Garage fish room build....on a budget.

garyfla said:
Hi
Would certainly put in insulation central filtration , lots of electrical taps as well as plumb the whole thing. You will probably have to have some serious AC for sure. What is the goal ?? Breeding , trying to make a buck or two?? If you intend to sell, check into small business loans or at least tax deductions . Sounds like yore setting up the tanks before you've thought through the needs of the operation. It is REALLY tough to add the basics afterwards lol gary
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The AC unit here is pretty killer, so I think it'll handle the added load. I think I can handle routing the ac into the garage, although it's not something I've ever done. The insulation thing, it's definitely up there on my list. Batts look simple enough to install, so it won't be much of an issue. There's a small gap behind the tank stands so I can likely get the batting in behind them, but if not, then I'll have to do it after draining the tanks.

I've had a dozen of these tanks running for quite some time now, breeding different strains and just keeping fish in general. So I'm not going into this totally blind.

The background on this story is as follows. Me and my dad were planning to start a small aquarium business. We had a knack for finding really cheap tanks, so the ideas just kinda flowed from there. He was a total handyman, and could build anything out of anything. While I worked on setting up a prefab rack, he built a custom wooden 3 teir stand for me to setup also.

Unfortunately last may he died suddenly of a heart attack, coincidentally at the tail end of the stand build. I was working with him on the stand friday afternoon, and told him I was bringing the kids over to visit and finishing up the stand on saturday, and early friday night he was gone.

Needless to say this really put a damper on everything for a while. Eventually, at some point, I decided to move on with the plans we had and take it somewhere.

I have little handyman experience and even less small business experience, and unfortunately I don't have anyone in my life that does. That being said it makes things kind of a 'deal with it as we go' approach.

It's not the wisest thing ever, for obvious reasons, I figure I gotta start somewhere.

I haven't listed the costs incurred for equipment yet, but it's relatively minimal considering the scale of what I'm working on, which was the original intention of this thread.

Thanks for the post!
 
Wow, so sorry too hear of the loss of your father. I lost my mother this past summer as well and it really put a damper on what I was doing with my business. I will be happy to help with anything I can as far as advice on setting up a new small business. I am not super savvy, but have picked up alot of good tips from an excellent accountant.

Best advice is to save receipts for EVERYTHING.

Also, I am not sure how humid it is down there, but you will likely want to look into a few things. 1. either dehumidifer or air exchanger (you do NOT want mold); 2. a generator to provide back up energy should you have an outtage. The risks involved go way up the more tanks and livestock you have involved. Also, make sure you pick up the repair kit for your alita so that if you have a pump failure, you have the kit to fix it quickly.
 
msjinkzd said:
Wow, so sorry too hear of the loss of your father. I lost my mother this past summer as well and it really put a damper on what I was doing with my business. I will be happy to help with anything I can as far as advice on setting up a new small business. I am not super savvy, but have picked up alot of good tips from an excellent accountant.

Best advice is to save receipts for EVERYTHING.

Also, I am not sure how humid it is down there, but you will likely want to look into a few things. 1. either dehumidifer or air exchanger (you do NOT want mold); 2. a generator to provide back up energy should you have an outtage. The risks involved go way up the more tanks and livestock you have involved. Also, make sure you pick up the repair kit for your alita so that if you have a pump failure, you have the kit to fix it quickly.
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Thanks! Yeah I didn't even think about a dehumidifier, I'll add that to the list also. It's wicked humid here, we are only a few miles off of the bay.

I have one of those plastic honda generators that sounds like a jetsons car. We got it back during hurricane ivan and it ran the basics so I'm certain it can handle the load of the room. IIRC it only uses about 1 1/2 gallons of gas every 8-10 hours also running at full speed.

I'm still putting it all together on the business side of things and it seems overwhelming, but I'm making progress.
 
Well, it can be much more overwhelming then it needs to be. I applied for sole propriotorship, kept track of my sales adn expenses (as well as a portion of ALL my utilities, cell bill, home owner's insurance, mileage, etc). I would be happy to help with anything I can just hit me up!
 
Just a small progress update.

I got the air line piped in for the Alita AL-60 pump. I started using the cheapest 1/2" PVC possible, but then later realized I would need schedule40 to tap air valves into. I ran two lines along the ceiling above the tanks. I may eventually tie them into each other to make a closed loop, but it seems to be working fine for now.

This air pump is great, its almost completely silent, and the only thing making noise is a purge valve that I installed to help relieve some of the pressure.

In my epic cheapness, I decided not to get gang valves, or manifolds, to split the air, and instead I bought several packs of Lee's T valves/air adjusters. They were only 1.25 per pack of 4 so it was much more economical.

I put individual 3" sponge filters into each tank that are attached to the side with magnets, this should make for easy maintenance.

After a few days, I got a shipment of different guppy species in, for breeding. I lined them up across the top row of the rack so I can keep a close eye on them, and after watching one jump from tank to tank, decided to cover the tanks.

Once again, in my budget mindedness, I bought 2x4 louver panels in cracked ice color (was the clearest they had) for 5 dollars and some change each. I put these entire plastic panels over top of each rack of 3 tanks and viola, problem solved.

Next task was lighting. I already had a few 4ft dual t8 strip lights to work with
Few days go by, and I start working on the lights. I decided to light up the guppy tanks first so I hung them over top of the top racks. One was easy because it still had the hardware, the other, not so much, ended up using big zip ties to hold it in place.

Sorry for the blurry pics, didn't feel like snapping more than a few photos as it was late.


Then today I hung another strip light from the ceiling

You can see the plastic T/adjuster job I did on the airlines in this photo as well, lol.


And finally, I decided to start working on the 125 stand. I tore th stand apart into several pieces in order to fit it into the SUV when we bought it, so I was working with a big mess. Eventually, I got all the nails out of it and started putting it back together.


I bought more 1x3 pieces to replace the ones that were broken, and also to reinforce the inside of stand, because this thing looks very iffy when considering how much weight is going on it. While I was doing this, my gf applied a stain to it, which looks great.



And finally, I got a few pictures of one of the new guppy strains I got. This is a red eye redgrass. My next big project is insulation and a/c. I'm going to buy some kraft faced insulation batts and run an a/c line through the attic to the garage.

 
Coming along great! Awesome guppies!
 
And a quick tally on costs. Estimated.

Fish tanks in use:
8 x 40g breeders = $80
15 x 15g's = $56.25
other misc tanks = $50 (est)

total for tanks $186.25 (estimated)

I have several other tanks waiting to be setup, just don't have a stand for them at the moment. Most of these tanks I paid less than .25/gal for.

Racks: Left to right in pics. The stand holding the 15's is $69 at lowes. When I get the next stand, I will not be getting this one. It is rated at 1000lbs/shelf but it is definitely not made to handle that. The railing is quite flimsy and caused me to drop down to 3 tanks spread across each level.
Next, an industrial strength steel rack holding 6-40b's. It has 5 on it now, and a few misc small tanks filling the spot where a 40b was at (has a leak). This rack is nice, it has wire shelves, but has held solid for well over 9 months or so now. sometimes the tanks have a little lean to the water level, but nothing extreme. I would get another one of these. I paid around $165 for it.

And finally the white rack holds 40b's on each shelf of the three tiers. This is the one that me and my dad built. It weighs a ton, and has a lot of reinforcement in it. It was originally going to be a display stand at one point, but I decided to turn it utilitarian, and removed the paneling off the sides and front for easier viewing/access. It cost about $150 in lumber.

Overall, costs for the current racks is ~$384.


As far as water changes go, for now, I'm still using a python hooked up to an outside hose spigot. It's not the fastest thing ever but it gets the job done.
 
Can't wait to see this finalized!
 
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