Keeping fish through house rewire

[ScareCrow]

Hi All,

I'm planning on getting our house rewired next year and trying to think of the best approach for keeping my fish safe.
If there are any electricians on here I'd value your opinions on my proposed approach, or if you have better ideas, please let me know.
My plan is to do most if not all the chasing out myself to save some money and so I can work around my tanks keeping the inhabitants safe.
I want a separate consumer unit for the garage for tools, outside power etc. I was going to ask the electricians to do that installation first, then they can use that circuit as site power and I could move my tanks to the garage while they work on the rest of the house.

Does this sound like something they'd do? Is there a better way?

Thanks in advance for you time

 

[tam]

Sounds a plan. Do you have seperate circuits? My parents rewired the tanks to be on their own circuit, rewired some lighting, and swapped out the fuse board. We did as much as possible ahead of time - all the rewiring, then the elecrician came in checked it and changed out the fuse board. They have a few circuits i.e. kitchen is on a seperate one so it was just a case of running an extension lead to the area with power. The fuse board change was only a couple of hours so no more issue than a powercut. If you are having a seperate unit installed then that would work the same way - run a lead to it. Whether you need to physically move the tanks depends on what you are having done. There are also thinks you can do, depending on your tanks to help them cope in a longer outage e.g. running mini air pumps off a usb power bank.

 

[dean]

As long as there no chance of plaster dust getting into the tank then theres really no need to move it
Cover it with plastic sheeting- also protect the glass and cabinet from being scratched or covered in dust


If you will be living in the house during the work the electrician will need to leave you power on somewhere all the time, how else will they get tea made

So simply run an extension lead to the aquarium

Plants will survive days without lights

Filter bacteria will die back eventually if theres no flow but shouldnt be much of a problem for a day you can always add beneficial bacteria back to the tank when the power comes back on

Myself i would just cover it and not worry unless its going to be very hot or very cold


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ScareCrow]

Thanks both for your replies.
I want to add some sockets where the tank currently is and then lift and reinforce the floor for a larger tank so moving it isn't any additional work.

If you will be living in the house during the work the electrician will need to leave you power on somewhere all the time, how else will they get tea made //emoji.tapatalk-cdn.com/emoji23.png

Normally I do everything myself. Other than getting gas installed this will be the only other trade I've had in and looking at videos on YouTube they seem to make a real issue about people staying in the property, so thought keeping a tank running would be a real headache. Reassuring that it's not that big a deal.

 

[ScareCrow]

Do you have seperate circuits?

I don't at the moment but want to have a separate consumer unit for the garage/outside power just for the future as I'd like a fish shed at some point.

 

[dino21]

I don't at the moment but want to have a separate consumer unit for the garage/outside power just for the future as I'd like a fish shed at some point.

They do make consmer units especially for garages/workshops which come off a leg of the main house consumer unit.
Toolstation

If concered about all the electrics going off for a few hours, if your tank is not too big and you can get and charge up some s/h car or leisure batteries and connect them to an Inverter that should keep the tanks heater and circ pumps running for a good few hours. Though only 12v batteries you still need to be very careful wiring it all up .
300W Power Inverter Car Converter Adapter Charger DC 12V to AC 230V 240V UK NEW | eBay

Agree with others, moving the tank is a last resort as it often leads to some disaster.


You do not mention the size of your new tank or construction of your floor, does it really need reinforcing and how ?
You can often get some good tips / answers for diy improvments here -

Electrics How To Guides

Electrics UK

 

[mrhoyo]

Didn't have fish when the house was rewired but had 20+ reptiles and then we had 2 aquariums when the extension was done. Both times were fine, it was just a case of switching off circuits as and when required. I don't think anything was off more than about an hour and that was when fitting the new board.

 

[ScareCrow]

They do make consmer units especially for garages/workshops which come off a leg of the main house consumer unit.

This was the sort of thing I was thinking of.

I did consider putting together a small solar setup, with charge controller and inverter but I think it's probably overkill and would be too small to be of use long term.

You do not mention the size of your new tank or construction of your floor, does it really need reinforcing and how ?

It's a suspended floor but other than that I've not lifted the carpet to investigate. Upstairs is floorboards so I'm assuming it'll be the same. The floor does move a bit (not enough to be noticeable under foot but noticeable when you look at the water in the tank when the filter is off).
Not settled on a tank size yet but more planning for the future. As it's noticeable with approximately 100 litres I don't fancy putting a couple of hundred litres in the same place without making it more stable.
My plan is lift floor, make a concrete pad, layer of DPM, block up to below floor, more DPM then make up any difference between the blocks and floor with treated wood. Alternatively make a concrete slab with threaded stainless set into it, then use that as an adjustable support. All depends how much space there is between the floor and sub-floor.

 

[dino21]

It's a suspended floor but other than that I've not lifted the carpet to investigate. Upstairs is floorboards so I'm assuming it'll be the same. The floor does move a bit (not enough to be noticeable under foot but noticeable when you look at the water in the tank when the filter is off).
Not settled on a tank size yet but more planning for the future. As it's noticeable with approximately 100 litres I don't fancy putting a couple of hundred litres in the same place without making it more stable.
My plan is lift floor, make a concrete pad, layer of DPM, block up to below floor, more DPM then make up any difference between the blocks and floor with treated wood. Alternatively make a concrete slab with threaded stainless set into it, then use that as an adjustable support. All depends how much space there is between the floor and sub-floor.

Yes, you need to find out what the size of the joists are, the spacing between them , their unsupported length and which direction they run in relation to the proposed tank.
You can then look up on the web and see what load it can take, though many timber floors can cause a bit of movement. ours do.

Can see two problems with your concrete idea, do you have a layer of site concrete below the joists, its ideally said to be at least 100mm but it could be a lot less, so prone to sinking/cracking if a lot of weight is applied.
Think you are saying you would block up to the floorboards ? but it would be better to block up to the underside of the joists so the whole structure is better supported.

Depending on access it might be easier to stengthen the existing joists across their whole length and / or add in extra joists which could be done in two halves with strong joining plates.

If in any doubt you should get a stuctural engineer to assess things for you.

 

[ScareCrow]

do you have a layer of site concrete below the joists

I've not lifted the floor but based on what I've heard from neighbours I doubt there is.

block up to the underside of the joists

Yes that was what I was thinking.

Depending on access it might be easier to stengthen the existing joists across their whole length and / or add in extra joists which could be done in two halves with strong joining plates.

I did this on a garden deck once but I think I'll struggle to gain enough access without lifting the majority of the floor.