I recently had the privilege of inspecting the state-of-the-art fish house
that keen hobbyist Matt Hennig has under development. Matt is a modest man and asked
me not to over-enthuse in my writing. So I will just say that I was most impressed
with what I saw, but will only state the facts and leave you to make the “oohs and
aahs”! 
Matt with Java fern
Matt’s father is a retired surgeon, originally from East
Berlin, where he started fish keeping in the 1920’s and became well known as an
aquarist, particularly with respect to killifish. He fled East Berlin in 1961, and
spent the balance of his career in Ethiopia and the Republic of Congo, a French colony,
where Matt was born.
The family settled in Canada in 1983, and live on a 33 acre estate
in the rural Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Dr. Hennig decided to take up his
fishkeeping hobby again, and ten years ago had a large detached fish house
constructed. Other activities precluded the full development of the fish house, but
the reins have now been taken up by his son Matt.
Matt graduated from university with a master’s degree in Biology,
and apart from a tour of Europe last summer, has spent much of the last two years making
his father’s vision come true.
It is a grand vision: the main fish room measures 50’ by 24’ with a
20’ high ceiling, and contains 500 fish tanks! Everything about it has
been done with quality and perfection in mind, and even Matt sometimes calls things
“overkill”:
One of Matt’s first jobs was to insulate the
walls, which was done to the maximum degree, to conserve heat. The whole room is kept at a
steady 24°C, which is fairly cool, but keeps the costs down. The eight large
openable windows are covered with “Reflectix”, which is a material made for
insulating hot water heaters. It is bubble plastic, covered both sides with aluminium
foil, which reflects the cold outside air away and the warm inside air back in.
Matt also did the dry-walling and painting, and all of the
electrical work. The electrical panel has over 40 breakers, and there are over 300
electrical outlets. The surface wiring runs through waterproof plastic tubing for
safety reasons, and the outlets are mostly up above the uppermost tanks, again to keep
water away from them.
There are twenty custom-built tanks in this photo: 80 gallon tanks
above and below, and 26 gallon tanks in triples on the middle shelf. Matt has twenty rows
of tanks like this, and another one hundred tanks on the back wall of his fish house.
Soon to be installed are electric ceiling fans, to re-distribute the
warm air.
The tanks are presently lit by two regular fluorescent tubes over each
unit, attached to the shelf above. Matt is thinking of changing to general lighting
for the whole room however, which will be good enough for fish but not for plants.
Mindful of economy, he has calculated that by installing a few dozen more ceiling fixtures
he can save lighting up hundreds of individual tubes, and reduce his lighting bill by over
$350 per month.
In case of a power cut, there are three generators in an area below the
fish room, with extension cords leading up through a hole in the floor.
A carpenter built the wooden tank shelves, which are very
sturdily made from two-by-sixes and 1” plywood. The tanks are stacked three
high, in ten double rows that run across the width of the room. The tanks were
custom made, and the glass is double thickness. Matt finds that by ordering tanks
fifty at a time he can get a good deal on the extra thick glass. Fifty of the tanks
hold about 80 gallons each , and fit exactly into the space provided by the shelves. The
rest are the same dimensions, but one third as wide, so that three fit exactly into the
same space. The effect is very neat and orderly.
It was difficult to slide the big heavy tanks into their snug positions
on the top shelves six feet up, but Matt and his brother managed by improvising a roller
system from wood dowels.
The large tanks are covered with three sideways sliding glass panels on
vinyl tracks. The small tanks have one lift up panel, which Matt is not altogether
satisfied with, and may change.
Matt also installed a double laundry sink, and about twelve feet
of kitchen type cupboards with a handy fitted work surface.
Matt says that one of the nicest features of the room is the water
storage system. He has over 6000 gallons of water stored in twelve 550 gallon plastic
containers lodged high in the ceiling above the tanks. Gravity thus does the work of
supplying the water through plastic lines to the tanks. One of Matt’s principles
in fishkeeping is “let nature do the work for you.” The water is aged naturally
(Matt tries to avoid chemicals), and is automatically heated to room temperature. The
containers are connected in three series of four, so Matt can have ample supplies of three
different qualities of water on hand. The containers are topped up by turning taps
located handily in the entrance chamber/control room. Perhaps storing water in or
near the ceiling is something that some of us might consider?
Matt’s next big project is automatic water changing and
filtration. A lone hobbyist cannot handle 500 tanks in the normal way, since ten
minutes per tank per week adds up to an 83 hour week! Matt is planning on ten
central filtration units, each handling about fifty tanks, and set up to provide and
process the different types of water required for different species of fish.
Even water changes will be done automatically. Matt was to design
the mechanics for himself, but he has recently come across a quality built floating valve
gadget used by farmers to keep cattle troughs topped up. He intends to install a
valve on each tank as part of his automatic water change system.
Two of the twelve water storage containers
Whilst working on all these jobs, Matt has managed to keep his hobby
ticking over, and keeps forty or fifty tanks of fish in a convenient corner near the
sink. His father also keeps a few tanks at the other end of the room.
Matt has a big room but likes little fish ! - mainly
livebearers, and guppies in particular. He “gets a kick out of”
selectively breeding guppies, and is currently working with eight fancy
strains, including albinos, a blue strain, and a “solid red” he has
developed by breeding for the red out of a mixture of four strains.
He is a member of the regional Killie Club and has a stack of killie tanks.
He has several large tanks full of Endler’s livebearers, a tank or two of the
tiny livebearer Heterandria formosa, (which his father recently flew back
from Germany in a bag in his shirt pocket, aerating the bag with a straw!), various
platies and swordtails, and also some breeding pepper catfish. In the past he
has been especially interested in angels, cichlids, anabantoids (gouramis etc.), catfish
and barbs.
Fancy Guppies
His tanks are currently filtered by corner filters, using Hagen’s
“The Pump” for air supply, and are all bare bottomed. This precludes
rooted plants, and the only plants kept are floating water sprite, riccia, Java moss, and
some Java fern on wood. Don’t think that Matt isn’t interested in plants
however; he still follows his local aquatic plant club’s activities, and until
recently had a high-tech. plant tank in his living quarters, with metal halide
lighting, heated substrate, and CO2 system.
Matt has an efficient five-unit brine shrimp hatchery conveniently
located above his sink (see photo), and in a dark room keeps whiteworms, microworms and
earthworms.
Matt isn’t interested in keeping native or cold water fish at the
moment (he says that he studied them enough at university), but there is a natural pond on
the family property which was enlarged to cover three or four acres. It holds common
carp.
He does still like to read, and has a bookcase full of aquarium books
in the bungalow in which he lives on the property next to the fish house. He has all
the fish identification books in both English and German, many specialised treatises,
and numerous large pictorial books. He also has a few of his father’s
books from 1930’s Germany, and is pleased with his collection of “Tropical
Fish Hobbyists” dating back to 1988. He was given a lifetime subscription to
TFH back then, when it really was “for life”, and only cost $250.
Matt's extensive reading and knowledge shows in his own web site www.aquariumbulletin.com
which is a repository of recent developments in the hobby, and which offers a free monthly
bulletin via the Internet.
Sink, with (back-lit) brine shrimp hatcheries
Matt is unsure what to do for a career. It may involve fish
and his fish house, or perhaps commercial fish farming at which he has worked
before, or it may be something totally different with the fish remaining a
hobby. Finishing off the fish house will give him lots to do in the meantime, and he
has kindly invited us back in a year or so to see what progress he has made – so keep
checking this space!
|