Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Date: 8 January 2006 Project: reconfigure fishroom to maximise useable space Goal: have a better organised workspace, more spawning tanks, better facilities, increased productivity and more room. Room to spawn some gorgeous copper golds and metallics! The fishroom was a catastrophe. There was an enormous dining table in the middle of the room, a sad remnant of the room's former incarnation as a Craft Room. A bagging table does not need to be 2/3 the size of the room! So the table had to go. The room as originally configured had the big table in the middle, a 6' severum tank along the left wall and a metal stand next to that on the left wall. There are 3 metal stands running the length of the right wall. The location of the table was about as un-ergonomic as possible. It required me to squeeze sideways between the table and the tank to do anything with the tank. This was problematic, as there was a constant risk of " knocking over the stuff piled on the table and creating an avalanche. I have spared you the horror of witnessing the state of that table as it was today - instead, simply for context, here is a photo of it taken when the room was a mere fledgling of a fishroom, and mess was at a minimum: Today was the day for something to be done. The plan: Remove the table. Replace it with 6 sets of Hammerlock shelving, ie, 2 rows of 3 back-to-back, for spawning tanks and storage. Sell the severums occupying the 6' tank: Remove the driftwood from the 6' tank. Place the driftwood into this 4' tank and make it an uninhabited, heavily planted water ageing/display tank: As you can see, the 4' tank is currently home to jarred juvenile bettas. The plan I have is to jar all my juvenile bettas individually until they reach a good size, then once pheromones are no longer a factor in stunting growth, I will put the juvenile bettas into 1L bottles with holes in them in the 6' tank, which will be heated and filtered with a UGF simply to ensure water circulation. The UGF should not clog, as the mulm will be inside the bettas' bottles. The bettas in the 6' tank will be carded using aquarium backing. They will be filtered by virtue of the holes in their bottles. It can also double as a grow-out tank for some spawns, or a tank for females, if needs be. To be continued ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Here is the fishroom as presently configured, with the table removed: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 These pictures show the storage crisis that I am presently having: Part of my plan is to use baskets etc on the shelves to keep bits and pieces tidy. That will be a way of utilising the bottom shelves that tanks can't be kept on because of the inability to siphon from them. As you can see from this picture below, several of my spawning tanks are in fact tubs. This is extremely irritating as I cannot watch my babies grow, etc. I will replace these tubs with glass tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 I plan to create rows of "stables" to house my 'stallions', similar to how the tanks are set out in this photo: However, I will get lengths of board cut to size for each shelf to ensure that they don't bow so much, and also this can extend slightly over the edges of the top shelves, making the tanks fit a little better and keeping them more level. There is one more change I am determined to make, and it will need to be done before the new shelves go in. I am going to replace these curtains with some funky aluminium blinds. The current curtains: The blinds I am going to install: Ok, that's Phase 1 under control. Now for Phase 2! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Date: 11 January 2005 Tonight 2 of the intended shelves have been constructed. At this stage I have modified the plan slightly, and will install 4 shelves rather than 6, as I have been enjoying the additional workspace aforded by the removal of the table! This is how the fishroom looks this evening. The drills will not be a permanent feature Tomorrow the plan is to re-plant the 4' tank and add 2 fresh fluoro tubes, and begin using it as a fish water recycling plant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Date: 12 January 2006 Today I made some progress on the water recycling plant. "Before" shot of the 4' tank this morning: I removed the driftwood from the 6' severum tank and placed it in the 4' tank. I added 2 new 18,000K tubes and the following plants: Bacopa Red Hygro Green Hygro "Needle Leaf" Micranthemum. Here is the tank immediately after re-planting and re-filling: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Looking great Lisa! What are you planning for the 4ft again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Here are some pics of the tank severa hours after it has settled. I think I am liking it! I am going to use water removed from here for water changes. Then I am going to put INTO here the water during my water changes. Theoretically, after a week of nitrates being consumed by the plants and minimal stocking levels, the water should be good to re-use. Same for dechlorinated tap water if I need to top the tank up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 That is a great idea! I have thought about doing this before myself, but I was concerned about disease. Do you think that it may be a problem, say, if it was not picked up in time and has been distributed to the all the other tanks? I say this because out of all the fish I have kept, Guppies & Bettas seem to the the fish I seem to treat for illness. However, most of you fish numbers are spawns and are bred in your fish room and should not come down with an illness, like imported fish etc. So I think that is on your side & it should work well!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 I do quarantine and worm my fish on arrival, so no new diseases are likely to be introduced. I won't use this method on sick fish, or on my QT water. So hopefully, won't be a problem :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 That looks great lisa, why cant my planted tank look that good? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted January 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 yours looks ok to me! The rock backing helps a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canfeleq Posted January 13, 2006 Report Share Posted January 13, 2006 If you are worried about disease you could run the water through a UV Sterilizer before adding back into the system. It looks great, and I love your planted tank!! Have fun with the renovations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted August 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2006 ok, scratch all that - I have downscaled and re-started and this is how the room looks now: Storage tank: Hornwart "sponge": The spawning and grow-out tanks (lighting yet to be added): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDP Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 looks good, also looks like that one room will consume 80% of your electricity bill seriously though how do you power it all? power boards plugged into doubleadapters coming off extension leads running from more double adapters? :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Isn't that the fishroom standard? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figure_8 Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 LMAO!! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango4Jade Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Looks great, if only Koi can be kept in tanks like that :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted August 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 all the electricity I use is 1 airpump, a small oil heater to keep the room temperature constant, a couple of lamps to light the spawning tanks (soon to be replaced by fluoros) and 2 fluoros on the 4' tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berryfriendly Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 So you don't use heaters in each tank? How big is your air pump and how many filters can you run off it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joepmaster Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 Hi Lilli, Great restyling of your fishroom! Thanks for sharing these pictures. I always love to see the set-up from other hobbyists. Many greetings from the Netherlands, Joep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted August 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 Thanks Joep! It doesn't look as scientific as your though The airpump is large enough to run a sponge filter in each tank (it has about 10 ports), and no, I don't use individual tank heaters :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figure_8 Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 if you heat the room you don't have to heat the tanks too. I used to use that method at my old house. Now I'm stuck with heaters again.. for now :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted September 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2006 Today I bought 3 x single 4' fluoro tubes from Bunnings. I already had one hanging around, so all together I have 4. The idea is to suspend 2 by chains from the ceiling, and the other 2 will be mounted under the bottom of the top shelf to light the second shelf tanks. I got the suspended light idea from Phil. We also bought gyprock plug thingies and a hot glue gun. I have no idea what the glue gun is for!! The lights cost $25 each - a damn sight less than $65 a pop minimum for a 1' compact fluoro at the LFS. Admittedly they have no reflectors but I have a very handy husband so if I really do need reflectors I am sure he'll build them for me. That way he'll be some way towards making up for starving several spawns to death while I was away last month (I'm still not over it ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celeste84 Posted September 2, 2006 Report Share Posted September 2, 2006 question. what's the comparison roughly in electricity usage for an oil heater compared to say 2-3 300W heaters and 3 50W heaters? with another 2-3 300W heaters and a spare 50W hanging about "just in case"?? when we move i've been promised either the garage (completely insulated and attached to the house hopefully) or a small shed of my own (once again insulated, needs to be in tasmania) in which to set up a proper fish room with as many tanks/tubs as i want and a proper barracks system. i was just wondering if the oil heater is cheaper to use than a potential of 9 or 10 heaters. i know it would be more convenient LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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