Old Fishroom
Work is ongoing now that the better weather is here.
In April 2006 I completed fixing the Polycarbonate roof, so it will let in a lot of light for the live plants that I will have in every tank.
As of mid May 2006 the shed is nearly fully insulated (2" polystyrene sheets on all walls) and boarded out with plywood. Once I have done a bit of tidying I will take some photographs.
Also electricity has been installed with it’s own isolation system. I have a large air pump (Hailea) that I bought on EBAY.
After the boarding out is complete the next step will be to build the first stand, which will be designed to hold 18 inch long tanks end on. The second and final stand will be only 12" deep.
Next will be to produce some more 18 x 10 x 10 inch tanks for this new stand, and then I can move my existing fish and tanks out of their cupboard.
In April 2006 I completed fixing the Polycarbonate roof, so it will let in a lot of light for the live plants that I will have in every tank.
As of mid May 2006 the shed is nearly fully insulated (2" polystyrene sheets on all walls) and boarded out with plywood. Once I have done a bit of tidying I will take some photographs.
Also electricity has been installed with it’s own isolation system. I have a large air pump (Hailea) that I bought on EBAY.
After the boarding out is complete the next step will be to build the first stand, which will be designed to hold 18 inch long tanks end on. The second and final stand will be only 12" deep.
Next will be to produce some more 18 x 10 x 10 inch tanks for this new stand, and then I can move my existing fish and tanks out of their cupboard.
Started with plastic containers on the top tier of both stands, but with the polycarbonate roof, it was difficult to scrape off the quickly growing algae and over a short period of time the plastic became opaque. Therefore these containers were switched with all glass tanks. Though I still used medium and large plastic sandwich boxes (that could be stacked vertically) for housing small fry.
It ended up that I had to cover half of the polycarbonate roof (facing south) as there was just too much direct sunlight. There was a problem with algae but that I could live with, even if it made viewing the fish difficult, though the biggest problem was very high temperatures (>30°C) in the summer (even with the door open), which we know is not good for most killies.
I ran this fishroom for a number of years with varying success. My Nothobranchius thrived but I had mixed accomplishment with my Fundulopanchax, as some thrived like Fp gardneri and Fp nigerianus species but others refused to breed like Fp cinnamomeus and Fp rubrolabialis.
I even had great success in breeding Fp fallax, but only during the summer when the temperature in the fishroom was higher.
Early in 2009, I decided that due to increased hours spent at work plus many family commitments, I could no longer spend the time required to adequately look after the fish, so the fishroom was closed (then used for over-wintering delicate plants for the garden). Though I did expect that the time would come that I would start keeping fish again and open it back up.
Then in 2011, I took early retirement but my wife and I decided that our large house and garden was just too much for the two of us, so we looked to sell and move into a smaller place. If I had known how long that sale would take, I might have been very tempted to start keeping fish again. So in the end we did not move until Oct/Nov 2013, and the building of a new fishroom is another story.