Fish Room History, Tour, and Upgrade 2021-present
- Thread starter sir_keith
- Start date
I decided to reactivate this thread, starting with some posts I made last week concerning two recent Enantiopus melanogenys spawnings. It just seems to make more sense to have these all in one place, rather than buried in the 'What did you do...' thread.
********From Nov 8, 2023-
Now that the fry have started to move about, I count at least 25 little ones from the two broods. These were from two different females, and as I mentioned, it is likely that both broods were multipaternal, so the fry are not all siblings, and should make a nice colony to add to my fishroom. Fingers crossed. It's interesting that although one batch of fry is only one day older than the other, there is a size difference that is apparent already, so obviously they are growing pretty well. I am feeding them 4-5 times per day; the video below shows them feasting on newly-hatched baby brine shrimp.
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From Nov 6, 2023-********
From Nov 7, 2023-********
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Back to the present...
Now that the fry have started to move about, I count at least 25 little ones from the two broods. These were from two different females, and as I mentioned, it is likely that both broods were multipaternal, so the fry are not all siblings, and should make a nice colony to add to my fishroom. Fingers crossed. It's interesting that although one batch of fry is only one day older than the other, there is a size difference that is apparent already, so obviously they are growing pretty well. I am feeding them 4-5 times per day; the video below shows them feasting on newly-hatched baby brine shrimp.
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You are right. The camouflage on the fry is remarkable!
On a side note, I love the knowledge you pour into the African cichlid sections…. For someone who has only dabbled in them a few times over the years, I always learn so much.
On a side note, I love the knowledge you pour into the African cichlid sections…. For someone who has only dabbled in them a few times over the years, I always learn so much.
halfmacgas
Member
Love this thread! Keeping an eye out for more updates. Super cool that you’ve been keeping Tanganyikans for so long. They really are an interesting bunch
I decided to revisit this thread with an update on the water-handling system for my fish room, but before I do that, I thought I'd post an update on the Enantiopus melanogenys fry discussed above. Those fishes are doing well; now just over a year old, they are 2-3"TL young adults, and a few of the males have already colored up and started to build nests. They are still in the 75g tank in which they were born, shown here-
The Enantiopus seem a bit shy in this tank; I don't know whether it's the tank size, location, or aquascaping, but I will need to make a long term decision on what to do with this colony soon.
BTW, the grow-out 40L on the bottom shelf of this rack contains several batches of fry from the Cyprichromis leptosoma Mpimbwe 'Tricolor Black Bee' colony that shares a 125g with my adult Enantiopus colony; here is a pic of the little ones; one of the 'Moms' can be seen to the left-
Here is a pic of the adult Tricolor Cyp parents in the 125g breeding tank. The Mpimbwe population is generally referred to as a 'Jumbo' Cyp, and they are larger than Utinta and other Cyps more commonly seen in the hobby, but I think the distinction between 'Jumbo' and 'Non-Jumbo' Cyps is artificial: the fishes of some populations grow larger than others, but it is by no means a discontinuous distribution. The same thing can be observed in different Tropheus populations. In any event, I really like the Tricolor Cyps-
And finally, these little beauties share the 125g with the Cyps and Enantiopus. They are Xenotilapia flavipinnis Kekese 'Red Royal,' another little jewel from Tanganyika-
The Enantiopus seem a bit shy in this tank; I don't know whether it's the tank size, location, or aquascaping, but I will need to make a long term decision on what to do with this colony soon.
BTW, the grow-out 40L on the bottom shelf of this rack contains several batches of fry from the Cyprichromis leptosoma Mpimbwe 'Tricolor Black Bee' colony that shares a 125g with my adult Enantiopus colony; here is a pic of the little ones; one of the 'Moms' can be seen to the left-
Here is a pic of the adult Tricolor Cyp parents in the 125g breeding tank. The Mpimbwe population is generally referred to as a 'Jumbo' Cyp, and they are larger than Utinta and other Cyps more commonly seen in the hobby, but I think the distinction between 'Jumbo' and 'Non-Jumbo' Cyps is artificial: the fishes of some populations grow larger than others, but it is by no means a discontinuous distribution. The same thing can be observed in different Tropheus populations. In any event, I really like the Tricolor Cyps-
And finally, these little beauties share the 125g with the Cyps and Enantiopus. They are Xenotilapia flavipinnis Kekese 'Red Royal,' another little jewel from Tanganyika-
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OK, so onward to the 2025 fish room update, which is not in the fish room per se, but in its supporting facilities. And at the outset, I want to thank @John58Ford for providing not only the initial impetus for doing this upgrade, but for practical advice as well. 
When I first set up the fish room in my new home 12 years ago I was frustrated by the fact that my hot water supply limited how many tanks I could service at one time. My home is a single-level L-shaped structure that consists of a main wing parallel to the waterfront and a guest wing perpendicular to it. The two wings have separate hot water supplies: the guest wing runs off a standard 50 gallon electric water heater, and the main wing has a large-capacity flow-through system with two holding tanks that supply hot water to the master bath, jacuzzi tub, and in-floor heating system. Unfortunately, the fish room is at one end of the house, and the main bath is at the other, more than 150 feet away. The electric water heater is in-between the two, and it's the only practical way to get hot water to the fish room. But an old 50 gallon tank supplying hot water to a ~1000 gallon fish room? Do the math.
A few weeks ago one of the two heating elements in my hot water heater failed: I still had hot water in that part of the house, but not much of it. This was a blessing in disguise, really, as it motivated the update described below.
Step 1 was to replace the water heater. The heater resides in a small purpose-built closet, so there was no option to go to a different and/or larger system. So we installed a new Rheem unit with a mixing valve to increase the effective volume of hot water. The way this works is that the water in the tank, nominally about 50 gallons, is heated to 165°F rather than the code-mandated output of 120°F, and there is a mixing valve on top of the unit that mixes the 165°F water exiting the tank with cold water to obtain 120°F at the hot water faucets. This effectively increases the amount of 120°F water available. The installed system looks like this-
Step 2 was to install a second mixing valve and associated plumbing in the laundry room to mix hot 120°F water with cold water, resulting in a constant outflow of 80°F water for my fish tanks. Here is the area below my laundry room sink prior to the installation-
And here is the heart of the new system-
The mixing valve has an adjustable working range of 68-120°F, so 80°F is in its sweet spot. This particular valve has male 1/2NPT connections for the hot and cold water inputs and the mixed water output, so it does not need adaptors to go from Euro to US fittings. The output is connected to a ball valve that has a bleed port just downstream of the shutoff, so after use the ball valve can be closed and the bleed port opened to drain the hose to the fish room (the fish room is 4 steps lower than the laundry room). Finally, the output of the ball valve is connected to a 1/2NPT to 3/4GHT adaptor, to which the female end of the 75' supply hose is fastened. Here is a pic of the valve and associated plumbing installed in my laundry room. The incoming water lines are connected to fittings that have shut off valves for both the sink and mixing valve sides of the system-
Everything stows neatly when not in use, and since we were doing all this plumbing anyway, I installed a new faucet on the laundry room sink-
Here is the new setup in action; three things are going on- (i) the 75g on top is being pumped out into the garden using a pump @John58Ford suggested and a lightweight garden hose, (ii) the 40L down below is being filled with 80°F water from the laundry room using a 75' drinking water-certified stainless steel hose (which is awesome!), and (iii) I'm rummaging around the fish room trying to find my beer (in hiding on top of the 75G ).
Bottom line- I couldn't be happier with the new setup. I haven't pushed it yet to see just how much 80°F water I can get out of the system without giving it a recovery period, but it is clearly much higher than previous setup. In fact, at these flow rates I don't know that I can outrun the system. What I do know is that the new water heater takes only ~35 minutes to replenish the tank completely after I've withdrawn 120 gallons of 80°F water. Furthermore, as the mixing valve in the laundry room is rock-solid, varying by less than 1-2°F during the whole process, I am confident that I can trust the system to deliver 80°F water even as the 165°F water in the tank is being withdrawn and replenished. I'll keep you posted, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if I can do the whole fish room in a few hours.
When I first set up the fish room in my new home 12 years ago I was frustrated by the fact that my hot water supply limited how many tanks I could service at one time. My home is a single-level L-shaped structure that consists of a main wing parallel to the waterfront and a guest wing perpendicular to it. The two wings have separate hot water supplies: the guest wing runs off a standard 50 gallon electric water heater, and the main wing has a large-capacity flow-through system with two holding tanks that supply hot water to the master bath, jacuzzi tub, and in-floor heating system. Unfortunately, the fish room is at one end of the house, and the main bath is at the other, more than 150 feet away. The electric water heater is in-between the two, and it's the only practical way to get hot water to the fish room. But an old 50 gallon tank supplying hot water to a ~1000 gallon fish room? Do the math.
A few weeks ago one of the two heating elements in my hot water heater failed: I still had hot water in that part of the house, but not much of it. This was a blessing in disguise, really, as it motivated the update described below.
Step 1 was to replace the water heater. The heater resides in a small purpose-built closet, so there was no option to go to a different and/or larger system. So we installed a new Rheem unit with a mixing valve to increase the effective volume of hot water. The way this works is that the water in the tank, nominally about 50 gallons, is heated to 165°F rather than the code-mandated output of 120°F, and there is a mixing valve on top of the unit that mixes the 165°F water exiting the tank with cold water to obtain 120°F at the hot water faucets. This effectively increases the amount of 120°F water available. The installed system looks like this-
Step 2 was to install a second mixing valve and associated plumbing in the laundry room to mix hot 120°F water with cold water, resulting in a constant outflow of 80°F water for my fish tanks. Here is the area below my laundry room sink prior to the installation-
And here is the heart of the new system-
The mixing valve has an adjustable working range of 68-120°F, so 80°F is in its sweet spot. This particular valve has male 1/2NPT connections for the hot and cold water inputs and the mixed water output, so it does not need adaptors to go from Euro to US fittings. The output is connected to a ball valve that has a bleed port just downstream of the shutoff, so after use the ball valve can be closed and the bleed port opened to drain the hose to the fish room (the fish room is 4 steps lower than the laundry room). Finally, the output of the ball valve is connected to a 1/2NPT to 3/4GHT adaptor, to which the female end of the 75' supply hose is fastened. Here is a pic of the valve and associated plumbing installed in my laundry room. The incoming water lines are connected to fittings that have shut off valves for both the sink and mixing valve sides of the system-
Everything stows neatly when not in use, and since we were doing all this plumbing anyway, I installed a new faucet on the laundry room sink-
Here is the new setup in action; three things are going on- (i) the 75g on top is being pumped out into the garden using a pump @John58Ford suggested and a lightweight garden hose, (ii) the 40L down below is being filled with 80°F water from the laundry room using a 75' drinking water-certified stainless steel hose (which is awesome!), and (iii) I'm rummaging around the fish room trying to find my beer (in hiding on top of the 75G ).
Bottom line- I couldn't be happier with the new setup. I haven't pushed it yet to see just how much 80°F water I can get out of the system without giving it a recovery period, but it is clearly much higher than previous setup. In fact, at these flow rates I don't know that I can outrun the system. What I do know is that the new water heater takes only ~35 minutes to replenish the tank completely after I've withdrawn 120 gallons of 80°F water. Furthermore, as the mixing valve in the laundry room is rock-solid, varying by less than 1-2°F during the whole process, I am confident that I can trust the system to deliver 80°F water even as the 165°F water in the tank is being withdrawn and replenished. I'll keep you posted, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if I can do the whole fish room in a few hours.
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Thanks for the equipment update @sir_keith. I like the shut off valves you used. From the look of it each supply line can be shut off individually, independent of each other? As opposed to the two way types they sell that the one shut off shuts both outputs off.
Interesting choice on the stainless hose... pretty much kink proof but how is the weight factor on it?
Interesting choice on the stainless hose... pretty much kink proof but how is the weight factor on it?
Yes, the four shutoff valves on the two fixtures are completely independent.
The stainless steel hose is awesome- flexible, easy to coil, and very light. It weighs considerably less than any other hose I've encountered, including cheap plastic hoses.
I believe that mixing valves of this sort are legal in all of WA State according to RCW 19.27A.070- Hot Water Heaters- Temperature regulation. The primary concern of the code is that water coming out of any hot water faucet or fixture not exceed 120°F, however that is achieved.
40GallonsOfDoom
Well-Known Member
I just looked that over and I thought that reg only applies to a residence that is being rented our leased and the owner or occupant can adjust the output to any temp they want afterward. So as long as you don't sell the home with water leaving the taps above 120, you don't need to worry about the regulation. Am I mistaken?
You are more-or-less correct. The installer of the equipment and the owner of a property are required to set the temperature to 120°F. What an occupant does is not covered. None of these details are relevant to the original question of whether mixing valves meet code.
40GallonsOfDoom
Well-Known Member
I must have misunderstood the question of which code was in question. I just saw the one you posted about the temps. The thought of Washington State telling us what temp we could have our hot water doesn't seem too far removed from reality though.
It's to prevent us from hurting ourselves, of course.
Seems like a bit more every year.