Rorie's Fish House Project

[Rorie]

I can't wait to see how your room turns out.. looks great so far

I know how cold it is in the North of Scotland lol.. I'm in Elgin

I'm not as far north as you - i'm aberdeenshire, so about 40 mins away! I am looking forward to summer when we can wake up to positive numbers again hha

 

[Jenks74]

Looking good so far, love to follow journals - always hope to get ideals for when i move an finally have space for a fish house.

Good luck for the build, i'll be following this one

 

[Rorie]

Week 3

Step 1) Fix my upset OCD by sorting out my tools

Step 2) Start building the wooden base frame from 6x2" at 400 c-c

Step 3) Try tunnelling through then 1 foot deep stone wall! - the idea is to dig out a channel, downhill, the size of my waste pipe and fresh water feed. However, as its made from stones which are the same shape and size as they were originally dug out of the ground, this is easier said than done! It is tricky to smash through a stone, so its easier to take out the stone. But once you get behind that one, another one is sticking into the channel...so it needs to come out.

Short story is you end up with a massive hole in the wall haha.

4) Level the wooden frame using laser level

5) No-more-nails the packers in place

6) pace in the waste line (downhill all the way) and new water line

7) Lay 170mm insulation

8) Lay tongue and groove flooring

9) have a beer before real work tomorrow!!

 

[BigC]

Following this one Rorie....
Excellent work so far......what are your thoughts if any on automatic water-changing.
Regards
BigC

 

[ian]

looking good Rorie!

 

[Wills]

Really enjoying it so far!! Looks brilliant 100% going to do one of these my self one day

Wills

 

[Cazgar]

Looks like a lot of hard work, but will be great once it's finished.
Look forward to seeing it progress

 

[Rorie]

Following this one Rorie....
Excellent work so far......what are your thoughts if any on automatic water-changing.
Regards
BigC

Only last night did i decide where my partition wall is going to go for the fish room haha. I am going to basically put a wall down the middle of this big room. The back wall should then get 4x 3 foot tanks, and maybe 3 high.... one side will have another 3 foot (same high) and the opposite side will have 3 tanks too, one above the other for my water treatment.

My thinking just now is as follows:

Top tank will have RO water filtering into it with auto shut off
Middle tank will heat the Ro water
Bottom tank will be for treated water

Each tank will have a 22mm pipe sticking up as overflow style. If water flows over this line it will go into the waste system (all tanks will be plumbed into this). So when i want to do a water change, i rotate this vertical pipe to the desired level and the water drains out. I can do this for as many or few tanks i wish to change the water on that given day.

For replacing the water, i will pump the water from the bottom storage tank through a network of pipes which will pass over the top of every tank. If i wish to fill a tank, i open the valve above the tank. If i forget to switch off the pump or valve in time, no problem as the vertical pipe will act as my overflow.

The bottom tank is now empty. I drain the middle into it, then the top into the middle. That way i straight away have a fully heated tank of water for changes. The middle tank now has RO water ready for heating, and then the top tank starts filling with RO water.

In some cases i may wish not to use RO water, in which case i can fill the top tank with normal water. This will probably be the case so i change my discus with RO water one day, then my killies etc the next with normal water.

Hope that makes some form of sense?!

 

[Rorie]

Week 4

So, this weekend i finished off the flooring and then started work on the walls.

The walls took an awful lot longer to construct than i though.

It was important to make sure the wall was perpendicular to the floor joists and i kept a 1 inch air gap from the back of the timber wall and the stone wall. To help with reducing and moisture transfer, i lined the walls with a special damp proof covering.

I made a slight boo-boo as i measured where my water and drain lines would need to end (4 inch post + 1 inch air gap + a little wiggle room). BUT, as the stone wall isn't straight, when i lines up the wall with the joist, my only option was to drill through the bottom beam so that now the two lines come up inside the wall. Oh well!

I then ran out of timber which is frustrating! Next week will bring an end to the wall construction and i can start on the electrics.

And the last photo - proof that buying a bigger hammer is not always pleasing! I am yet to find out what the true damage is - i think a bone may be smashed....its pretty swollen! The photo doesn't do it justice! haha

 

[BigC]

Ah Progress...good man....pity about the finger Boo Hoo......get on with it man...I'm an impatient bugger....lol

 

[Rorie]

Went and stocked up at B&Q today. Got the wall insulation for £3 a roll (on special). The roof was a steal - £1 a roll as they had 'damaged packaging'! WOOP Buy buy buy!

 

[ultimatebob]

wow! there is so much potential. please keep us updated.

 

[Rorie]

For those who are following, here is an update of this week....

....

.That is all

I took a week off - got another load of wood delivered but waiting from some help to do the electrics next week.

So, next week i have 4 days of work (taking a long weekend), so hopefully get the last two walls up, the electrics and maybe even some of the roof. Then i'll get cracking

 

[Corrine]

You deserve a week off hehe

 

[Cazgar]

Ouch! Your finger looks sore, but you seem to be making good progress.
Got a good bargain there on the insulation, gotta love a bargain.
Will be following this to the end