Grinch and Bichir Girl's Fish Room

[Grinch]

The return system ended up being too close to the tanks to open the lids... I was worried about how I was going to get the water down into the tanks and wasn't thinking about opening the tanks. Well, that's been fixed now by inserting a small section of pipe into the vertical return.



We've got 5 of the 6 tanks on the bottom row running with critters (the 6th is leaking). Now I have to figure out how to fix this (the upper return drops about 3 inches going to the other side and space is tight over there):

I tracked down a piece of twinwall polycarbonate and made some lids. My first time working with this material. I had expected it to be more forgiving... its basically like working with plywood... clear plywood. I found it pretty difficult to cut in a straight line due to the clarity. It's tough to keep track of where the line is, it messes with your depth perception. Using a medium speed with the jigsaw and pulsing/cutting in short sections seemed to be the most effective method. I then used sand paper for dialing in the fit.

I might use this in a few other places in the fish room to tighten up our evaporation and control humidity.

 

[kewpiefishypewpie]

I'm impressed

 

[Grinch]

Finally had some time today to get into the fishroom and do some work. First order of business, fix this:

Space was really tight, but I came up with a pretty elegant fix I think. I had planned to use hardware for installing a closet rod, but I liked this solution better in the end because it cups the pipe MUCH better.

All better:

As you can see in the above picture, I also got the tops on and down spouts on and was able to turn up the pressure from the sump and see what happens. A bunch of slow leaks happened! I need to 1) get better teflon tape, 2) redo a couple seals, and 3) not be so heavy handed with the tap next time. But on the up-side, lids are all on and I can run these tanks in a pinch. Good thing, because a box of fish is showing up in two days!

 

[Bigfishnut]

First time I checked this thread out. Quite an accomplishment Grinch !!

 

[Reedmaster16]

Fantastic work and documentation of the process! Fish room is really looking great.

 

[Grinch]

So, those slow leaks turned out to be caused by this:

I hadn't tapped the holes too big, I tapped them either too small or tried to tighten them too much. In either case, when I screwed them in, rather than biting into the PVC like a metal fitting does, the threads were stripped. I was able to put some threads back into the PVC with a couple tap twists. Fortunately, I bought two extra ball valves when I initially bought these, so I had the spare parts on hand to fix the distribution manifold. In retrospect, I noticed that one of the valves was just spinning in the hole, but I didn't think much of it. There's your sign.

When I pressurized the top distribution manifold for the first time I realized that the pressure had really increased on the bottom manifold. While I'm sure the ball valves them selves can handle that pressure, my faith in the ability of the plastic on plastic threads to hold has been shaken (see picture above). Solution? Another in-line ball valve:


Both rows of tanks are running now. I think the next project is lights. We're getting a lot of glare off of the under-rack lights above our 120's, so I think those are going to be re-purposed onto the new rack. Bichir Girl's prize Utaka/Vic tank already has its new light:

 

[Grinch]

I finally had some time to get into the fish room today. I've been occupied with outside tasks while the weather cooperated.

First order of business, fix the water pre-mix. We've had a couple of over-flows on the back can, so I installed bigger bulkheads (2", up from 1"). I also cleaned up the over-flow drain into the sink and moved the cans closer to the sink and closer to the wall with the pipes. When filling the back can, there is less splash now because the pipes are closer to vertical.


I made and installed the final remaining twin-wall poly covers. All of the tanks are officially buttoned-up for the summer humidity that is rapidly approaching. We've been hovering at about 55-60% humidity in the fish room without the last few covers and without the central-air or other dehumidifiers running. I think that's about the max we'd want, trying to keep it below 60%. I also made use of a porcelain knob to make it easier to get the the sump lid off (I had been using a screwdriver )



We upgraded the light on Bichir-Girl's Utaka/Vic tank a while ago, but had not installed the new lights on the other big tanks because that meant rewiring the lighting system for the main rack. We tackled that rewiring project today. The main goal was to reduce
the glare coming from the bottom tanks. Before:


After (note, the bottom left tank is not REALLY that bright, it is a little cloudy from a filter back-wash and the light is reflecting off of those particles):


While we were redoing light, we setup some temporary lights on the new rack:


Bonus pic of one of our male "nose-fish" (Labeotropheus trewavasae ).

 

[philipraposo1982]

The fish room looks super chaotic, almost like a tornado when through it.

I couldn't handle it, but it's not my fish room.

 

[Freshwater4Life]

If you get a chance it would be nice to see a video so we can get a better over all perspective of the fish room. Looks pretty clean and well done to me.

 

[Grinch]

The fish room looks super chaotic, almost like a tornado when through it.

I couldn't handle it, but it's not my fish room.

It is. It was chaotic before it was a fishroom! We're not going for show so much as we are going for functionality, redundancy, and safety (for us and our fish). The only thing I've tried to hide are dangling wires, but by "hiding" them I mean "bundling them up and out of the way".

If you get a chance it would be nice to see a video so we can get a better over all perspective of the fish room. Looks pretty clean and well done to me.

Maybe I can arrange for Bichir-Girl to give a tour... hmmm