus range, and 5 or 6 with 100 to 150 tanks.
As the economy changed and there was the usual sad generational turnover, that scene fell away. We had a catastrophic drop in large set up numbers because of an ice storm (our equivalent of a hurricane) that wiped out most of the rooms. Younger members didn't start up again, older ones gradually died off , housing costs skyrocketed and the wealth shift upwards hit hard.
Now, from talking to people, there are maybe, at most 5 fishrooms in the 25-50 tank max range in that region.

I'm a outlier in the hobby now. I use a lot of techniques I learned from those visits to set ups, and the knowledgeable, people who ran them. It wasn't a rich person's hobby, though I saw some very high tech, expensive set ups run by skilled aquarists who were doctors, dentists or in banking. It was mostly well self educated people in the trades. There was a lot of improvisation and invention, which is what I enjoy. I see my fishroom as a piece of fishkeeping machinery I step into.

The saltwater rooms, always rare, were generally the domain of engineers.

I stopped on the US aquarium club speaking circuit 20 years ago, right around when the decline really bit. I'm curious about what happened to fishroom culture there, with no weeks of no electricity in the dead of winter to tip things over the edge. It's pretty clear that my large fishroom is a relic from another economy.

 

[JuiceBox5214 5]

The local aquarium club had a fish room tour/open house event where they had all the members who wanted to show off their fish rooms put their house on a map and people could go from house to house once, unfortunately I wasn’t able to go but some great photos were posted and it was really cool!

I’m determined that my health chill out and I can have my crazy setups once more. I have been accumulating free aquariums and stands and supplies over the years, and my boyfriend is in full support to build a fish room in a couple years once the majority of my surgeries are over

You are an inspiration (or FINspiration)

 

[GaryE]

A finspiration? The usual comment from club members who drop by is "if my husband/wife ever sees this place, my tanks and I will get thrown out into the street".

A lot of younger aquarists get a weird look in their eyes and say they want to make a place like this. I imagine I had the same look when my friends Wilfrid and Stephane invited me to their fishrooms way back when.

 

[JuiceBox5214 5]

Fin-spiration cause fish have fins and your fish room is inspirational