# Fish and Frog Room Construction Journal



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

The Fish and Frogs are officially moving out of my swampy cellar and into the garage. Our garage has actually not seen a car in years. It has two small rooms and a bathroom in it. The previous owners used it as a rental unit. So far I’ve taken up the carpet, reinforced the floor with a new ½” layer of AC exterior plywood and put down a Mexican tile floor. At this point I’m working on grouting the floor. When complete this little room (less than 100 square feet) will have hot water heating, AC, a sink, and wire rack shelving. I’ll probably be down to four killie tanks and four vivs but it will be much better than my, sometimes, very wet basement.


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Thats awesome. Do you plan to get more vivs in the future or will that room not hold more than you currently have?


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Hi Antone,

Sorry I haven’t answered your PM I’m working on sending you a request for plant availability.

As for the new room, it is pretty small. I’d rather not cram a ton of stuff in there either. Life is busy now anyway, so a small collection will probably be enough for the time being. I always want to do more with what I keep but end up keeping more and doing less with them. I think I’ll add that philosophy to my sig.


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Hey that sounds good! I figured you were busy.

I see what you're getting at with the room and amount of tanks. I know your wife just recently gave birth and I'm sure thats a handful. Keep us posted, I love construction journals. Especially the ones that contain building rooms.


----------



## Guest (Jun 13, 2006)

That floor looks nice. Brings back memories of when I was a kid. That floor is great for playing with toy cars and marbles.

Can't wait to see the finished product.


----------



## glowfrog (May 3, 2006)

That's some nice looking flooring. Congrats on moving your collection out of the cellar. I'm trying to buy a house now.....with any luck I'll have a room/garage I can devote to my collection...... 


~Steph


----------



## summitwynds (Jan 22, 2006)

We put that same tile (called saltillo) in our kitchen/dining area/entry way/hall. There was no place around here (MA) to get it, we had it sent from New Mexico. And the driver of the freight truck was in a lousy mood and threw most of it and broke it (its fragile because it is made of clay). Needless to say the trucking company paid for us to get another shipment. 

I saw a show once on PBS and how they make in in Mexico, it was really amazing. At the time it was 11 cents a tile for them to sell it. We paid a little more than that and then with trucking it was no different than buying regular tile. And I got the tile I wanted. It really stands up to traffic/dirt etc. I havent tried toy cars or marbles on it though.


----------



## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

Looking Good!



TODD


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Antone, She hasn’t had the baby yet. Not until the end of August. I hope…. At the moment we don’t even have a functional kitchen. It would be really tough if we had a new baby right now.

Cesar, this floor is bumpy and as uneven as can be. These tiles are very rustic. Some are crowned, some are cupped, and some corners stick up (despite my superior tile setting ability…choke..choke). Are you sure this is the stuff you liked to play with marbles and toy trucks on?

Steph, Good luck with the house hunting. When we were looking at houses, I kept rejecting them based on their crappy basements. When we got to this house we fell in love with it. It’s over 130 years old and has lots of character. Of course, every time my father comes over to do some work on it, he tells me that we should tear it down :? . It has a crappy basement as well, but the only house that we found with a basement that I liked, was out of our price range :? :? .

Cool story Summitwynds, My dad owns a granite fabrication company (they also sell tile). They sell a lot of this Mexican Tile, so the material for this job was free. They had a bunch just taking up space. I would rather have gone with 8” but they only had 12”. My dad has some on an outside porch, which has held up for 30 years now, so hopefully this floor will be quite durable. 

Thanks Todd.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2006)

Yes, Im sure. It gives the floor character. Who wants to play on a boring leveled floor. Especially marbles, watching your marbles suddenly turn in the wrong direction or suddenly stopping and turning back is funnest and most frustrating thing in the world. Plus the get to follow all those grid lines. I almost wanna get down on my knees and play. Now where's my collection of marbles. Does anyone's kids still play marbles, or am I old world??


----------



## summitwynds (Jan 22, 2006)

Yes, thats what we have the 12" saltillo. It was funny because the local tile installers didnt know what to do with all the different "levels". It is very uneven stuff. Exactly what I wanted. On the PBS tv show they talked about how there would be chicken and dog footprints on it because of the animals wandering around the area while the clay cured.


----------



## Steve (Apr 8, 2006)

Yeah, my son who's 7 1/2 (going on 67 1/2 you would think sometimes) loves playing marbles. My 18 month old daughter likes to eat marbles and try to feed them to my 3 1/2 month old daughter who actually seems to hate marbles. My wife and i like to keep telling my son to keep his marbles in his bedroom and we also like counting marbles to make sure no one has swallowed marbles. 

I would take them off him but he loves them... kids and marbles eh.. They should be made for adults only!!

Steve


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

The electricians installed a 15 amp GFCI circuit dedicated for this room. The room now has two outlets on this circuit, plus another GFCI that is on a circuit shared with the rest of the garage first floor. The outlet that you see with the GFCI plug is a dedicated line for the AC.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

The floor has been grouted and the walls have been painted.  Before you guys start wondering about me, the room is not as pink as it appears :shock: . The color is Adobe White (my wife’s choice), and it goes very well with the floor :wink: .


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Best of all, the plumbers have installed my wash basin, and a hose bib.


----------



## Guest (Jul 7, 2006)

looking good so far. the spigot is a great idea!


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Looks like pink to me!! :lol: Now you just need to paint the unicorns and fairies on the wall and you're all set!! :lol: 



I'm just playin'! ...Or am I? :shock: 



Its lookin' good man. Can't wait to see some vivs in there.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Frogtofall said:


> Now you just need to paint the unicorns and fairies on the wall and you're all set!!


Now I'm starting to wonder about you Antone. :wink:


----------



## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

I think Antoine really likes your peach/pink walls. :lol:


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Grassypeak said:


> Frogtofall said:
> 
> 
> > Now you just need to paint the unicorns and fairies on the wall and you're all set!!
> ...


You aint the only one! :lol:


----------



## Guest (Jul 7, 2006)

Well the room looks fantastic! Again I really really like that floor! The sink looks good too, although I myself would have gone with a slab/laboratory type sink. I wonder if they are too expensive?? In anycase, you might want to think about a little resting area next to the sink for you to place tanks on while washing them. You never know when you will need to bring one to the sink, rather than the mountain to mohamed. :? (I think I just got confused there,) Anyway, the spigot is a great idea too.


----------



## RGB (Jan 15, 2006)

Lookin' good. I have that exact same a/c unit. It started to creep into the 80's in my house a few weeks ago so i decided an a/c unit would be a good idea. It's worked well so far and is cooling two rooms. It should work very well for your frog room.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Cesar,

I like granite top lab sinks as well, but they are too large for this application. The room is less than 100 square feet and it is getting tight already. My dad owns a granite fabrication company, so I may put a granite top on my work table. I still have to build that though. I’m working on putting all the shelving in and drilling a few tanks right now.


----------



## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Looking good so far but will that be enough outlets? I think I added 4 circuits and 6 outlets to my basement and I need more... 

Keep the pictures coming...


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Kyle,

When I built my basement fish room, I had the electricians install a bunch of outlets but I ended up piggybacking socket strips along the tops of my shelving. I really didn’t need all the outlets. The new room has one dedicated circuit for the AC, one 15 AMP circuit for that room only (two outlets), and another outlet that is on a 15 AMP circuit that is shared by the first floor of the garage. I think I’ll be O.K. Power wise. I’m not going to have any high power lighting in there. Basically I’ll be powering normal output fluorescents, maybe a few compact fluorescents and a linier piston pump.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Well, the shelving has been leveled, the waste lines have been installed, the drip lines have been installed and the air manifold has been installed. I’m ready to start moving the animals in. I’ll try to take some pictures tomorrow but the reality is that I probably won’t post any until next week.


----------



## Guest (Aug 4, 2006)

thats awesome, cant wait for the pics


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

A few pictures to give you guys an idea of what I’m doing. Please excuse the mess of uncut cable ties. 









This shot shows the overflow on a 30 gallon tank. You can see the 2” PVC pipe behind the tank. The tube running from the overflow into the PVC is not connected in this shot.









This shot shows how the 2” PVC, that the tank overflows are connected to, turns down (into a vertical section) and is connected to a flexible 1” tube. You can also see the charcoal filter for my drip system in this shot. 









This shot shows how the 1” flexible waste line is connected to a low drain, which is part of the house waste system.









This is a picture of the timer that I use for my drip system. It is connected to the hose bib and opens a valve six times daily. It is followed by a pressure reducer (down to 30psi), and is then connected to a carbon filter. After the carbon filter there is a reducer that brings the line diameter down to ¼”. This ¼” line then piggybacks the air line around the room. 









This is a photo of the airline which runs around the entire room. The line begins at a linier piston pump (So quiet you have to put your ear up to it to hear it!). The line forms a loop in order to maintain equal pressure (about 2 psi) around the room. The air line is composed of both reinforced flexible tubing and rigid PVC. Valves are threaded into the rigid PVC to send air to each tank. I use pumped air to power my aquarium sponge filters and to direct air at the front glass of my vivs. The drip system piggybacks this air system and ¼” Ts direct water to the individual drip emitters. Each tank has one or two drip emitters which add ½ to 1 gallon per hour. This is how I perform water changes. Every four hours the timer opens the water valve, and clean chlorine free water drips into each tank. Excess water overflows out the drains.


----------



## Guest (Aug 9, 2006)

wow, this is really lookin good


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Thats just insane. :shock:


----------



## Guest (Aug 9, 2006)

Chris, im really impressed, this is an extremely innovative idea.


is the chlorine free water coming from an RO machine, or do you have a storage bin?

also, how do you use the airlines with your vivs? i understand the reason and concept, but im not sure how you 'apply' the air to the front glass.


----------



## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Nice to see someone else with hand sanitizer, alcohol, and latex gloves in their frog room! Looking good.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Thanks Landon,

The chlorine free water comes from the carbon filter. this filter does a really good job of removing chlorine, and for my purposes it lasts well over 6 months. The one problem with the water change system is that the water comes out of the tap at a pretty low temp in the winter time. For this reason I have the drip system on for 45 minutes every four hours. By adding cold water, a drop at a time, for a short duration, the tank temps don’t change all that much.

In the vivs, the air will be directed at the front glass by having several Ts along an air line that is buried in the PrimeAgra substrate. The buried air line will be close to the front glass. This is the first time that I’m trying this, so we will see how it works. There will be a vent hole drilled into the top or the back pane in each of my three new vivs to allow air to escape. Hope that makes sense.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Oops you caught me Dane  . Yes, I’m a clean freak    .


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Antone, I got my broms. Haven’t had a moment to open the package though. More later. Thanks for the speedy, customized service  .


----------



## Guest (Aug 9, 2006)

Chris, 

does carbon remove chloramines also?

LMK how the air line works. your explanation was spot on. ive been kicking around giving this a go for quite some time. im really interested in what you find out.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Here are my new Broms from Antone. They all arrived in good shape, after many back and forth e-mails regarding the weather and other details. 










Antone, Can you name them for me. I think that they are (from right to left) N. Red Waif, N. Sara Head, N. binotii, N. fireball x punctatissimia Rubra X 2, N. wee Willie, N. ampullacea tigrina, N. Tiger Cub X 3

A closer look at the last 5.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Landon,

I’m pretty sure that carbon filters remove chloramines as well as chlorine. We don’t have chloramines in our water here, so I’m not 100% on that. I’ll ask one of my chemist friends tomorrow.


----------



## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Hey Chris, I PM'd you with the names before I saw your latest reply to this thread. You have the names right though.


----------



## Guest (Aug 11, 2006)

thanks Chris. 

Antone and Chris, i like the broms!


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Wow,

It’s hard to believe how little time I have for Dendroboard these days. I told Marty that I would post pictures of my mist system a month ago. Right now it is just set up over my leuc tank.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Leuc Tank


----------



## cubby23 (Jun 12, 2006)

Very cool and unique. I like tiling and the bricks. Nice job . Did you have to hand make those bricks?


----------



## jaysnakes (Jul 5, 2006)

Awesome idea with the bricks looks really cool!


----------



## Guest (Nov 23, 2006)

Cool tank!! 
I still love those floors Chris!
I have my misting system setup almost the same way. With the same kind of bucket.
Though I must admit, I never thought of putting the Manual Ball Valve. It would make sence there, that way all I gotta do is close it when I want to clean the bucket and no water will spill out the hole/tube. 
Good WORK Chris!


----------



## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

So Chris, how about some updated pics of your new frog room??


----------



## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Wow, I love the leuc tank--so different and interesting! I hope you do find time to tell us a little about the "bricks" and how you secured them.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Thanks for the complements guys. The stone walls are made from granite blocks that I cut on a water saw. It probably took me two hours of cutting to get the material that I needed for this tank. They are siliconed together with black aquarium silicone. The back stone wall only goes down to the substrate. Below the substrate the wall is made out of eggcrate. The ball valve idea is not my own. I can’t remember who suggested it, but I thought it made good sense, so I incorporated it. As far as updated pictures of the fish/frog room, I will do what I can as time permits. It’s not a very exciting room at this point. I ran into a few unexpected water quality issues and lost a number of fish.


----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)




----------



## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)




----------

