Pescado's frag Room Build

[Pescado Amigo]

Inspired by Machado deSousa and his thread "Coral Maternity in Portugal" I have begun my frag room build. I am converting a 6x10.5' room into a frag room. For those wondering what a coal room is, it is a room in homes built prior to 1960 or so, in the basement where coal was stored to burn in the furnace. A truck would show up, put a shoot into an opening in the basement, and shovel coal in. The home owner would then shovel the coal into the furnace for heat. The room is concrete block with a 7' ceiling. My goal is 9 (3x3) 30 breeders each with 4 lamp HO T5 retros for lighting with a 50 gallon sump. Plus, 6 (3x2) 10 gallon fish tanks with a 40L sump for clown breeding. I hope that you enjoy.


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[1DeR9_3Hy]

Looks anbitious!

I cant wait to see this come together! Good luck!

[sbanks78]

must be cold over there in ohio,what are you going to do for heat in there? cant wait to see it together ! gl

[TiTAN]

Plans looks good...

Keep us updated as the project develops.

[Pescado Amigo]

We heat the house with natural gas. Because the room is in the basement, I am not sure what my heating/cooling needs will be. My current tanks are heated with 300 wt heaters. With the room enclosed I am sure that I will capture allot of heat from the equipment running even with T5's.

[Pescado Amigo]

Here are some pics of the room in the before stage. The two outside walls were in bad shape due to moisture migration from the outside. We corrected the outside issue (we think) with new drains, and landscaping. The walls needed scraped, then I went over them with a wire wheel on a drill to get as much loose material off. Next they were sprayed with a concrete paint remover. Scraped and wire wheeled again. Then rinsed with clean water.

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You can see the coal hatch in these photos. The driver would open it from the outside, put a wooded shoot into the hatch from the truck, and shovel in the coal.

[K' Family Reef]

subscribed!

what plans do you have for ventilation?

w/ all the prep on the walls
(being the house is of an older 'generation') were there any precautions taken against (the possibility) of leaded paint... or was it tested?...

looks like that will be a great frag room
look forward to following this thread/updates... keep the pics coming too!


regards

[Pescado Amigo]

Originally Posted by K' Family Reef

subscribed!

what plans do you have for ventilation?

w/ all the prep on the walls
(being the house is of an older 'generation') were there any precautions taken against (the possibility) of leaded paint... or was it tested?...

looks like that will be a great frag room
look forward to following this thread/updates... keep the pics coming too!


regards

The coal door will be replaced with a glass block window with a 4" dryer vent (On Order). I then plan to install a 4" in-line fan hooked to a thermometer/hygrometer and a controller to exhaust heat and humidity. I will pull fresh air from outside the room via a 4" vent pipe to a remote part of the basement. In the Winter our climate is pretty dry as far as humidity goes. The house actually has a humidifier that I disabled when we bought the home.

As far as precautions for lead based paint. The room was painted by the former owners in the 80's. When we bought the home I put a coat of Dry Loc over the existing paint. Dry Loc doesn't work over existing paint, so much of what I cleaned was the Dry Loc and cement block effervescing. Then I hit with a paint remover designed for concrete. It did an OK job. My next step is to repaint with a Berr product that is supposed to seal. I feel relatively confident that with our outside work, the room will be dry.

[Pescado Amigo]

Outside walls have been painted/sealed with two coats of Berr Basement & Masonry Paint. A completely different product than Dry Loc. In addition I leveled the floor under the coal hatch where the concrete floor had been worn from years of falling coal. Lastly, I purchased 66 sq ft of tile today along with grout and mortor. My New Years day plan is to lay tile. Sometime in the afternoon!!!




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[Pescado Amigo]

The two tone you can see in the pics is the painted block above grade. No need to seal it. All walls will be covered with FRP board once the paint cures. 5-7 days.

[TiTAN]

I am sure you cannot wait for this get done.

Regarding the Heaters, I would go for 2 x 500W heaters on 2 x Controllers. And if Possible get 1 large pump to feed all the tanks and supplement with Korralia's for extra flow.

[Pescado Amigo]

Originally Posted by TiTAN

I am sure you cannot wait for this get done.

Regarding the Heaters, I would go for 2 x 500W heaters on 2 x Controllers. And if Possible get 1 large pump to feed all the tanks and supplement with Korralia's for extra flow.

I am looking at the Finnex titanium heaters. I am also concidering heating the entire area with an electric heater on a controler. The entire room is <470 cu ft. Plus in-tank heaters as a back up.
I am currently thinking that with 9-ballast, 36 lamps, and three pumps, that there will be a good amount of heat already. Whatever route, there will be redundancy for sure.

[Pescado Amigo]

Tile is laid. Who knew? 12x12 tiles are actually 11.75x11.75. Had to run and buy another case late Saturday, but got it done. Base was in worse shape than I realized. I started in a "good" area. By the time I got to the tough area, I was commited so I just kept plugging away. There are a few spots that I am not proud of, but over all in will work out fine. 70% of the floor will be covered. Finished Saturday PM so it needs to cure for 48 hours before grout.

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Next step is grout. Probably Monday PM. The White FRP board on walls and ceiling next weekend.

[belgian_waffleman]

subscribed, can't wait to see the next phase!

[Seasapience]

Can't wait to see the coal room transformed into the co(r)al room Very cool!

[Kreeger1]

looking good

[Pescado Amigo]

Originally Posted by Seasapience

Can't wait to see the coal room transformed into the co(r)al room Very cool!

Nice play on words. Thanks. I may steal them without credit. So this is the credit. I hope to have it with aqua by March 1st. The lighting will be the biggest expense and will most likely be in 3 phases.

Thanks for looking.

pedro

[Pescado Amigo]

Thanks! More pics to come. Racks amd tanks make it real. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

pedro

[burnah]

subscribed

[Snarf]

Floor looks really good. Don't forget to use a sealer on the grout it after it has dried. Unless you went with the stuff that has the epoxy in it. Water will eventually break down the grout and it will start coming out of the grout joints. I would bet salt water would break it down faster.
Alot of people forget to seal their grout and a few months later it would start cracking and then come out...saw it alot. I used to work in tile industry.

Tile is laid. Who knew? 12x12 tiles are actually 11.75x11.75.

Yeah, kinda like a 2x4 is not really 4' long.
The tile box should have the true dimensions on it. And always get an extra box for just in case. If one or two cracks later you have some to replace it.

Also if you did not grout yet...trick to getting the tile nice and clean. You have to squeeze the sponge to the point there is no water left in it, then wipe once. Use each side of sponge for one good wipe then rinse it. It doesn't wash the grout out of the joints and it comes off the tile much cleaner. less streaking. I used at least 2 sponges to keep it going faster and some one else to squeeze them dry.

Tricks of the trade. Hope it helps.

Can't wait to see the finished project!

[Pescado Amigo]

Grout is finished and things look pretty good. Tomorrow is FRP board on the walls. Ceiling will have to wait a week until I get electrical and air vents installed.

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[Pescado Amigo]

FRP board is up. With a little effort and allot of patience, I was able to get the clean crisp corners that I wanted. I am pretty happy with the outcome so far. My wife said the room looked steril I said Thanks. A very clean room is want I am looking for.

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Next step is insulating the ceiling, a vapor barrier, and FRP board. Then I will silicone all of the seams. My hope is to start the racks by Feb 1st.

[chuggy]

you know they make little white cross spacers for that tile would have helped some to keep em lined up straight looks good though. btw make sure you seal the groutr reaLLY GOOD WITH A GOOD GROUT SEALER

[Bzar]

Looks great, keep it up

I'm also working on a frag room so I'll be watching your progress....thanks for sharing, and giving me the opportunity to live vicariously through you till I have one of my own :P

My frag room build is in stages. I'm currently in stage #1
1) convince wife we need a bigger house
2) find new house that has some kind of useless room (to the wife) in the basement. Or space on the outside to build a detached frag shack
3) Sell house/move
4) settle in
5) start setting up frag room area when wife is away.
6) fight with wife about the new frag room. Buy her something to make her happy. (note: it's much easier to ask for forgivness than it is to ask for permission).
7) post build on reefcentral and enjoy the fragging

GL with your room, will be watching.

[leptons]

Bzar: you could always add a green house to the top of your current roof to harness the suns rays. I have been considering this seriously, since the majority of my roof top is flat, but my house mates just don't understand and wont allow it. My mind pictures a rooftop deck with chairs and of course the polycarbonate room housing tons of frags, from harbor freight. If you use shallow coral tanks and have a massive sump below (inside the controlled conditions of your house, if your current house could house such a sump), I would think most temperature issues would be easy to solve and free room within your house would be extended. I wanna see a green-tree-house propagation system set up.

If this sounds like a good idea to you, I would do it for Valentines day. Tell your wife your setting up a green house to grow exotic flowers that in their colourful beauty remind you of her. Later you extend on that saying corals are much more rare and precious, and only deserving for a wife as wonderfully rare as yours. That's what I would do, if I didn't rent and had a wife. But I'm young and still have much to learn in that department.

Pescado: I love the progress your making with your room, like many others I cant wait to see it "completed" (as if that ever happens in this hobby). Your tile woes couldn't have been as bad as mine: I started off hiring a friend, who said he knew how to tile floor, but when he got there to work he was asking me how to do it. So I just winged it, with good results (everything lined up). The only problem I had was that we applied the cement to the tiles then stuck them to the floor: instead of putting an even layer of cement on the floor and placing tiles. The result and uneven floor that makes unique sounds, in relation to where a golf ball is dropped.

I ended up walking a cross my street, where I noticed a pile of carpet by an adjacent apartment. I talked to the guys who agreed to do the job very cheaply, and they finished the grout quickly and without flaw and more cheap then the price my friend was payed. In retrospect, I wish I would have hired those guys from the start, but at least now I can say I know how to lay tile better than before.

PS thanks for the comments about sealing the grout I wasn't aware of that and will do so shortly.