Tank wall in shed out of scrap timber

Looking good john,some more insulation would be recomended,you know what the frost can be like down here ! more insulation might save on your heaters and your ESB bill

Looking good john keep us posted

I think I have some more insulation sorted Was over in the uncles house that hes only recently finished building and he has a load of foil backed 40mm kingspan insulation.He must have around 20 full size boards.Even better its free

lookin great John, love the photo's - keep em comin. I reckon one day an off-site meeting should be held in your shed

Ok another mini update. I got some heaters and Sponge in tullamore today.I made some sponge filters out of the sponge.I also water tested the 2 tanks I built and they are fine . I still need to get more insulation installed, doors for the top tanks , and all the wood painted.I havent any fish in the tanks as I know ill have to drain them and move them when im doing the painting.Need to tidy up all the wiring too.Im also thinking of painting the backs of the tanks for asthetic reasons

Yeah andrew an off site meeting would be cool , Ill make sure I leave room for the kettle and teabags

Heres a few pics to keep this thread alive.

Lookin'good,John
Lar

Hi John, how are things progressing with the wall of tanks, have you got any latest pictures ?

Hi John
what's the latest on your wall of tanks, how are you getting or is there something you need that maybe a forum member could have ?
Andrew

Hi John,

Any more develpements , been following the thread and dying to see pics of the tanks with fish in them ,

Hi John
How are the tanks coping with the cold temps/frost down here at the moment...?,It was minus 5 down my way at 7am friday mornin

lar

Hi Guys , sorry about not updating in a good while. Em yeah the problem so far is the temperature of inside the shed on cold days. I did a trial run with one of the tanks with just water and no fish in one of the 60L tanks with a 100w heater. During the whole week I had the tank running i did not see the heater switch off once!! Even the 100 watt couldnt cope with the -6 nights we have had here and tank temp dropped way too much. Im now stumped as to what to do. Anyone any ideas ?

Insulation on the 3 sides and top and bottom, then when we have temperatures like we had for the past few weeks have more insulation ready to close off the front, sheets of builders insulation should be cheap.

LB

John
following on from LB's idea about insulation,how about 'boxing' in the tanks i.e.add walls and stuff them with insulation around the tank shelves or building a room within your shed, does this make sense ...? I'll try and put a drawing together to illustrate what I mean,also looking at your pics one of your main problem area's would be your shed roof its just cladding with no insulation,you should really try and improve on this aspect .I hope this makes sense to you if not let me know and I'll try and expand on it


Cheers
Lar

a somewhat primitive idea may be to place either a. a heat pad .. the likes of which you would put under a vivarium , or b hows about an electric blanket under the tanks ... so they could be switched on for the cold nights ..

or ... a gas heater in the fish room

Hi John ,

In relation to your room , I would personally try to insulate all the walls and roof in there, I know B&Q have 8 x 4 sheets of 2 inch polystyrene for 8 euro each , you could calculate how much you need. it is a bit of a big outlay at the start but you will get in back in the long run.
All you have to do is just tack them to the wall pretty handy just dont run any electrical cables behind it as it tends to melt the sheets in the area they are running down. I have done this in my shed and 2 four foot tanks with 2 300 watt heaters set at 28 actually maintain the room temperature at 23- 25 degrees rarely coming on. Also I stuck polystyrene on the door sealed all voids and holes with expanding foam. Also If there is any windows I cant see from the Photo's cover them over too. Another alternative would be to batten the walls and put rock wool behind sheets of greenboard plasterboard the moisture resistant stuff but this is way more expensive and takes up more space. You could also use a thermostatically controlled electrical oil filled heater to keep room temp constant without putting heaters in the tank this system can work well but awkward if you wish to keep tanks at different temps just keep it to the lower end. Dont use a gas fire in there as it needs a vent to keep a supply of oxygen to burn also the risk of fire. If this gas super ser sytle fires use up all the oxygen in the room they go out and will still leak out gas.

Hmmm the 2" polystyrene sheets sound like a really good idea zoom. My walls are already insulated with 4" of fibreglass so I would only have to do the roof which would work out at around 36 euro I might pop in at the weekend and get a few sheets and see if that improves the temps much.Thanks for all your input guys , i really appreciate it