The Building of My Fish Room

As soon as we closed the pet shop we began moving a good portion of the fish section home. This was going to be my room, my dream fish room. I elected to not go with a circulation system in here and use individual filtration. This made it easy since that is how we had the pet shop set up. We cleaned up and moved the two old tank racks that had been there since before we opened the pet shop, I rewired the electric and set up a few tanks so I could save all the fish we had not sold prior to closing.

The racks at the shop needed to be separated and moved in sections and since the fish room is about 25 feet by 22 feet, they would not be re-assembled and we could only use about half of them. The sections each were designed to hold 3 fifteen gallon tanks on top, then either 3 twenty gallon or two 30 gallon tanks on the middle and bottom row. Except I had built a special dual 55 gallon rack and we wanted that one in the fish room also.

First we brought home a double standard rack and it went along the north wall. We had to re-wire the power as well as the lighting. Next we added in line the double 55 gallon rack and attached power and lighting to that then connected the lighting to the timer and the power to a circuit of it’s own. Once that wall was ready for tanks we filled it so we could make room for more racks. Now we moved 2 standard racks into the center so we could work fully around the racks when cleaning and water changing. This proved to be a little more complicated since the two were not in line we would need more extensive re-wiring and lighting modifications.

We added some shelving for supplies and a freezer for frozen foods. We moved a dormitory style refrigerator in for cold storage and finally it was all in the room. There was a large work sink that I was able to replace with a double tub stainless sink from a former restaurant. The photos all show our room at a stage where we had all the racks in and we were still re-wiring power and lighting. Once we are finished with these chores, a general cleanup and we will be ready to start breeding and keeping fish again.

There are several ways to configure the tanks and I have enough tanks to do it a few ways. I think the current configuration will allow for on rack tanks that will total about 1,190 gallons of water. Then we will have a few larger tanks off the rack on their own stands. We have a 95 gallon and a 75 Gallon and 2 more 55 gallon tanks as well as a large shelf system with 1 quart mason jars to grow out bettas. Any more than that and I would need an employee.

I can’t wait to get it finished.

Taking photos of a room is one thing, I had hoped to show what we really want to post photos of,,, my fish, but I don’t do fish photos well. Here are a few attempts:

Our half black yellow guppies. They just will not stay still. This would have been a beautiful photo if someone else had taken it.

RAMS Yellow Labs

We also started with Koi Angelfish, several doubletail betta Splendens, sunshine peacock cichlids, ruby red cichlids, domasoni, several species of cory cats and a few plecos.

As soon as we can start filling more tanks we will contact a few friends around the county and gather some of the better stock in the country.