and this has gone…
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Posts Tagged ‘aquablog’
Aquablog Outage…
Thursday, January 18th, 2007Power Outage
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006The electricity was cut-off to the village this morning at 8.45am, I started the petrol generator with ease, and then it took me a few minutes in the dark in the fish house (it’s got darker since I’ve insulated and blocked the windows!) to unplug the main four circuits and connect them one by one to the generator feed. At first the current draw from the generator was 12.5Amps, as all the heaters came on, but this gradually fell to a steady 7 – 8Amps. The petrol generator had a full 16l tank of petrol, and I had a 20l petrol can full on standby.
The electricity supply was restored at approx 2.30pm, but I left the Fish House on generator, for 30 minutes before migrating back to mains supply.
An excellent test, I only had to turn-off one 500 watt heater used to heat top-up water, and deemed this wasn’t necessary.
I used approx 10l of petrol, in approx 6hours to generate 9kWh (as measured by my Power Meters! Search the blog for details), so that’s approx 1 UK-GBP per kWh, so an expensive way of generating electricity, so I’m not going to make a saving by switching!
Petrol Generator in use
The small green box, far right under the bag of salt, is the earth box for the generator.
Full Moon above the village
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Last night was a fantastic full moon, I rushed home from work, got my gear together rushed up the hill to photograph the Full Moon above the house, but by the time I had walked up the hill, the moon had risen too far. So here’s the picture I took anyway, without the house!
This should have been the photograph for Halloween! Maybe next year!
Petrol generator had it’s first test run today, check the Fish House Blog
Power Outage is confirmed for 7th Nov 2006
Saturday, November 4th, 2006Despite several telephone calls to YEDL Customer Service, and I must admit the Customer Service Operator has been very good, but unfortunately would not let me speak direct to the engineer responsible for the work. It’s basically tough, the engineer Phil Johnson, YEDL stated “we given you the statutory notice of 7 days, it’s up to you, to sort out your own arrangements.” Phil Johnson better not come round here for a cup of tea next week!
In April 2001, YEDL were kind enough to supply a CAT Generator to keep the supply on the farm running through an outage, and a man in a Landrover, to check it didn’t stop!
CAT Diesel Generator – now that’s what I call a generator!
Green Landrover and CAT Diesel Generator.
Temporary hookup.
Ladder to stop cables falling in the drainage ditch.
View from across the pond.
I’ve purchased my 20 litre petrol “jerry can” and petrol, earth stake/rod and cable, so that’s tomorrows job!
Andy’s HandyPro 3500L
Sunday, October 15th, 2006Due to a local power outage in July when I was moving the Fish House, I lost a pair of Angel fish and a Magnum Pleco. Unfortunately, the power outage lasted in excess of 12 hours. Power outages in this area always occur, usually in the Summer months of July and August after the thunder and lightening storms. We very rarely have power outages in the Winter months. I decided in July to purchase a 1kVA (1000 watt) petrol generator from B&Q for 99 GBP UK pounds. Very little money to protect the fish house, if there should be a power outage. It’s only 1kVA (1000 watts), which is about 700 watts of power, using a 8 litre tank of petrol, it will not run the entire fish house, but will keep filters and air pumps running, and a few heaters until power is restored.
Lately, I’ve had a few problems with this unit, leaking petrol tank, after speaking with Performance Power Customer Support, I was not happy with the quality of this unit, and I’ve since noticed that B&Q have reduced these units to 79 GBP UK pounds, so I decided to return to B&Q for a refund.
B&Q 1kVA Performance Power Petrol Generator
This was the replacement I’ve purchased, a Briggs & Stratton HandyPro 3500L, this unit is based on the Classic Pro 3500, 16 litre petrol tank, a run-time of 11 hours @ half load. 2.7kVA (2700 watts), 10Amps. It weighs approx 66kg when filled with petrol!
Briggs & Stratton HandyPro 3500L
I’ve been testing it today, by boiling water in a kettle connected to it, it’s also quieter than the cheaper B&Q model.
Fish House Re-located
Monday, July 24th, 2006- 250 fish
- 5 x 12 hour days
- 15 Fish Tanks
- 2000l of water
- 180 miles
and it’s done. The fish house is now up and running in its new location.
Old Fish House after relocation.
Rainmate aka Flatpack Water Butt
Monday, July 17th, 2006I purchased a flatpack water butt today called a Rainmate(R) to help me store 200 litres of water ready for the fish house move. The first flatpack water, self-assembly water butt, delivered to my door!
The water was filtered via my HMA filter and heated to the correct temperature used by the aquariums in the fish house.
Before Assembley Flatpack in box.
After 2 hours, I could probably have done with some help, two people would have made it easier to assemble!
Poor Pleco, well actually it’s a Gibbiceps
Friday, June 30th, 2006About 2 years ago I acquired a Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps or “Sailfin Pleco” from a local tropical fish shop in York which needed some tender loving care, it was really poorly; sunken eyes, and a grey/white covering over its fins. This didn’t appear to be fungus, but the fish was clearly not deporting well, with clamped and torn fins. This was the picture of the fish.
I’ve been waiting 2 years for it’s sailfin to grow back, and it had almost grown back, I was going to take some pictures and produce a “before” and “after” shot for the blog, when the same fish was struck down by a sudden bacterial infection “fin rot”, which started to eat away at all it’s fins, it only affected this catfish in my display tank, so it was immediately moved to a quarantine tank in the fish house, and dosed with Melafix, and large quantities of cucumber for 7 days, and I happy to report, it’s fins are recovering well.
Coincidence first Animal House and then UK Marines Ltd
Thursday, June 15th, 2006Last August I reported that Aquatics Mail Order giant Animal House, Batley, West Yorkshire had closed down, various rumours exist as to why they closed their doors for the very last time.
Almost twelve months later, after discussions with an eBay seller, who was responsible for the disposal of several items from a tropical fish shop in Batley, I discovered that UK Marines Ltd had closed.
This is a picture of the display tank measuring 9`x2`6″x2`6″ which was sold on eBay, following the demise of UK Marines Ltd, Batley, West Yorkshire. Many years ago, this tank was stocked with marine fish, but more recently had large oscars and gouramis present.
Display tank measuring 9`x2`6″x2`6″ at the rear of the shop.
Another tank from UK Marines Ltd
Another tank from UK Marines Ltd
I did some investigations, and spoke to Roy Meeke, he told me he has not been involved with UK Marines Ltd for at least three years. UK Marines Ltd, Company No.03809034 was incorporated in July 1999, the directors at that time were Lynn Day and Roy Meeke, the company was dissolved in May 2002. Therefore it should not have been trading as UK Marines Ltd in the last few years since May 2002!
UK Marines Ltd, never updated their website, or removed Roy Meeke’s name from it.
I’ve discovered some other irregularities with UK Marines Ltd, but more on that later. All this information is available in the public domain.
Did UK Marines Ltd close due to lack of trade in Batley, due to Animal House’s closure?
When Animal House closed, I posed this question to the owner Philip Day, on my reqular visit to UK Marines Ltd, who indiciated that it would not cause a problem, but over the last tweleve months, I noticed a deline in the stock and hardware in the store, and told they were “re-furbishing” the store, and then they were going to “relocate” to Huddersfield!
Good Luck Philip & Lynn, where ever you are…!
Corydoras Aeneus "Peru Gold Stripe"
Thursday, June 8th, 2006I’ve been trying to photograph these active corydoras catfish since I purchased them last Saturday 3 June 2006, while my partner was doing the shopping at Sainsburys; I escaped and this is what I found! Last weekend, I was suffering from Fish Action withdrawl symptoms, as I didn’t attend Ashby or Caer Urfa Open Show and Fish Auction, so went on a local fish expedition instead.
It’s taken over 250 shots, to catch these active corydoras catfish. I’m glad I’m digital! (must clean the glass on the aquarium).
The common “pink” and “albino” variations of Corydoras Aeneus are very common, I have a trio (two males and a female), and If I could catch them from my 6ftx2ftx2ft tank, I would try and breed them. That’s another story of how they got in there? I’ve seen in books, many different variations of Corydoras Aeneus, but never seen any to purchase. These were described as “Gold Line Corys” in the local tropical fish shop. I’m hoping to get some more, and that reminds me, must return to the shop and pay for them as their debit card machine was down!
Two Corydoras Aeneus “Peru Gold Stripe” catfish
Larger of the two Corydoras Aeneus“Peru Gold Stripe” catfish
Smaller of the two Corydoras Aeneus “Peru Gold Stripe” catfish
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