Re: New Fish Room

["Darren J. Hanson" <djhanson@calweb.com>]

If he doesn't keep humidity under control, all of the wood in the room
(walls, racks, ceiling, roof joists, etc.) will eventually be damaged. I
would address this with some combination of exhaust fans and/or a
dehumidifier hooked up to a humidistat.

Since he's looking at doing mainly apistos, he'll need a source of soft
water. Properly plumbed (mainly to avoid too much metal) the
dehumidifier can be a source of water. I would rig something along the
line of a hot water heater to store the water from the dehumidifier
(supplemented with the output of an RO unit) to maintain the water at
78*.

The "waste" side of the RO can be drained to a second tank and used to
water the yard, used for fish that don't need as soft of water etc.

I'd use a motor home style water pump (automatically activates when
pressure drops) along with irrigation valves/timers to do daily water
changes on the tanks in sequence. The tanks would be plumbed with
overflows to maintain a constant level. (Thus the water changes would
also correct for evaporation at the same time.) 

If the "waste" side of the RO unit is being used for fish, than the
overflow from the tanks should be plumbed for irrigation and/or grey
water applications such as feeding it into the supply lines for the
toilets in the house. If the "waste" side is being used for irrigation,
etc. itself, then I would take the overflow from the tanks and feed it
back through the RO unit to recover part of the water. (The RO will
remove virtually all of the nitrogenous wastes from the "clean" side and
concentrate them on the "waste" side.) 

I would also consider some form of sterilization for the water, either
ozone or UV, to prevent the cross-contamination that can occur with a
central filtration system.

Plan for the maximum size of the fish room and scale items accordingly.
If you're going to have 75-100 tanks, then plan on a blower, not air
pumps. Similarly, figure out approximately what size water change you'll
want to do per day and figure out what the total gallons/day will be.
This will help you determine the size of the RO unit you'll need, how
large your waste handling system will need to be, etc.

Also, don't forget to include enough valves to be able to completely
shut down a given tank if needed. (Air, water supply, etc.) 

Another possibility for a "central filtration" model that is currently
being used by some commercial (food) fish growers is to run the "waste"
water from the tanks to hydroponic beds where the plants consume the
ammonia/et al. The "waste" from the hydroponic system (now clean water)
can be fed back to the fish tanks. You get a second "crop" and the only
increased expenses are the extra plumbing and a couple more pumps to
move the water around. You could attach a greenhouse to the side of your
fish room, or possibly just devote the top level of your "fish racks" to
the hydroponics and put on a greenhouse style roof.

It all depends on what you want to accomplish, and what your budget is
in terms of time, space and money.

-- dj


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