Unfinished basement fish rooms

[Fitz19d]

My new place where I'll be putting my tanks is an unfinished basements. Advantage was cooler temps but also ideally that I could take advantage of plumbing. I'm not all that handy so wondering if anyone could explain the basics of what I'm looking for and would need. (For example need a faucet for the RODI, but I doubt theres one down there, so I'd have to add one in on a line somewhere/somehow?)

Really just need water in for rodi and ideally a way to pour/dump water that may or may not also have bits of gravel and stuff from water changes. Therefore negating a lot of trips up/down stairs. I'd like to avoid something complicated or more permanant like Kalgra's setup. (Rental house) So no $$$ pumps and tons of pvc everywhere.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Unfinished basement fish rooms

For the RODI just use a saddle valve on a copper pipe, mines on my sprinkler line coming out of the basement. As for water change water, I just let it dump into my basement sump. And let the sump pump do its thing!

 

[Smiley]

or add a Y to the faucet of your washer to supply your RO. Use the washer drain for your wastewater line.

 

[kmellon]

Waste water, who has waste water here in Colorado? I use my waste water for anything that I can. Plants, hot tub, pond, humidifyer, fresh water tank, dog and cat water bowls, and generally anything that needs water on a regular basis but not down the drain.

+1 on the washing machine Y for supply. If you have a drain in the floor, then you can drain tank water and RO waste to the same location. Do you plan on finishing the basement? if so, then you might want to plan ahead for these lines to be hidden in the wall and place the tank close to this wet area.

 

[powdermonkey]

I would be careful of using your standard "sump pump" for saltwater. I am in the process of a fishroom build in my basement and only found one pump suitable for saltwater. The plumber and the local supplier told me the same thing. The pump is a Perfecta made by BJM.

 

[jda123]

I pump my water change water out back in the gravel where I don't want grass/weeds to grow. It helps some. Gravity drains to the sewer are OK - I would not use a sump pump pit. You can use a hose and a mag pump with a barbed adapter to pump water out (and up, if necessary). I have some mag 12s and 18s that do this.

Cooler is not always good for a tank. Heaters are expensive to run. You can mitigate this by covering the sump to slow evaporation if you need to. Also, basement sumps/tanks can suffer from chronic low PH - not a huge issue in most cases, but something to watch out for.

 

[Fitz19d]

Yeah winter may be a problem. It does have vents so heat should be down there. I was given to believe skimmer will enhance aeration and ergo PH quite a bit.

I'm worried about heat on ground floor just because of A: Number of windows everywhere. B: At least in current place 3rd floor in a loft, AC sucks and I'm still running up to 80/81 degrees and running fans/ice. So I'm paranoid that even in a room with blinds I'd run into heat issues. (And a chiller is expensive/room and I have more than one tank..)

Also concern of keeping nice carpet clean because I definitely am messy with drips etc. Maybe I can make it work, or else come winter tanks may just get a insulation wrap around 3 sides.

 

[Fitz19d]

or add a Y to the faucet of your washer to supply your RO. Use the washer drain for your wastewater line.

My laundry room has a utility sink that is perfect for the Rodi unit, I was looking to avoid having to then haul it down the stairs though.

From googling, wouldn't a saddle valve be too low pressure? RODI wants 60 psi? Also issue with that would be a permanent mod to a house that isn't mine. If I'm lucky maybe I could take out some pipe and put a split in that later could be reversed? Dunno I may just be resigned to endless 5 gallon bucket relays up/down stairs for a workout. Sometimes I hate being a computer/other hobbies guy vs a handyman.

 

[ValG]

I pump my water change water out back in the gravel where I don't want grass/weeds to grow. It helps some. Gravity drains to the sewer are OK - I would not use a sump pump pit. You can use a hose and a mag pump with a barbed adapter to pump water out (and up, if necessary). I have some mag 12s and 18s that do this.

Cooler is not always good for a tank. Heaters are expensive to run. You can mitigate this by covering the sump to slow evaporation if you need to. Also, basement sumps/tanks can suffer from chronic low PH - not a huge issue in most cases, but something to watch out for.

Don't mean to steal this thread... but what causes PH to drop in the basement sump/tank setups? Reason I am asking is that i am seing this with my tank. I had a 75 gallon on the main level and never had any issues with my PH reading low. It was always between 8.2 and 8.4. With my new 150G tank it's hanging around 8.0 or so. I always check it around the same time, around 1pm. I am dozing Alk (randy's two part) to keep my Alk numbers in check but that still doesn't have that much effect on my PH levels. I am not trying to chase a "perfect" PH number just trying to make sense out it.

 

[Fitz19d]

I'd think maybe just the relative difference in surface agitation from powerheads and skimmer in the larger volume makes for the lower PH?

Another problem I just found, is finding out if my floor is perfectly level for the 125? And shimming etc? Think I'm in over my head.

 

[deboy69]

Re: Unfinished basement fish rooms

Don't mean to steal this thread... but what causes PH to drop in the basement sump/tank setups? Reason I am asking is that i am seing this with my tank. I had a 75 gallon on the main level and never had any issues with my PH reading low. It was always between 8.2 and 8.4. With my new 150G tank it's hanging around 8.0 or so. I always check it around the same time, around 1pm. I am dozing Alk (randy's two part) to keep my Alk numbers in check but that still doesn't have that much effect on my PH levels. I am not trying to chase a "perfect" PH number just trying to make sense out it.

It's about excess Co2 Being put into the water causing low pH because basements don't have the best air circulation

Sent from Earth

 

[deboy69]

Re: Unfinished basement fish rooms

I'd think maybe just the relative difference in surface agitation from powerheads and skimmer in the larger volume makes for the lower PH?

Another problem I just found, is finding out if my floor is perfectly level for the 125? And shimming etc? Think I'm in over my head.

Shimming is easy. I have a basement laboratory and do everything down there. It's no Craig system but it keeps my tank dead quiet upstairs.

Sent from Earth

 

[kmellon]

I think MR. Saltwater TV had a video that inidcated a quick fix was to run your skimmer air line outside to bring in fresh air to help with PH especially during winter months when the house is closed up. Not sure if anyone does this and can confirm the theory.

It's about excess Co2 Being put into the water causing low pH because basements don't have the best air circulation

Sent from Earth

 

[deboy69]

Re: Unfinished basement fish rooms

Could use a Co2 scrubber for that also

Sent from Earth

 

[Smiley]

you can buy 1/4" tubing at home depot for about $7 for 100ft. Mount your RO unit downstairs and run the line up to your utility room. No need to haul anything anywhere.

 

[jda123]

I run a 100GPD unit off of a saddle value with no issues.

Forget about the low PH thing - it is not that big of a deal. I should not have even brought it up for more than just info - there is nothing actionable that you need to do. I had a beautiful SPS tank for years with PH from 6.85 to 7.08 daily. The bigger deal is that your heater will run more since the basement is cooler, this is also not a huge deal.

Falling water can create more micro bubbles in the sump if you are not careful - this can easily be taken care of, so plan for it.

High head pumps require a good amount of wattage to run - and they run 24x7... some of them can also help to heat the water. Don't cheap out on the pump. Low wattage "flow" pumps are not always great at high head. The tradeoff is that you can have a very silent tank upstairs.

It is also very easy to add a second, dedicated, electrical circuit in an unfinished basement. I run my tank on 2 circuits - return pump on one and flow/wavemaker on the other so that if either trips then the fish/corals have dissolved gasses to process.

 

[Fitz19d]

The head loss and strong pump won't be an issue, my fish room is including my DT, everything downstairs.

Really have to look at the house again, may put it in one room afterall, but do also like the idea of setting up a larger man cave which is my tanks/computer/tv/couches/etc. (There was some talk of an indoor archery/air rifle range.)

 

[jpc763]

To go back to the original post. I did the same thing (built up a 125 system in an unfinished basement).

I plumbed a sink in to the rough in that was into my basement. I ran copper pipe from hot and cold to my new sink and I plumbed my RO into that copper pipe. I had not done much plumbing prior to this build and wanted to learn.

For electrical (the reason the tank ended up in the basement), I ran 2 15A lines from the main board to the area I wanted the tank. I had to rough in a wall to hang the wires into (for code) and then built shelves to hold everything. Once again, I had not done a lot of electrical before but have a friend who is a commercial electrician and he guided me through it.

I have a build thread over on RC

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1564238

Note: Sadly that tank is gone. I now have a Biocube upstairs.