Fish Room Journal

[SkiFletch]

Lol, looks great Sian, can't wait to see the finished product

 

[Miss Wiggle]

awww bless her!

it's look good Sian, can i ask do you do all the DIY stuff yourself?

Sad as it is I was very excited and pround of myself cos i sawed a bit of ply to make Ian a handboard for plastering last night, first time I've picked up a saw since DT lessons at school. I'm always really impressed with people who can make stands and stuff themselves, no way would i trust a big tank to my handiwork!!

 

[sianeds]

I did all the measuring and bought and carried all the wood. I marked up all the cuts and held the wood still while Daddy cut it. I also held the wood while Daddy drilled it.

I had the basic design drawn up for me and had help in choosing the right wood from some wonderful friends. ( Thanks Ski and Navarre )

Other than that all the rest of the technical stuff was down to some pretty substantial eyelash fluttering at the hardware stores.

Oh the joys of acting like a helpless woman

 

[adam.crouch]

I did all the measuring and bought and carried all the wood. I marked up all the cuts and held the wood still while Daddy cut it. I also held the wood while Daddy drilled it.

I had the basic design drawn up for me and had help in choosing the right wood from some wonderful friends. ( Thanks Ski and Navarre )

Other than that all the rest of the technical stuff was down to some pretty substantial eyelash fluttering at the hardware stores.

Oh the joys of acting like a helpless woman

Sian your tank looks wicked!! Guys trying to kick me out of my room so he can get a massive tank in here lol. hopefully by monday you'll be able to move ur stuff across I'll come give you a hand aswell

 

[sianeds]

Aww thanks Adam. I've been asked to work on monday now so I won't be able to do much till the afternoon.

For those of you who don't know... MY TANK IS FULL . I got the water in yesterday and put enough salt in for 100gallons. Am currently waiting for the temp to come up a bit so I can get some more salt in and test the SG accurately. Plus I'm in work all weekend.

I bought a 300watt heater today and added it to the 2 heaters currently in the tank.

I have all the plumbing connected and it's all working great. I only had one mishap when I turned on the return pump... two of what I thought were closed valves turned out to be open outlets...I got a bit soggy. The problem was solved with a piece of hosepipe

 

[sianeds]

Little update....

I am having terrible trouble getting the temperature stable in the tank. I had it up to 26C yesterday but we had a cold windy night and it had dropped to 19C by this morning. Luckily I haven't even started putting LR in the tank yet so no damage done...but I have to have all my livestock in the tank by this time next week so I need to sort this problem.

Yesterday my Dad made me an extra power socket near to the tank. I am really struggling to safely get enough plug space for all the hardware.

One of my powerheads wasn't working so I took it apart and had a fiddle, it was just a sticky impeller which I cleaned off and it worked fine when I tested it in the sump. I unplugged it and put it in the main tank, plugged it back in and POP went the fuse for the garage and all of the upstairs of the house I then had a mad half hour trying to get some fuse wire at 3pm on a bank holiday. It's all fixed now and the powerhead is out and will not be going back in.

The light fixings looked a bit too flimsy to hold the weight of my MH's so my Dad is now fixing some more sturdy ones to the wall. I am hoping that the lights are going to help warm up the water.

I will be adding another 300w heater on Thursday and I will also be buying a garage heater to come on at night when the lights are off. If the 2 300w heaters don't keep the tank warm enough then I'm thinking about a small swimming pool heater. Mainly because it gets so cold at night and I really need something pretty powerful to keep the temp steady. I know I can get a small one for less than £100. As an added bonus I will be cutting down on plugs by having one big heater... we shall see what happens over the next few days.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Other than that all the rest of the technical stuff was down to some pretty substantial eyelash fluttering at the hardware stores.

pmsl, always works a treat. i've a couple of special tops i wear for visiting garage's and diy shops by myself

 

[sianeds]

Yeah me too I find a pretty handbag and heels work wonders too. Oh men are so easy to manipulate

 

[Miss Wiggle]

he he too right, although i can't complain really with a builder for a fella and a mechanic for a father in law (sort of, we're not married but you know what i mean) i'm pretty well set. Ian on the other hand has inherited a social worker and tax inspector from my side of the family which he isn't too impressed with lol

 

[sianeds]

Well I married into a family of farmers so not much help to be gained there... Thank the lord for my Daddy who is a pretty good DIYer and my Mum who is a really good babysitter

I have called in a fair few favours so far to get this tank running, luckily I used to work in the cafe on a large industrial estate and I know lots of the local tradesmen. Having spent years feeding them they are all really helpful as long as I keep them supplied with bacon butties and sweet tea

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ha ha yeah, had one of Ian's mates in to do some plastering for us last weekend (truly dark art that, and one Ian has conceeded he needs help with!) he was very complimentary about my bacon and egg butties and got the job done nice and quick and charged us less than he'd quoted.

 

[sianeds]

Sweet. I forgot to mention...

We have got one of the MH's mounted and working!!!

Dad has just nipped to the hardware shop to get some more thingies to hold the light onto the wotsit

Hopefully in the next hour or two I will be fully lit

 

[Miss Wiggle]

woooo

that should help with the temp a bit, set them, to come on for a couple of hrs through the night

 

[atmmachine816]

On the technical side whether you know it or not 5watts per gallon so that's 50w heater for 10 gallon tank or for you 50w heater for 40liters. Don't remember how big your tank is or whether that helps at all. Could it be a faulty heater because I've had heaters when they just can't tell the temperature of the tank and heat it really warm then let it get cold. btw won't the MH only heat it during the day, or do you not really care too much.

 

[SkiFletch]

Non-technical question: what are "bacon butties"? They must be good because they involve both bacon and butts. Bringing these two things together must lead to some form of joyous hysteria