Fish house

I am currently building a fish house on my property for all my breeding tanks - 5,8m x 3m. I started building 2 weeks ago and have incorporated alot of design features that will make it quite efficient with regards to water usage and heating and lighting bill. Anyone done this before and anyone with their own thoughts?

 

Hi gaf

Space heating in a dedicated fish room is the most economical -
Air can be supplied by 1 Boyu 1200 through 15mm plastic tube to the frames and then tapped off to each tank via a standard gardena fitting.

Where abouts are you situated ??? if in CT pop round and take a look ---

 

Unfortunately im in JHB.

Would the 1200 boyu be enough, I was looking at one two sizes up for future expansion?

 

I currently run +- 30 tanks on one 1200 - A good idea is to run 2, then if one fails you dont lose all air..

 

Redundancy is always a good idea!

 

Space heating... What is it that you use to heat the room Zafgak? I'm seriously considering this option.

 

You can use the wall heaters from Makro etc.. or buy the tube wall heater they use in Hospitals. The wall heater is about 500mm square. Our fish room has a heater in each tank, the room maintains about 25 degrees at all times, so the heaters do not have to work too hard.

 

Cool, thanks for the info. I'm gonna go get a couple of those heaters for my fish room.

 

Hey there,
where are you situated. i would love to take a look at you fish collection?

 

I think the successful / economical implementation of any space heating is dependant on a room that is already well insulated or should I say thermally stable. This means no drafts - direct exposures to normal plate glass windows (hanging a thick curtain does help) - Insulated ceiling and floor, cement is the worst since it is a direct heat sink to the ground if you have bare earth under your floor - and use a wall paint that is a good heat transfer barrier (not reflection). If this sounds like a plastic box - it is, so moisture could be a problem in this perfect room ... you do get paints that have good thermal insulation but that can still "breath".

gaf7808

What material are you using for the fish room construction? Is this a wendy house / brick and mortar / cargo container / a second hand mortuary or an old cold room ? (I've look at them all as an option ;-)

The wall panel heater is 425 Watts and if you have the slightest draft it will run 24/7.

BTW anybody think of pumping heated air ?

BTW 2: gaf7808 do a google for Aquaponics might be a nice add-on.

 

Hi F Fish. Its a brick and mortar type construction. I will be insulating the walls and floor as well.Im not going to insulate the cieling as it is going to be polycarb for some natural lighting.

 

Nice - in that case space heating will work - but I think you will want to look into doing some sort of "curtain" to trap heat in the room at night. In some green house designs they have a double skinned lining with air in the middle .. Wonder how well it would work to add a very transparent material as false ceiling so that you can have a buffer between the polycarb and the room.

gaf7808 - I can only criticize one thing - we have no pictures. Make our Sunday - upload some pictures so that we can all dream / plan what we will do should we win the lotto - ah, note to self buy a ticket.

 

I will put pics up a bit later on, only drawback is that because I started 2 weeks ago I am only just past foundation hight. The pics I will upload will explain why. The area being utilized needed some serious clearing and the original foundations were skew. Anyones thoughts on rainwater collection? I have read quite a few articles that the guys are using it to supplement their normal water supply and fish from the amazon region seem to love it.

PS - Good idea for the cieling, I was wondering about that.

 

If u r in JHB close to informal settlements DONT.You'll have very acid water.I'm using reverse osmosis(RO) water.You can get the complete setup for under R2000.00 if u shop around(Not at our LFSs but at a well known Builders Outlet)

 

I have one already for my sps tank, But the rainwater I am interested in as the water quality can be improved and controlled too by additives and getting the PH range back to what we require.

 

True did not think further than my.........
I am just very prejudiced against rainwater(Bad bad experience)

 

Explain more Slojo - I need the input!

 

Gaf7808,

I am in construction industry... sounds like you still at a point where you can do some simple modifications in your building to insulate nicely....

If possible, get builder's to build a cavity between the 2 bricks. Even just having the air between the 2 bricks will help insulate approx 25% better than if the bricks were right against each other. (A simple design that South African Builder;s just have not adopted!)
You COULD also get an insulation medium into this cavity. Think Pink will work, Polystyrene will work better!

If you haven't cast the surface bed (floor yet) there are 2 options you can consider if you want to "insulate" the floor. There's a company called SAGEX that makes a lightweight concrete, and basically incorporate polystyrene into the concrete mix... this will add to the insulation. Alternately... you would have to do this under the guidance of your engineer, before throwing the concrete down, you could put a high density polystyrene (about 100mm thick) under the concrete. Both applications will help, but understand the concrete floor still absorbs a lot of heat. WHat you trying to achieve is only the concrete floor taking the heat, and not the soil beneath as well.

If you going to have windows, you HAVE to make them double glazed. For some unknown reason, us South African's build these multi million rand houses, spend a fortune in heating our houses in winter, and cooling in summer... and wonder why we struggle... DUH... UM... You only have a single 4mm layer of glass as your windows TOFFEE!!!! Double glazing with an air pocket inbetween the to glass panes is the ONLY way to sufficiently insulate a window! Forget curtains, forget rubber seals etc... heat transfer through glass is almost 90%!

Our company did a trip to Las Vegas to the world Construnction fair in January. 1800 km (yes KILOMETERS) of passages you walk to view the entire fair! South Africa is SO FAR behind in building that it is SCARY. We have the technology, we have the skills, but we insist on building with bricks. Some of the BREAKTHROUGH technology that is being used throughout the world ORIGINATES from SA, but we don't even use it!

That's my 2p worth.

 

Dont you mean $2000000 worth? Thanks Zoom!!!

 

Great advice there Zoom - wish I'd had it before starting with our building.