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My fishroom extension has begun


rosco

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HI all,

After 6 months of careful naval gazing and philosophical discussion, today Laurie came over and helped me kick off my fish room extension. I currently have 22 tanks running in the current space which is 6m x1.5m down one length of the room and I plan to remove the wall (that currently has not tanks on it and extend into my carport another 1.5 metres, while making a mindful decision to make the space more usable should I ever sell up.

In the end I will add another 17 tanks into my room, (mainly 3x18x18's and 4x18x18's), a RC aircon unit, much better electrical capacity, including, a single 32 AMP line back to the mainboard, timed power points and overhead lighting possible semi auto water change system, etc, etc

I have drawn a diagram and I will put that and other photos up as soon as I can.

it is all happening

Also a big thanks to Laurie who assisted with helping Mrs Rosco see the light of our master plan :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

cheers

rosco

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I was going to ask you to post up some photos but then I'd need to clarify whether I was askign for photos of the room or of mrs brucem.

So it's probably better if I just go quietly about my business and forget I ever saw this post. :-) :B:8:p

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Thanks Guys. I got back from Sydney yesterday and expected to be something wrong with it but it was still standing :thumbup: . I might see if we can change laurie's handle to "old silver tongue". LOL.

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a couple of years ago a young lass from canberra would have been all over this thread. sadly its much quieter these days.

you are almost tempting me to get more tanks rosco.... almost

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interesting actually that you mention costs craig. I just had my lowest electricity bill in 3 years. main reason being, all my tanks had no heaters running from late september until last week. cut about $200 per quarter off my power bill, and fish didnt seem to mind at all. have a little heating on now and will obviously heat through winter. i expect that will significantly increase my power bills.

in terms of a room, most the energy use we see is through the heaters. I remember when Andy built a room he managed to have it heat up just through the heat from the pumps, mainly cos it was well insulated. I am not sure that the increase in power costs necessarily means that we need less tanks. what i really think it means is that we need to put far more effort in to having a properly insulated fish room for anything other than display tanks.

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good old shell now she was here the first time round maybe I should give a call to see if you will come across from WA to help put the ceiling :zipit::lol4: . Go on gav get some more tanks fired up.

Craig - my current room (has around 25 tanks is currently heavily insulated and this extension is going to seal it even more. My roof and walls have R4 batts with 6mm fiber cement cladding and the lower tanks are surrounded by foam. I currently centrally heat my room with a oil filled heater that is thermostatically controlled powerpoint. On average it costs me around $50 per fortnight to heat and run the room (i know this because this is the amount my fortnightly bill went up) and I expect it will go up slightly but not by much. Basically what the new pumps cost the run as the same heating system will be used until I install a R/C unit. But I love fish too much to care about costs anyhow and it is there to be spent :lol3:

cheers

rosco

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interesting actually that you mention costs craig. I just had my lowest electricity bill in 3 years. main reason being, all my tanks had no heaters running from late september until last week. cut about $200 per quarter off my power bill, and fish didnt seem to mind at all. have a little heating on now and will obviously heat through winter. i expect that will significantly increase my power bills.

in terms of a room, most the energy use we see is through the heaters. I remember when Andy built a room he managed to have it heat up just through the heat from the pumps, mainly cos it was well insulated. I am not sure that the increase in power costs necessarily means that we need less tanks. what i really think it means is that we need to put far more effort in to having a properly insulated fish room for anything other than display tanks.

Hmmm...very interesting you say that Gav...my latest bill was less than 1/2 (yes...1/2) what it was pretty much the same time last year...and I have MORE tanks now. I only run three 300 W heaters in the whole fish room (its pretty well insulated). I dont have any explanation for the cost reduction?

Mike

ps...this post is useless with photos guys...and one of you was after a female caudo? Ive got one or two here if you want one :)

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Rosco and Gav,

I guess my comments are as much…more directed at my own electricity costs and concerns.

With electricity set to go up by several factors (can’t remember the amount – I think I may have blanked them from my mind in fright), even people who love their fish Rosco like you (and I) need to be cognitive of the electricity increases.

I agree Gav, that the prime cost would be heating, which in summer is not an issue. However, you’ve both seen my big tank, and the pump on that alone is 360 watts (which is low considering the water it moves). This will cost HUNDREDS (more) to run each year once the costs rise.

I think lighting can be a significant cost, and the fish must have light, so in a fish room, centralised lighting would be a good idea.

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Hmmm...very interesting you say that Gav...my latest bill was less than 1/2 (yes...1/2) what it was pretty much the same time last year...and I have MORE tanks now. I only run three 300 W heaters in the whole fish room (its pretty well insulated). I dont have any explanation for the cost reduction?

Mike

I think I better print this and show the boss! Mike, my explanantion of the reduced costs would be your new fish room. Better get me one of those.

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For those of you saying your electricity has been reduced slightly and what

not, it is my current understanding that the cost of electricity has not risen for

some time now, however in the future according to the tv news it is said to

rise by around 56% (or thereabouts). And unless I'm seeing things in a bad

light, this would unfortunately guarantee a significant rise in the cost of

keeping our slippery little friends.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I finally have a computer again and I have downloaded the photos. I will endeavor to load some in the next couple of days.

Here is a summary; It is a very slow process but ATM I have the doors in place, the main external walls in place, water proofed and almost ready for painting. Internally all the framing is in place with the main wall (4.8m anyhow) insulated as of Tuesday. Next pay I hope to buy the rest of the cement sheeting for the internal walls and roof, get them up and get a sparky in. Unfortunately a few months ago my disposable income disappeared very quickly when I went to the dentist with a sore tooth and came out the other end $4000 poorer :cryblow: .

My next steps are line the walls with breathable wall sarking, apply a damp course, clad the wall with fibro, insulated the roof enough so I can knock down the brick wall to join my existing room to the new one then get the sparky in.

cheers

rosco

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Hi all,

Here we go. This set of piccies is when the inital frame that Laurie and built with some of blueboard sheeiting starting to go on.

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This set is after I had all the blue boards up and be

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This is the all but the latest state of the except that I complete installing the batts on the empty frame

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Craig - I have thought a little about the water changes and I suspect I will have some form of semi auto water change system but nothing too complex. I will be running a couple of PVC pipes through the the small side wall as it is close to a tap so I can run inlets and outlets into the room. That way I can drain all the water onto my lawn. Unfortunately the layout of my house doesn't really allow me to gets mains water there it would simply cost too much. So I plan to use large hose fittings etc and go from there.

cheers

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mate got some work on your hand but looks like it will be a nice spot keep up the good work progress pic will oneday encourge my to start mine so please any problems that you incured and found easyer way please let us know

:)

many thanks

foti

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Thanks for all comments I am far from a builder and it shows but hey it keeps me off the streets. It would be a tight squeeze but I am yet to knock down the white brick wall on the left hand side of the photo 2. It not a load bearing wall as it was added on some time after the original structure was build. In saying that I am going to vertically pin the side walls just in case

On the other side of that wall is this (my current wall:

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At the end of the process I have added approximately 1.5m onto the existing 1.8m wide room. So all up the end product will be approx 5.5m x 3.5m or thereabouts.

cheers

rosco

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Adam I haven't mentioned it. :) .

If you look at that last photo you can an electric oil heater that is connected to a power point and if you look a little higher you will see a thermostat on the wall (like the ones used for electric wall heaters) and that controls the power to the power point.

I have found that it has been better to individually heat the ground level tanks as I could ever get them up to 21 degrees so I have a heater to boost them up to 25. I am planning ahead (especially with having to redo the power anyhow) and I will be replacing this heater with a R/C air con unit because the humidity in Summer is outrageous and once I add another 4000litres it will be unbearable.

cheers

rosco

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