The start of my fish room, woot!

[shewolfgeo]

It's finally happening. We started Sunday with it. Today my hubby done the second roll of blocks. I'm going in a little bit to get cement to fill the blocks up and maybe we'll get it poured tomorrow. We are starting with a 10x12 building, and going to try to have 3 rolls of tanks and have 3 shelves too. I plan to have them plumbed together. If I do well enough we may build on, or look for me a place to rent and start up a pet shop. Don't know yet we'll have to see.

Does anyone have any links to a DIY with instructions on a plumbing system without having any drill holes.

[dudley]

I like the idea of the outbuilding for housing fish but I don't know if you are going to be happy with the foundation stability during the winter months. I am not familiar with the weather in eastern Kentucky but in Ohio, the foundation needs to be below the frost line so it isn't heaved out during the cold/warm cycles.

Also, the cinder blocks aren't stacked properly to provide a secure wall.

Sorry to be such a negative Nelly but I hate to see you go through all the work only to have to redo it later or have damage to your aquariums.

[dbosman]

Ditto on checking the building code to make sure the building doesn't heave apart.

For a central filtration system or a central drain system, you want to drill the tanks. Plumbing over flows is asking for either whole tanks over flowing or whole tanks draining to the bottom of the siphon tube.
Drilling non-tempered glass tanks isn't hard. Pick up broken tanks to practice on first.
Drilling tempered glass results in thousands of pieces of glass when it shatters.

[shewolfgeo]

What is wrong with the way they are stacked?

I see homes here with their foundations above ground.. What would be the difference with this?
We talked about bring in dirt to fill in around the building. Do you think we should go a head with that plan?

I don't want to drill the tanks, so there isn't a way to get them on a central system?

[mellowvision]

you can still put them on a central system, drilling just makes them easier.

I think the reference to the way they are stacked is pointing out that the blocks are not half lapping each other, as they should be. The bigger problem is that they sit directly on uncompacted dirt, so it's possible they will sink in, move, or be heaved by frost. A poured foundation right on the ground is a different thing, and is usually several feet into the ground anyway, if not a full floor deep. You should really look into local codes and practices before wasting all your time and materials.

[Rbishop]

[shewolfgeo]

Thank you for pointing what they meant by the stacking. I know some of the blocks at the back are as they should, but the ones closer up aren't. I think that is how he had to cut some to fit. Anyways we are going to place steel rods into the blocks and ground before pouring cement. That'll give extra support.

The ground isn't uncompacted, that dirt around the blocks are from digging into the ground.

I'll point some of the things out to my hubby tomorrow when we work on it. He's took carpentry in school and should know what he's doing, and we have looked into the local codes here, and seems everything looks fine as far as I can understand them.

[Mgamer20o0]

look up neos diy over flows out of pvc. its a easy way to put it on a central system with out drilling.

[shewolfgeo]

thank you Mgamer I'll look that up.

[CWO4GUNNER]

Looks like a your building a serious fish-room using good materials so you might as well have a good foundation. Along with the poured slab make sure you use plenty of sand beneath the slab as a bed, this way the building will last and if you ever get tired of fish room keeping you can use the building for other practical uses, maybe as a rental.