The "Breeding Barn Build"

He told me that code required that all garages be gfci protected

Technically if you are framing in the garage door it is not a garage.  Secondly the heating or lighting circuits are not required to be gfci protected if I remember correctly.  Make sure he seperates out the lighting circuits from the plug circuits.  If he is treating is as a garage he should anyway.  Also if you have time before he comes out you can start thinking about lighting layout and once he wires the lights you can put them on a timer for automatic operation.  Not sure if you want separate room lighting vs. specific tank lighting.  I light the entire room with the lights over the tanks and they are on a timer that is installed in place of the normal light switch.  I would push him to install a gfci receptacle in the plug circuits not gfci breakers.  A gfci receptacle is $8-12ea vs $50 ea. for a gfci breaker.

The other nice thing, IMHO, about using GFCI receptacles is that if it triggers, only the things on that receptacle and downstream from it are tripped, so I find more flexibility in my wiring.  I can have 2 systems on the same breaker (and most of my fish only systems are so low in power demand that I can run multiples off one breaker), and having one trip doesn't shut down both, so I can set it up that something tripping doesn't shut down both systems, or only shuts down the pumps, but leaves the air system running, etc.  Of course, when I set it up this way I'm using multiple GFCI receptacles, and the cost goes up to the point of a GFCI breaker anyway.

While I have been waiting on the electrician, I decided to finish another small piece of the breeding barn project getting the AC unit moved from the garage to the barn.  When we moved in the A/C unit was attached in the garage.  However, I no use for it in there but I have plenty of uses for it in the barn.  Here a some pictures of the progress
 
A/C unit removed from garage and piece of wood put in place of the hole.  Sorry I forgot to take an original pic of what it looked like when the A/C unit was installed.
 

 
The previous owner left some extra siding which I used over the wood to complete the A/C removal piece of this project.
 

 
A/C unit carried to the barn awaiting install
 

 
First I installed a 2x4 where I wanted the unit to rest and cut a hole with a saws all.  Here is the hole in the barn.
 

 
After a couple of modifications to the hole, the AC fit.  I installed some support on the outside and testing to make sure it still ran.
 

 
I still have to do some trim work and caulking but everything is at least moved and in place.

You are in  Michigan?.So you expect to use it as a heater?

No I will get a heater later.  The AC is for the summer
 

I think Luis was making fun of us in the north...

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Well,I don´t know in Mi.,but in Columbus,Oh,I was surprised to get some extreme hot summer weather.
Yet,Anthony C.encourages the use of greenhouses for coral farming in the north...
So you really need an AC in the fish room?Don´t you have heat/cold ACs?.

We do get days here that are in the 90F's.  They probably do make units that both heat and cool.  However since the unit was free (or at least came with the house when we bought it), I decided to go with it.  

Lookin good Mike!  We need A/C up here too.  In Saskatchewan we only get a couple weeks around 36C (97F), but I don't know any reef fish that like their water that warm!  When I lived in southern BC we often had a couple weeks around 40C (104F).

Finally did have a little break in the weather and the schedule to get the trimming done on the A/C
 
Outside

 
Inside

 
Also, confirmation from the electrician that he is coming the 18th. 

After a trip yesterday to a fish store that was closed down.  I have the basic tank structure down.  Here is a list of the tanks I have or plan to have:
14 29G
8 20G High
12 20G long
10 10G
 
The plan is to have 2 systems each with a sump and a skimmer.  I won't call them Broodstock and grow out since I will probably have some of each in both system.  Below are the preliminary plans.  Remember the room is 21' long by 15' wide  So with only about 8' for the 2 systems I still will have plenty of real estate for the rest of the fish stuff.
 

 

Your barn is pretty close to the size of the clownhouse.  Mine is 12'x20' with (43) 10g tanks on 3 systems.  I did keep everything on one level though.  I know I lost the ability of stacking but I do hate the thought of ladders or stools to take care of daily operations.

I went today and tried a non stacking version of the plan.  Unfortunately the 20Ls are already blackened out (black glass) on the 2 short sides and the back so they can only go long way.  I just lost too much space once I tried going to one row.

I considered that too.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I took another run at the design today and I think I have it,  I only have the 20G Long's stacked in this system.   Here is the design that I am going with sans maybe a couple of mods once I get into building it. 
 

Here is the latest with goings on with the barn.  I have been able to work when the kids play outside and when go to bed.  Here is the progress so far.
 
Insulation installed on the walls. 

 

 
Hanging of the bath fan.  I still have to figure out how to wire it up to the humidistat and run the venting for it

As far as fans and humidity goes, if you place the air pump/blower (assuming you're likely using one) outside of the fish barn it will act as a fresh air draw as well.  Most people put them inside their fish rooms which doesn't make sense.  If it is pushing say 60 or 100 liters per minute of fresh, low humidity air from outside into the fish room you may not need to worry too much about dehumidifying.  I put a 3" dryer vent in my fish room, and my Coralife Super Luft 65 pump pushes enough air out that humidity is down around 35% in the fish room.
 

 
Are they painted?  Pain doesn't stick to glass overly well, so it is quite easy to scrape off with blades.
 
These razor blade scrapers also come in a retractable version that I like better, but the style of blade in it is cheap to replace.  You can buy a 50 or 100 pack (can't remember) for $10.  Comes in handy for all sorts of scraping jobs in the fish room.  I use it to remove Jiffy Marker that I've written on the tanks.

Black glass, not painted.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

If you are going to run the fan through a humidistat wire it as though it is just being wired through a switch.  Then you just install the humidistat in place of the switch.  Very straight forward. 
 
Here is the humidistat i use.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Broan-DH100W-Dehumidistat-120V-control/dp/B00155VU5S
 
I bought mine from the local electrical supply house but this is a good price.  They wire up exactly like a switch and you adjust the humidity anywhere you want it.
 
 

 
Ohhhh, I've never seen black glass, just "smoke" glass.  That's a whole 'nuther thang then.

I was able to get some more work done tonight.  Had to move and rehang the fan since the I found that I couldn't make vent the fan out simply at the location that I had originally chosen.  Here some pics of today progress.
 
Hole cut in the outside of the barn and the vent installed.
 

 
Fan rehung and duct work installed.  I will do a little cleanup on the connections between the fan and the ductwork.
 

I had a vacation day today so more progress has been made on the barn.
 
First the electrician was out today and got a new panel installed with GFCI breakers. 
 

 
and ran the start of three circuits

 
I also bought 14 sheets of drywall today to start putting up drywall

 
and was able to get 4 sheets up today
 

 
 

Mike, would you like some drywall tips?  I was a renovation carpenter for 4 1/2 years. 

I would like those tips, and I'm not even putting any up...

Well, there has been a lot of progress on the breeding barn this weekend.  First of all, the garage door is no longer operational.  I wanted to keep in place so that the barn could be turned back into a garage, if I ever decided to not use the room for fish.  I basically made a face wall the I can take out with basically undoing 10 screws.  Here is a pic of it with the insulation installed.
 

 
Other than building the wall, I spend the rest of my free time putting the drywall up.  I still have a little bit to go.  I am guess 4-5 more pieces but have gotten through a lot it.  I took pics of all 4 wall so that you get an idea of where things are at.
 
North wall (The wall where the garage door is)

 
South wall

 
East wall

 
West wall

Almost done hanging drywall.  I got the stairway framed out and ready so now I just have to put up the last couple of pieces of drywall.  Here are pics of the framing
 

 
This door was here with the house, kind of a POS, so this is good place to use it.

 

You may want to reconsider the door.  With all the moisture in the room it will not take it long to start warping and swell.

You may want to reconsider the door.  With all the moisture in the room it will not take it long to start warping and swell.

I haven't updated this in awhile.  There has been a lot going on both and the barn and otherwise.
 
Let's start with barn. ...  The drywall has been mudded and sanded and 95% of the trim has been installed.  I will take some pics once the dust settles from tonight's sanding. 
 
Now on the other stuff . ..  which has a direct effect on the short term scope of this project.  In middle of May our rental house had the sewer back up which led to an expensive clean up bill that wasn't covered by insurance .... after the back and clean up our rental walked away from her lease stating that the house wasn't in liveable condition (which is BS) and called the city.  The city inspected the house and found other issues with the house that need to be repaired as well (most minor but a couple a little more extensive.  All of that being said we now have no renter for the time being and a rather hefty repair bill on the house.  So for now the fish barn is going to be kind a bare bones operation.  Only operating what needs to be set up and not running many extras
 
I will say going out there to work on the barn has been kind of therapeutic in order to get my mind of the house issue and its after effects like going to MACNA which I was looking forward to.    I was looking for sympathy or anything like that but I did want to say something so when the initial completed project doesn't appear that I what I started with you all would know why. 

Aw jeez Mike, that sucks.  Sorry to hear about your troubles.  I'm glad you have a happy place to go though. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Here is the latest pic of the barn sanded and ready to paint (when I get a chance to do it).
 


Finally got the first coat of paint on.  I will have to say that the Behr Paint with the primer coats very well.  Below is the barn with the first coat. 
 

Nice to see another blue fishroom.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I think blue was a fitting color for it.  I had blue room in my old house, kind of wanted to emmulate that.  Blue doesn't fit with the overall decor in the main house
 

Finally got all of the painting done.  I can that most of the construction aspects of this are done.  I just have to finish the electrical after I know where all the tanks are going.  I am excited to finally be doing some fish stuff out there.  
 
Here is a current pics of the barn all painted
 

 
For perspective the same shot when the barn was started.

 
 

Wish I had a barn! Looks good.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Finally on to something fish related ......
 
On the day the electrician came I was able to build the racks for the 20L tanks that I got back in April.  These tanks have a rather interesting story....  Here are more details  http://www.reefs.com/blog...dventures-in-the-hood/
 
Here is pics of the rack.  (Sorry for the bad Iphone pic)
 

 
The boards that you see on the front are not supporting any of the weight.  All of the weight is being supported on the inside like this.
 

 
Unfortunately, I ran out of wood so I wasn't able to get the supports on the rest of the rack.  That will to wait until tomorrow. 

Nice work! Good to see it all coming together.

Thanks Dan,  starting to see glimpses of the finish line