|  |  | | 
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Mentor
| I wish there was an agency that would pay for my fish projects! What's up? I did ask my resident carpenter (hubby), if he would help put together my nitrate filter....Now that the humidity is down to 65% from the 85% it was before we started heating the house for the winter, it might be possible to live in here with more water features. My big tank is growing GREEN, and it is time! WE are all waiting with baited breath to hear more of your projects.  | 
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| nope, this was definitely my comment! For once, everyone will be kept in suspense until I am happy with the result of each stage. There have been so many re-thinks on this one that it feels like I'm just running round in circles most of the time!
Tomorrow, the main insulation/construction will be complete and that's when the pics will arrive! | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| sounds fun...wish i had the time and money to do that | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| just to keep you interested, here is the new aquaponics that I built after talking to susitna-flower last month. It has increaed the capacity from 12 gallons to 22 gallons and given me 4 more tanks to add to our collection. It also gave me something to do while I was waiting for materials!
As of this moment, one tank has 2 pregnant mollies in, another has around 30 molly fry and another has some 25 young female guppies along with around 40 new fry! (Didn't have chance to split the males out quick enough!)
There are still at least 6 more pregnant guppies in there! | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| lol...i bet your house sounds like the 4th of july in washington...the way all those females are popping
HAHAHA...that was really corny | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| I'll forgive you Kevin...lol | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| thanks...i had to get up at 6:30 this morning, take the sat, and then go to work...which i'm at right now
never know what i'll say after long days like today  | |
| | |
November 3rd, 2007
|
| | Master Of Fish Poo!
|  great job to get so much done today!  we'll be looking forward to the pics next week once the dust clears and the fish come in for a landing.  | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| OK, you've waited long enough!
here are the first pics of the fishouse, with all the electrics, insulation and cladding done. i am just starting to waterproof the plasterboard now, so the pics are looking a little patchy.
Tomorrow, as long as I can get the painting done today, the plumbing second-fix will start, and the racking will be going in place as the plumbing progresses, I hope: | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Master Of Fish Poo!
| where's the fish?!!  lol.. looks like it's coming along great and will give you some much needed room.  | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Here's the room after the second coat of paint:
It looks a little more like it's intended to now! | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Master Of Fish Poo!
| looking good.. that's the room for us to live in, right?   | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| there will be room for two single beds in the isles if you're thinking of visiting! | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Just! | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Crown molding in the Fish house? You'll probably be better Finish trimmed than many of the stores you're selling to!  | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| It's surprising what you can hide with a few pieces of trim! The garage isn't anything like square and there is that much deviation in the walls that it was impossible to cut the sheets to fit!
I have managed to straighten the walls out now, but at the cost of valuable inches. Luckily the plans allowed for this so I can still get 1600 gallons in there, and space for the two beds for dave and stacy!
I have a small 500W radiant heater in there tonight, to help dry the paint. within an hour the temperature rocketted to over 70 degrees! I guess the insulation works ok.....lol | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| After just spending the better part of seven months gutting and rebuilding a single room in my house, I truly appreciate what you mean. This house has no square corners or plumb lines, drywalling is a nightmare if you don't do it for a living.
Looks great so far tho. Make sure we get steady updates! | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Finished for the day now. The decorating is finished! Tomorrow we start with plumbing and racking, and will be installing the heating at the same time. this will be a gas heater, which is the cheapest to run here, especially as it will be propane, so it'll just need the bottle replaced every so often.
One thing I do have to do, is to install an alarm system to let me know if the temperature drops or rises too much. I can wire this in with the video links, which will be running the cameras in there. This will be essential since as the heating is running from a bottle, I might not notice if it runs out! I also need to be able to check the ambiant temperature in the room from the living room, so that I don't have to live out there.
The last two days have gone well, with a lot of the bits and pieces completed. Now we can focus on the fittings and tanks themselves. With luck, 2 weeks and it'll be running! (I seem to remember saying something similar before, let's hope we don't have the same result this time!)
Last edited by timg; November 4th, 2007 at 06:32 PM.
| |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Quote: |
drywalling is a nightmare if you don't do it for a living.
| I know what you mean! One of the major issues with using the garage was the total lack of cavities in the walls, so we had to opt for studding it all internally to allow space for insulation and pay extra for the foil backed plasterboard to increase the deduction of cold transition to the inside. The floor is concrete and this will have to be insulated with rubberised insulation that can withstand water!
It's amazing just how involved this project has become and it's a real eye-opener for me in respect of finding effective methods to insulate all the different areas. When it's all done, it should cost next to nothing to run.
Something else that has been added to the original plan is a de-humidifier. It was pointed out to me today that with all this insulation, we may well not have a condensation problem, but will certainly have a humidity issue. 1600 gallons of water will have a lot of surface area to allow evaporation, even with covers, and in such a confined space, there won't be anywhere for it to go! I am not installing any vents on purpose, to conserve heat.
With the room at a constant 80 degrees, humidity will be close to 70% without some way of clearing it. The de-humidifier will empty directly into one of the sumps, saving the need to maintain it regularly. | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| first, the rubber floor you need...you know those rubber mats that they have in public showers/bathrooms? those might work
second, i have been using a dehumidifier to pull water out of my house and just empty it straight into a tank...no chlorine or other chems to woory about  | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Quote: |
the rubber floor you need...you know those rubber mats that they have in public showers/bathrooms? those might work
| They may do, but the material I have in mind is like sealed wall to wall, in one piece. It's applied like a paste that you level out with a plastering float, then it sets to a completely sealed surface. They use it in horse boxes and such, so it's very hard wearing too! Quote: |
i have been using a dehumidifier to pull water out of my house and just empty it straight into a tank...no chlorine or other chems to woory about
| Thanks for that kevin. You are the first one to mention using such equipment. That's pretty well what I am planning, only not to empty the container, just pipe it directly. Saves having to remember to empty it. (I'll just have to watch the level on that particular sump, as it will be pulling water from all the tanks, not just from that one system!) | |
| | |
November 4th, 2007
|
| | Master Of Fish Poo!
| | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Addict
| Cool. When you're done there...let me know and I'll move in. LMAO | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| you can buy them small grill style propine tanks that are made of fiber glass and they have clear sections in them to see how much you have in the tank. | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Mentor
| Tim, Don't know if this makes any difference at this point, but is your propane heater vented to the outside?
I run a greenhouse in addition to the other hobbies (fish) , and have in the past toyed with propane heat as a emergency source in the greenhouse. The fumes are toxic to plants, not all, but some are very sensitive.....This may cause unforseen problems in your fish tanks.  | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| wood stove would be nice b/c they tend to suck moisture out of the air. and for the one sump over flowing cant you connect 2 of the sections with a tube and let water flow between the 2 set ups and let it free flow between them both | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Quote: |
Tim, Don't know if this makes any difference at this point, but is your propane heater vented to the outside?
| Yes, the heater is wall mounted and flued to the outside, so it shouldn't cause any problems. Quote: |
wood stove would be nice b/c they tend to suck moisture out of the air. and for the one sump over flowing cant you connect 2 of the sections with a tube and let water flow between the 2 set ups and let it free flow between them both
| It would be nice, but a real pain to keep the temperature stable! As for linking the sumps together, if I were to do that, I may as well have just the one for the entire system. The problem there would be any disease that made it through the bio-filters and the UVC would affect all the fish! | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| yea i under stand is there a way to put a valve on the tube connecting them.  | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Ok, another day, more building..... Today we built the first rack, setup 90 gallons of tanks with the outflow to the sump, set up the siphons to connect them in pairs, and started work on the sump for this rack. Not much done, really! | |
| | |
November 5th, 2007
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Quote: |
yea i under stand is there a way to put a valve on the tube connecting them
| Whatever valve you use, if any infection gets into one side of the setup, it would be transmitted to the other system, even if you had a one-way valve, when it opened, micro-organisms would find a way through. It's just as easy to add an overflow to the sump to run off any excess to outside.
The only concern there is that an overflow on the sump may lead to shortage of water in the system should there be a power failure, although the setup will allow for levels settling down in this event. I just need to set the overflow high enough to allow for this. | |
| | | | |
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
