About a month away from a new project!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jgentry]

Well everyone. I think the time has finally come that the wife is booting either me or all of my glass boxes out . After a few discussions about all of my tanks, the time I have to spend up keeping them, and the space in the house they take she has agreed that it would be best to build a dedicated room in the garage for my junk. This is going to take up about half of the garage but will be a lot easier on me in the long run. First I have to build a carport for my boat. I'm starting on the carport Saturday and it should take 2 weekends then I can start rolling on the build out.

Going to have to frame, insulate, run electric and plumbing, and then drywall a 11X18 area in the garage. My neighbor is going to give me a great price on the electric and plumbing.

The planned layout is going to be this.

Both ends of the room will have 11'X4' ponds that are 24" deep. These will be wooden framed above ground ponds with the fexible pond liners. Both ponds will be about 600g. One pond will be for SA amazon basin cichlids and the other for CA cichlids. The ponds will be for holding all of my large fish and providing them adaquette space which can be hard to do in aquariums when we are talking about 14" fish.

From there two 6' racks that will be stacked three high that will be able to hold 2 125g tanks and 2 40g breedes each. I will use these 4 125g tanks a 4 40g breeders for breeding projects only. I plan to pull pairs from the ponds as desired and breed them in these tanks. 125g tanks will be for large breeding pairs and 40g's will be for mid sized and small pairs. If something gets rare in the hobby I can pull them from the pond and breed them. If something is not demand I will just hold them in the ponds until the fade out again. I plan to only keep a few select fish so at any given time I should have 4-5 different things that will be in demand.

From there I will have 2-3 more 4ft racks that will be for fry grow outs. These will hold a mix of 10g, 20g, 30, and 50g tanks that I already have.

Now for the help from everyone.

What should I look into for heating water for water changes. I was thinking I would need at least an 80g-100g water heater. Would that even be able to keep up.

Filtration- This is going to get a bit tricky because the SA and CA fish are going to be kept in different water parameters. The ponds will just use a large drum pond filter will a UV sterilizer on each so they are easy. What should I do for filtration on the tanks? I have a piston pump that could run all my fry tanks. From there I would only have 8 other tanks. Is it worth setting up scentral systems for the racks?

Anyone no were to buy the large industrial plastic sinks?

[fishme]

I am not knowledgable enough to advise you on anything when it comes to fish keeping. I will leave that to the experts. But, I will say this--my jealousy knows no bounds...lol. Also, and I'm sure you know this already, you have a great wife.

[tnnsman7]

I'd go for a tankless water heater if you can. Unlimited hot water when you need it and no cost to keep water hot when you don't. They're not cheap, but neither is an 80 to 100 gallon tank style heater either.

The piston pump and sponge filters will do fine for the fry tanks. I also run them on my larger fish tanks, but with secondary mechanical filters of some sort. I think I would do a central system for the one rack if you have room. It would save electric costs over running several large hob or canister filters. You'd need to get tanks that can be drilled. If you're planning on buying used tanks, that might be tough.

Sounds like a fun project. I'd love to start from scratch on a new fish room. No space right now, but someday...

[tnnsman7]

If you decide on the tank style heater, I'd go for two 50 gallon heaters instead of one large tank. My dad has a very large house and the plumber suggested two tanks instead of one large tank. It works well and if one goes out in a few years, it's cheaper to replace one 50 at a time than a single large tank.

Are you going to use central room heat instead of heating each tank with electric heaters?

[jgentry]

I've got a friend that said he could get me a tankless electric water heater for about $450 installed. If I do that I am just going to put it in the house and use it for everything. The 2 separate smaller water heaters is a great idea. I will look into that as an option.

Just going to heat the room. If something needs a higher temp I can use a heater or 2 as needed but shouldn't really have to. A dehumidifier and small heater shouldn't have any trouble keeping it warm enough for a fraction of the price of tank heaters in intial cost and electric cost. I will just use a window unit in the summer to keep things from getting too hot.

This project is going to take several months to get going so I will just try to plan well up front and tackle issues as they come. Hope to get the walls and electric/plumbing done quickly but the actual tank and pond setups are going to take some time. There's no hurry though.

[reagan]

I have the air system for sale.

Air system. Every thing with extra outlets and tubing. I have over $900 in the hole thing. I got it becouse it run on under 100wts. The pump alone was over 400. I have 40-50 sponges and a dozen boxes and more. It will run over 100 air lines. Tanks over 20" cut way down on how many it will run. It has everything.

I would like to get $400

[jgentry]

That's a good deal Reagan. The sponges would almost cost that much. I'll let you know if I end up needing it.

Was the Pearsi able to hang with you amphilophus?

[fishme]

Just out of curiousity Reagan, what kind of filtration are you replacing the air system with?

[reagan]

I have cut way back on tanks over the last year. I went for over 60 down to 25 and now I only have 3. Son I doent need the air system anymore. I will still use one spong and a can...

Air systems are great I can run the systme on the same power on on HOB filter. I just dont need it anymore.

[fishme]

Didn't realize you had downsized so much. Have you sold all those tanks?

[reagan]

Yes I sold them

[reagan]

Some were sold to board members here

[jgentry]

Room is getting framed this weekend ;D. Hope to get the walls up this weekend then the plumbing and eletrical the next. From there the joy of moving tanks begins.

[jody]

hey if you need help moving tanks around, i could help you. I dont live that far away.

[davidtcb1]

I could help too! Just a few minutes away.