Finally moved another 4 four foot tank into the fish house, this has been positioned below the leaking four foot tank, so rather than leaking into a cat litter tray, the tank above is leaking into the tank below. My plan is to move all the water/fish/filters in the tank below, so I can fix the tank above. Hopefully third time lucky and this tank will hold water and not leak.
On a fish mission to Leeds tomorrow evening, more on that later, and hopefully more pictures.
I’m still trying to fix this in the fish house, without getting more water on the floor.
My partner went into the garage aka fish house this morning to do the washing (the garage also shares the washing machine and tumble dryer), and found water all over the floor. I thought I was getting a lie in bed today, so up early at 8.30am. It appears the seal had failed again on the base of the tank. The tanks contains approx 170l of water, no fish were harmed because although 8″ of water had been lost from the tank, once the pressure had dropped it was leaking slowly. I had two “cold spares” in the garden, so they were quickly cleaned and test-filled, whilst I caught all the fish, emptied the tank, keeping the water, and using the external filter to heat and filter the water whilst the fish were in 80l containers.
By 2pm the fish were back in a new tank, sited and filtered.
and then…..
this tank started to leak, the seals on the base of this tank had also failed. I tried to fix with silicon sealer, but it’s very difficult to fix a leaking tank when wet!
It’s still leaking, I’ve got a cat little tray under the tanks, whilst I asses my options. I have another “cold spare” but it’s just the time, I’ve got available to swap again.
This is what I looked like the other evening. TIP Do not cut 6 inch thick Jablite with a jigsaw and then use silicone sealer!
I managed to get some silicone sealer on my hands after cutting 6 inch Jablite (posh word for polysterene insulation) and the polsterene dust stuck!
I took the two remaining slabs of 6 inch Jablite used to create the fish house partition in the old fish house, and after stapling Thermal Wrap to the inside of the garage doors and sealing with aluminimum foil tape, sealed the garage with the slabs, and then another layer of Thermal Wrap to finish off. Thermal Wrap looks like foiled bubble-wrap, it’s not cheap, at 23 GBP a roll, but it much easier to handle than Jablite (polysterene). It was cheaper at B&Q in the Autumn at 27 GBP, and get one free! I’ve used it previosuly in the garage, to insulate the flat roof at the rear, and cover the windows. It’s equivalent to 2.5 inches of Jablite (polysterene). So that’s a total of 8 inches of insulation behind the front garage doors. I think it might be working, as the temperature has increased a massive 4 degrees C, and it’s freezing fog outside. Hopefully all this investment, will reduce heating costs.
I had to cut myself out of the fish house, with a jigsaw, after I sealed myself in! Hence getting covered in polysterene dust!
I’ve been lucky that we’ve been having some really mild weather for this time of year, although wet and high winds.
Not much to report in the fish house, I’m not having as much time as I had hoped with the new house, and DIY repairs to concentrate on breeding the pairs of fish I have.
I had hoped that this garage would have been warmer than the last, I think the problem lies, in the last garage, the “fish house” was built inside a wall of jablite, but it had a draughty asbestos corrugated roof, and garage door.
This garage is integrated into the house, so it only has two external walls, and the bedroom is above the ceiling, I had hoped that it was warmer, but my problem lies with the two very draughty barn doors!
One door now resembles something from the NASA Space shuttle, as I covered it in aluminium covered bubble-wrap, I’ve also insulated the flat garage roof at the rear with jablite, and the same aluminium covered bubble-wrap insulation, but despite what I try, I’m still losing heat. I may yet need to build a jablite igloo again.
The 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.
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
I’ve just received notice from YEDL, that they are turning-off the electricity supply in the area from 08.30 to 16.00 on Tuesday 7th November 2006.
Looks like I’ll be testing the generator, earlier than expected.
Need to purchase:-
Need to check power cable reaches into fish house. Why YEDL cannot do this in the Summer, they have to wait for the cold spell!
Due 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.
It’s been a few months, since I last posted to this blog. I’ve been very busy with the new house and the fish house, has taken second place to the new hobby of DIY.
The fish house moved successfully to the new house and garage, I’ve started to insulate part of the garage which has a flat roof, using Jablite Squeeze, fantastic stuff, this deserves a design award!
I just wanted to let you all know, I’m still here, but just a bit busy to post regular items.
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