pre-season jonesing

So I've been doing a lot to prepare for the weather to warm up so I can get out there in the water and look for some cool native fish. OK, I know some of you don't let the cold weather stop you. Maybe when I invest in waders, I might be brave, too. But I enjoy getting in there with just a pair of old sneakers, swim trunks, and a tee shirt. Take a break in mid collection, go for a swim. Ah, living the dream.

I've been without tanks for a couple of years now due to a bunch of moving around, so the jonesing is pretty bad. I'm in a place where I'm going to stay for many years now, so it's safe to unpack. The infamous 90 gallon tank that I broke is gone now. I dug out my fish books from storage tonight, and have been getting particularly excited while thumbing through Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland & Delaware like I was a teenager who just discovered his fathers stash of mature-audience periodicals.

Tons of stuff I had in my home office here was just junk that I was carting from house to house, often never bothering to unpack. I've now got a big pile going down the hall of stuff that is going out to the curb this week (yes, recycleables will be sorted out).

I've also got a pile of weird old computer equipment that I've collected. I need to sanitize all the hard disks (oh what fun) and take them to a special processing center for recycling. This includes boxes and boxes of old weird cables.

Once those are out, I've got a big industrial rack on the wall that can move to the pantry to hold food instead. That'll free up almost another 4' of wall space alone.

When all of this work is done, I'll be left with a mostly empty room, except the bit that my desk occupies. It's not a big room, by any means. Not a ton of contiguous wall space. But it'll do.

The biggest hunk of wall I have to work with is 90" long (8' ceiling). Then I've got another odd-size patch about 80" long by 40" high (vertically interrupted by a double window, and this room is in the basement which is why the window is high).

I'm thinking the tall wall space will have a rack with a number of 10 & 20 gallon tanks, ends-out for efficiency, plus my 55 gallon tank face-out for display. I'm a tall guy so going three rows high won't be a problem for me.

I'm thinking the space under the windows would be good for setting up my live food cultures and quarantine tank.

I'm kicking around the idea of putting most of the big rack on a centralized filtration system, minus the 55 gallon because I don't want to drill it and I don't trust an undrilled tank in such a setup. I have to try my hand at drilling tanks and see if I can do it competently. Either that or find a good local source that does it affordably. Last time I did a fish room, I did sponge filters in every tank. They worked well, but it was a lot of work every week doing water changes on every tank and rinsing the sponges on every tank. I'd rather just water change the sump and use a refugium as a filter.

OK I'm panicking just a wee bit. Found my seine but my dipnet appears to not be anywhere in this house.

Don't fool around, get waders for February/March at least. The fish are coloring up, and you'll feel better getting out. Just make sure you don't step into water deeper than your waders...

Just make sure you don't step into water deeper than your waders...

And how is it that you do that! I've always looked at waders as being:
1. leg protectors, keeps those sticks and thorns at bay
2. water sampling containers which pretty much requires one getting deeper then the waders
Plus water seems to be a pretty good insulater. Soon after filling with water I don't even feel the cold..or the creek bottom...or my feet.

No but seriously for you southern exposure collectors maybe a couple heat paks taped inside each wader leg could expand your collecting to that cold 60 degree water.

I invested the money in Hodgdon waders (~$120), which are pretty well insulated. They're a little bit longer than hip waders, but not as high as chest waders. I think they're preferred by duck hunters locally.The coldest water I've worked in north 'bama was 8 deg. C, admittedly mild by northern standards. These waders also have good traction compared to others, I've only slipped once in three seasons with them (and landed against a muddy bank, luckily). And I've never shipped water in them...

Just make sure you don't step into water deeper than your waders...

I watch the handle on my dip net or the brail of the seine, respectively, when the handle or the seine net goes underwater, it is too deep.

I have collected when the water was so cold, ice on the net did not melt in the current; the ice got bigger.

I like breathable waders. You can always wear long-johns underneath. Lighter than neoprene, and cooler too. Buy stocking-foot breathable waders. You are about 2 months too late for the 50% clearance sales for waders.

Yeah maybe I'll get some hip waders. Something like that is a thing I'm going to want to try on in the store though because size labels are largely a rough guide to what might be in the ballpark of fitting.

Spent a bunch more time today cleaning out the room. Couple hundred pounds of junk is gone between giveaways, recycling, and garbage pickup. I'd put more out but I don't think the city will take anymore. Hundreds of pounds of old books just went out today to a family member (no fish books... mostly old obsolete computer books).

Available floor space is increasing by the hour. Shame I have to stop. Next trash day I should have another huge bite out of this room.

I need to get a book case for the books I kept, which will free up more floor space.

The most laborious part left of freeing up space is going to be taking a drill to every single hard disk that I've got to get rid of. I don't know what's on all of them, and we're talking dozens so it's not very practical to go through them all (especially when they aren't all necessarily PC hard disks) So I'm just going to "ventilate" them before taking them off to the electronics recycling depot.

I've also been putting more thought into layout.

The south wall of the room has 8' ceiling and 84" of contiguous space. I'm thinking along the lines of a triple decker rack of tanks in there, mostly 10's, a few 20's, ends out. Maybe a 30 "breeder" on the lowest shelf as a refugium/sump and plumb all the tanks together for centralized filtration/water changes.

The east wall has some space, too, but it's short on height due to the basement windows. My 55 can go over here, but not on its original cabinet stand. I'll have to make something up , too short to stack any tanks below it, and a second smaller rack next to it with some more standalone tanks (not on any centralized filtration) for breeding/growing live food. I don't imagine anything on the east wall will be on any sort of centralized filtration. Just the big rack on the south wall. This way I can have my quarantine, my live food tanks, and maybe experiment with some saltwater or brackish systems without having filtration hassles.

I don't really have room to work with on the north wall (closet, entry door, and book case) or the west wall (my desk, printer stand).