Fishroom Design

["Brian Perkins" <btec11 at attbi_com>]

 Hi Barry,

What I wish I 
had was a place to keep a VERY large reservoir of aged/treated water. 

>>>I was thinking the same thing. My Lampeyes tend to like water that
has had a chance to "age", and react poorly to water changes with raw
tap water. And I would like to start collecting rainwater too, so my
thoughts were to put this reservoir (barrel) up in an insulated attic
space above the fishroom. I could then use mains pressure to pump
freshwater into the barrel with a float-actuated switch (such as one
used in a toilet tank), and use gravity to fill the tanks on a drip
system. Getting rainwater to the barrel might be a little tricky. I
would run piping from a gutter down to it somehow.... I would then
employ Wright's idea of slow-flow carbon filtration to pull out the
Chloramines. These canisters would have to be placed in-line, downstream
of the barrel in an easy to reach location for changing out the carbon.
The tanks would be drilled to let the waste water through to the storm
drain.



Brian, I will turn the tables and ask what you think about these ideas
from 
the point of view of putting in a wall bulkhead and getting power to an 
outside receptacle.

>>> You must have a subpanel in the fishhouse, so it would be a simple
thing to run a separate circuit out to a pump or place a receptacle
there. This stuff should be done by an electrician. As an aside, I will
also have a transfer switch installed right into the main house panel,
so that a generator can be hooked up to certain critical circuits in the
house in case of power outage. Since you have ample room inside, I would
personally opt for this location. If for no other reason than to keep
the water at fishroom temp. this would save all the plumbing need to go
outside. Then if you still want to collect Rainwater simply cut into a
downspout that is relatively close by and run that pipe right through
the exterior wall and into the barrel. You'd have to give some thought
as to how you keep this from overflowing. Perhaps something as simple
just as standing there during one of our Oregon rainstorms until the
barrels full and shutting  off a valve in the downspout pipe?? Nah,
there's gotta be a better way?? 


The other thing that you have seen that I would recommend installing is
an 
air exchange system. If I put that in when I built the room I would have

put it in the roof space, ducted to the room. This is expensive but 
extremely effective in reducing humidity, which is a problem in the
winter.

>>>Yes there will be a 90 CFM bathfan venting the space.

Also, a base cabinet with knee space at desk height, a utility sink and
space for an undercounter fridge. The room will be fully insulated
(including ridgid insulation under the concrete floor and waterhog
flooring over the top of the concrete) and heated/cooled using the house
furnace/ Air Conditioning on a separate zone.

The dimensions will be 11' x 21' with an eight foot ceiling height.

Cheers,

Northwest Killies
Brian Perkins, President
West Linn, OR 
www.northwestkillies.org




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