Rorie's Fish House Project

[ian_m]

about the lighting what type circuit breakers do you have running the lighting? as you should probably be using a type C ( not a general household type B ) as the start up currents from the lighting may cause it to trip ( i think thats right im in my 3rd year of electrics at college and thats what iv been told so i hope it helps )

Correct, fitting a type C is one way to fix the problem.

I have fitted two type C breakers in my consumer unit.

1. One for hall and garage lighting circuit as when the hall bulb used to blow, which it used to quite often, being exposed to cold air, it tripped the type B breaker cutting the other hall light off and plunging the garage, where the consumer unit is into darkness. Not good. Fitting a type C fixed that, no trip on blown bulb. Later of course replaced with low energy bulbs and type B would not have been an issue.

2. When kitchen was extened, more downlighters were fitted (via transformers) and once or twice a week the type B would trip when lights were turned on. Fitting type C, lights always worked.

Technical type B, C & D here...

 

[pirate monkey]

Fantastic read, can't wait to see it all up and running

 

[balajake]

we need updates

 

[Rorie]

we need updates

haha, i wondered if anybody had noticed the lack of update!

There is a bit of a delay just now - i need the electrics to be finished off, but my dad has been busy so its not happened!

I was going to do some work this weekend with lights set up on an extension cable, but it ws 25 degrees!! So no way was i working inside haha.

Sorry folks! Hopefully i'll get some updates this week as the rubbish weather is back!

 

[balajake]

thanks for the reply, i honestly can't wait to see this completed.

 

[Rorie]

thanks for the reply, i honestly can't wait to see this completed.

That said, here are two updates for you!

1) I have decided not to keep my 5ft tank as marine or FW, but to sell it! It will just be too much with the fish room and two parrots and a new house and of course, the better half!

2) My pump for water changes in my fish room has arrived....its HUGE! Here is a photo compared to a pint glass (full of water cause i'm a good boy!). I have since come up with an idea of how i can utilise the pump even more! Its so powerful i could use it as a power-syphon to take water out the tanks, then unclip it (going to use eheim connector so its super quick) and clip to a pipe in my water storage tank. But i still shouldn't be looking at those details yet haha.

 

[Rorie]

Week 8 - Glass Wool always wins!

So, i am still without lighting with is annoying - the joys of family helping out, its on their time scale.

This week

1) Framed out the roof ready for plasterboard

2) put up plaster board on the roof which covers the fish room area

3) Crawled into the space to pack it full on insulation. All would have been well other than the angled bits which i couldn't get in properly! It was late on in the day and my new favourite saying was "It will BL***y do!". Its REALLY small space and i am 6 foot 4! Despite all the appropriate PPE i am still itching with the darn stuff! And from the photo below, you can see the board i had to lie on, and the rafters.....no joke - i was in there.....just

4)i laid down cables for my lighting

5) I looked again today and realised that i am going to have to send the better half up there to ensure there is insulation in those bits or it will just ask for all the heat to escape!

6) You can see that my fine detailing is not up to much! There is a bit of a gap where the plasterboard meets on the roof..... It will BL***Y do! haha. I will fill this in later. Not beautiful, but at the end of the day, its a fish room!

7) I then build the partition wall and started plaster boarding it. The wall was build flat and then propped upright. NOW you can see my engineering excellence - there was a zero tolerance haha. It fit PERFECTLY!

8) i have now run out of plaster board, insulation and screws haha. Time to go shopping

 

[bae1994]

Looking good what are the dimensions?

 

[Rorie]

Looking good what are the dimensions?

The room its self is 4.5mx 4.5m. The fish room its self is 4.5mx 4 foot. Changing units, but it was dimensioned in width to suit a 4 ft tank.

So effectively i'll have 2x 4 ft tanks and a 200L water butt at one end. Along the long wall, i'll have 8x 4ft tanks split into 2 foot tanks. The other end wall will have 4x cubes for discus pairs and a 4 ft grow on tank below that.

 

[Westwood]

This is not a sarcastic comment... Do you have enough sockets?

Westwood

 

[Rorie]

This is not a sarcastic comment... Do you have enough sockets?

Westwood

More sockets = more likelihood of adding more plugs = more cost haha

I have a total of 8 plugs in the fish room, not including heating and lighting.

My plan is to have the whole room heated, than then just boost any tanks which need it with aquarium heaters. So my total plugs should be 1 for air pump, 1 for dehumidifier, 1 for water pump during water changes.

 

[fishy1204]

looking very nice mate

 

[Rorie]

Week 9 - part 1

Just thought i'd share a video of the amazing new pump i have! I am a bit worried its too big! I will be using it for filling aquariums, but it comes out the 32mm pipe at high velocity! I knew i'd have to play about to make it work, so will just have to play about a lot!

http://www.roriethomson.com/IMG_0751.MOV

 

[bae1994]

What lph is your pump I've got one thats 15000lph and is crazy lol

 

[Rorie]

Week 9 - part2

So, I am currently waiting for the electrician to come out a week on Friday to finish off all the electrical work which will mean i can progress some with the build. I am kind of stalling until that is done.

However, i was 'asked' if i could sort out the ditch i had dug in front of the house! So i laid down the waste pipe and water lines and filled them in. Obviously making sure there was a slope in the waste. The water is now all hooked up, but i need to sort out the waste as i need to put a new plastic drain on top of the old clay pot.....

Mean while, a local cat decided to make a home in my insulation! Little #29###! It can't be good for him, but i couldn't get him out! 2 days and he was quite happy in there! He's gone now, no doubt to get some food!!

Plaster board is almost all done, just the roof to finish once the sparkies are done!