Rays on a budget- My (somewhat long) story w/pics

[Clearwater guy]

Still waiting for my wife to get home so we can leave...

Keep in mind as you look at the room that I plan to put 15 70g tanks in the center by spring, and I need a couple more stock tanks too. The stock tanks will have to get moved into the furnace room where the sump is.

Mike

 

[Clay]

You may want to watch those ceiling tiles for mold. They have a nasty habit of growing the black stuff, and that can be a health hazard for the little ones.

One option is to take the drop ceiling down and put up plastic over insulation (on ceilings and walls), tape the seams, and install an air exchange unit. It will remove the humidity and keep the rest of your house from feeling the effects of a large body of water in the basement. I saw a system like this work with great success for quite a few years. It also allows for more heat to be retained, and then you don't have to run electricity heating each tank - you just heat the room. Anyway, just a thought.

 

[earthstudent]

Ask away and feel free to point things out. I didn't have one second to tidy up, I've got containers of stuff strewn about looking for all the odds and ends to get this hatch tank going. I have about 15 minutes before I hit the road for an away HS football game.

first pic is taken from stairway opening seen in second pic. none of the tanks have direct overhead lighting, so they aren't "quite" as dark as they seem.

I'll 'esplain the hatching jar once I can show a pic of how I get it set up...it'll be a lot easier to make sense of it then.

Is that mold on the ceiling in the first pic?

 

[Clearwater guy]

I had to actually walk down and study the ceiling...lol. There is some dirt or something here and there, but whatever that is in the picture isn't actually there.

Although it isn't exactly 'dry' in the house, the de-humidifer, a small exhaust fan exiting out of the furnace room, and the fact that I've been doing a pretty good job not flooding the basement have kept things in fairly good shape...considering what it started out to be.

Once I get caught up on building everything, then I can go back through and work on efficiency by covering all the open water and stuff.

Mike

 

[glovanator]

I immediately picked on w/e's on the cieling as well. Glad it's not mold for you.

I'm not that big of a slayer fan. But I am a kerry king fan. Must be because of his snake interests.

 

[Clearwater guy]

Slayer just happened to be playing at the time. I have a lot of different stuff in my que... Maybe I should make those screenshots a part of all my posts...to set the mood and give a "feel" for the work environment here.

On the short track racing forum, I have a "song of the day" in my Sig.... but the day I quit my job it got changed to Korn-Did my Time... I just havn't found anything that fits better since that day.

Mike

 

[jeffers]

wow mike the past few days you have really done some good updates but the posts have been amazing. i can really feel how you feel and i know how passionate about this you are!

 

[bomber]

Page 1 through 55. Wow, you kept me captivated. Great work Mike.

You have a great attitude and I can tell you are a problem solver

and I would like to give you business

 

[tscharf]

How much water do you think your losing to evaporation?

 

[Clearwater guy]

Page 1 through 55. Wow, you kept me captivated. Great work Mike.

You have a great attitude and I can tell you are a problem solver

and I would like to give you business

Thank you! I owe my problem solving abilities to my father. He could do more in a day than any 3 of us put together, and he could make jems out of scrap. I'll never forget the day that I went to his last building project to visit, and saw what he was doing. He had bought an old Woolen Mill thats most recent use was as a packaging company. He was working on this archaic mass of rusted steel with pulleys and all sorts of weird stuff that he was welding to it. It looked like something out of a Dr Seuss book. I couldn't figure out what he was doing for the life of me. When I asked, he said-
Dad "I'm making 2 x 4's"
Me-"huh?"
Dad- "Well, I found this coil of steel at the scrapyard for scrap price, [motions towards a coil of steel on the floor that was 12ft diameter and 10" tall] and they left all this stuff laying around [refferring to the piles of scrap left behind by the packaging company].

I didn't ask any more questions, but the next day I came back and he was using his bobcat to pull the steel through this rigged up form all the way to the end of the building. he was on his 3rd 400ft long 2 x 4. To this day, I don't even have a clue how he got the coil of steel off the trailer (Bobcat wouldn't have done it).

Anyhow, thanks for your vote of confidence. It would be my pleasure to have you as a customer at any time. Just let me know what you need.

How much water do you think your losing to evaporation?

Without precise calculation, I'd say I lose a little less than the city of Las Vegas... LOL. I really need to get some covers built. I bet my tank and pool heating expense will halve.

Mike