Building a Fish House

[Gibbo]

I plan to tear down a Shed in our back garden, re-cocrete and level the floor and then re-erect a new shed, weatherproof and insulate it and fit new electrical fittings and a wall heater. Has anyone out there ever built their own fish house and do they have any advice they can give?

 

[cryosi]

good luck with the fish house get some pics of you building it !

 

[Macquatic]

Gibbo, sorry not getting here before now but I converted the rear of my garage to a fish house. A few tips for you, although you are doing the job differently.
You have an advantage by starting from scratch
1. When you do the floor, a drain and water supply is indispensible, if you have room fit a sink as well. With these facilities as an integral part of the hut you can do all your water changes, cleaning tanks, equipment etc. without going outside. (you will appreciate it in the winter )
2. Line the hut with 2" polystyrene. Don't use plasterboard, it rots in the damp atmosphere!
3.I personally use individual heaters as it gives me more control. Do not use a wall heater, use a tube heater controlled by a thermostat (heat rises and this heater sits on the floor) You can also use a computer fan connected to a length of ducting hose to circulate the warm air down from the roof area.
4. Racks can be of wood or steel. I use ex-warehouse steel racking 2 of with uprights at the end only (lots more room for different sized tanks) My racks are 9' long 4'8" high and 2' deep (this 24" size suits the majority of tanks, you can put 24x12x12 or 15's end on. I have larger tanks i.e. 48x24x15 , 24x24x24high and so on) this racking gives me 3 tiers and can hold in excess of 50 2' tanks.
5. you will also need to store water. I use 3 x 45 gallon water butts with all water going through a purifier, hence no need to use chemical additives. You could also use a domestic water tank and mount it as high up as possible in the roof space.

That should be enough to be going on with but if you need more info on air systems, electic ring mains etc. please PM me Mac.

 

[Gibbo]

Cheers Mac, will do!

 

[hollywoodH]

I have just taken this off a website i hope it helps



Tanks
These can be any size or shape depending on on the fish you keep. All tanks in the system must be drilled. This is best done during manufacture but can be done to existing tanks by a glazier or some of the larger aquatic centres.

The drainage of the tanks works on gravity rather than syphon- the holes must be capable of accommodating a 1" tank connector. If the tank is 30 gallons plus, drill an extra hole. Tight fitting tank cover glasses prevent dust settling and your fish jumping.

Plumbing
Correctly selected and installed your plumbing will last forever. There is much debate regarding what material to use. I use and recommend ABS or PVC from your local plumber's merchants.

Some cheaper piping is protected by anti fungal treatments which is fine for us, but deadly to a fish's central nervous system. I have seen overflow pipe used with apparently no problems.

It is important to vent the drainage system to limit siphoning and to eliminate that irritating gurgling noise you get if you don't. So each tank requires one or two outlets joined to a common drain which takes the water to your filter.

Returning the water to your tank
Pumps- you'll need a pump capable of circulating your entire system at least twice per hour. you can use any submersible pond pump of the correct capacity, Eheim hobby pumps, swimming pool pumps or central heating pumps.

I use and recommend Oase pumps. Although they're more expensive, they are compact, reliable, powerful and cheap to run. I use Oase 600 which gives me 1350 gallons per hour for a miserly 100w- amazing value.

Your return piping needs to have as few elbows and changes of direction as possible. One inch pipework is recommended with individual taps for each tank. You can then regulate the amount of water entering each tank, a major consideration when breeding fish.

Gone are the days of ugly sponge filters and heaters in your tank. A system is so adaptable that you can have fry in one tank and adults in the very next. Any excess power from the pump is teed off directly to the pre-filter.


Heating
I require a steady 84F in the Discus set up, and the main system is 600 gallons. I use 4x 300w Tetratec heater stats located in the sump of the filter. Two of these heaters are left on permanently, the other two are controlled by a common thermostat- since the introduction of the EEC policy on "plugs", the UNO thermostat is no longer available, which rather compromises those of us who want to use high wattage's.

You can use 1.5 or 3kw swimming pool heaters but they are expensive. Of course, for up to 600 gallons of water, aquatic heater/ stats are fine. It pays to insulate between and behind your tanks with polystyrene. Heating the room helps too. All the heaters are placed in the sump out of site and the thermostat probe is placed in before the heaters. I use simple internal thermometers in a couple of tanks to ensure the temperature remains consistent.

Filter
The filter is the heart of any aquarium. I use a large tank underneath my system to collect, clean and filter the water before returning it to the tanks.

Independent of this I have a trickle filter simply made of glass. The filter receives the "used" water and it's cleaned mechanically by floss, ceramic cubes and filter sponge. I then have Hagen bioballs followed by Siporax and Filtrex.

The trickle tower is filled with a mixture of plastic media, Siporax and Filtrex, maintenance is simple. Daily I remove the floss, six monthly I remove, clean and replace the sponge and the rest has not been touched in years.

Because the biological capacity of the filter is absolutely enormous, seeding the filter takes longer than usual.

Initially we ran just 100 gallons of water and used ABA to seed for 31 days. As the nitrite fell to zero, I introduced 20x 3" goldfish to the tanks- the result was an unexpected burst of new tank syndrome. within 10 days all of the parameters returned to zero.

Although the desired pH for Discus was 6.5, I found the nitrification process was speeded up with a pH of 8.5. The goldfish were then removed to the pond. I replaced 50% of the water and lowered the pH to 6.5, then introduced an army of Gibbiceps which kept the the tanks clear of any form of algae and just a dozen 3" Discus.

Daily monitoring of parasites and prudent addition of additional stock over the next 10 weeks or so wnet without any major hiccups. I keep a twice daily check on the pH as it has an annoying habit of rebounding upwards. After 12 months or so the filter becomes highly efficient and as a result produces so much acidic matter that I have to raise the carbonate hardness in the system with simple bicarbonate of soda every other day to maintain the pH.

Extras
I also installed a UV steriliser. Since fitting it, I have noticed that any damage to fish, torn fins for instance, heals almost overnight. Fungus on eggs is almost eliminated. Although sceptical at first I now believe it is better to fit one than not to have one.

Maintenance
My two 600 gallon systems contain around 1000 Discus, from day old fry to adults. These fish create a lot of waste and most of my time is taken up running my pet shop. However I can maintain to a very high standard my systems with just 15 hours work a week.


Daily





Check temperature

Replace filter floss in prefilter

Check pH



Every other day



10% water change. This is simple. From my storage tank a pipe takes new water to the sump. I simply siphon off the waste from each tank to a drain. The water level in the system replenishes itself. When it's full it is turned off, I then check the pH and other parameters.

 

[Macquatic]

Sounds good but also expensive
This is a Discus breeding set-up and as all the tanks are drilled they need to be brand new. Just watch your electricity bills rocket using the 100w waterpump and 2 x 300w heaters 24 hours a day!!! Mac.

 

[Gibbo]

Cheers Mac, I'm only planning between six and nine tanks.... 4 or 5 will be breeding tanks, a couple of grow out tanks and a couple of 'experimental' tanks (biotope/planted setups). There will also be 1 or 2 big (5ft x 2ft x 2.5ft) tanks for larger Syno's and Loricariids. I will filter and heat them independently I think because I'm trying out different water perameters and filtration/biotope techniques (I've ordered a bare bones R-O unit for blackwater/softwater species and plan to set up a river tank using a homemade filtration system) this would be best. Much aprreciated though mate, thanks for all the info you're finding. You'll be the first person I'll contact if I hit any snags!