Ted’s Fishroom

The Raw Room

Let me explain a little bit of personal history before I start in on the specifics of this fishroom. I, like most serious aquarists, have dreamed of keeping a room dedicated to fish for a long time. I have had a room before, though, so I cannot honestly say that this is my first. When I was in college at Indiana University (Bloomington) I helped a friend build and keep a room in his basement (Orland if you read this please contact me). I was working for a local fish store (The Fish Gallery) at the time, and got into breeding african cichlids and angelfish. I tried to buy the pet store but the owner and I could not agree on a price, so I left the aquarium industry, moved to Louisville, KY, earned a Masters in Teaching (UofL), moved to Phoenix, AZ, and taught high school for nine years.

I kept a lot of fish in Arizona, but I did not have a dedicated room. I tried to have one in my garage, but the summer temperatures closed it down. I had all my tanks spread throughout the house and in my classroom.

We moved to Creede, CO, in 2003. Creede is paradise. There are only 300-350 year-round residents in Creede. The school is very small, but excellent. The hunting and fishing are incredible. The winter sports are great, and it is never overly hot nor humid. My wife, Deborah, gave up a career to move to Creede. She wanted it, and the more comfortable life her career provides, back after a couple of years. I joke that there were 21 aquariums in Creede… and I owned 20 of them. I did not want to leave Creede. I would move back there in a heartbeat should the opportunity arise.

The deal that Deborah made me is that if I move from Creede, then she would work and I would get to stay at home with the kids. Frankly, that did not sound too good to me. She sweetened the offer with the promise that I would get to build a fishroom. Deborah has kept that promise.

Deborah accepted a job, after a very long search, in Madison, Wisconsin. We visited the community a few times to find a place to live. That is where the story of this fishroom actually starts, because we bought a house that had a space for the fishroom… it was a top priority.

The House

Here is a list of the things that I was looking for in a home that would be needed for a fishroom. I wanted a basement fish room with:

• at least 500 sq feet in space
• have a floor drain to the sewer… no pump up to house level or drain to a septic system
• have a vent from the house’s heating system into the basement
• have a sink
• be easily accessible (preferably a walkout basement)
• have no indications of water damage
• not smell musty (indicating good ventilation)
• have the house’s electrical panal close by with room for more breakers
• be totally unfinished

That’s it… that was my list. Add that list to the list of other things we wanted in a house, and our choices became sparse. The realestate agent only laughed at my list once… at least to my face.

The house we bought almost matched the list perfectly. My basement is not a walkout, and it is not super easy to get large tanks in and out of. The space is adequate, but the layout turned out to be hard to work with (as you will see).

Here is a map of the raw basement:

This map is where the planning all started. I made a few dozen copies and started drawing racks to scale. I think that I drew at least three dozen different configurations.

The drawing shows some of the obstacles I had to deal with. Notice that there is not a single wall without an obstruction somewhere down its length. One corner (South East) contains the sink, electrical box, water softener, water heater and furnace. No tanks were going to fit in there! The wall with the stairs (West) has the stairs themselves to deal with, plus the underside of the stairs going up to the main level of the house. That wall also has all the drain plumbing from the upstairs bathrooms on it… not in it… on it. The wall at the bottom of the map (North) has the main water valve to the house and associated plumbing right in the middle of it. The wall with the furnace (East) has the longest expanse available for tanks, but there is a support beam hanging low in the center of the room that will make the top level of that rack tricky. There were no easy solutions. Here is the drawing that I tacked on the wall and got started on. This was at least a place to start. The room, however, did not work out to look this way.

Here are some images of the room before I started to do anything to it. This first picture shows the South East corner with the furnace, sink, electrical box and other things that cannot be relocated. Notice also that the South wall is insulated and has a vapor barrier. I do not know why, unless the previous owners had begun to finish the space and stopped.

Here is the South West corner. You can see the drain pipes in the West wall.

This is the North West corner. Notice the obstacle created by the adjacents flights of stairs. The space to the north of the stairs is a nice space, and I was able to neatly fit a great rack there.

Here is the North East corner. The skinny pipes are the main water valve and plumbing into the house. I wonder if the builders ever thought of putting the sink, water heater, electrical box, etc. all over on that wall. Probably not…

This is a shot of the East wall. It has the longest unobstructed space, but there is that low hanging beam to contend with.

That is what I had to start with. The next logical step in the progression is to see what I had to do to the room before I even thought about building a rack. Take a look at what I decided to do about insulation and electrical.