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New Fish Room


Noddy65

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Hi all

Well settlement was today and the wife and I went up to the new house tonight...we moved a few boxes of things in and of course I checked out the garage/fish room....

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Well...its going to be a lot more work than I originally thought. I cant move any fish from the old house until this is done....and theres a few weeks work involved here....I wish I had some holidays owing :)

The walls are lined but theres no insulation in so all the lining will have to come off and insulation put in......Ill then hold the batts Ive got in place with roofing or wall foil.

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The roof is an issue, Im not sure how Im going to put the insulation up and keep it in place....I may just use the roofing or wall foil and support it with battens....but the joists are going to cause me some grief and the lights are awkwardly placed.

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Theres a really nice welded shelf right along one wall....but its no good for me in here so that will have to come down...it weighs a tonne.

This weekend Ill strip the inside of the shed and have a friend do the electrics for me...luckily it appears the shed is on its own circuit...but of course the circuit board is in the wrong place (it will be behind a rack of tanks)...so Ill have to see if that can be moved.

The wife thought I just looked confused and a little overwelmed...she might be right :)

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Will you be keeping the roller door and also what will you do with the windows as you may lose heat from these..

I am sure it will look great once it is done. What tanks will you be filling the room up with and what filteration will be used?

Goodluck with it all

John

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Thanks John

Ill be keeping one window, the one on the right in the last pic...my workbench/live food shelves will be there so it will be nice to have some natural light there....

Still havent decided on the roller door...Ill keep it for the time being as it will be great for getting the bigger tanks in. It recessed from the outside so I can insulate and line the outside of the door....but it might come down eventually...just means I have to build a complete wall for that side...thats for a time when I have more...er...time :)

The tanks will be run off a mixture of sumps and air driven sponge filters.

Mike

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Hi Noddy, I would enclose the veranda instead.

A bit of tin, wood, insulation and cement sheeting.

Then you will have a garage and a fish room.

Darren

top idea build frames out of 2/3 blue board the out side install your batts in the frame and for internal wall use some cheaper type of cladding wiring would be very quick and easy

you are going to need to leave the existing poles in place it would make your job easier, but could be removed if you chose

you can even take the window from the garage and move it to one of the new frames and just patch the hole on your garage wall

you got a big job in front of you, but if it has the right amount of floor space there beside your garage I would say its worth it :thumbup: new house, garage and fish room :8

good luck with what you choose to do and congratulations on the new place ! :thumb

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I did think about doing that but I really am pressed for time...we rent now and the fish are staying here, all the time paying rent :angry: The carport area will be used for outside tanks (Ive a few natives outside) and to store my water change drums...

All I really need to get the room habitable is to get the electrics and internal walls done and then I can move in...the new tanks and rack can be put in while Im living there

Mike

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Looks like a huge job you have there Mike.

If you need any help just give us a yell. We will be madly trying to save fish at the moment but will help out if needed!

Have fun! ;)

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Mike,

If it were me I would leave the roller door and add some removable Wall like Panels. Basically just do a frame or 2 as if it were a real wall and slot them inside the fish room . You only lose a little bit of space but it could be useful for shelving and other storages stuff if need be. Also if you decide to move you just pop the wall out and then you have single garage. Laurie (chorrylan) did it to his and it works a treat. It also allows you to move big tanks and long racks in and out of there with too much trouble. What you have there is exactly what I am after but I have to wait until the mrs is back a work so I we can buy a bigger house. I look forward to checking it out someday.

cheers

rosco

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The roof is an issue, Im not sure how Im going to put the insulation up and keep it in place....

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you can use battens as i have or you can go and get some of these from the hardware store and use them.

http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/product...46_front200.jpg

theyll both do the same job the only difference is cost. id also recommend gettinga smoke detector for your fish room considering its outside; preferbaly one that you can interconnect to your house one so that if theres a problem out there youll know about it if youre inside. the last thing you want to do is come out and find the garage on fire and considering its a new house and you dont know what your wirings like then a $30 smoke detector can be a wise investment; for both you and your fish

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Hey Yellow,

I was just wonderring... are those insulation batts left exposed or were these some progress photographs, and the ceiling is now lined with plasterboard or similar?

Reason I ask is I would have thought that you would have some issues with moisture and cockroaches and things affecting the batts.

Noddy, I think battens and insulation batts is the way to go.

Cant wait to see more pics as it progresses.

Cheers

Joel

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I was just wonderring... are those insulation batts left exposed or were these some progress photographs, and the ceiling is now lined with plasterboard or similar?

Reason I ask is I would have thought that you would have some issues with moisture and cockroaches and things affecting the batts.

theyre left exposed at the moment until i get around to plastering over the top of them. as far as moisture goes i havent had a problem and its been this way now for at least six months. you can actually buy insulation from bunnings thats moisture resistant and its actually cheaper, though thinner, then the stuff thats designed for roofs. its $33.00 a roll from memory. as far as cockroaches go i havent had a problem but most cockroach problems come from lax fish food managemnet; if you leave excess food lying around cockroaches soon tunr up to start eating it. combine that with the humidity of a fish room and youll soon have an infestation. i keep my fish room relatively clean and ive never had a problem. and if anyone was going to have one itd be me because i have a strict kill absolutely nothing policy in regards to the various residents that inhabit my house; much to my wifes displeasure.

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Hey Noddy, looks like you have a fair bit of work ahead of you mate. Will be unreal when your done tho.

Mate, i recently lined the inside of my parents shed with V-jay board and when putting insulation in the ceiling the only way we could do it is to put a sheet up and stuff the insulation batt in the gap above it once it was screwed in place. It was pretty easy and didn't take very long so could be an idea for you as long as you are lining the ceiling with something.

Am looking forward to seeing some progress pics and once its done.

Cheers mate and good luck cos I know it's not the most fun, especially when your in a hurry.

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Ok...very short update.

1. Room has been stripped. Shelf is gone and all the lining has been removed

2. Power has been done

3. Insulated the roof today....if you can pay someone to do this, have a wife/husband/brother/sister/cousin/random stranger off the street help you, then by all means do it....Ive only done the roof today and Im pooped.

Ill finish off the detailing of the roof tomorrow and hopefully get stuck into the walls as well.

Ill post some more pics tomorrow night :D

Mike

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Ok...update time

I managed to find about 100 sq metres of second hand insulation. It was used under a factory roof. I got enough to put a double layer in. You can see all the fluoro lights I managed to pick up as well (in the background)

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Internal cladding is off.

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The friend gets started on wiring the room up

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The new power points are all in. He rewired the whole room actually...Much safer I think

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The room is on its own circuit...he popped a new one in for me with breakers rather than fuses. The timer for the lights will be going on here as well soon.

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The new power points...all are double. The single one is for the lights and will be timer controlled, the double is for power

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Slim Shady in his sperm suit getting ready to put in the fibreglass. The wife thinks we will be raided by the local police soon. New neighbours mived in, putting in lights and insulation adn dressed in protective gear, looks like Im boiling up something illegla in the shed.

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All the insulation batts is in. I had no chance of being able to double it up. Its just too difficult to work with when your doing this by yourself.

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and the final layer is on. I used some of the wall/roofing foil to hold the batts in place. Im going to use strapping to help support the batts in the roof space. That job is for later when I have some feeling back in my finger and shoulders.

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Problems?: so far very few. The weight of the batts is a pain and I really wish the wife could have helped me...Id be happier if I had a double layer up in the roof.

The are some gaps between the edges of the roofing foil and the ceiling. I need to some how closed those gaps. I might have to get some of the foil tape and close the gaps up.

The roller door is still there and not insulated. Thats for another day.

Next job?: in this order really

1. Move the tanks form the old place

2. Pallet racking

3. New tanks

4. New fish

5. Have a nice rest

Mike :buggered:

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hey mate coming along very nicely :yes: are you going to be lining the walls and ceiling with any gyprock etc or is the priority now to just move the tanks in from the other house? also have you thought about how you are going to be heating the room? also nice score with the second hand inso...

cheers patrick

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Have you got an RCD (safety switch) installed on the circuit that feeds that sub-board cause it looks like there isn't any on that one. If not it does not comply with current regs. Also if you have to get your mate back to fit one it would be a better idea to put one on each circuit. That way if you have a fault on one circuit it wont take out everything. Oh and you have to have one on your lighting circuit too.

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Have you got an RCD (safety switch) installed on the circuit that feeds that sub-board cause it looks like there isn't any on that one. If not it does not comply with current regs. Also if you have to get your mate back to fit one it would be a better idea to put one on each circuit. That way if you have a fault on one circuit it wont take out everything. Oh and you have to have one on your lighting circuit too.

Theres one on the main board up at the house (on the circuit that runs down to the fishroom) , didnt think of putting one one each of the circuits down in the fishroom. Ill mention it to him when he comes to finish off.

Mike :)

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Ok...its been an intensive few weeks and Im just about out of steam. I took very few pics during the move, I really just couldnt be bothered really.....its almost time for a little break.....Ive been going back to the old house every day to feed the fish and pack stuff every day after work...sometimes I dont get home until after 10.00 pm...so Im pooped.

The fish were moved into the almost complete room this weekend. I caught the fish, popped them in buckets, drained the tanks (well as much water as I could) and left most of the substrate in the tanks. I removed all rocks, heaters, filter material etc...but the sand stayed in the tanks

Heres some pics:

The existing tanks and racks were put onto a trailer..

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Buckets were in short supply....styrofoam boxes worked a treat...some of the shellies just refused to come out of their shells, so I worked out that if I covered the bottom of the bucket with sand and part buried the shells into teh sand they stayed nice and still. One male signatus that had been left in the big tank by mistake survived the trip by hiding in a shell with a bit of water in it...

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The room with the tanks in it...its a mess and the air lines are in the wrong spot but it was more important to get fish in tanks and air into the tanks than making things look organised...that can come later

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So far so good...theres been a few fatalities (very few) mostly fry and one of two rainbows but thast about it.

Next step is to finish the lining, theres still some nails to put in and holes to fill.

Ill be getting the pallet racking in the next two weeks and then will be ordering some new tanks soon after that.

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Picked up the pallet racking today. Got a great deal on it and the guy even had it all dismantled and the supports cut so the end frames are 600 mm deep (I want them to be around 2 foot deep for the tanks) for me.....I didnt ask him to do it for me so Im pretty happy with it. It also means that I was able to get all the bits and pieces in one trip.

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I ordered all the bulkheads, elbows, tee pieces etc Ill need for most of the tanks yesterday...wow that was a surprise on how expensive it was and I used an online store that had discount prices.

When its all finished Ill probably put up a list of costs for the various bits and pieces....Im not sure I really want to know but some people might be interested.

Next phase:

1. Order the tanks. One of my LFS has the best prices Ive found so far in Sydney so Im lucky (and Ive called them all pretty much :D )

Regards

Mike

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Keep in mind Im buying a few tanks but I was quoted (size in inches and all with lids)

24 x 18 x 12 (h) $38

36 x 24 x 18 (h) $125

72 x 24 x 20 (h) $160

24 x 12 x 12 (h) $30

Mike :)

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