The Fish Condo (56k warning)

[blainep]

I guess I'll start off the DIY section.

This project started with a local Petland doing renos and getting rid of their old fish tanks. Being the nice guy I am, I helped out by taking 2 carloads of tanks .

The tanks were in rough shape, it took nearly a month of my spare time to get them cleaned and resealed.

Next came the 'What do I do with all these tanks' , then inspiration came.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/1.JPG

The tank cleaning operation.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/4.JPG

The cleaned up tanks.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/6.JPG

Pump Testing.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/7.JPG

Construction Day.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/9.JPG

Assembly.

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/11.JPG

Coming together, decorating with the goodies I picked up at the Calgary Aquatic Society auction !

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/14.JPG



http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/15.JPG

A couple of close ups.

The stand is made of 2 x 6 lumber and 5/8 inch plywood that is glued, screwed and bolted together.

The sump is 2 20 gallon tanks, lights are 4 48 inch shop light fixtures from Home Depot. Pump is a Rio 12 HF.

The tanks are all valved so any tank can be seperate from the rest. Down pipes are covered with foam filters from Aquaclear mini's to prevent livestock transfer.
The lids are 4 diffuser panels, cut to fit.

I've tweaked it quite a bit scince these pictures were taken. I've added center supports (just in case), all the electrical is tied up 18 inches off the floor, I've added side shelves for air pumps to drive foam filters and a bunch more I can't think of right now.

I'm into construction of phase 2 of the fishroom now so I'll post pics of the finished 'condo' and Phase 2 soon.

Blaine

[Melody]

WOW! That's awesome! :notworthy: Can't wait to see phase two.

Are the filters homemade too? I don't think I've ever seen anything like them before.

[CACAdmin]

Wow! :spinny: Fantastic! Looks great! You sure put a lot of work into it. :thumbup: Please remember to keep us updated.

[blainep]

WOW! That's awesome! :notworthy: Can't wait to see phase two.

Are the filters homemade too? I don't think I've ever seen anything like them before.

I don't think I'd use term homemade, filtration is handled by the 20 gallon sumps that I built with some leftover glass from broken tanks and some eggcrate, they are stuffed with bio balls and a piece of filter blanket on top, I left 2 of the large corner drip filters intact and then I added 4 large air driven foam filters.

The sponges on the water pipes is primarily to stop livestock transfer from tank to tank, although I'm sure they add to the filtration at least a little.

I guess you could say the sumps are homemade, but really they took all of about 5 minutes to put together.

[thegrandpoohbah]

That is awesome! What are you housing in this condo?

[blainep]

That is awesome! What are you housing in this condo?

The condo isn't full yet, I'm waiting for a big 'box o fish' from some chick in BC. ;)

So far there is ....
RedWag Platies, Black Lyertail Mollies, Silver Sailfin Lyertail Mollies, Het Formosa, Cherry Red Shrimp, Blue Ramshorn Snails, Endlers Livebearers, Crystal Red Shrimp, Ghost Shrimp, Giant Columbian Ramshorns, Ameca Splendens, Orange Tail Goodieds, Green Swordtails, Red Ramshorn Snails, Zebra Danios and a few hundered common snails. I've also got a breeding group of Red Velvet Swordtails that are almost ready to come out of QT to go into the condo.

That should leave me with 4 of 14 tanks unused as yet.

[Soggybottom]

Snails and livebearers huh? I couldn't imagine who you are expecting a box from...

Very nice setup! Those green-end bulbs you have are just plain ol cool white or what? How long has it been running and are you happy with the lights? I'm trying to figure out whether or not to keep spending money on special sectrum bulbs...

[blainep]

Snails and livebearers huh? I couldn't imagine who you are expecting a box from...

Very nice setup! Those green-end bulbs you have are just plain ol cool white or what? How long has it been running and are you happy with the lights? I'm trying to figure out whether or not to keep spending money on special sectrum bulbs...

The light fixtures are from Home Depot, they are just plain ole shop lights, as I recall, they were the least expensive I could get with a reflector on them. I think they were about $15.00 each.

The bulbs are the plant/aquarium bulbs sold at Canadian Tire ( and probably everywhere else ), about $5.00 each . I've never gone for the high end light setups, I've always had decent plant growth so I never saw a need.

There is twice the amount of light on the condo than I had planned to have, I wanted single tube fixtures but none had reflectors on them. This is the highest watts per gallon setup I've had, about 1.5 watts/gallon. Usually I just use a single tube on a tank and I get decent growth from most common plants.

I'm also a low maintenance aquariest, I'm really not interested in trimming my plants back every week or keeping up a CO2 setup. Just plant them, turn on the light for 8-10 hours per day and let them eat up the fish poop.

The condo has been running now about 8 weeks, with livestock about 6 weeks. I used aged filters and fast growing plants to kick start the cycling. With lots of water changes, I haven't seen any ammonia as yet, had a little nitrite once, water change cured it quickly.

Once I get the cupboards and sink plumbed into that room water changes will be breeze, they're already way easier than with several individual tanks. I have a garden hose attached to the laundry sink going directly into the sump and a smaller second pump in the sump to pump the water out. Just plug in the small pump, wait for the sump to drain and then refill from the hose. Toss in a little Prime from Seachem and I'm done.

[Melody]

My ears are burning... :Blush:

[Pamelajo]

Nice set up.

[blainep]

It's been a while since I posted on this thread, thought I'd update.

I had to make improvements to the drainage system, essentially doubling the capacity.

Also had to find a better way to keep livestock in the tanks, fry were sneaking thru the AC 20 HOB filter foams I had on the drain pipes.

For that, I used 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe, butt connector and reducing bushing. I cut the pipe so it would sit just above the water line and drilled 1/16 inch holes all over it.

Hopefully none of the fry are going to be smaller than 1/16 of an inch.

Didn't take any pictures of the lower drain pipes, but I have a couple of the PVC pipes.

From this :

http://www.calgarycommodore.com/tanks/14.JPG

To this :

http://calgarycommodore.com/tanks/pipe/mini-1.JPG

http://calgarycommodore.com/tanks/pipe/mini-2.JPG

http://calgarycommodore.com/tanks/pipe/mini-3.JPG

Yes I see you and yes you're just as pretty as you were 5 minutes ago :rolleyes: ( Mollies need so much reassurance )

http://calgarycommodore.com/tanks/pipe/mini-4.JPG

Looks like 2 of those girls are about to drop fry again .......

[Melody]

LOL Lucky Mollies. Nice job. I would never have thought of any of that in a zillion years.

[CACAdmin]

Quite ingenious! (A lot of work, though, drilling all those holes :rolleyes: ).

Beautiful mollies... glad they're not camera shy.

[blainep]

Alot more time than I had expected also, once I had a plan in mind, finding the bits and pieces proved to be a bit of a chore also.

Home Depot had the pipe and bushings but no connectors, Totem had nothing, Rona had about 1/2 the number of connectors I needed and a Home Hardware had enough for me to finish the job ! :err:

Made for a nice trip around the city ......

Now that it's done, I'm happy with it. With the added drainage, no chance of an overflow !

[Melody]

What's really fun is telling these people why you're buying the stuff. Its amusing to play with them a bit if you're ever so slightly evil.

Its especially fun if the person working is in the least bit egotistical, or if you happen to be female and they're talking to you like you're an idiot. I have the most fun with those :DevilGrin: .

[Corbin]

:notworthy: that is awsome, i wish i had the tanks to do that.

[blainep]

:notworthy: that is awsome, i wish i had the tanks to do that.

If you keep your ears and eyes open, you can find great deals on tanks.
I just made a deal on 10 drilled 40 gallon tanks ( there are more available, but the fishroom is only so big !) .
They are old tanks so they'll need a good cleaning and resealing, but they were cheap and I'm in no great rush to get them going.

[Corbin]

ill keep my eyes and ears out. i dont think i could fit 10, 40s in my room unless i got rid of my bed or computer :nah:

[CACAdmin]

i dont think i could fit 10, 40s in my room unless i got rid of my bed or computer :nah:
:Worried: Even if you could, your room would probably have to be in the basement, or you might suddenly find it there with the weight of all those tanks!:laugh:

[Corbin]

my room is the basement :laugh:

[blainep]

Well, you'll need the computer to talk to us, so you'll need to get rid of the bed ! :laugh:

Melody says sleep is highly overrated anyway.

[Corbin]

:laugh: im not sure my girlfriend would be to happy about sleeping on the couch or floor..

although she is into fish too so she might not mind

[Melody]

You're young, so let me explain this to you - fish are cheaper than women, more quiet, and they believe in free love so having other girlfriends isn't a prob. Get rid of the bed, forget about the bed entirely, everything to do with a bed is nothing but trouble when you're awake. Sleep in a one man sleeping bag.

So says me, oh ancient one. :smile:

[Corbin]

:laugh::laugh: hahaha thats funny, but i like doing other things other then sleeping in my bed.. :rolleyes:like watching tv.

[jon604]

wow i have to do that when i get my own place do the top tanks just drain into the next row ?

[Trobe]

what size drain lines are you using? and are those 10 gallon tanks?

[blainep]

wow i have to do that when i get my own place do the top tanks just drain into the next row ?

Yes, the top tanks are filled by a pump from the sump, the top tanks fill the bottom tanks and the bottom tanks drain into the sump.

[blainep]

what size drain lines are you using? and are those 10 gallon tanks?

The tanks are 15 gallon tanks (12 by 24 inch footprint). The drain pipes in the first pictures are 3/4 inch. I found that 3/4 inch just was not enough. I ended up doubling it to 1 1/2 inches.

[jon604]

how do you have the 2 sumps conected to each other

[blainep]

how do you have the 2 sumps conected to each other

You can't really see anything in the picture, but both of those tanks are drilled and there is simply a piece of pipe connecting them together.

Only one tank really acts as a sump, the other one is there for overflow protection in case of a power outage or pump failure.

[Trobe]

I'm thinking of doing the same sort of thing and using 1 inch in 10 gallon tanks. I'm also thinking that drilling the bottoms of the tanks that have the plastic braces around them will eventually cause cracks. I mean all the stress would be on the bottom pain of glass wouldn't it?

[blainep]

Drilled tanks shouldn't have any problems handling water pressure, assuming the tanks are good tanks to start with.
The biggest thing to watch out for are tanks that have tempered glass, they can't be drilled, they just shatter when you try to drill them.

If you are thinking of drilling the tanks yourself, another option is to drill the back or side of the tank. This can give you a few more options for arrangement and plumbing.

There are quite a few 'how to' videos on Youtube for drilling tanks. It doesn't look to difficult to do.

Another option I have heard of is to use a piece of styrofoam insulation to support the bottom glass on framed tanks. I've never done this on a framed tank, so I don't know how effective it is.

[Trobe]

styrofoam under the frame sounds like a good idea. better safe than sorry. i was thinking about drilling the back but then its hard to get at the plumbing if you need to in the future and you end up with more waste line pipe if you go through the back. I want to keep everything as short as possible.