The Why And Wherefores Of A Fish Room By Hugh Hutchinson

 

When you first consider the hobby, the idea is usually one community tank, which will bring life to a dark corner of the loungeroom, or fill a space in the room divider or sit on top of a bookcase etc. In other words you have a place where a tank would look good. This tank is envisioned as a work of art, beautifully aquascaped, thriving plants, colourful healthy full grown fish swimming around in all their glory.

 

When you get this tank and set it up, you find the plants that you have bought, at great cost, are only cuttings and shoots and the fish only half grown or less, this is not serious as they are all the same. So you sit back and wait for fish and plants to grow into the work art you were originally striving for.

 

But you probably run into 'new tank' problems and lose some fish or even if you don’t you suddenly find the fish you wanted but couldn't find in the first place. When you bring those new and/or replacement fish home you find that even if you hadn't noticed it, all the fish you have, have grown and are capable of either eating or beating up the new comers.

 

No sweat, all the books and experienced aquarists recommend a quarantine tank anyway. So you buy a smaller tank and probably put it on the shelf under the main tank. The new fish go in. grow and move into the main tank. When you notice a gravid (you probably still all it pregnant at this stage) live bearer and decide to have a go at saving the babies, so you pop her into the little tank as its there doing nothing anyway..

 

Now you have more than half a hundred thriving fish growing in a tank big enough for adozen and they are too small for the Community tank, so you need another large tank and somewhere to put it.

 

Now you are a fish breeder, which means you’ve got it bad mate, almost incurable. You’ve got your first breeding points and you must, you’ve just got to have a go with the egg layers: egg droppers, mouth brooders, egg laying tooth carps, bubblenest builders, substrate spawners, brood care breeders, etc., etc. Which means another tank and another and always one more tank (note you always only want one wore tank than you have when you started when you only wanted that one tank).

 

After a couple of years or sooner, it you spouse or parents haven't got it as bad as you, you take stock and find three or tour large tanks in the lounge, two or three in the dining room,. one or two in each bedroom and the kitchen, laundry and bathroom may not have escaped, each tank with smaller tanks under it. tiny tanks and jars floating in it and wires and tubes sticking out in all directions. And you still haven't seen the work of art you originally wanted. This is when the fish room starts to make sense.

 

Your best tank left in the original spot, the only room in the house that needed a tank, all the rest plus the inevitable one more to the fish room, to keep the work of art stocked with your best plants, beautiful mature fish and to receive plant trimmings, fish that are past their best, incomparable or just need maternity leave in the fish room.

 

 

A spare room in the house is a good spot for a fish room and if you have one, you probably would not get to the state mentioned before utilising it. I have seen an en-suite bathroom that had not been finished due to lack of funds turned into a fish room instead of an en-suite when the funds did become available.

 

Some advantages of a fish room in the house;

    1.  It does not get as cold as outbuildings.

    2.  You don't have to go out to it so you can feed the fish in your pajamas.

    3.  You can still hear the phone, door bell, children, cooking, etc.

 

Some disadvantages;

    1.  Dampness is not good for the house.

    2.  Spillage or a broken tank would ruin the floor and carpet.

    3.  Noisy air pumps and tank heaters will keep you awake.

    4.  Difficult to plumb water in and out.

 

So if you don't like the idea or if you haven't a spare room and can't sell the kids or afford an extension, lets look at garden sheds or partitioning the garage;

 

    1.  Both will need lining and insulation.

    2.  Any shed over 3m x 3m will need planning permission.

    3.  Some form of air lock with double door would be advisable.

    4.  Garages are for cars and will probably already be spoken tor.

    5.  Petroleum smells are bad for fish.

 

 

A fish room must house the tanks and protect them from the weather, pets and children. The smaller it is the less heat that will be needed, if you use space heating but it must be large enough for the tanks, space to get around them, storage space and working area. You must have place to put things other than on tanks. A good idea is to design it so that people (tank tours, friends, relations, the kids mates, etc.) can view the tanks and end up back at the door without having to turn around and let each other through. You will need electricity, a way of getting water in and out. It will of course have to be a compromise on what you want, what you have and what you can afford.

 

 

I have, in the past, had a fish room in a spare room in a previous house but there is not enough room in the present house. The garage turned out to be the best answer as it is designed to take two cars nose to tail, which with the schedules the wife and I keep it is absolutely impractical. We spend half our time moving each others car in and out of the way and I had already started parking my car next to the garage. The space available after allowing tor the car (Renault R12 Estate at the time (thats why the Suzuki Swift has more space than it deserves)), four bicycles and sundry items stored in the garage is about 3m x 3m with one corner chopped off so I don't bang my elbows when I use the work bench. It is also restricted in head room.

 

A wood frame was first built and the two walls separating it from the garage sheeted with corrugated iron from a neighbour demolished car port. Then the roof, the two outside walls and the floor covered with a 50mm glass fibre blanket, which came to one full roll. The roof then has R3.5+ pink bats held in place vith corking and sheeted with 25mm styrofoam sheets. The floor has 'wet area’ chipboard sheets and all the walls with and without blankets have R2.5+ pink bats with corking and is sheeted with 6mm Villaboard. The floor is finished with Dectex external deck paint and the walls are finished in gloss enamel over all the appropriate undercoats and primers. The door, which lines up with the garage side door so that tanks can be got in and out, is insulated with R2.5 bats and sheeted on the inside with Villaboard and the outside with masonite. The window is double glazed and lines up with the sliding garage window thus giving three sheets of glass between the fish room and outside.

 

I built a full length work table along the Window wall with a shelf underneath and a stand for two water drums over the centre. A wooden stand to take 6 3’ tanks is built along the opposite wall. A metal stand for 2 3’ tanks stands in the chopped off corner.  Two other metal stands go in the centre, unfortunatly no amount of juggling of these two stands would give me the free flow visitor access, I so strongly recommended.

 

The room is heated by a 2000W fan heater controlled through a relay by an air conditioning thermostat. A Khio 4800 four outlet air Pump supplies air to all the tanks. The lights above the tanks are controlled by a timer giving 11 hours light a day. There are another two lights, one has its own timer over the table that comes on early enough for me to feed the fish at 6am on my. way to work, the other is also a light on the ceiling controlled by one ordinary light switch at the door for of hours illumination. I also have an intercom that can monitor the phone, door bell and call me to dinner.

 

Unfortunately with all the lighting the room gets too hot in the summer months and I am going to have to design a cooling system before the end of winter.

 

The tank in the lounge, 1900x400x400mm, from time to time has looked like a work of art and every now and then a tank in the fish room will suddenly take on the right visual proportions and looks beautiful for a while but as with all living things its an ongoing scene and will over grow or plants will die back as others over shadow them. All in all, a very exiting hobby and if you think it's only for little boys and grannys that can see excitement in an aquarium, let me just say, “I came back to the hobby after a 20 year break during which my hobby was motor racing”.