Fish Shed Build Thread!

I doodled up a plan for racking along one of the walls. These will be mostly the smaller tanks. I'll start with these, then figure out what other sizes I want and place those on the other wall.

Will be layed out like this:

[water storage- aging tank, 100gal]

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
------------------------------------

15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
------------------------------------

50 50 50
------------------------------------



Thats approx 100 gallons in probably rubbermaid containers or something on top, 12x 10gal on the top, 9x 15gal mid, and 3x 50gal on the bottom. 10s and 15s will be short side out. 50s will be lengthwise. I won't go into detail about the racks, they'll be 2x4. I'm gonna build the whole thing and plumb it for air, then start adding tanks.
 
darnit, it took out all the spaces in my drawing... oh well, y'all get the idea right?
 
Just got my pump, and some wood n PVC n other junk from HD, 150$ for the pump, 100$ for the materials. I got a heater yesterday too, good deal cuz it's summer and only weirdos want heaters now, 20$. I've lost track of the total, and there are probably at least a couple hundred unnaccounted for dollars I've spent. At this point I'd rather not know what I've spent...
 
NICE project!!!!!!!
 
More work today... finished the rack, and did my air plumbing.

Pump is running currently into a half filled 5gal bucket... I used the hose in the shed to fill it =) ... sure is nice having a hose within reach. It bubbles so hard I had to put a valve on it to keep it from splashing over. The air all runs thru a closed loop of PVC that goes all around the ceiling of the room, with loops going down to each row of the rack. I figured out the easiest way to tap into into them is to drill a 7/32" hole, then cut your 1/4" airline at a slant so you can poke it in, fits tight enough that there aren't any leaks. All the PVC joints are glued, the glue fumes are nasty, I'ma let it run a couple days before I put it in an actual tank.

The first fish are in! Two zebra danios, some of my first fish. They're in a 20long with two sponge filters.

The heater has a thermostat, it's currently set to come on if the temp falls below 70F. Air temps get around 80 during the day, but the tank hasn't gotten above around 74. The AC my not be necessary at all, except when I'm working in there and it's hot.

Anyways, pictures:

IMG_0149.JPG IMG_0150.JPG IMG_0151.JPG IMG_0152.JPG IMG_0153.JPG
 
Perspective

I'm sure the bottle is there for perspective. Nice work so far and thanks for keeping us posted. Good luck and stay safe and hydrated. HA
 
Very cool. What kind of air pump is that, made for fish right?, I wish I had your framing skills, obviously allot of aquariums will fit in this purpose built shed and on those frames, 3 high right? Are you planning to put a PVC valve at the end of your air conduit to relieve pressure on pump diaphragm or control total pressure? How large aquariums or foot print are you planing for in your framing, some longer then others, both sides, leaving back for supply storage? Very enginuitive.:thumbsup:
 
Today I bought 3 10 gallon tanks, and I'm gonna pick up a 15 from CL in a while. The three tens are set up on the top shelf, centered, with the back glass painted black. A handfull of play sand (3.27$ for 50lbs at HD) in each makes 1/8" thick substrate. Each is running a 20gal sponge filter. I fear I may have killed the bacteria on them though because in my excitement I forgot to dechlor the water before I put them in. DOH! I'll have to watch them for a while. I did squeeze a seasoned sponge in each tank, hopefully that'll get them started pretty quick.

The air pump is an Alita AL-40. It gets pretty hot while running, almost too hot to touch, but it's powerful. Right now it's only powering 4 sponges valves on each to keep the pressure under control, each at a pretty high volume, and there is one outlet just blowing free. I'll plug the free outlet later (or put it in a tank) when I no longer need far less pressure than I have.

I'm also visiting another guy to buy some fish. GBRs, pygmy corys, clown killies, and who knows what else, he seems to have quite a collection. I wonder if he's on here?
The racks where designed purposefully, yes, to maximize the number of tanks. The rack is 20" deep, to hold 10s and 15s with the short end out. Since I wanted the tanks as low as possible I used 3 rows of 2x4 laying flat instead of two verticals, and no plywood on the shelves because I want light to go thru to the lower levels better. Air is run between the 2x4s above each row, so I don't need to leave room for plumbing behind the tanks. There is currently no room for supply storage... I'll probably put up hooks for nets, and I'll be building a small work table with a shelf underneath, and probably more shelves up high on the walls, out of the way.

Beleive me, I know how to make the most of small spaces. I've lived in some pretty small apartments, I usta sleep on top of my lizard cage. My woodshop is currently 6'x4', containing my wood lathe, chainsaw, handtools, scrollsaw, and lots of odd peices of wood.

The bottle was there cuz I was done working for the day, theres one next to me right now as a matter of fact...

Hopefully more pics tomorrow, with some cool new fish in the tanks!
 
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