Fish room has been approved!!!!!!!

[jgentry]

Well I'm flip flopping back and forth between building my own or just buying one. It will be cheaper to build my own and I can custimize it to my own needs better. But it would involve my not so great carpentry skills and a good bit of work. I can fill the hole closet with a homade L shaped all wood rack pretty easily for about $120. It will cost about $300 to buy metal racks and replace the partical board with treated plywood and they would not fit quite as well. I just wonder what would be stronger.

Here is the basic design I was thinking about building. I was going to put plywood on the shelves instead of leaving them open. My plan is for the L shaped rack to be 83" X 18" X 72" and 34" X 24" X 72". Do you guys think these designs look solid and will work?
www.tedsfishroom.com/wp/fishroom/aquarium-racks/phase-1-aquarium-racks

What to do?

[jon carman]

Good luck- I would go with whatever Ted say's because he has been in the hobby for a long time and I trust his opinion.

[jgentry]

Time to update my progress.

Things that are done

Vinyl Floor and edging have been added. I siliconed the edge to prevent water from getting under it.

Painted the walls.

The floor suports have been added.

I just finished the tank racks last night. I ended up building them myself.

Some of the tanks have been purchased. I got a great deal on these at petsmart. Had a friend that started working there at night and he used his 30% discount and they are offerring a 15% discount you can print out online. So I got the tanks at 45% off. Here's what I got from them

50g
40g breeder X3
20g high X3

I got my sponge filter last week and I have them cycling in my other tanks and I am waiting on one fitting for the pump.

Left to do:

All that is left is the electrical and plumbing the sink and installing the floor drain. I have a friend at work that is going to help me on Monday after work if all goes well. So hopefully I will be up and running but the end of next week. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon.

[fishme]

Good stuff JD. Sounds like it's coming along just as planned. Now let's hope for no plumbing or electrical problems. How did you brace the floor?

[jgentry]

I jacked the floor up about 1.5" and built 4 cinderblack stacks under were the tanks were going to be then let the floor back down on top of it. My wife had a friend that just built a house and had some blocks left over that they gave me. You can buy support jacks at lowes that are much easier to install but they are about $25 each and I was going to need 6 of them. So I went with 3 hours of work under the house and saved $150. It would have taken at least 1 hour to do the jacks anyway.

[angel]

good thinking!

[pegasus2200]

Not to mention free is always the right price!!

[angel]

JD, what's the latest on the fish room?

[jgentry]

Well, the fish closet it up and running. I started moving fish in last Friday. The only thing left is to finish the electrical work. I did everything but the electrical myself and a friend is doing it. He has it started but still has about 2 hours of work left to finish. It's just a matter of him having time to get back out and do it. For the time being I just have an extension cord run into my air pump.

I ended up with these tanks and everything fit pretty well. The closet is packed though.

1 75g
2 40g breeders
6 20g
10 10g

I'm running all of the filters with one air pump and have pairs and a few with growouts in about half the tanks.

My current pairs are

Ex Chichlasoma Festea wild caught
Silver Saum Green Terror Wild caught
Honduron Red Point F1
Herichthys Caprintis "Escondido" F1
Red Tiger Motaguense F1
Cryptoheros nigrofasiatus Rio Choluteca Orange dorsal F1
Cryptoheros nigrofasiatus Marbled
Crptoheros cutteri F1
Archocentrus Centrarchus F1
Neetroplus Nematopus F1
Herotilipia Multisinosa
Archocentrus Sajica (blue variant)

I also have juvies of Herichthys Bartoni that I hope to get a pair from and Heros Notatus that I hope to get one good male from. I believe that is a complete list of my pairs. Those are not all in the room of course. Just all that I'm trying to breed out of all of my tanks. Several of them have some growing to do before any hope of breeding but if all goes well I should be able to breed most of them.

I am looking for
Archocentrus panamensis "red" pair of 6 grow outs
Archocentrus spinosissimus pair or 6 grow outs
Archocentrus Sajica "gold varient" pair or 6 grow outs

If anyone sees these please let me know.

[angel]

Excellent! How does it feel to have a fish closet?

[jgentry]

Pretty good. I can keep most of the fish that I have wanted to and all my fry tanks are out of my wifes way and hidden so the wife is happy. So if I get more fish without getting a divorce, it is definately a good day.

[angel]

Sounds like a plan! And don't forget buy fish she likes often.

[jon carman]

can you post a pick of the honduran red points? I got a pr that is trying to breed, but they are still kind of small and no light on the tank. If you ever get any Herichthys Caprintis "Escondido" babies let me know.

[jgentry]

I've got tons and they breed like clock work every 6 weeks. I'll pick out the biggest to bring you tonight. The rest of the oldest spawn are going to Ken Davis tomorrow. I have a 2 week old batch that will be ready in about 8 weeks, there are about 800 of them currently. The ones I'm bringing you tonight are just really starting to show the blue spangling. I think they are one of the best looking fish. Extremely mean though. I think my male could clear a tank full of mbuna in one night. He is brutal and is divided off on his own. The female can get to him when she chooses, but not the other way around or she would be dead.

I'll try to post a pic of my HRP's this week. Things have been crazy and I haven't had a lot of time of late. I'll see you tonight, I'm excited to get the rhystima's. I'm just hoping my male Robertsoni doesn't mess with them.

Oh, I found some Archocentrus panamensis. WETSPOTCX just got some in, so I will be placing an order if anyone wants anything or wants to go in on the order let me know. I'm going to order tomorrow.

[jgentry]

My male is identical to the fish pictured in this link. I got it from Ken and it most likely came from the same batch. My female came from a different source.
www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcichlidc&1245416406