AVN's Base of Operations

[AVN]

Damn, good titles are hard to come up with... I hope my OCD doesn't make me want to change it later... I already know I can't.

Some of you may already know about the fast one mother nature tried to pull on me because of my previous thread. Let me first comment on the fact that the thread mentioned was deleted because a group of stoners (myself included) started to talk about how I grew cannabis. Let's not get this thread deleted too!

So, after a week of arduously repairing burnt pumps and cleaning up substrates, fauna, flora, water, and glass I've decided to get out of this place. The costs, both money and time of maintaining it are vastly higher than the benefits I am gaining, so I'm downsizing (rather being forced to) and moving my operation into my garage, where I've begun to build a nice wall where I'll be setting up what I have left.

For those of you wondering, I ended up recycling 288 pounds of glass and had a pile of deadstock that was nearly a foot high. I won't even go into detail the smell of all the substrate on the floor and rotting animals when I got back at the end of the weekend.

10-18-2012

Here's the wall in my garage that I built with the funds from the recycled glass. The photo quality is crappy because I used my friend's camera phone, but once I get my new phone I will post better pictures.

Wall dimensions are 144" x 99"

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I built the wall using steel framing that I mounted to the concrete floor and wooden studs in the ceiling. I covered it up with drywall on one side and spread a nice even layer of whatever the hell that is that covers screw holes and smooths out cracks in drywall. I plan on getting behind it and installing some outlets later on.

I covered the entire thing with Mylar sheeting, I had a ton left over from when I set up my grow room. Mylar sheeting reflects 98% of light, so it maximizes the efficiency of my light cycle by reflecting light back into my tank and not allowing it to diffuse on the walls. It has unarguably saved me thousands in electricity bills over the years. I also plan on having a few removable panels covered in Mylar to give the lights a full enclosure when I'm not working in there.

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10-20-2012

The next step was to build a stand, rather in this case, a rack scaled to fit the entire wall.

I used the last of my reserve funds to purchase great lengths of steel, I've already designed my rack and I'm currently in the process of cutting and welding it together. Before the weekend's end, I will set up shelves and begin moving in tanks.

Here's the entire rack. Dimensions are 144" x 30" x 99"

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[AVN]

10-23-2012

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Removing hard water buildup.

10-24-2012

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After the cap and flood, beginning the cycle because I can't plant with my dominant hand incapacitated. More than half the sand is from cycled tanks.

Seeding... seeding... sown!

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Frogbit, Duckweed, and Dwarf Water Lettuce.

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That Sunburst Platy was dead before I put her in there. She couldn't handle the stress from the LFS transfer, so I'm using her remains to feed the cycle. The other 4 did make it in case you were wondering.

11-07-2012

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A couple of shots.

Flora: (If you have corrections or additions to scientific or common names that'd be stellar)

Stem Plants:
Lindernia rotundifolia - Baby Tears
Hydrocotyle leucocephala - Brazilian Pennywort
Limnophila sessiliflora - Asian Ambulia
Myriophyllum heterophyllum - Red Foxtail
Cabomba caroliniana - Green Cabomba
Cabomba pulcherrima - Purple Cabomba
Ludwigia repens - Red Ludwigia
Hygrophila difformis - Water Wisteria
Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow' - Java Fern 'Narrow'
Heteranthera zosterifolia - Star Grass
Ceratophyllum demursum - Hornwort
Vallisneria americana gigantea - Jungle Val
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis' - Narrow Leaf Giant Hygro
Rotala indica - Indian Toothcup
Nymphaea sp. 'Taiwan' - Nymph Taiwan(?)
Lysimachia nummularia - Creeping Jenny
Egeria densa - Anacharis
Echinodorus Argentinensis - Argentine Sword

Pogostemmon Erectus
Rotala Colorata
Red Myrio
Red Rubin (Ludwigia sp.)
Alternathera Reinickii Roseafolia
Hydrocotyle Sibthorides

Hygropilia Tiger

Carpets:
Marsilea quadrifolia - Water Clover
Hemianthus callitrichoides - Dwarf Baby Tears
Glossostigma elatinoides - Glosso
Eleocharis belem - Dwarf Hairgrass 'Belem'

Crypts:
Wendtii sp. 'Extra Tall'

Anubias:
Anubias barteri 'Petite' - Anubias Petite
Anubias barteri 'Nana' - Anubias Nana

Mosses:
Taxiphyllum sp. - Flame Moss
Taxiphyllum barbieri - Java Moss
Taxiphyllum alternans - Taiwan Moss
Fissiden fontanus - Phoenix Moss
Loxogramme sp. 'Wave Moss' - Mini Marchantia

Lomariopsis sp. - Subwassertang

Floaters:
Limnobium laevigatum - Amazon Frogbit
Pistia stratiotes 'Mini' - Dwarf Water Lettuce (Cannot find classification for DWL anywhere, for argument sake I will call it 'Mini')
Lemna minor L. - Duckweed

+ assorted stems that are unable to be ID'd because they are vegging.

Fauna:
Fish:
Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps - Sailfin Pleco x 1
Corydoras panda - Panda Cory x 10
Poecilia wingei - Endler's Guppy x 50

Invertebrates:
Palaemonetes paludosus - Ghost Shrimp
Melanoides tuberculata - Malaysian Trumpet Snail
Radix labiata - Wandering Pond Snail
Planorbis rebrum var. 'Blue' - Blue Ramshorn
Planorbis rebrum var. 'Pink' - Pink Ramshorn

Plants en Route:

Plants Wanted:
Utricularia graminifolia - UG
Elatine triandra - Mudwort/Long stem Waterwort
Vesicularia ferriei - Weeping Moss
Fontinalis antipyretica - Willow Moss
Pogostemon helferi - Donoi
Anubias barteri 'Nana' - Stardust Anubia
Elatine hydropiper - Mini Glosso
Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' - Hydrocotyle 'Japan'

[AVN]

11-28-2012

Finally all the snags are gone and progress can resume! I'm building the first of eight custom tanks for this rack of mine, here's some sloppy pictures taken at random steps in the process. The tank dimensions measure 42 x 30 x 14, with a total of around 76 gallons. Divided, each section is roughly 25.3 gallons. This tank is the first of an identical set, it's sister will be built a few weeks from now.

All three sections will be filtered by an UGF and a large sponge filter, the UGF will deposit water on top of a wet/dry trickle filter that I built and into a 40 gallon sump at the bottom of the rack, which I will fill with bioballs and other filter goodies.

These tanks will house 2-3 species of shrimp per, I will be very meticulous in planning and maintaining overlapping stable and optimal parameters for all species as they are all part of the same system.

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Momentive RTV 100 Series Black (Only used 50% of the 10.1 oz tube)

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Cleaned the sides and edges of all the glass.

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Placed masking tape along all the edges that will be silicon-ed. This saves me time on cleaning the glass later.

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IT IS NOW TIME! TIME TO FULFILL YOUR DESTINY!

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Got the sides and back up, held them in place with wood I had laying around. (Sawed notches

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Next came the center pieces, these were the hardest to line up straight, I had to hold them for about 10 minutes before the silicone was strong enough.

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Immediately after the silicone was strong enough to hold the center dividers, I wedged in the front, and clamped everything down with pieces of wood.

All the while in my head, I was hearing "Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! EVERYBODY!! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps! Clamps!"

I think I might have inhaled too many fumes.

[AVN]

Space saver 4. Will only post five spaces!

[AVN]

Final space saver.

These spaces will be a separate section each.

[andrewss]

interesting, not sure what you have planned exactly but seems like a good DIY start

[AVN]

Yeah, right now it's kinda abstract since the shelves are being welded. I'll have them finished by tonight or tomorrow!

[bitFUUL]

Space saver
(good luck!)

[AVN]

I got the rack done and pulled a muscle in my knee, it's not too bad but it hurts enough to make me limp. I had to strain it very hard in order to get that 300g on the rack. I didn't have much help...

I will get pics tomorrow. :3

[cableguy69846]

Following.

Sent from my phone via my job's wifi, most likely.

[acitydweller]

Woah.. Big build... Looking forward to progress updates here

[DogFish]

I'm considering adding mylar to upgrade my Aquaponic system. How did you attach your to the wall? Double back tape?

[AVN]

I highly advise against using only double sided tape to attach it, it sounds like a good idea, but when I first did that in my grow room years ago I had a huge issue with the Mylar crinkling, and then getting stuck crinkled to multiple points of the tape...and then not holding to the wall in the middle where there was no tape... needless to say it was a huge battle for my OCD to let go of the imperfections and just finish the job. Removing it from the tape was also impossible without ripping it off the walls.

For this wall I used a combination of low amounts of double sided tape and thumbtacks. I smoothed the surface by sanding, placed tape along the edges only, and then used a pack of 200 thumbtacks to pin it up along the edges and anywhere in the center where it had slack. It worked much better than using an adhesive to do all of it, there's almost no wrinkles except for the places where I stretched it! Also with tacks, I can pull them out if I need to re-smooth a portion of the wall and re-tack it back in easily.

The thumbtacks I used were silver, rounded, and flat at the end, so when pushed into the wall they had minimal presence. I got the box and tape at Wal-Mart, in the office supplies/crafts section for less than $3.

It's hard to work with long lengths of Mylar, so I would advise you to cut it into multiple pieces. Only if you have a burning desire to have it perfectly straight. (Although I find that impossible, I spent hours trying to make it stay straight to no avail)

[AVN]

I ended up in the ER when a tank I was cleaning collapsed and split my palm open today. I was going to post a picture of the gash but I'm not sure that's allowed, someone let me know. It's pretty gross.

To numb me they injected lidocaine into my split-in-half palm...it hurt. I was okay with cutting my hand open and bleeding like hell, (6) but this injection was like an 8 on the scale of 10. I was screaming profanities in the ER. I got four injections on the same site, with the 2 inch needle disappearing every time. :3

The sewing up wasn't too bad, but what got me was the handling of my flap of dangling HAND when they moved it around to clean inside.

Anyways I started work on my largest tank, MTS substrate with pool filter sand as a cap. I am short sand, so I'm going to go get more tomorrow. (One handed!)

I'll fill it up in a day or two, I want to start planting moss on lava rocks and carpeting plants before flooding it. Please remember this isn't a scape, but a grow tank! My father said he was going to get a large (18") Arowana, but I asked him why he'd want it in my tank. :|

[GMYukonon24s]

I'll have to keep an eye on this