SludgeMunkey
New member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 2,299
- Reaction score
- 80
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Bellevue, Nebraska
- Country
- United States
- Display Name
- Johnny O. Farnen
So, my wife raided the Creepy Salamander Cave today and stole my experimental dishes and empty soda cans. She was able to fight off the interbreeding socks and wash and replace the doggie beds for my "research assistants"....
Anyway, as I keep getting requests for pics, so here is the "husbandry" side of the room. I am leaving out the "lab" side of the room, and the frogs, toads, and kiddie pool set ups, as there are portions of that area that could easily be misconstrued as something illegal.
(I'm a biochemistry student now-a-days and I do not want to be accused of making drugs or W.M.D.s or something silly like that....and when you see all that junk it sure looks like I am up to no good...)
So, anyway, here is the Cave in all its hillbilly, jury-rigged glory:
As you can see, I have plastered the door with all sorts of official looking signage. This is to keep teenagers from messing around with my precious junk. (Not pictured is a small warning sign that states "this workplace doesn't give a <expletive> about safety")
Next to the door is the "tool crib" This is where all the regular use stuff is kept and dried once it has been sanitized. Not pictured is the "dip bucket" to keep stuff free of nasty stuff.
As we move along, you see the "chem locker" shelf where all the really important, regularly used stuff is kept. There is actually a small Flammable Locker hiding in the closet, but it really has little to do with the Critter Room, so I left that out.
We pull back a bit so you can get a feel of the way things are organized. This is the "dim" end of the rack, for critters that really don't need direct light.
As we work down the rack, you can see that most everything is made from recycled materials. I use a lot of salvaged lumber, used tanks, and stuff from surplus and closeout auctions whenever possible. It isn't pretty, but it is cheap and functional.
Now, before you start trying to crucify me upside down, yes, I know the tanks look dirty. I long ago gave up on the whole "clean and sterile" method of husbandry. After a few lessons in the "lazy tank" method, I found that I got stable chemistry, healthier animals, and lots of cool stuff to look at under the microscope. I feel safe in bragging that the water chemistry is better than what any "sterile" system could achieve....with less work...
Now, you may ask why there are airlines and cables all over the place. This is all temporary as I am spending my holiday break finishing up a centralized air supply and a unified,code-wired electrical system with Ground Fault Isolation for all the equipment. I am also in process of building a timer circuit so each new outlet can be controlled from one place, thus eliminating mechanical timers all over the place. Anyway, here is the "in use" portion of my invertebrate culture tanks. These tanks also supply water for my live plants, and grow lots of duckweed for my turtles and fish that live upstairs.
Hiding behind the unfinished vivaria, piles of critterbooks and textbooks, and the file cabinet of "a decade of insane notes" is the computer, file server, and printer. In the back corner you can see a few small scale, preliminary invertebrate culture experiments. I keep them small and handy for a while before I go full scale with them. This is also where I keep my locked and loaded Nerf Dart guns, to fend off teenagers, the chunky Latina wife (no, I didn't nickname her that, she did...), and the occasional stupid cat...
Here is a close up of an experiment. I stole Justin's Vernal Tank method...
This is a shot of the last stage of my water recycling system. It looks awful, but this water is being aged with a few inches of all natural detritus, and is culturing protozoa to jump start new arthropod tanks. That is a fancy way of saying after filtering and UV sterilizing the water, I put all sorts of stuff in there to turn it back into pond water...
Finally, just for fun, here is a critter picture. Good luck, see if you can "Spot the Watl"
Anyway, as I keep getting requests for pics, so here is the "husbandry" side of the room. I am leaving out the "lab" side of the room, and the frogs, toads, and kiddie pool set ups, as there are portions of that area that could easily be misconstrued as something illegal.
(I'm a biochemistry student now-a-days and I do not want to be accused of making drugs or W.M.D.s or something silly like that....and when you see all that junk it sure looks like I am up to no good...)
So, anyway, here is the Cave in all its hillbilly, jury-rigged glory:
As you can see, I have plastered the door with all sorts of official looking signage. This is to keep teenagers from messing around with my precious junk. (Not pictured is a small warning sign that states "this workplace doesn't give a <expletive> about safety")
Next to the door is the "tool crib" This is where all the regular use stuff is kept and dried once it has been sanitized. Not pictured is the "dip bucket" to keep stuff free of nasty stuff.
As we move along, you see the "chem locker" shelf where all the really important, regularly used stuff is kept. There is actually a small Flammable Locker hiding in the closet, but it really has little to do with the Critter Room, so I left that out.
We pull back a bit so you can get a feel of the way things are organized. This is the "dim" end of the rack, for critters that really don't need direct light.
As we work down the rack, you can see that most everything is made from recycled materials. I use a lot of salvaged lumber, used tanks, and stuff from surplus and closeout auctions whenever possible. It isn't pretty, but it is cheap and functional.
Now, before you start trying to crucify me upside down, yes, I know the tanks look dirty. I long ago gave up on the whole "clean and sterile" method of husbandry. After a few lessons in the "lazy tank" method, I found that I got stable chemistry, healthier animals, and lots of cool stuff to look at under the microscope. I feel safe in bragging that the water chemistry is better than what any "sterile" system could achieve....with less work...
Now, you may ask why there are airlines and cables all over the place. This is all temporary as I am spending my holiday break finishing up a centralized air supply and a unified,code-wired electrical system with Ground Fault Isolation for all the equipment. I am also in process of building a timer circuit so each new outlet can be controlled from one place, thus eliminating mechanical timers all over the place. Anyway, here is the "in use" portion of my invertebrate culture tanks. These tanks also supply water for my live plants, and grow lots of duckweed for my turtles and fish that live upstairs.
Hiding behind the unfinished vivaria, piles of critterbooks and textbooks, and the file cabinet of "a decade of insane notes" is the computer, file server, and printer. In the back corner you can see a few small scale, preliminary invertebrate culture experiments. I keep them small and handy for a while before I go full scale with them. This is also where I keep my locked and loaded Nerf Dart guns, to fend off teenagers, the chunky Latina wife (no, I didn't nickname her that, she did...), and the occasional stupid cat...
Here is a close up of an experiment. I stole Justin's Vernal Tank method...
This is a shot of the last stage of my water recycling system. It looks awful, but this water is being aged with a few inches of all natural detritus, and is culturing protozoa to jump start new arthropod tanks. That is a fancy way of saying after filtering and UV sterilizing the water, I put all sorts of stuff in there to turn it back into pond water...
Finally, just for fun, here is a critter picture. Good luck, see if you can "Spot the Watl"
safely speaking :happy:
