Deans Angels Fishroom

I am setting up a 9'x9' fishroom, internal room (lower heating costs), ground floor (easy to get equipment in and out), concrete floor (no flood drama), natural light (not too depressing), next to kitchen (easy plumbing / drainage).

Just picked up a 290ltr and a 140ltr tank, just building capacity at the moment and keeping things small scale, low-cost, basic, clean, simple. Most people end up with the fish and not enough tanks, I'm doing it the other way around :-)

Dean

Sounds like you're going about it in the right way, photos of the on going project are always popular please!

That's a good sized room, make sure you make best use of the space available, get as much water in there as possible! Still insulate the room, especially the floor, it'll keep pulling the heat out otherwise. I tried keeping the stock-tank ratio down......I have no willpower.....

It's just a dedicated room for my hobby, I will build some racks for the tanks as things progress but I'm not worrying too much about creating some sort of elaborate set up, all in good time.

There's not a lot to look at, at the moment. I have decided not to plumb in a little sink - although a dedicated sink seemed like a good idea in my head at the time - the kitchen is just next door and I thought the space would be better occupied by tanks. Also, Mrs Deans Angels has her own kitchen, which means I can make as much mess as I like.

The room had my computer in, but I've moved that into the living room so that the fish can have an undisturbed sleep period. I happen to think sleep is very important for fish health. Will try to get some pictures, it's a small room, so pointing the camera in most directions gives you a picture of not very much!

I have decided not to plumb in a little sink - although a dedicated sink seemed like a good idea in my head at the time - the kitchen is just next door and I thought the space would be better occupied by tanks.

For what it's worth, I was planning on having a sink in my fish room, but decided against it on the grounds of cost, & because there was a bathroom just next door. I really regret that decision. If there was a sink, for many of the tanks, I'd be able to syphon directly into it. I wouldn't need to negotiate two doorways whilst carrying buckets of water. I could have an RO unit and reservoir which were plumbed in, and in winter, I wouldn't have to defrost the outside tap in order to fill my reservoir. Unfortunately, where my tanks are now, makes retro-fitting a sink much more difficult than it would have been. So, since you're building up slowly, if you don't put a sink in to start with, my advice is, don't put the tanks in the way of where you might choose to fit a sink in future!

That's sound advice. I think a compromise will be to just leave space for both a drainage funnel with 'U' bend and a cold water inlet tap. I think most people could fit that in? Okay it's not a 'work area' in the sense of having a basin, drainage and worktop space to reseal a 4' tank, but it would still get the water in and out.

If you had a pound for each time you made that journey to the bathroom...

Pterophyllum wrote:

I have decided not to plumb in a little sink - although a dedicated sink seemed like a good idea in my head at the time - the kitchen is just next door and I thought the space would be better occupied by tanks.

For what it's worth, I was planning on having a sink in my fish room, but decided against it on the grounds of cost, & because there was a bathroom just next door. I really regret that decision. If there was a sink, for many of the tanks, I'd be able to syphon directly into it. I wouldn't need to negotiate two doorways whilst carrying buckets of water. I could have an RO unit and reservoir which were plumbed in, and in winter, I wouldn't have to defrost the outside tap in order to fill my reservoir. Unfortunately, where my tanks are now, makes retro-fitting a sink much more difficult than it would have been. So, since you're building up slowly, if you don't put a sink in to start with, my advice is, don't put the tanks in the way of where you might choose to fit a sink in future!  

When I rebuilt mine I added a small hand basin as I learnt from previous fish house well worth it

Reflecting on how far the fish room has come, I think it's fair to say that progress has been steady. The February chill makes me thankful that I'm not trying to heat a 6x4 garden shed, because it's hard enough keeping myself warm so I'm thankful that my angels continue to give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I'm still a 'one tank Ted' at the moment, there are other tanks in the pipeline, pictures of which I will post below, but to kick things off, here's my little 'starter' set up:



There are 6 Bulgarian Green Angels, 8 Neons, Albino Cory, Bristlenose Pleco and I think the darkest angel is a Smokey Zebra Veil. I have painted the external right hand side of the tank Aquamarine Blue in non-toxic acrylic paint, it gives the tank a rich look and is an improvement on the wishy washy blue used for the left hand side. I'll use Aquamarine from now on.

My main jump of joy came when I acquired the bg angels though I have been frustrated about not having a good enough camera to take a close up. It seemed that I would be unable to share my joy, no matter what angle, flash setting or resolution I changed, however, here's one of my better snaps:



The fish room is filling up wish fish junk. I wasted a whole day fighting with a Eheim canister filter, the seals have gone on the filter trays, so it's effectively just a pump! On the right is a very rough 48x24x15high bottom drilled 10mm tank, which will make a nice growing on tank, once it's on a stand and had an internal reseal.



Sadly another 4ft tank had to be dismantled for spare glass, because there was a hidden fracture crack in the base which only appeared when under stress, which made me more cautious when I picked this one up at the weekend 44x14x19high:

20 quid, can't go wrong!



I love the 19" height of this tank and my current stock will be transferred into it in due course. I'm about to reseal it, reinstate the cross members about 1" down and cut some cover glasses for it. I will then use the other tank as a breeder. Thankfully, this one was in good condition and it reminds me of a nice deep tank that I had 20 years ago (regrets!)

Ebay, gumtree and aquarist classified for anything of interest but there's plenty to do resealing the incoming tanks, as well as thinking about the pros and cons of everything aquatic!

On the wishlist is an RO unit and some mature fish: a breeding pair if anyone needs the room (a starter pair - just to get the ball rolling). A high output air pump is also on the cards.

I'm always mindful of appreciating what I've got, rather than what I haven't got or what I want. If getting an angel fish room up and running was easy, everyone would be doing it! Enjoying the journey :-)

Those fish of Raiko's look to be coming on nicely, you'd better hurry & get some tanks set up!

I am! And my 6mm glass cutting skills are coming on, I've started to amaze myself

I am! And my 6mm glass cutting skills are coming on, I've started to amaze myself

My business started with my Dad building tanks. Apparently the secrets are :-
1. "Score once, with a good, firm, line"
2. "Kill anyone who uses your glass cutter"*

* apparently we all cut at a slightly different angle, and therefore wear the cutting head slightly differently, so if we cut with a cutter that someone else has used, it cuts unevenly.

I learn something new everyday, I'm not in danger of someone else cutting the glass for me, though I do like to do things myself and can turn my hand to most things.

Making sure the glass is nice and warm and very clean with not too much pressure on the cutter is my tip of the day on cutting aquarium glass.

This months update is about my first success in raising some angelfish fry to a survivable size.

Here they are today:



There's still about 100 in number (gold x koi), they are full of newly hatched brine shrimp, swimming more horizontally, are more aware of their surroundings reacting to noise / vibrations / light levels at 2 weeks old. They seem to be gaining body depth and although there's one or two which are distinctly thin, they aren't 'dropping like flies' as they were. They were taken off 1 drop per ltr of MB (through water changes) a few days after going free swimming.

It's quite intensive farming their food, but that's necessary and it's good experience for me.

My angels didn't respawn, the male was up for it but the female just didn't produce the eggs due to low temperatures. That said, the temp is back up now so I'm keeping my eye out. The pair are very nice together, but in a community tank they want to own 75% of it.

The b/g are enjoying the space of their new tank, my pictures will never do them justice:



That's it for this month, short and sweet.

Congratulations on the babies, do keep us updated.

Over the past couple of months I've been getting my head around 'water', trying to better understand it. temp, pH, kH, gH and ammonia. Next on the agenda is nitrites and nitrates, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I've done some tests regarding room heating, to find the most cost effective solution. In short, because gas is about 1/3 the price of electricity per Kwh, it's better to run the central heating, isolating the unused radiators and insulating any which can't be turned off (there's normally at least one). If the room is kept at 27 degrees over time, the water will heat very close to that temperature. As a base temperature that's ok, but for breeding, if you want a slightly higher temperature, keep the tanks high up and for a couple of extra degrees use electric heaters (no point heating the WHOLE room those extra degrees because that's going to cost!) I'm not at the stage of room heating just yet, but I know what I'm letting myself in for.

My gold x koi (g/g x Gm/Gm - S/S) produce 100% White Gold Marble Ghost:


I also have another batch of eggs, which were offered up at Easter. The parents tended them for about 4 days, but mum was being a bit sneaky when dads attention was elsewhere:


Expecting MORE eggs in a day or two, here's koi mum yesterday:


I still need to build some stands for two 4x2x1 high grow on tanks. A dedicated tank for brine shrimp hatching is needed too!

My Bulgarian Greens are beefing up, here's what looks like a male and perhaps a female:


Hopefully, you can see the 'bronze' sheen on this Bulgarian Green angel, nice:


You can see the difference in colour between the lighter one on the left and the darker one in the middle. The one on the right is dark too, but it looks light in the picture. It's hard to tell if these came from the same parents? see:


If anything exciting happens, it'll be in my next update, until then.

Under construction and dedicated to angelfish, this 4'+ deep, 8' wide rack will enable me to slot 4' tanks in sideways:



On the back wall is the top shelf which will sit on two main beams. One main beam is laying on the floor. The design is more 'working with what I've got' rather than an exacting construction but it will do the job.

That looks very solid! Nice work.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been building my 'monster rack' - dedicated to angels.

Having researched many tank stand designs and considered the 'get as much water in there as possible' philosophy, from a couple of large industrial pallets (which were free but awkward to work with), I made:

The top level will be 4 tanks: 48x14x19high, 48x24x15high, 51.5x26x12high and another 51.5x26x12 high:


For the 2 lower levels (not built in yet) again I will use similar size tanks, it depends what is available at the time, anything up to 56 length will fit on, but probably nothing less than 48. I may add some 24's but they will only stay there until the other 'mini monster rack' is built!

Here's a new smokey, I think he's a male:


I picked up a pair of marbles, no pictures yet, they're just settling into their breeding tank, hopefully I will soon be able to produce something other than white gold marble ghosts!

I now have 10 Bulgarian Greens (I added another 4) and although they've grown a lot I really wish they'd start pairing. I think the largest male one has, but it's with a cobra (Zebra lace comb-tail veil)! I'm a bit confused about this particular b/g male, because he simply looks different to the other 9, this is the best picture I have:


My photography skills are getting worse!


I'm much in need of a DSLR camera and then I just need a website to upload my pictures to!

It's been a busy month, but I don't seem to have done much. I have plenty stock of working suspended lighting units, bulbs and wood - it's fun finding my bargains.

Breeding wise: My gold x koi have had a bit of a break. I was going to sell them, but it can take such a lot of effort that in the end I just decided to keep them. My marbles look like they're on the verge of spawning, they've been lip locking I just see it as fairly normal and don't pay them too much attention. I keep checking for tubes, but I tend to do that anyway. I added a blushing marble and wild zebra male pair. Those are also lip locking too. It's nice to visit sellers, I could do that all day long.

I'm thinking of making my own 18" cubes for breeders, using new glass. Though I think I'd make them a touch taller, to make sure there was 18" of water depth. Will have to price it up, I don't think there are any shortcuts on this one and I also have to think about internal filtration design - I think I'll be able to come up with a good design, purpose built with plenty of filtration capacity.

The fish room is a nice constant temperature, very happy with that. Feeling hot hot hot.

I've developed the angelfish types app, it need a bit more work, but I'm fairly happy with it so far.

Due to let some of my babies go, fishbags... add to shopping list! Time to check the demand

Thanks for keeping us updated, it's always good to hear how other people's projects are coming along.

I still haven't parted with any fry as I still haven't made any selections for myself  - no harm in keeping them all for now.

The angelfish app http://angelfish.org.uk needs further work on the descriptions, but it generally works as a prototype.

Modifying a tank into four breeders. I also learned that when building tanks, although extra depth of water normally means thicker glass, the quality of finish of the glass edges plays an important part in considering safety factors, as that's where the cracks start from! Oooooh... and also... in the case where you might have a 2 foot tank and brace it top to bottom with glass to make a 6" filter compartment, you need only calculate glass thickness for a 18" tank. That might mean nothing to some people, but for those building internal filters, it could mean you don't need to use 10mm after all.

Here's a photo of my smokey angelfish:


One from Viscum (male) and the other I picked up a few months back from a new aquatics shop in Batley, West Yorkshire. I'm hoping the one on the left is female. The one on the right seems to have quite a pink'ish body that isn't seen in the female and I suspect she's het for pearlscale too. They're not a pair yet, I'm matchmaking - just for fun.

Addendum: With a bit of mathematics
When trying to pair fish, even if you couldn't see the fish, you still have a 50/50 chance of getting a male and a female. Here's the scenarios, where M=Male and F=Female:

1. M M (no pair)
2. F F (no pair)
3. F M (possible pair)
4. M F (possible pair)

Scenario 3 and 4  have the same result (one of each sex) however, they must be counted as separate scenarios. In scenario 3, the first fish you put in the tank is F, the second M, whereas, in scenario 4, the first fish you put in the tank is M the second F. That's why they're different (even though the result is the same).

So... (2 of the 4) scenarios result in a possible pair, that's the same as 2/4ths which simplifies to 1/2 chance, or 50%.

Enjoying low cost fish-keeping, while the summer lasts!

I just wanted to show you my top row, fitted with filters and slate:



> Smokey Pair, Maybe?
> Marble and Wild Zebra (loves to flash his stripes)
> Marble Pair
> Bulgarian Greens x8 and 1 Peruvian (head has taken on a greyish appearance and yellow spots deepened to brown, nice)
> 12 Juvenile White Gold Marble Ghosts, just growing on

I feel a bit more organised now. Might start building the 2nd layer as I want to get my reservoir repositioned.

I know we're all lucky if we break even! And that excludes the hours spent in care, it's just nice to get something back for the brine shrimp they've consumed. Yey!

For the sake of the cost of a few metres of air line, wouldn't it be better to route the airlines at the rear?
Otherwise looking good. Woodworking can be fun, and rewarding when you're looking at your finished handiwork. But not as much fun, or as rewarding, as watching your angels swim happily in their tanks.

Pterophyllum wrote:For the sake of the cost of a few metres of air line, wouldn't it be better to route the airlines at the rear?

On reflection, it does look a bit silly doesn't it! It looks like it was constructed by someone with poor quality valves... an underpowered air source... in an air line drought.

Yes, I take great joy in keeping angels. They're the only fish I have right now (except 2 catfish which don't count). My fish room is the only facility I've ever managed in which I take a genuine interest in the product