diver21 Posted June 10, 2010 Report Share Posted June 10, 2010 rightio. this is what I currently have: as you can see the room is 3500x2700. two doors and a window. tanks available are 2 steel stands that hold the 1meter tanks 3 tanks high, and 3 stands that hold 2 2ft tanks each (total of 6 tanks) i have about 4 other 2ft sized tanks and about 10 1m tanks outside getting overgrown with grass. and all 1m tanks are drilled for overflows. this is the steel stands the thought did occur to me that the wardrobe could be turned to a warm cupboard to house male fighters. I guess by posting all this up here it might give me some motivation to finally do something to this room and get fish coming out instead of just going in. ALL comments questions and query's and suggestions need to be voiced as i may of missed something. PS house is a rental so cant bolt shelving everywhere and everything needs to be able to be taken back out (one of the reasons i didn't buy cichlid_fan's huge tank as i wont fit through the door) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted June 14, 2010 Report Share Posted June 14, 2010 The PS house is a rental so cant bolt shelving everywhere and everything needs to be able to be taken back out (one of the reasons i didn't buy cichlid_fan's huge tank as i wont fit through the door) Rentals suck =/ Going to be a hard job moving it all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 very. but plus side is my employer should be paying for my next move, and all my outher belongings get packed by the movers so it will give me a bit of time to sort fish things out during the move. so the first stage of the fish room is: cut the 3tall stands down so theres a shorter distance between the floor and the bottom tank source a oil fin heater source a dehumidifier clean the mold from the high ceilings caused by the humid air poly up the top window what is everyone opinions about heating the room vs heating the tanks in an un insulated room? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 And they move fish tanks too At least they did when I moved down here anyway, it is still a pain moving the fish and then waiting for the truck to arrive with your tanks to put them, I had to get in touch with someone down here with heaps of spare tanks and move my fish into their tanks.. Those houses are so poorly insulated it isn't funny so I would be inclined to heat most the tanks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquila Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 Any reason why the 3x 2ft tanks are only 2 high? Can you make them 3 high? That would give you at least 3 more tanks! Maybe you can put 4-6x 1ft fry tanks up there! Would you be able to line al lthe walls with styrofoam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 those 2ft tanks are on seperate steel stands. i could line the walls with poly but would moisture sit between the poly and the wall and start to rot or become a mold factory? atleast with the walls bare i can see the rot and mold. was thinking for the main window just putting a solid chunk of poly that fits the window frame and putting it up at night. should explain that there are two sets of windows in this room. the main one is shown and the smaller high window runs parallel to the main window in the center of the room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zayne Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 when you put the poly in and out of the window you will rub the little balls off and it would'nt be a good seal after a while :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2010 im gonna try the heat the room method for the tanks, with heaters in the more delicate fish tanks. now how big of a heater do i need? and what kind? would a 1kW oil fin heater do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 18, 2010 Report Share Posted June 18, 2010 Given that we are in Auckland I do believe an oil fin will do. I used one in the shed last year and it is a de longhi, type BNM 2.0 - you've seen the shed so you know how big approximately it is. It kept the room warm enough and that was with all the bikes going in and out as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 Im lazy, wella atleast i admit it, and being human i go to alot of effort so i can do less later. so what im thinking is i will start with the large tanks first. what i want is an automatic waterchanger thing. but i think i will make half of it first, the drain half. that way i can just throw a hose/pour buckets in there to start with and the water will leave the room. but thats where the problem begins. i cant simply make my tank drain hole flow up to the window to make it drain onto the back lawn... can i? so using valuable work time ive been drawing and thinking about this and think that having a bin under the stands would be best for the tank to drain into. and bacause i can i was going to build a control unit and put a pump in there, so that when the bin fills up it pumps out onto my crappy long lawn to make it grow more! this would also allow me to add the other half later when im motivated/ rich enough to add in a drip system into all the tanks. ive got a picture but i cant upload it from the work computer. now in this waste water bin i was thinking of having it so its got two water levels, an upper and a lower. when the water reaches the upper level it turns the pump on until it reaches the lower water level and shuts the pump off until it hits the upper level again. or would it be better just having the pump go on and off acording to a single float switch? i think thats enough ranting for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oO SKIPPY Oo Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 i would say a single float switch would be best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 my thought with the single float switch would be that it might just sit there and pulse on and off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 Why not just drill the tanks and put an overflow type water change system (it can be done costing stuff all), run the pipe outside and to your (hopefully nearby) storm water drain from your roof.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 my tanks are already drilled, well the 1m long ones are. im thinking of just running the drain part of the water change system, but not the fill bit yet. your talking about the pump outlet pipe (red one in the picture)? as i cant drain it straight from the tank to the drain outside because of the whole uphill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 A single float switch may work fine. There's this factor known as hysteresis which is usually built into them. Essentially it's the gap between the on and off points. It will probably be in the region of 5mm or so, though. If that's too small you should be able to easily rig up a couple float switches and the correct type of relay to do the job. Likely best to use a 12v pump in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted June 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 If that's too small you should be able to easily rig up a couple float switches and the correct type of relay to do the job. Likely best to use a 12v pump in this case. lol, like the one in the picture i just posted? i didnt know that the standard float switch would have hysteresis, seems like the better option to have just the one. wow 12v pumps are alot cheeper that i was expecting. just looking on trademe at boat stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.