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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.

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!

Fish House Thermometer back!

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

It’s been a few months since, this was last on:-

Last Update 19:22 (GMT) on 23 Dec 2006, as the weather is getting colder, and I’m experiment with electricity, kWh, heating and my new Smart Power Meter, soon to be delivered, it was about time, I blew the dust off the Fish House Thermometer PC, and put back in the fish house, now where have I got space for a PC, I’ve filled all the spaces with fish tanks!

This is currently on test in my Office!

No-one at home!

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

No, my male lobster hasn’t died, but you could be easily mistaken!

Blue Lobster Shell
Blue Lobster shell, after my male blue lobster has moulted!

No Suction! Don’t be a Sucker use a MagClip!

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

I’ve been testing MagClips for a little over a month, at the same time, I changed to using MagClips, I also replaced the plastic suckers with standard suckers that hold my Algarde BioFoam 200 sponge filters in place, the standard plastic suckers have failed today, and the MagClips are still holding fast.

Which got me thinking the packaging states “Industrial strength MAGNETIC suction cup with Interchangeable clips” – there is no suction cup!

This should be called magnetic non suction clips because there is no suction cup. It doesn’t use suction, it uses a magnetic to attract and “stick” or secure itself.

So MagClips are best described as magnetic non suction clips!

A shock!

Sunday, October 14th, 2007

I thought my female blue lobster had finally killed the male this evening. Only to discover he’s cast his shell!

I’ve removed it from the tank, I’ll take some pictures and post.

As with crabs, lobsters have to cast off their shell every so often in order to grow. After discarding the old shell, in a process called moulting, the lobster increases its size within a few hours, after the intake of a lot of water. The crabs are then left for a few days with a soft shell, until this new shell hardens.

The cast-off shell, is an exact replica of him, but empty!

Full Moon!

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

You’d think it was a full moon, strange things are a foot in the fish house.

Did my Bleeding Heart Tetras eat all my Galaxy Rasboras? They’ve all disappeared!

Male Nicaragua Cichlid starts fighting with the Female, I’ve had to move her to a quarantine tank, for he injuries to heal, torn fins, and scales, and then she started beating up some Corydoras Sterbai, so she’s been moved to a lonley tank all on her own.

and finally, Male and Female Blue lobsters have been fighting.

Banish those old suckers to the bin!

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Old Suckers
Old suckers banished to the bin, now I’ve replaced them with MagClips

Magclip1
This shows a single MagClips holding an Eheim 2260 External inlet pipe which is 25mm in diameter. Considering the pressure and weight, and stress forces on the MagClips, you can see how powerful the magnets are in the MagClips.

Magclip2
exploded view of above, you can see the pipework – no camera tricks here! The MagClips is at the bottom of the inlet pipe near the inlet strainer.

Magclip3
Not an exciting photograph, but shows the MagClips in postion outside the tank. Here a single MagClips is used to hold an Eheim 2260 16mm spraybar in place. This has previosuly failed with suckers emptying 170l of water on the fish house floor!

Magclip4
I’ve replaced the standard Algarde suction clip, that always fail with a MagClips, to hold this BioFoam 200 Sponge Filter in place.

Do you have problems with your suckers?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

One annoyance of keeping tropical fish I have is suckers!

Failing suckers…..!

Let me introduce you to the MagClip. Ideal stocking filler for Christmas!

Do your suckers keep failing after a few weeks/months. If you use heaters, sponge filters, airline, external filters pipes, spray bars in your tanks you’ll know what I mean. In the fish house, I’m constantly replacing failed suckers on equipment, sometimes it can be dangerous, if a misplaced spraybar or external filter inlet pipe “jumps” out of the tank because the sucker has failed (oh, yes this has happened when my Eheim 2600 spray bay sucker failed, and sprayed water all over the fish house at 1,500lph!).

I’ve found the solution, it’s called a MagClip, a very clever simple device, which uses a magnet to secure the plastic clip, inside and outside the aquarium. The MagClip comes with 6 assorted sizes of nylon clips to hold all types of aquarium accessories like canister filter outlet tubes, aquarium heaters, filter intake tubes, filter spray bars, airline tubing etc. The clip is coated in plastic, remove the nylon clip suitable for your aquarium accessory, attached to the internal clip, it’s threaded, and just screws in, position inside the aquarium, and use the external clip outside the aquarium to maintain it’s position. Simply. No suction cup to fail! They can be moved around afterwards I’ve found to get into a better position. These last a lifetime, using the industrial magnets, I’m using one on a 10mm glass tank, and have others holding spray bars, and 25mm external filter inlets, and others on my Algarde Bio-Foams. I’ll get some pictures.

These cost me 7.00 GBP pounds each, a bargain I think, I’ll never have to replace my suction cups again.

I got them from http://www.magclip.co.uk

Pier Aquatics, Wigan

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

Pier Aquatics, Wigan

This has got to be the “Mecca” of all tropical fish shops in the North West, I was in the area (well within 10 miles) and had to pop in to checkout the collection of fish. If you are a Cichlid or Catfish fan like I am, you’ve just got to get your “bum” to Pier Aquatics in Wigan, and don’t forget your wallet!

Fantastic quality and collections of Cichlids and Catfish, a baby Tig for 250 pounds, and some fantastic Geophagus, lots of L numbers too many to mention, Stingrays If you’ve never been, why not try a holiday in Wigan for the weekend.

I love the place, and I’m sure I’ll be back for that baby Tig! Maybe an early birthday present, as it’s the big one!

Ruto Logo
Ruto Frozen Fishfood

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com

www.planetcatfish.com

http://www.plymouthdiscus.com/

http://www.magclip.co.uk/

Dyed Fish Campaign