Dangers of a haphazard fish room - more confessions

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Random sheets of glass as tops... sometimes using multiples to cover the top.

Oh, I'm also using one of those heat lamp clamps to hold the return tube from the sump into the tank. It isn't PVC, it's some kind of rubber hose. I'm always worried something will dislodge it and it will spray water everywhere. Oh, also, the clamp is rusting. Any day now it's gonna snap.

I'm using a cheap Office Depot desk to hold a forty gallon tank.

On one of my tanks, I can't get a drip loop because of the kind of connection I'm using... and it's a fish that splashes a lot.

I'm sure there's more, but can't think of them.
 
I have a spot where three tanks are close together on counter, all tanks have lids, heaters, Lots of cords, I try to keep them neat.

One day I found mouse droppings behind one of the tanks. after trying a non-kill trap I finally resulted to a glue trap.

I set the trap several feet away from the tank.

The next morning I woke up to find a dead mouse on the trap, However, the mouse had drug the glue trap along the bag of all of the tanks (8+ ft), and as he went along, he chewed most of the cords up. Little tiny nicks out of the black plastic.

So now those three tanks have duck tape over electrical tape on the cords in several places, looks really ghetto, I just friggin bought most of those things..
 
My fish room is my bedroom. lol
My 75g has no lid or canopy and I'm using a 3ft light from one side to the crossbar.
My 20g has a fitted piece of glass I had made only it broke into two pieces now I lift one for feeding.
Last my blue crayfish's tank right next to my bed has no top and I go to bed fearing that one night she'll climb out, fall on me and latch onto me.
And I'm a total outlet whore. :p
 
I am loving this thread and replies :)

I keep my stuff pretty neat and tidy...but, I do have a few skeletons.

1. I have a large rubber maid tub FULL of old artificial plants and decorations. Some of the pieces are like new, but some are so old, faded, broke and wore out that no one would want them. But, I still have them.

2. An OLD book on fish keeping and aquarium maintenance. I mean, it's kind of cool...but when it talks about sanding down the metal tank trim and coating it with lead based paint at least once every two years...yeah, it's kind of out of date :)

3. My Marineland Magum 350 canister filter. When I first got it, I was in love :) It was my first canister. It actually did a great job and had some cool features. But, it finally wore out and I couldn't keep it from leaking. I got frustrated and set it out on the curb for trash pick up. Later, I brought it back in lol. I wiped the seals with Vaseline and got it to stop leaking. It's on a 29 at the moment, purring away. I love that filter! lol
 
Well the biggest hazard in my fish room is the snake rack on the other side of the room. Every once and a while a drawer isn't closed correctly or someone figure out how to escape, and they go where you would not expect them to be.

One day i went down to do some water changes and after about 20 minutes, a small red tail boa fell onto my back from a florescent light fixture hanging from the ceiling. He went up there for heat and fell off when i walked under him. I fell backwards and almost went through the side of my 125.

Then about a week later when I went under my 300 to shut the valves to do some filter maintenance, I found one of my corn snakes just hanging out inside my W/D getting a drink. There have since been a few modifications to the rack and no one has escaped. Yet.

Oh and water and electricity meet far too often down there too. So basically: snakes + wet power strips = bad situations.
 
Power strips connected to power strips, and a 29 on a table with the cat dishes...it's not that wobbly..
 
Joe M;4833484; said:
Oh and water and electricity meet far too often down there too. So basically: snakes + wet power strips = bad situations.
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It's easy to let fishrooms get out of control.

I try to spend 15-20 mins after each weekly water change with a trash bag: throw away any trash, open food, broken stuff, (beer) bottles, etc. I also mop the floor with Mr. Clean.

Also, I got some rolling parts racks (with a bunch of bins) on clearance at Lowe's ($9 each!)...and keep all of the millions of parts and pieces that I've accumulated over the years (PVC parts, filter parts, air control parts, etc.) in those. What I don't need in the fishroom, I keep in the garage.

That said, I too have way too many extension cords in my fishroom. I think that the best approach is to use less stuff that needs to be plugged in. For example, I use 2 big pumps vs. a bunch of small ones. I heat the room vs. each tank. I use overhead lights vs. a strip light on each tank. I'd like to think it saves electricity as well.

Matt
 
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