Beginning of the fish room...

[RCS]

Now that I've had some free time, I've begun work on the new fish room in the new house. I'm going to be completing it in sections, each about 10x10 feet, up to a total of around 400-500 square feet once it's all said and done.

Tonight was the most fun: floor prep work. There are two things to consider here, since I'm working in the basement. The first: how do I keep water out? Leaching through the capillaries in the concrete can make the basement damp, wet and yucky. Since this will have to be both propagation facility and showroom, I'd like it to look decent. Which brings us to the second consideration: how do I keep water in? As it's a FISH room, by necessity there will be a lot of liquid in the room to begin with. I need to be able to clean up messes easily while not doing any damage to the walls and flooring which will eventually be going in. Thankfully, the solutions to both parts of my problem happen to be one and the same.

The first step is to clean the floor well, and I've got a variety of concrete cleaners, mops and brooms and buckets to use. Since these will have all sorts of chemicals in them, these buckets will NOT be used for anything to do with the fish and coral.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/mops_brooms.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/supplies1.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/supplies2.jpg

The astute will have noticed the floor polish. I'll be isntalling VCT flooring in the basement, which is the same vinyl tiling you find in stores and other commercial applications. It's both strong and attractive if done well. Not to mention it's also relatively cheap (58 cents per square foot for the tile iteself) and easy to install. Goes in similar to regular tiling, only it doesn't need to be as level.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/tile_supplies.jpg

The key is to properly prep and seal the floor. I ordered in some silicone-based concrete sealer, which is supposed to penetrate into the pores in the concrete to seal out water. It's also supposed to react with the internal workings of the concrete to make it stronger, according to the manufacturer. Lifetime guarantee, so I went with it to be on the safe side. It's a simple spray-on application with a common garden sprayer. Second coat to come in 24 hours.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/concrete_sealer.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/sprayer.jpg

And just in case anyone happens to notice, I had this stuff shipped in from Cleveland, TN....which is about 45 minutes from Knoxville. Moved all this way and now I'm mail-ordering stuff from where we moved from...figures, right?

So, the floor is clean, the sealer is down, a second coat will go on tomorrow, then hopefully by about Tuesday/Wednesday I'll have the tiling in as well. The walls I'm going to build on top of the tiling and seal from the bottom. Here's a progression of the way things went. The pictures when it's wet all look about the same, but believe me when I say I went through all the steps!

1. rinsing the floor with water
2. cleaning the floor with concrete cleaner
3. squeegeeing (is that a word?) the water off the floor
4. applying the sealer

Start of the room:
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/room_start.jpg

Start of floor:
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_start.jpg

Floor cleaned up:
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_clean.jpg

Floor sealed:
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_sealed.jpg

If the sealer acts as advertised, it should look dry and normal tomorrow and be ready for a second coat. Wish me luck, updates will be forthcoming!

[DebsSisterFlo]

wow, now when that is all done and ready you have to host a meeting!

[RCS]

Well, since it will likely never be completely done, I promise to host a meeting when it's "presentable". :lol:

[Aquabucket]

Lokking forward to seeing everything develop! Keep us posted and good luck!

[RCS]

I'm going to try and get that second coat on tonight, then the floor will go in, then the walls will go up. I haven't decided how far out I want to extend it yet...I figure if I can get enough area to move most of my tanks in there then I can build off that as it comes along.

Spike, I've got some Ti tubes from some old broken heaters as well that are ready to go. I know we haven't talked about the project in a few weeks, but hopefully I'll be in somewhat of a position to make some progress within the next month.

[RCS]

Update time!

Got some more work this weekend: the underlayment for the flooring went in. Rather than work and walk on a cold floor, I installed a 1/2" Fiberock underlayment that should insulate the floor a little bit and give me a better base to install the tiling on. I've still got plans to install a few more boards yet, but I'm going to be finishing off part of the room and moving a bunch of tanks there hopefully by this time next weekend.

Laying out the adhesive was tons of fun:

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/adhesive.jpg

Here's my dad, who, for his birthday this weekend, I allowed him to help me trowel out this gunk. :lol:

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/troweling.jpg

Here's the rest of the area that I've sealed so far:

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_sealed2.jpg

By the time it's said and done, I should have a grand total of around 250 square feet worth of fish room at the least. That doesn't include the filtration area to the left, which will comprise about another 200+ square feet. I have the option to go longer, but I may not need it. I might actually use the rest of the basement for (gasp!) something else!

Here's the backer board (it's the "AQUA TOUGH" type...we'll find out how aqua-tough it truly is!).

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/underlay.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/underlay_in.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/underlay_in2.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/underlay_in3.jpg

And a small preview of what the finished product will look like. I went with a medium-brown color as it shouldn't take away from the goal of the room (mostly corals) and should be easy to keep clean.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/VCT_tiling.jpg

Hopefully the next updates will be soon!

[RCS]

Floor is finished! Went in rather easily and quickly. The room will be extended a bit yet, but the majority of it is done so I can build a couple walls and start moving some tanks over there.

Right now it's 10 ft X 15 ft. In the end, it will be 13 ft X 20 ft.

We troweled out some of the adhesive after marking the tiles square to the wall and laid out the center so we had an area to work from.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/tiling_start.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/tiling_start2.jpg

The VCT tiling was quite easy to install and should hold up for a long time. It's a commercial grade flooring, so I have high expectations. And the price is right too. All said and done, the flooring will work out to around $1.75 per square foot, not including labor.

Here's the center and ends done:

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/VCT_adhesive.jpg

And here's the room half done:

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/half_done.jpg

There are specific instructions to follow when installing the VCT tiling, but it's a reasonably quick process. It does get your hands all sticky though!

And the last step is to roll it all down and set it into the adhesive. The 100-lb. roller does the trick. The tile cutter is another necessary item to have.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/roller.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/cutter.jpg

And all done! Looks a lot better when it's all finished.

http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/all_done.jpg
http://aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/all_done2.jpg

[RCS]

Things have been moving more slowly than I'd like, but there has been progress in the last week!

The floor for the fish room area is in and done. Final dimensions (before walls) will run about 19.5 feet X 13 feet all said and done, a little over 250 square feet, or about a quarter of the basement. It doesn't sound like much, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. You can get a better idea of the size by the 50g tank in the photo.

One wall is up, and the one beside it will be going in shortly. Once that's done I'm going to start installing the electrical...maybe have a couple tanks set up pretty soon even!

http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_done1.jpg http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_done2.jpg http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_done3.jpg http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/floor_done4.jpg

[kass03]

Looks like ALOT of work.

Can't wait to see it when you have it done.
Keep us posted it's cool to see it in progress.

kass

[RCS]

Progress is steady but spotty. I'm going to try and get one or two more walls built in the next week or so, at which point I can start looking at electrical, then tanks!

[RCS]

Made a little progress today...built the second wall. One more to go, electrical, and then tanks! Also installed a new bath door this week...I hate shower curtains! In pictures, this room and the walls look so small compared to real life. Each wall section is 8 feet; 16 feet is in right now. I did the second part all by my lonesome this afternoon. The wall around the window is going to be tricky though, and something I'll be getting some assistance with...

http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/wall2.jpg
http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/wall2a.jpg
http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/wall2b.jpg
http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/wall2c.jpg
http://www.aquatic-enterprises.com/fishroom/bath_door.jpg

[scooters reef]

Since it's on the tile, and not right on the concrete, I'd guess it isn't required, but are you at all worried not having pressure treated for your sole plates?

I was required to, but mine were right on the concrete and became supporting walls to get some of those steel supports out. But, what if there's a small flood?

[scooters reef]

Did you build the bathroom too, or did that just slide in by accident? If so, should have had you do mine, LOL :)

[RCS]

The bathroom is actually the master bath, it was included with the house. All I can take credit for is the bath/shower door. :D

The soleplates for the walls are on top of the tiles, which is on top of a 1/2" Aqua-Tough backing board (so, the bottom is .625" from the concrete). In addition, the concrete is sealed with a siloxane sealant (not sure on how well it works, hopefully I'll never find out!).

In addition, the walls will have a good 3-4" joint between the tiling and the wall that will be sealed...so unless I fill the room with 3-4" of standing water, it should never see the soleplate wood. I can't even imagine how much water it would take for that depth in a 20x13 room...but I'm sure someone can figure it out.

[scooters reef]

I'm not going to figure it out :)

Now, tell me you have a compressor and framing nailer, and didn't swing a hammer to frame the walls!

[yaitisme]

486.2 gallons of water to fill your fish room 3" less any mass 0-3" off the floor... be dam (no pun intended) carefull!!!! Good news is that much water would probably burst your door or walls open spilling water through the rest of your basement creating a nice, private fish'n hole.

Technically you are are supposed to use pressure treated anywhere that wood come into contact with cement. Did I when I remodeled my basement, no. I did the same as you did, and sealed the floor with a vapor barrior (sp) paint on the floors and 2x4. Only a big deal if your concrete sweats (high humidity meets cold slab). Should my basement flood, I would be more conserned with the carpeting (shot), the drywall (melted), and the furniture (wet and shot). The wood will dryout when all the important stuff is ripped out and tossed to the curb. Def. use treated in a garage where it contacts the concrete, bookoo moisture there.... anyone want to help me replace rotted 30 year old 2x4's in the front of my garage???

[jmkarcz]

1 at a time shouldnt be that bad huh?

[RCS]

Wood doesn't meet concrete anywhere, so no worries. The frames are even spaced 1.5" from the concrete walls (also sealed, but just in case) so the insulation doesn't sop up any moisture if there's any condensation.

Framed are all nailed by hand. The one wall took me a total of about an hour yesterday, inlcuding measuring, cutting, etc.

I don't have a final figure on the gallonage that will be in the fish room, but in order to leak nearly 500 gallons, it will be pretty close to all of it!

[scooters reef]

Wow. An hour is pretty quick for swinging a hammer. LOL, I'd need an hour break after every five nails.

Lucy me, I'm done with that part anyway. Was a nice day to see the final wall up. I think seeing the last piece of sheetrock was more relieving though. I'll might be able to say the wiring is 100% complete today too, if I get off this computer and go finish the recessed lighting in the entertainment room!

Do you have a compressor? I can lend you my framing nailer if you do. Can't lend the compressor though, still have miles of trim to put up :(

[RCS]

I have my own little compressor, but I'll be fine. It only takes about 10 minutes or so to do the actual nailing.

Most of my time is spent measuring, then getting ready to cut, then measuring again, then beginning cutting, then measuring again, then finishing cutting, then measuring again...you get the idea. :D

[Keelay]

Framing nailers are the bomb!