Allister_B Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 trade secrets haha if ur a sparky u get to know things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 :roll: Yeah, that's a sensible thing to do. Put your lively-hood at risk for a measly 50 bucks a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allister_B Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 hence why i said dont dob me haha and it was a joke... you are right it is illegal but can be done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Probably not good to brag about it on a public forum either it is very easy to find out who you are and various agencies do monitor forums. Also not a good idea to make people curious in case they do go and poke around in their meter boxes and electrocute themselves or end up getting done for it.. Not to mention as Phoenix has that you could potentially loose your job of it if your job or someone who knows you reads this and takes offence. I have found the floor a biggie for heat losses, I had a room with standard concrete floor that was always cold and the room was cold, when I stuck carpet and underlay in it make a huge difference to room temp. Yes I know hot air rises and cold air sinks so it shouldn't make much difference but I found it did. Carpet sucks though because it stinks when it gets wet and if it gets really wet you have to lift it dry it. I have seen rubber flooring used, poly with ply overtop, foam exercise mats and even artificial grass used in other peoples rooms. Roof is another biggie it needs to be pretty well insulated and draft proof. Moisture I found pretty easy to keep at bay by running a dehumidifier set to about mid range, they are around 200W and mine ran half the time so it did use a little power but the advantage of having a nice dry mould free room was worth it to me. Plus they always say dry air is cheaper to heat so it might save you money in heating too. Ventilation (is this what you were talking about with aeration?) is another difficult one, you don't want to pump cold air inside and cost more heating it but you don't want stagnant old stinky air in there. I find most people just leave their fishroom doors open on a sunny day but would be interested in any other solutions you might offer. If you get sick of insulating your garage and trying to work it all out I just brought an ex refrigerated shipping container for a fishroom in Auckland it is all insulated and ready to go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allister_B Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Probably not good to brag about it on a public forum either it is very easy to find out who you are and various agencies do monitor forums. Also not a good idea to make people curious in case they do go and poke around in their meter boxes and electrocute themselves or end up getting done for it.. Not to mention as Phoenix has that you could potentially loose your job of it if your job or someone who knows you reads this and takes offence. brag? haha far out it was a joke! some people are way to serious on here, as for various agencies monitoring forums im sure the ewrb (electrical workers registration board) have bigger fish to fry then worry about a comment made in jest.. also as for people poking around in there meter boxes, ECP51 is a new zealand standard that entitles homeowners to do their own electrical work legally, a electrical inspector must inspect the work done and wire the switchboard and give a COC Certificate of compliance), that being said if you are dumb enough to poke around in your meter box clearly labeled (DANGER LIVE CABLES) then you really are thick. Trust me i know the fines etc for this misconduct, im not a cowboy like the many other unregistered so called electricians in the trade today. I happen to know josh he actually lives 5 mins from me, he knows im all about saftey, i have done previous work form him. So im sorry if my comment was to illegal for some people, as said it was a joke, not meant to harm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 low power bill you say... how bout free power? just dont dob me in haahaha I got the joke as for airrate the room josh puting cold air in wud defeat the purpose but circulation the air and taking out some hott air wudnt be bad, small extract fan on with the lights maybe?Thats my theory too but somebody mentioned aerating it. :roll: Yeah, that's a sensible thing to do. Put your lively-hood at risk for a measly 50 bucks a month.My grandparents spent $300 in one month awhile back.... I have found the floor a biggie for heat losses, I had a room with standard concrete floor that was always cold and the room was cold, when I stuck carpet and underlay in it make a huge difference to room temp. Yes I know hot air rises and cold air sinks so it shouldn't make much difference but I found it did. Carpet sucks though because it stinks when it gets wet and if it gets really wet you have to lift it dry it. I have seen rubber flooring used, poly with ply overtop, foam exercise mats and even artificial grass used in other peoples rooms. Roof is another biggie it needs to be pretty well insulated and draft proof. Moisture I found pretty easy to keep at bay by running a dehumidifier set to about mid range, they are around 200W and mine ran half the time so it did use a little power but the advantage of having a nice dry mould free room was worth it to me. Plus they always say dry air is cheaper to heat so it might save you money in heating too. Ventilation (is this what you were talking about with aeration?) is another difficult one, you don't want to pump cold air inside and cost more heating it but you don't want stagnant old stinky air in there. I find most people just leave their fishroom doors open on a sunny day but would be interested in any other solutions you might offer. If you get sick of insulating your garage and trying to work it all out I just brought an ex refrigerated shipping container for a fishroom in Auckland it is all insulated and ready to go Wow where to start haha... Actually I'll just absorb it all in and ask how much the container cost? Will do a decent reply later haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 300 is a pretty average power bill is it not? 'tis for me any how. what I meant was the cost of the tanks would be like 50 a month in power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Hard to get jokes when they are written and especially when they are carried on.. We have $2-350 power bills for our entire household and 4x tanks so would estimate the tanks being around $100ish a month too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cessna driver Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 You should see if you can find some poly panel (stuff they build cool stores out of) and use that for your wall, instant wall and it's pre-insulated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Yeah the poly panels are good but quite expensive unless you can score some cheap from someone you know or spot it lying around being unused.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Yeah the poly panels are good but quite expensive unless you can score some cheap from someone you know or spot it lying around being unused.. You should see if you can find some poly panel (stuff they build cool stores out of) and use that for your wall, instant wall and it's pre-insulated.That'd be good. Expensive in what sense? I'm hoping to only spend $200-300 on this wall+insulation. Or am I dreaming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cessna driver Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 That'd be good. Expensive in what sense? I'm hoping to only spend $200-300 on this wall+insulation. Or am I dreaming? These are new sheets http://www.trademe.co.nz/Building-renov ... 893010.htm likely out of your price range but if you looked around you maybe able to get some packing sheets or 2nds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 These are new sheets http://www.trademe.co.nz/Building-renov ... 893010.htm likely out of your price range but if you looked around you maybe able to get some packing sheets or 2nds Just a bit :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 2nds are $20-30 per square m so would probably cost thousands rather than hundreds to do it.. As with everything though if you know someone who has a pile of it in their back yard or see a building getting demolished with a cool room you might get some free or cheap just have to find the stuff Before I wanted some I found out one chiller room got bulldozed and saw a whole pile of panels goto the dump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Freezer panel, or poly panel, is great for the floor. I use it in my pigeon loft so they don't get cold feet :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 I'll look into that poly panel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Plan as of yet is to insulate a ply wall with poly or the huge bales of government subsidised underfloor insulation left over from under my parents house. Will find out the insulation rating Also have an old sink in under the house which we're going to fix in and plumb using a hose and waste water outlet we have on the side of the garage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acara Posted October 11, 2010 Report Share Posted October 11, 2010 As already mentioned,the insulation is very important,and must be properly sealed and draught proof.Having said that,the humidity can cause problems,and the easiest way around this is to install a small extractor fan,and have it on a timer,say to come on for 15mins every 2hrs,a bit of trial and error will get good results.You also need to take into account it could get too hot in summer,leaving the door open may be the simplest solution there. For filtration,I use a large pond type air pump(eg Blagdon Koi Air)and a lot of sponge filters. Depending on how high your shed roof is,you could install an attic water tank up high,and the have a hose run down to gravity feed your top ups when doing water changes.Just saves the back! Over here we insulate with a product called Kingspan,theres other brands as well,eg Xtratherm.Dearer than poly,but a hell of a lot more efficient,and thinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acara Posted October 11, 2010 Report Share Posted October 11, 2010 Had to stop there as lunch break was over A lot of people use a small fan heater to heat their fish rooms,the small 2kW type,and on a timer,again like the extractor,you would set it to come on for a short period every hour or so,whatever needed to maintain the room temp.But I would rather pay a little extra and heat each tank individually.My main reason for this is after reading a post by a fellow forum member who lost hundreds of fish,everything from breeding groups of L-nos,corys,etc through to very rare and quite expensive species of all sorts,when he went away for three nights and returned to find the heater had stuck on,and he had a very expensive mess of cooked fish to clean up,utterly heartbreaking.Also easier to have different temps for different species. For a similar reason,you'd obviously be best to filter each tank individualy rather than a centralised system,in case of disease,etc. The Eheim Ecco Pro range of externals are good value,and are very low wattage,often less than much lower rated internal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 Thanks to my dads wood work expertise... v And with the help of SamH, I now have... Bottom left are my babies. Shocked that they can be seen from that distance. This rack is dedicated to fighters. Just need to sort out the power and get the air pumps running and i'm set (and a 60L tank for the middle) Acara-Not too keen on having all my fish die. Individually heating would be the way to go. Was thinking of having unheated jars-bottles with my fighter males in them but they'll only be ones i've bred and not too much of a loss if something goes wrong. Insulation is going to be the expensive part for me. This fish room is a perfect excuse to save my grandparents money in the long run and get something I want. I'm going to start saving towards insulation. Need to price it all. Also need an air compressor and a fan for circulation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamH Posted October 16, 2010 Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 And with the help of SamH :lol: You mean with the "stand around and give advice" from SamH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted October 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 :lol: You mean with the "stand around and give advice" from SamH You held the hose, counted 33(ish) babies and ate my pizza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 looking like a great start, i saw somewhere a calculator for what thickness of poly to use for insulation if you choose to go down that route, cant rember where i saw it though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 looking like a great start, i saw somewhere a calculator for what thickness of poly to use for insulation if you choose to go down that route, cant rember where i saw it though Are you thinking of this one?: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=48031 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted October 18, 2010 Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 lol yup! thats the one, i couldnt have a look at it last time as i didnt have excel on my home computer, i think your article might need to be stickyed/ hidden in the technical drop down on the main page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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