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| Dave's House of Clowns aka the Clownhouse | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 1 2008, 08:50:25 PM (673 Views) | |
| Post #1 Oct 1 2008, 08:50:25 PM | Barelycuda |
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The house of clowns aka the "clownhouse" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I thought I would post the build of the new clownfish room that I have moved all the tanks out to. Over the last year my progression of breeding clownfish has completely grown beyond my wildest imagination. My first batch of clownfish were hatched on May 9th, 2007 just under a year ago. This was the first tank with the flower pot in it. Posted Image Within a couple of months I was taking over the family room (with a little resistance form my wife Posted Image Then things really began to grow. By October I had expanded to 11 tanks & this is how it looked at the meeting at my house in October. Posted Image So this is where the story begins..... |
juvi
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| Post #2 Oct 1 2008, 08:57:47 PM | Barelycuda |
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February 2, 2008 Day 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have a "saloon" in our back yard that is 16x20 that was nothing more than a glorified shed. So we came up with the crazy idea that I could move the clownfish out to it. My wonderful wife was growing a little tired of the noise & smell of the clownfish system so I came up with the plan to move the tanks out & the "clownhouse" was born. Now you have to understand that this building was 15-20 yrs old and not in the best shape. Home made front door & windows were the first things that had to go. The basic transformation from saloon to clownhouse happened in 4 weekends. I will show the progess through the next 4 posts. Here is an exterior shot of the saloon on day 1. Posted Image Here are a couple of inside shots before we started. I was lucky that I had saved the cabinets from a previous remodel to the bathroom (another story) so that I have some nice oak cabinets. Posted Image Posted Image First off the existing crappy windows were replaced with vinyl doulble pane & the front door was made larger & a new exterior insulated door was installed. The existing roof was sloped so we decided to install some new ceiling joists for a flat roof. This would enable me to install the electrical & more insulation than just drywalling the existing structure. Posted Image Next we framed in a wall to seperate what would be left of the small shed section on the other side. The new room is 12'x 13'6". Posted Image The existing floor was just 2x6's installed over the stringers so we laid down a vapor barrier & new plywood for some more strentgh. Posted Image Posted Image Well enough work for one weekend. So on to the next week. |
juvi
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| Post #3 Oct 1 2008, 09:02:35 PM | Barelycuda |
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February 9, 2008 week 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well after a busy week at work it was time to start making something happen. After a little room layout the rough electrical & drywall were installed. I got lucky that the existing perimeter walls were already insulated so the original sheeting remained on the walls. So after a little work here is the completion of the second weekend. I decided that my workbench & pantry cabinet would go on the temporary wall (yes there is already a plan to blow this wall out & take the rest of the saloon but that may wait a little while Posted Image Posted Image I decided to install a 2500 watt inwall heater to warm the room up if necessary. My thought was to try to keep the room close to 80 degrees so that little to no tank heaters would be necessary. There is also a fan speed controller roughed in next to the heater t-stat since I was planning on installing a small ceiling fan for circulation. Also next to the fan controller is a lighting timer that will controll all lighting in room over all the tanks. Posted Image Posted Image Well that was a busy weekend. Hang the drywall and the first coats of mud... |
juvi
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| Post #4 Oct 1 2008, 09:06:21 PM | Barelycuda |
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February 16, 2008 week 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well with the drywall done now it is time to start making it look finished. I was able to get the texture & paint on the wall during the week. Posted Image For the floor I wanted to do something different so I decided to install a commercial VCT tile like you would see in grocery store. Posted Image The first quadrant of tiles are down!!! These tiles go down fast but the border tiles SUCK... Posted Image Here is the floor half way done. Posted Image Wall is all trimmed out & the first cabinet is set. Posted Image Posted Image Here is a shot with the workbench installed. Posted Image Well three weeks have gone by and the clownhouse is just about ready for some new occupants. |
juvi
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| Post #5 Oct 1 2008, 09:10:02 PM | Barelycuda |
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February 23, 2008 week 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well it is time to move some fish. Three weeks ago the clownhouse was a mere dream. I had planned on moving the entire clowfish system from the family room to the saloon but my wife informed me that the cabinets were staying in the family room :D . So after a trip to Home Depot for some lumber I made a quick table to house the exsiting countertop with all the plumbing. Posted Image Now time to move some tanks. Now I know this is a little bit of a mess but you have to hurry when you move 11 tanks with over 1000 fish. If I were a beer drinker it would be time for a beer... but they are running again & the wife is much happier Posted Image Posted Image Time to take a few days off....... |
juvi
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| Post #6 Oct 1 2008, 09:11:51 PM | Barelycuda |
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March 1, 2008 week 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now it is time for some expansion. With the help of a good friend Brian (evansbr) we have designed a table that will house 16 growout tanks. The design is similar to my 11 tank broodstock system except that tanks can be accessed from both sides of the tank. Here are a couple of basic shots of the table. Posted Image Posted Image |
juvi
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| Post #7 Oct 1 2008, 09:15:13 PM | Barelycuda |
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MArch 11, 2008 week 6&7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things are starting to slow down on progress now. Just starting to fine tune some of the things in the room. We layed out the plumbing for the drain system for the new table. There will be 16 tanks with 2 seperate drains into a common sump. I was able to score a 100g tru-vu tank from Isaic @ seahorse for the sump. Not exactly what I wanted but it will work for a while until I have something made plus I am a little over budget at this point & still not done yet.... Posted Image Here is the sump setting under the table. It is a used 100g Tru Vu acrylic tank from one of the stores I go to all the time. $50 later... Posted Image YEA the skimmer arrived. I purchased a PCI PS-3000 skimmer. It was a great price & is rated to 475g. I was not sure about it at first but after it has run for a while I am liking it more. Posted Image |
juvi
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| Post #8 Oct 1 2008, 09:18:25 PM | Barelycuda |
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May 5, 2008 nearing completion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time elapsed a little but I thought I would take a few pics of how the clownhouse looks now. I have added an a/c unit for cooling. Another necessity was the addition of a dehumidifier!! The room wants to naturally run close to 80 degrees since that is where all the tanks are at. I keep the a/c set for 79 degrees to keep the room slightly cooler. The evaporation is much less when the room is kept cooler and the room seems to be equaling out. I am going to put a recording meter on the room for a few days to see what the increase is but so far out electric bill has only gone up about $25 from a year ago so if it doesn't get much higher I will be happy. Here is a finished shot of the front. Still some stuff that needs to get cleaned off the porch but getting closer. Posted Image Here is a shot looking in the front door. Posted Image Here is a little different view showing the lights a little better. The lights are 8' strips with a 90% downlight reflector. They also allow 10% uplight so I don't have the need to light the rest of the room with additional lighting. All lights are controlled with a digital timer so all lighting is automatic. Posted Image Here is a shot of the workbench area & rotifer cultures. Posted Image Behind the door to the left (which you can't see) is a 55g drum for mixing saltwater. I am missing a few more photo's I wanted to post so I will have to find them. |
juvi
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| Post #9 Oct 1 2008, 09:32:48 PM | Barelycuda |
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That pretty much gets it to today. There have been a few additions like Ozone to both systems and a sump change to the growout system as a have a much larger skimmer now. I will have to find the photo's of the sump setup. I am excited that Randy Reed from Reed Mariculture is coming up in a few weeks. I talk to him on a regular basis as I purchase quite a few products from them. He is going to give a presentation up here this month for our local club and the meeting is at my house. I know he was just down there talking to your group. Was there anything that interested you guys & gals that I can ask him about? I am going to be spending the entire day with him on Friday taking him around to a bunch of the local stores so I am very excited. I am starting to put together a photo wall of all the speakers that I can get to the clownhouse. A couple months back Bob Fenner came to town to speak for us and I got a photo with him too. I spent a couple of days hosting Bob while he was in town and he is an incredibly fun person to be around. Posted Image |
juvi
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| Post #10 Oct 1 2008, 09:54:17 PM | Amie |
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Thank you so much for posting all of those. Your setup is definitely the envy of any breeder. I will have to analyze the pictures closer tomorrow, but with first glance, I'm very impressed. I have 2 questions for now, 1) how do you heat everything and 2) are the tanks drilled on the bottom or in back. Oh, and 3) why did you have an old saloon in your backyard to begin with? |
stormy, stormy nights
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