- It's BRS 360 Thursday, episode seven
and it's time to talk fish rooms.
Fish rooms are one of the coolest things
a reef tank owner can incorporate into their tanks,
but there are challenges.
Today we're gonna do it right and right after,
talk fish rooms with the president of one of the biggest
reef clubs in the nation with Greg Carroll.
All that's coming up.
(drum music)
Hey I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv.
BRStv's all about fun paths to tanks you can be proud of.
The BRS 360 is a full-circle journey of taking everything
that we've learned and transforming that into
a 360 gallon reef tank.
Today we're talking fish rooms.
We have this room right behind the tank
which is going to house all the gear.
Doing this will make the maintenance 20 times easier,
meaning I am 20 times more likely to do it.
Allows for larger, different types of equipment
and removes the noise from the tank.
Today I'm gonna share where this has gone right
and wrong for me in the past,
as well as what we're gonna do with this specific space.
I also certainly hope the community chimes
in with their own tips,
because I know you have some good ones.
I'm gonna get right to the challenges that
I've run into before because the most important thing
is we avoid those issues,
starting with what we did on the BRS 160,
where the tank is on one side of the wall
and the sump is on the other.
There are a lot of things that I wish I had done different.
First thing is the overflow and plumbing is super
hard to work on where it is.
We cut a window out in the wall for the plumbing
and overflow but any time that we need to remove it,
fix a leak or adjust the plumbing inside the box,
it's nearly impossible.
It takes hours to disassemble everything,
mostly because getting tools in there is so hard.
The problem here is the window that we cut in the back
can't be taller than the tank or you'd see it
from the front because we have a suspended hood.
So if I could do it differently now,
there are a few things I would have done.
One, we could have plumbed through the bottom
of the tank rather than the back.
But outside of that, we could have simply cut
the hole as tall and as low as possible
without seeing it from the front,
which we were pretty close to but we built the wall
before the tank was here and had to leave
some room for error.
If we'd waited for the tank and stand,
we could have cut it perfect.
The other is to consider what really needs
to be finished and what doesn't.
We finished the window with drywall and paint
so it looks nice on camera, but we lost a half inch
of space versus just going with unfinished studs
or studs covered in something like FRP.
In this case a half inch would make a difference.
Relay that drywall and paint doesn't stand up
to salt spray well and in the beginning we misplaced
the guard on the top of the overflow
so the salt spray deteriorated the paint and drywall.
Anywhere salt spray is going to hit a surface,
consider what is going to happen to that surface.
In this case, FRP would have been a way better
choice for lining the studs.
The salt spray on the display side of the walls
also deteriorated from salt spray
and I would put some type of back splash behind
the tank or protective coating.
Either wall color or black would look decent
as long as it's finished properly.
To make it look nice, we also finished
or sheet-rocked the plywood sump stand and it did
look nice day one but now it's chipped
because drywall isn't all that bump-resistant
and bumps are inevitable.
Protecting the corner or finishing with FRP fiber
reinforced plastic sheets available at big box hardware
stores or ABS sheets would have been a better choice.
Just to finish on that drywall talk,
fish rooms can be high-humidity rooms like a bathroom
or shower and they make special drywall for that.
It's often green and says, "mold or moisture resistant".
I'd say it's wise to use that or other material designed
for moisture whenever possible.
I also say our electrical planning was poor.
We had plenty of outlets and two 20 amp circuits
but they were way too far away from the equipment.
It made managing some electrical challenging.
We also didn't design the electrical boards well.
They looked sweet day one with everything zip tied
in place but in the end,
things need to get removed, cleaned, replaced.
It's a giant pain in the butt to keep maintained.
There's a better way to do this like Velcro straps,
and I will reiterate,
clean electrical is synonymous with safe.
Managing humidity is another mistake
that I've made in the past.
I had a system that evaporated six plus
gallons a day in my basement,
which amounted to a giant fish room
and I didn't properly account for the humidity.
Net result was 80 percent humidity in the basement
and bad on a variety of fronts.
I eventually vented it out but I didn't account
for make up air to replace what I was blowing out
and it caused all kinds of other issues.
Eventually I solved it by putting lids on the tanks,
which dramatically reduced the light penetration,
but solved all other kinds of issues like humidity.
Adding more light, just way easier than dealing
with all the humidity.
The last major fish room mistake that I've made
in the past is floors.
Carpet like we have near the 160's a bad idea,
because it's hard to clean up spills.
Bare cement is a bad idea because salt will deteriorate it.
If possible, you want a floor drain so you can just
push spills right down the drain.
So that's the list of my most major mistakes
I've made in the past.
I'm gonna try to avoid most of those with this build.
It's time to go on-site and see
what we're dealing with this time.
Okay, so this is it.
The tank goes here,
and the sump goes in the room directly behind.
Seems simple enough, but you're gonna see there's
so many challenge to conquer here,
but if you're like me that's what makes this fun.
The build out and planning stage is one of the favorite
parts of setting up a new tank.
For those of you who have been through a fish room
build out before and got tips,
share them with us all.
I use tips from the comments all the time,
and you're not just helping out me personally,
but the entire BRStv community,
and I always do my best to give credit
to those ideas when we implement them.
So starting with the front of the tank here,
the first thing I needed to do is tile the floor.
I spill and drip all the time.
And I just refuse to be cleaning up wet carpet all the time.
I won't be able to tile as much as I'd like,
because it needs to be able to fit the room,
but I'm gonna get about a foot around the tank.
Luckily the tile that's already down here
is just some stuff readily available at Home Depot,
so it should go pretty quick.
I haven't decided on lighting or hood yet,
Chris Benner at Sticks N Stones Stains
and I are still debating.
If I go with a suspended hood or just suspended LED
modules, I'm going to protect the wall
with some kind of back splash.
Tile, FTP, black ABS, or similar.
It's one of those things where I'm curious what others
do to protect their wall and paint from salt spray.
However, I'm pretty certain that I'm going to use
a complete hood in this case,
and the hood will prevent those issues.
Some of you will also notice that the cold air
return is behind the tank.
This obviously needs to get moved over
to the side or the right.
It's possible I could have just vented the stand
properly to accommodate or move the tank out,
but the returns are in the way on the other side
of the wall so they have to be moved as well.
There's an outlet here with a circuit that
gets minimal use for anything that needs power
on the outside of the room.
That's about all I need to do out here,
so let's take a look at the inside of the fish room.
Okay, I'd say I lucked out.
This room has both the main electrical box
and drain stack with easy to access hot and cold water,
but the reality is part of the reason that my wife and I
got this house is because a room like this existed in it,
and the tank was going somewhere near it or over it.
That said, I'm gonna need between three and four
15 amp circuits to do what I want in here.
In this case it's gonna be easy to do.
May not max all of them out, but I want to distribute
the gear across as many of them as possible
in case of accidental breaker trips.
If at all possible, putting in a utility sink
is a dream come true for everyone in the home.
Having this sink here means that I can clean out
the skimmer, reactors, and equipment
right next to the sump, rather than carrying around a slurry
of rotten fish poop around the house.
Having hot water makes cleaning easier
but at least cold water means that we can make
RODI and salt water right in the room.
Even if you can't get full water to the area
you can probably run a quarter inch line
through the ceiling pretty easy to get a source
of RODI water into the room.
So you can make salt water and fresh water in this room.
Convenience is everything when you're planning
for a long-term tank.
Relay that I'm also lucky the main drain stack
is in the room so I can put in a floor drain easy as well.
Finding the best place for the floor drain is generally
dropping in a marble and seeing where it goes.
If there's no clear slope,
it's wise to have the contractor put in a skim coat
so the water flows to the drain in the event
of a leak or spill.
So I'll be putting in a drain here.
After, also epoxy the floor.
Salt water eats cement which is obviously undesirable.
I plan on using the standard garage floor epoxy
with flake for traction,
but this is another area where I'm curious
what other reefers use to protect their cement floors
and not make it ridiculously slippery.
You can also see here where the framing and HVAC
are in the way of where I wanna cut a hole
for the power head mounts and plumbing.
It does look like this is gonna be a load-bearing
wall because there are thicker boards
and they are doubled up in some areas,
but I'm gonna find out and get the supports moved
so we can cut out an area
for access to the back of the tank.
Another issue is gonna be humidity in this room,
particularly because the electrical box is in here.
I'll tell you upfront that the sump will have a custom
cover made for it so evaporation should
be pretty limited.
However, I'm going to put in an exhaust fan
and make up vent just in case I need it.
The fan would be activated by a humidistat
and Apex Controller through the breakup box,
likely a second one with an alarm
just in case the fan stops working someday.
If needed, a dehumidifier for this tiny room
would also be very effective.
Next consideration is where is the water bin storage
and work surface gonna go?
I'll just say it, I can't fit all of that in this room,
so something has to go elsewhere,
and it's the salt storage bin.
I'll show you where that's going in just a second.
Before that, I need an area for storage
and work surface for maintenance.
I'm probably going to mount a cabinet up here,
and put in a small work surface,
but what I'd really like is a large restaurant-type sink,
preferably two deep compartments with a drain board,
and large flexible hose for cleaning equipment.
I'm looking either for marine-grade version
with 316 grade steel or coated in something to prevent rust.
I haven't found it yet, but if I do, that type of sink
will double as a work surface, and a sink is super easy
to clean and drains into itself.
I got a couple weeks to find one,
but this is also something that
can be added later pretty easy.
As to the salt water, I want to be able to make
an entire bucket of salt water at a time,
so I'm looking for a 160 gallon tank from Norwesco.
At 28 inches wide, it's one of the bigger options
that fits through a standard doorway.
My water changes will be done remotely from an Apex DOS
so it doesn't have to be in the same room.
So a utility room where the water softener
and other equipment is works well.
We should also talk finishing at this point.
Should I drywall this room and make it look cleaner?
I'm not 100 percent on this, but I think
that I'm going to leave it unfinished
just because it will be easier to add other things
later or fix inevitable mistakes.
I'm a gear junkie and love making things look nice,
so once everything is done I might cover the walls
with FRP or something similar,
but I don't think I'll finish it with complete drywall.
I am however curious what others would do in this case.
I also need to deal with power but that and cord
management is going to be an entire episode to itself.
In just 30 minutes at 12:30 today,
Greg Carroll, president of one of the nation's
largest reef clubs is gonna be joining us.
His club is the founder of Reefapalooza shows.
He recently moved and started building his own dream tank.
I can tell you for sure that we're all going to learn
something here, so see you there.