catfishLegacy Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I'm moving house soon and I plan to setup a fish room in the garage. I will be renting. I am also on a very tight budget (promised my girlfriend she would get all new furniture if I got a fish room ). So...would I be better off just insulating the whole garage rather then worrying about putting up internal walls? Would it cost more to heat the whole garage (I bet it would)? If I build a small/tiny room what would be the best and most economical way of heating it? Remember I can't really install anything because its a rental. I was thinking I could buy a kit garden shed from mitre10 and put that up inside the garage, then I don't have to worry about damaging things on a rental property...Any thoughts or suggestions? I've got a lot of fish becoming available to me over the next couple of months so I need to get a move on. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nannat Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 garden sheds arent really tall,and if you have wooden rafters to secure to it would just be a wall with foam from fridge shop inside it.masonite allover the bottom of the rafters as well.is it brick garage?maybe some old carpet with a tarp on the floor for spills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catfishLegacy Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 Thanks for that nannat So nobody knows how to heat a fishroom??? Should I just light a fire in there? Have smoked fish for dinner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CThompson Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 You don’t give enough information. For example, is it a single or double garage? How many tanks are you putting in? What size tanks? What fish are you keeping (African or American?)? How do you intend to set up the tanks, i.e. all via one sump, multiple sumps, or are all tanks to be separate from each other? These few questions have a major impact on how you should heat them, and an answer is not possible until they are known. Have you got permission from the owner of the property to put the tanks in? It is my understanding you will need it, even if they are in the garage. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Also how cold (or hot) does it get? I am in Canberra and I have had to fully line my room (roof and walls) with R4.0 batts with fibro cladding, I got a thermostat installed that controls the power to a powerpoint and then I plug in an oil filled electric column heater. So when the room temperature goes below a certain temperature the heater switches on. Here is a link to a couple of pictures. My fishroom In saying all that I own (well the bank owns most of it ) my home. HTH Rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catfishLegacy Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 I will be keeping catfish and a few cichlids. The tanks will be filtered with large homemade sponge filters, and a few I have installed "side-drop filters" in. This will run off a large airpump. I won't have sumps or any sort of centralised system. There will be no more then ten tanks, because I don't have cash for an overflow system and I don't want to spend every non-working waking moment doing water changes. Rosscoe, your' setup looks very similar to what I have in mind, right down to the oil heater. I was wondering whether one of them would be effective enough. Do they cost a lot to run? I'm in Victoria, so I assumed I would have to insulate pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 catfisfLegacy If you go to MyControls and edit your profile so that your location is included on each of your posts it will assist forum members in knowing exactly where in Victoria you are. Are you on the Morninton Peninsula or High Country or Melbourne? Here are some guidelines that are used for the classifieds. Your location must include your suburb and state. Sydney NSW is not good enough if you live in Surry Hills. We'd like to see Surry Hills, Sydney NSW in that case. If you genuinely live in the CBD then you would show Sydney CBD NSW as your location. So Victoria is a fairly big area. Gerard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 Rosscoe, your' setup looks very similar to what I have in mind, right down to the oil heater. I was wondering whether one of them would be effective enough. Do they cost a lot to run? I also have a pedastal fan that I am going to change to wall mounted one to circulate the hot air making it more effective I think. I think that it won't be cheap I am expecting something around $15-$20 a week during winter although I am hoping for better. It will be cheaper than running a heater in every tank I suspect. I still have some other Ideas like putting a cool room style plastic inside the doors and insultating the doors with 12mm polystrene and masonite and effectively double glazing the windows but with .2mm plastic so I can add polystrene inserts. I would also like to add some cornicing but that is ambitious with my building ablility. The heater is coming on occasional now with the thermostat tempetature set a 27 degrees. I suspect that I will drop the room temp to 25 to see how that goes tank temp wise. But also the room is really good in Summer as the outside temp was 39 and inside the temp was 31 and tank temp 29 which only went up 2 degrees. I have 16 (not all running yet) tanks in the room ATM and I am planning another 4-5 fry tanks The proper insul-bats are very effective given that Canberra ranges from -7 to 40 during the year. So I am hoping that the inital outlay was worth it in the long ru. cheers Rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 thats a dream setup rosco - but wheres the fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 thats a dream setup rosco - but wheres the fish? I am circulating 6 tanks ATM the moment and all things going to plan I should have the main system up and running aged and ready for the March auction purchases it is damn near killing me waiting however. cheers Rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emp1re Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 HI Rosco, how much did cost u to get the metal frame make for the fish tank. and what is the frame dimension? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Another question Rossco, well a couple Are they two foot wide tank? And what size steel did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chorrylan Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 hi, I think Rosscoes tank racking is made up of 25mm square tubing in a 2mm wall size and was originally designed for the 2 x 18" x 18" tanks he has on the middle level so is 18" from to back. He's added brackets at the top level to support the two 6x2 x 18" tanks as they overhang the rack by 6 inches. I believe they were originally built by a local metalwork shop here in Canberra (Tuggeranong actually) and then cut down to fit Rosscoes room by one of his friends in Hall (also in Canberra). John (the guy who originally had them built) whinged about how much they cost so while I don't know the precise cost it must have been pretty serious as he doesn't usually pay much attention to costs (they were part of a setup that stretched to around $20k). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Spot on Laurie HMMM that would be because you convinced me to halves in John's fish room (Didn't take much however ). the guy who cut them down for me estimates it would cost around $7-800 in steel alone per rack (x2) then they needed to be built. They were however 11'(l)x5'(H)x18"(w) and designed 20 2x18x18 tanks (so 2 racks of 10). As laurie said now they are 7' x4.5' x18" with a 6x2(w)x18(h) on the top with some really heavy duty brackets every 18" to compensate for the extra width in the top tanks (I may also secure the rack to brick wall behind some how depending on how it goes as I begin to fill them).I have with 3 2x18x18 in in the middle layer of each rack and another 2 on the bottom of one and 1 and a sump at the bottom of another. I am also in the process of making a steel stand to accomodate another 3 tanks with the left overs and also a fry tank saver rack 800wx220(d). The fry saver tanks are still on the to do list because I have have to buy a bigger fridge\freezer first so I can get rid of my tucker box from my fish room to make way for the rack. That is a basic run down. I think for start ot finish the room, sparky, equipment tanks and stands cost at little over $3,500 (I decided to stop counting there but it was close ) HTH rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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