One of the notions that most of us are familiar with is the “man cave”. This room of the house is usually dedicated to our enjoyment of sports, large television screens and adult beverages.
In the best of circumstances, it is where we go off to when we need solitude or when our significant other doesn’t want to watch 12 consecutive hours of some sporting event or a Game of Thrones marathon. Some of us are not lucky to have a room like this, but in its stead we have a “fish room”.
This room can also be our place of solitude or relaxation in the best of circumstances or where we constantly tinker and hide our third biggest investment and its related equipment. If you do have a fish room I am only partially joking about it being your third biggest investment after your house and car, but when done right it can bring you as much enjoyment as either of those. And unlike a car it is not a depreciating asset, but like a house it can be a money pit.
那么，“鱼房”到底是什么？它可以是壁橱，地下室空间或靠近储罐的壁橱的任何东西。或者在最好的情况下，您可以放置坦克，设备以及可以放松身心并享受它们的地方。
I have been lucky in that I have had a fish room in each of the houses I have owned as well as in the first apartment I rented. Because of this I think I am well-positioned to discuss the do’s and don’t of setting up a fish room. Before even considering a fish room understand that relationships are all about compromise and trade-offs.
So if you think you can just say honey I’m going to commandeer the entire basement for my tanks and be on your merry way, usually you will be wrong. Getting a fish room of my very own cost me a new car for her, a new car and deck, and the construction and purchase of a large new home where I got a bay of the garage for my fish room.
Once you do have a room to call your own for fish plan what you want and where before getting started as you only have one chance to do this right. As with any project of this magnitude, take measurements, make drawings and take your time, there is no reason to rush.
The first thing I suggest you do once you can have your room is figure out how big you want your aquarium to be. In my case when I had a basement room I had a 240-gallon tank followed by a 560-gallon tank in it. When I got the bay in the garage I was able to move up to a 1200-gallon tank. In each instance though I had easy ground level access to the room.
因此，如果您没有那个，那么您就会想到小规模，因为将500或1000加仑的坦克移入地下室下楼梯就无法正常工作。因此，在这种情况下，您不仅需要考虑自己拥有多少空间，而且还需要考虑如何将坦克和辅助设备带入该空间。但是，如果您已经在这样的空间中拥有一个巨大的坦克了，那么您总是可以在现场构建它。请记住，大多数坦克都有有限的寿命，有一天您可能需要将其拆除才能将其拆除。
If the fish room is not going to be on the ground floor or on a cement slab, then you need to consider how its weight is going to affect the structural integrity of your home. If you are going to have a tank of any size in this room, then you may need to consult an engineer to determine first if the floor can structurally support this and second what will happen to the water should a leak occur or in the worst case the tank split.
I have seen both of these occurrences occur and the result was not pretty. So I strongly advise that some sort of floor drain be installed in this room to make a leak or tank collapse not be a catastrophe for the entire house. Having a nearby floor drain in my opinion is also a good idea for any fish room as there are always spills and water, and without a drain it will go somewhere and that is usually in the worst spot possible. So having a floor drain will minimize the likelihood of a water induced problem.
一旦确定了要在鱼室里设有的尺寸储罐，就制定了一个平面图，以查看储罐如何适合房间的空间。我认为，至少您应该能够从至少三个侧面从坦克上工作，如果储罐特别宽或深，您应该能够从各个方面进行工作。但是，如果您只能从两侧进行工作，则应是前后的。
When setting up the diagram make sure to show how you will access all of the space surrounding the tank so that the tank does not block anything. I have been in a tank room where the tank was placed in such a way that when the hood of the tank was in its proper location it blocked access to the fuse box, but it could be raised to allow access.
This may not seem like a big deal in that most of us do not go into our circuit breaker box with any regularity. But think about it, when does a circuit breaker typically trip: at the most inopportune time or in the middle of the night.
And who wants to have to raise a hood then in order to flip it back. So when doing the diagram make sure that not only the tank, but none of the related equipment obstruct anything like doors, or heater or AC vents so make sure you draw them into the diagram.
在此之后，接下来要看的是电源，那就是您需要多少个插座，储罐和相关设备使用多少放大器以及储罐和设备所需的距离。
You do not need an outlet for every piece of equipment as you can run a lot of the low amperage pieces of equipment from power strips, but the power strips add to the amps being used and once you get above a certain threshold they will trip.
So when you are planning your room you should plan on having an electrician set up the desired number of outlets that you require as well as where you want to place them. You should also plan on having them be on their own separate lines.
Each of my fish rooms had at least two separate circuits dedicated just for them. This was done so that if any of the lines for the fish rooms tripped it would not cause a disruption in any of the other house circuits.
I learned this from my first fish room where invariably the circuit for the fish room and the outlets it was attached to would go out at the most inopportune time which usually led to a heated discussion. So to prevent this from occurring I suggest you give your fish room its own dedicated circuits.
And one last thing. As many outlets as you think you need get more. There is always some new piece of equipment coming out that needs electricity so rather than overloading another power strip get more outlets installed when you build your room.
由于养鱼室所需的所有设备，电力是鱼室的生命血，但水也是鱼房的关键元素。与仅在一个方向流向鱼房的电力不同，水朝两个方向移动。
That is a fish room will require clean fresh water to not only fill the tank(s), but also to replace water lost to evaporation, for water changes and for the quarantine tank, which no fish room should be without.
相反，一旦使用，就需要去除清洁的废水和水。因此，您不仅需要在鱼室里的淡水来源，而且还需要某种类型的排水。
As I suggested above, a floor drain is a necessity, but I also think another drain, like on a sink, is also a good idea in a fish room as it just makes a lot of things easier to do. To me one of the worst chores in the hobby is schlepping buckets of water around the house for whatever reason.
So when you are designing your fish room all of this should be taken into account so that getting and removing water are easy to do. And if they are easy to do it is also likely that they will be done more frequently.
Having a drain to remove water is tome one of the necessities in a fish room. Another one that is often overlooked is the ned to remove the humidity that often accumulates in a fish room. When you have a tank, or even just a large sump, skimmers and the related equipment moving water, the humidity in the room can become overwhelming.
房间里的鱼,如果湿度高can also spill over into the rest of the house. Therefore, a means of dehumidification should be included when the fish room is designed. This can be as simple as including small room dehumidifier or an exhaust fan that turns on when the humidity level reaches a certain point or a complex as adding a whole house dehumidifier to the furnace and air conditioner.
Regardless of which route you choose, you need to make sure excess humidity does not become a problem as even a relatively small tank can evaporate a fair amount of water over time. And like the tank itself you also have to make allowances for removal of this additional wastewater. So a means for draining the dehumidifier needs to be designed in to the fish room.
Once all of these things are drawn into the fish room, the next thing to take into consideration is where all of the equipment will go. If the tank is in the room, will it all fit under the tank, around the tank or where.
While a fish room is your private refuge there should still be motivation to keep it uncluttered and easy to work in. When it is designed properly it makes working on the tank easy to do and more likely that the “not fun” part of the hobby will get done.
I strongly suggest that when setting up this room when the skimmers and pumps are drawn in they be where they can be easily accessed so that maintenance is easy to do and doesn’t require acrobatic skills, which was one of the shortcomings of my first fish room.
In addition to this I also suggest that some of the things that will be done regularly like water changes be designed into the room so that they can be done quickly and easily. That is if you can allow for a reservoir to hold freshwater and(or) make up water to do water changes in the long run it will make doing them much easier.
You don’t want to have to mix up buckets or worse haul in buckets every time you want to do a water change. Design the room so that doing a water change is as effortless as possible and it is more likely that you will do them with regularity and it won’t detract from your enjoyment time.
Similarly design some storage space in your fish room to hold your test kits and maintenance equipment so that it is right at your fingertips. If you have ready access to testing equipment odds are you will do it more often than if it is in a box somewhere and you have to take time to even find it.
The more often you test the quicker you get at doing it and the more reliable your results. The same is true of maintenance so have the tools you need such as glass cleaners, razor blades etc handy so that you can get to them quickly as well.
And also have places and hooks to hold towels, paper towels and things to dry up spills handy too as there will be water in your fish room so keeping it from being in places you don’t want should be designed in when you set up the room.
您希望您的鱼室整洁和整洁，以便当您的其他重要的其他偷偷摸摸地达到顶峰时，您的家政技能没有任何冲突。根据我自己的经验，当我的鱼室整洁而整洁时，我的坦克看起来也看起来也更好。不，我没有在我的鱼室里烘烤，这在我和其他让我进入房间的人看上去。
到目前为止，我所谈论的只是鱼室的效用，但是当我安装鱼时，我试图使它们不仅仅是容纳设备或水箱的房间。我试图使它们成为我的房间，并试图让它们变得有趣。这一点尤其重要，因为对于我们很多人来说，我们的鱼房就像绿洲远离我们面临的所有日常压力。
因为我以这种方式看着我，所以我试图使它们成为一个可以完全摆脱一切的房间。我目前的鱼房不仅有300加仑的展示箱，而且还装有我的90加仑碎片/隔离坦克和26加仑的纳米坦克。但这还不是全部，房间还在墙壁和自己的浴室上都有电视。
除此之外，我还在房间里放了一把大的椅子，以及所有坦克的理想位置。而且，由于我也在那里得到了Wi-Fi，所以我可以在房间里闲逛，花一整天的时间放松身心并看着坦克。这是一个舒适的地方，尤其是在冬天。
For many of us our fish rooms are our “man caves” where we can relax, work or get away from things when we work on our hobby. Many of us spend considerable time on our tanks, so is it any wonder that when we can we dedicate a room to our hobby. However, unlike a room for most hobbies, we need to customize it in order to fully to enjoy it.
但是，当我们做正确的时候，我们的鱼房可能是我们可以逃脱的特殊房间。有趣的是，我记得我的孩子年轻的时候，当我在鱼室里工作时会出来拜访我他们不明白。
So a lot of the time it was a place to escape for them as well. I am not planning on moving again, but if I did I would only move to a house where I could have another fish room. After having one for the last 30 years I could not imagine doing a tank without one.
