Well, since the fish room is as good as done, I thought I'd give a short (or maybe lengthy
) pictorial tour.
This is an overview as you walk in the door:
On the left is the main storage shelf. The drawer units contain all the odds and ends necessary to keep everything running - spare parts, etc. The shelf also hold food preparation utensils and all my test kits. On the right, of course is the tank. The back wall hold the RO/DI unit and a shelf for extra filters, reactors, and such.
I'll go into some detail on the other stuff a little later.
OK - I know most folks like pics a lot, so I'm just gonna throw a bunch at you.
This is the back of the display tank, looking from the entrance of the room. You can see I use the overflow pipe support platform to hold all the dry fish food.
Here's the tank from the other end. The coiled hose, with the John Guest valve, is for acclimation. Next to it, I've Velcroed the AC-III Pro, LinkSys game adapter, and AquaSurf to the back of the tank. They work out real well there, as the connections for the Tunze Streams, DC-8s, etc. are close. All the components are protected from being knocked around by the fact that they are located under the overflow box, which protects them.
Here's a close-up of the AC-III, etc.
Here's the work table side from the back wall. Notice that I have become somewhat of an art aficionado.
I admit, if the gods are against you, you can end up with a lot fewer than you started with. That said, if you start with a fairly large number of healthy fish, all the same size, you will most likely end up with a decent group when all is said and done. I really believe that most losses can be traced to the methods used to catch the fish. The results are a large die off during the first 10 days or so.
I'll be doing a complete tour of the room very soon. As to peristaltic pumps, I currently use six: Alk, Ca, Mg, trace elements, water change out, water change in.
