Re: New Fish Room

[Beverly Erlebacher <bae@cs.toronto.edu>]

> From: "Steve Waldron" <swaldron@slip.net>
> 
> Sorry I haven't been following this thread to close, but one cool thing to
> add to a dream fishroom: a de-humidifier. You will want to remove some of
> the H2O from the air to keep your fishroom from turning into fungiroom.  A
> nice bonus: the effluent of the de-humidifier is mineral free and excellent
> for soft-water fish applications.

Dehumidifier water is iffy.  THese units usually have copper or aluminum
condensation coils that may contaminate the condensed moisture.  Also, they
tend to grow fungi and collect dust that gets into the water.

Two ways to reduce humidity and condensation are (1) keep all tanks 
covered and (2) heat the room rather than the tanks.  Insulate the room
if necessary.  If the walls and other surfaces are warm, moisture won't
condense on them.  You could also install an exhaust fan if heating isn't 
an issue.

> >From: Doug Brown <debrown@kodak.com>
> 
> >- Use that pretreated deck wood for racks. Use bolts so I can take it apart
> >if I need to!

Never use this wood indoors.  CCA wood (copper chromium arsenate) is very
toxic stuff.  It has enough arsenic in it that in most jurisdictions it
should be disposed of in special toxic waste landfills.  If any moisture
runs off it into a tank, expect a fish kill.  Even setting a wet net on
it and using it in a tank would be inadvisable.  I would be dubious about 
using other forms of preserved wood, too.  Unless you have leaky tanks,
plain untreated softwood should last for decades.  Put the feet up on floor
tiles or scraps of rigid plastic to keep them dry if you think you may have
a chronically wet floor.



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