Archive for October, 2007

Halloween Update

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Spent a few minutes in the fish house this evening, tidying up the larger hole I cut in the jablite, to get the 18″ wide fish tanks in! Most of the fish house and tanks were originally sited, when the insulation wasn’t in place.

I’ve also moved five bleeding heart tetras (the ones that ate my Galaxy Rasboras!) and the Female Blue Lobster (red claw crayfish – although no red claws this is a female!) into one of the 48x18x18 tanks, it’s not long until the young lobsters “hatch/develop”, I then want to move her back to her tank with her mate.

There is plenty of ocean rock, stones for the young lobsters to hide. One of the problems, is the young lobsters when they shed their shells within the first 24 hours, will start eating each other, if there are not plenty of hiding spaces.

I’ve also been drying out the cracked fish tank, I’m going to get a piece of 6/8mm glass cut to size, and try and patch it for a tenner! I can only try, what’s the worst that can happen, a bit more water on the floor!

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The Great Pumpkin Massacre

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

The Great Pumpkin Massacre is upon us again. Happy Halloween!

As tradition, we’ve got our pumpkins carved and on display again!

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and this is a Wattson!

Monday, October 29th, 2007

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Disaster Stikes! Need another fish tank now!

Monday, October 29th, 2007

Finally moved the final three 48x18x18 fish tanks into the fish hosue yesterday.

On filling one of the tanks it cracked! The 10mm base cracked, I’m not too sure if it was too cold, as I was filling with water at approx 24 degrees C, or it was weak!

oh #!?* Need another fish tank now!

They’ve been soak testing outside for a few months, with no issues! I might find some glass to patch it with!

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Locked in the fish house!

Monday, October 29th, 2007

I’ve made some modifications to the insulation at the front of the fish house. I’ve blocked up a 6″x6″ hole that was cut, so I could open and close the front-door latch from within the fish house, the problem with this hole, it was letting in too much cold air. So I blocked it up!

On Saturday, the weather was warm, dry and decided to move the final three 48x18x18 fish tanks into the fish house, but whilst I was working in the fish house, my partner on leaving I asked her to “close” the door, I didn’t notice, that she had closed and locked the door behind here, leaving me locked in!

When I tried to leave, I couldn’t get out!

I banged for an hour on the walls and ceiling to no avail! When I heard the front-door open I shouted and banged!

She thought I was just banging as usual in the fish house, and didn’t know I was locked-in.

So after this lock-in event, it was too late to move fish tanks!

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Demonstration of Wattson

Monday, October 29th, 2007

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Planting Seeds

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Planting more seeds today later in the greenhouse, postponed moving the last three fish tanks into the fish house because the weather is terrible.

So here’s some more pictures of my new friend “Wattson”

178kw

192kW

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Fish House Thermometer Online and Live!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

Fish House Thermometer Online and Live!

Had a few issues with calibration, and then one of the probes needed resoldering, a few mechanical issues, trying to mount the outside probe, had to make a few holes in the insulation!

It’s online and live!

Check Right!

I’m now ready to record temperature versus electricity consumed and see if my additional spacial heater is saving me money heating the fish house, taking the load of the internal heater thermostats in each fish tank.

I’m also hoping to code a visual indication of how much electricity is being consumed on the blog, in the right hand panel as well.

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Polar Bear Killer!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

207kw
20.7kW (realtime reading of electricity being consumed at 1.30am 27/10/07)

Maybe I need to change the subject title, doesn’t seem very nice, and what’s this go to do with the FishHouse Blog. You’ll probably hear this term more and more, as we all strive for a greener planet and reduce our carbon foot prints! Has the penny dropped yet! But we all need electricity to run our fish houses, every year I see more and more people leave the hobby, and close fish houses, and it’s not surprising with rising energy costs. But don’t all hobbies cost money!!!?

To celebrate my big birthday coming up in November, I’ve purchased myself a present from Better Generation, it’s a Smart Electricity Meter called a Wattson by DIY Kyoto. I’ve already got a few power meters, that I purchased in October 2005, see my review here these record the power being used by an individual appliance, or if you use a four/six-way adaptor, you can measure combined power, I’ve been using these in my fish house for years. But want I wanted was a device that could measure total power consumed after the electricity meter before the consumer unit (fusebox), transmit it remotely to a display in the house, and finally output and record the information to a PC, so I can compare electricity consumption versus temperature in the fish house and outside during the winter and summer months. Also looking at the electricity used by our Economy 7 Storage and Immersion Heaters.

I pre-ordered this unit, at the beginning of October ’07, and it arrived yesterday it’s FANTASTIC!. I’m not going to write a review, because there our lots of fab reviews out there about the product, check Better Generation for one.

It’s a designer gadget with mood lighting that measures electicity consumed and outputs it to a PC.

Wattson01
The Wattson smart electricity meter showing 21,000 Watts (21kW) being used at 1.30am last night, when the storage heaters came on! Average consumption is about 3kW in the house. This is mainly the fish house and computers in the house, most other electrical appliances are negligible by comparison, but if high wattage appliance is turned-on, e.g. kettle, Wattson spots it! and flashes changes from purple flashing to red!

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Polar Bear Killer!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

207kW
20.7kW (realtime reading of electricity being consumed at 1.30am 27/10/07)

Maybe I need to change the subject title, doesn’t seem very nice, and what’s this go to do with the House Blog. You’ll probably hear this term more and more, as we all strive for a greener planet and reduce our carbon foot prints! Has the penny dropped yet!

To celebrate my big birthday coming up in November, I’ve purchased myself a present from Better Generation, it’s a Smart Electricity Meter called a Wattson by DIY Kyoto. I’ve already got a few power meters, that I purchased in October 2005, see my review here these record the power being used by an individual appliance, or if you use a four/six-way adaptor, you can measure combined power, I’ve been using these in my fish house for years. But want I wanted was a device that could measure total power consumed after the electricity meter before the consumer unit (fusebox), transmit it remotely to a display in the house, and finally output and record the information to a PC, so I can compare electricity consumption versus temperature in the fish house and outside during the winter and summer months. Also looking at the electricity used by our Economy 7 Storage and Immersion Heaters.

I pre-ordered this unit, at the beginning of October ’07, and it arrived yesterday it’s FANTASTIC!. I’m not going to write a review, because there our lots of fab reviews out there about the product, check Better Generation for one.

It’s a designer gadget with mood lighting that measures electicity consumed and outputs it to a PC.

Wattson01
The Wattson smart electricity meter showing 21,000 Watts (21kW) being used at 1.30am last night, when the storage heaters came on! Average consumption is about 3kW in the house.

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