My Fish Shed story by Kris Lee - Now with Photos!

Hi Guys,

I have recently been chatting to Kris Lee about his fish shed. Kris has kindly agreed to share the story behind his most recent fish shed.

This is the first instalment of our fish shed blog and we will be taking an in-depth step by step guide over the next week or so.

Hi I'd first like to introduce myself and explain where my passion began. As a junior of maybe 10 years old, we had a 3ft Community tank in our living room which quickly progressed to also having a 2ft tank in my bedroom . Not long after that we joined the Kirkcaldy aquarist society club where I was a junior till about 16/17 years old. During this time we had 2 very different sheds, a 30+ tank and a 60+ tank shed which gave us good success with both breeding and showing.

Sadly after the loss of my father I left the hobby and never seen any chance of return . In 2014 I opened up my own pet shop. Although the shop was a major fail it did open up the fish hobby to me again. After the close of my shop in October 2015 I decided I would have a few fish tanks in the cupboard at home. I installed 6 18x10x15" and 1 18x30x12" tanks which quickly became no where near enough. I decided to take over the shed in the garden. As an empty shed I had 9'x7' floor space, me being me I wanted to utilise this space as best I could. 

An empty shed awaiting
transformation.

Polystyrene worked well
to cover windows

Altering the shed was not an option as I was in rented property and couldn't afford to go crazy as I wasn't in a great financial position at the time either. So I started by gathering up all the materials I had lying around from the shop and old bird shed I had previously insulated. I managed to string together enough insulation between 25mm and 50mm polystyrene and kingspan boards to almost finish the job. I was gifted some more kingspan from a friend in the hobby Wayne and after buying some of the silver foil to finish it of and give a final layer we were well on our way.

Silver foil completes
the insulation process

Racking made from salvaged
wood.

It was now time for racking and I again, working to a tight budget I salvaged some cls (3x2) and rustled up the first rack this now holds 10 tanks 18x8x8 on the top row followed by some of my 15" deeps on the Middle bay but in all 10 15" deep tanks followed by 2 18" cubes and a 5' tank on the lower row.

Kris made these two
himself.

After filling these tanks and getting the temperature settled I moved onto the other side. My ideas changed quickly from some 24" deep tanks on the base level to more 8" tanks so all in all the second rack holds 14 18x8x8" 2 18x18x9" and 1 home made tank of 24x18x8 which was a first build for me and turned out reasonably successful all be it rather messy. 

After filling these tanks with water I soon had more ideas after the newly found ability to build tanks. I mustered up 2 for the end of the walk way a 30x9x12 and a 34x9x15 and that was the final count on tanks for now. I do have one more row hidden that i could fit another 10 tanks on 18x8x8 but temperatures would be to much hassle for that just now . 
Now that the aquariums were in place, filtration was next on the list. I achieve this by running a 65l Blagdon pump along with an 8 outlet Hailea branched of to 16 outlets. 

It was now time for an upgrade I had seen many ways of pushing air round multiple tanks over my years in the hobby and remember still the blowers we used when I was a junior I decided that the road for me was a 120 litre hi blow diaphragm pump which is now running round a ring main system and powering the whole shed on a reasonable power consumption. Being keen on the idea of plants for the fish and for quality of water I then moved onto lights and again salvaged some and ended up with 6 led strip lights it took a little juggling and re-wiring but I got there in the end. I then added some finishing touches by adding a floor and cupboard doors. I used linoleum on my floor solely as its a wooden floor that I couldn't alter but I won't dwell to much. Now my shed is complete as best it can be at the moment when I move to a more permanent residence I'll build something more substantial but now it's quite adequate.I tried a few flaps on the racks which I didn't like so I now have open fronts on the rack with glass sliders on each tank . 

Fish species that I keep in the shed are a lot of wild type live bearers I have had s a huge passion for them since being a junior in the Kirkcaldy club. I had many species back them which I'm actively looking keep again. I also keep an array of ancistrus species where I seem to have a reasonable success rate . Lastly I have a few tanks dedicated to some cichlids some angel fish some dwarf cichlids and some lake tangynikans just to give me a bit variation but I'm sure I'll gain more and more species as the months go by.

This is a quick description of Kris Lees hobby. Each fish hut is unique and what works for one may not work for another. If you have a Shed at the moment, I would love to share your story next...

thanks for reading guys, and thanks Kris for sharing with us.