My Lab Build (A work in progress!)

[BaboonScience]

I decided to clean up this thread and another that I have describing the evolution of a Greenhouse build.
The Greenhouse build can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=233&t=5051

The Greenhouse build stalled due to day job contracts.
It is fully enclosed, however and the sump has a decent cover on it. The house is holding a 20 F differential with the outside air but that is with a single layer of greenhouse plastic. The sump house carries an additional 10-20 F and the sump and recirculating system is maintaining a temp of 78 - 80 F. The night temps have been going down to 17-20 F lately so this is quite a test of the system.

My focus in the past 4 weeks has been a slight expansion of my workshop. The resulting building is double in size on the ground floor, with another 10 by 20 foot upstairs room under the gambrel roof. Work is slow on both, because Tina and I work on these structures by ourselves as time permits. Combined with a chump change budget, I am quite happy with what we have been able to accomplish in the last 6 months. The following is a two week old picture. The side sheathing is done and roofing tin nearly in place. Next is wiring and insulation. Then interior walls on the microscope room. Yes, I am going to have an honest to goodness dedicated microscope room at last.

John

[Fishboy42]

Looks like great progress on the workshop!

(I can sympathize with how these projects can get drawn out and we should just focus on the forward positive progress, our annex was supposed to be ready for us(fish) to occupy last Aug; new est. is early Feb-we were hoping to be starting the next building by now!)

We've had some serious cold here too Tina; we've actually had to run the heat for a couple of weeks now (only ran 1 day last year)!

[BaboonScience]

Gee Haa!
We have a roof and a fully insulated clean room. Microscope table is up with the scopes moved. Incubators are next to install. There will be two separate temperature controlled units, side by side. This will be in the clean room along with the microscopes. This room will be dedicated to algae isolation and culture. The area immediately outside of this room will be dedicated to support, including wet chemistry and prep work. Zooplankton isolation and culture is planned in another room off of the support area. This is all on the first floor. The second floor will be dedicated to office space.

Finally, I can get the mess out of the house.
I have been taking progress pics, just have not had the time to upload. I have hardly had the time to open my computer in the past two weeks.
I am pretty much doing this construction on my own and have put the whole thing together in about 6 weeks, more or less. It will probably be quite some time before I can put in the finishing touches (like inside wall panels) but function is all important right now.
John

[BaboonScience]

So, I finally managed to get some pictures downloaded for posting.
First, the exterior. Not much to look at but the roof is on and (amazingly) it does not leak!


The upper level will eventually be an office. For the near future, it will be storage. Notice the large hole where the stairs are supposed to be. This hole was a daunting obstacle for me when installing the roofing tin over it. I have a slight fear of heights that I have now overcome!


The lower level will be divided into three sections. The front (pictured) will be lab space with the zooplankton cultures to one side. The wet chem, autoclave and water filtration will be on the left hand side of the pictured space. In this picture, it is largely a disorganized tool and junk space. Also, note the ladder leading to the second floor.


Finally, the Microscope and algae culture room is located centrally on the north side of the building. It is a small (8 foot by 8 foot) room that will have two temperature controlled chambers on one wall and a vibration dampened, marble top table for microscopes along the opposite wall. This room will be insulated on all six sides, with plastic sheathing on both sides of the insulation. In addition, the room itself will be climate controlled to plus or minus 1 degree C. Air handlers for the growth chambers and the room will be located immediately above, under the gambrel roof. Pictured, you can see the room framing and the entrance (will have a pocket style door, auto close and seal).


These pictures were taken over a week ago. There has been a good deal of progress since then, with the insulation done, air handlers for the room being installed and the microscope tables installed.
Progress has been amazingly rapid, considering that I have been a one man show on this one and the first floor support beam went down only seven weeks ago.
I will post more pics when I clear some of the chaos.
John

[phirefly]

What's a fish build without a little chaos? Looks like it's going to be amazing when it's all finished. I wonder if I can convert my apartment like this - think management would mind?

[BaboonScience]

I think that management might have a little to say about that. However, I know someone local that heats his apartment with what his aquariums cast off. Quite an impressive setup for the limited space.

As far as the chaos, Most of it is now stacked on the upper level waiting for me to sort out. That is another week/month of spare time work! I have even moved a full size desk up there.

Basic electrical is installed so the extension cords are disappearing. Tomorrow the wet chem counter goes in along with refrigerator and other basics. Then I finish the electrical and start installing the environmental chambers. I am glad that someone else is financing this. I am spending enough extra to give the added functionality for the fish work.
When that work is done, I'll post some more pics.

And.. I started to use the microscope setup today! That was fun.
John

[BaboonScience]

Moving right along, I now have a modestly functional microscope room, although not pretty.
This is from the outside. Insulation on all six sides. Inner plastic sheathing under paneling. Outside of walls will get a plastic wrap as well, later.


and this is the microscope table without the marble top. Still pretty vibration free though. The right scope is one of the dissecting scopes, the middle scope is a Nikon inverted scope and the right scope is a B&L Dynazoom compound scope for high power and Oil immersion work. The scope in the corner (middle) is a Dynazoom trinoc used for low power (40 and 100 x) work.


As you can see, a little less chaos.
Electrical box and service to the room and the lower floor is installed but still running extension cords to the upstairs. No stairs yet so I guess it is really the up ladder.
Currently using a small space heater which controls the temperature surprisingly well and only operates about 10% of the time. The insulation works quite well.
John[/quote]

[BaboonScience]

I have the incubators installed in the clean room now. Room temperature is 70 +/- 1 F whit a high degree of reliability for over a month now. We have had some days near 90 F already and the Air handler hardly cycles to keep temperature. In addition, the room has an ozone and HEPA filter units in the air handler system. Very little contamination problem. That has taken care of almost all of my algae problems. Doubling times on most species are less than 20 hr. Work bench for wet chemistry is set up and running.
Still moving furniture to try to optimize and probably will be for some time.
John

[BaboonScience]

Cleaning up this thread.
Removed a duplicate post.
John

[BaboonScience]

Moving right along, the interior of the microscope/incubator room is pretty functional right now. I had to instal an air conditioner in that room in order to maintain a constant 68 F. The second incubator will be done soon. I have picked up some good cabinetry to place above the Scope table. This will be installed this week.

So what am I thinking for the Zooplankton? Still mulling this over but I think that I am going to place that work station just outside of the entrance to the Temp controlled room. That would be to the left in the above picture. Thinking of shelves on the outside wall near the windows. I will be working on the floor plan tonight.
John

[jadeguppy]

Very coo! I wish I had chatted with you about this over the weekend. Please keep us updated. I've been thinking about doing something similar in an effort to raise more live cultures.

[enigma]

Good Luck John! Let me know if you need help or advice.

[spawner]

John, well this will be very helpful to you I'm sure. Always nice to have dedicated space.

[BaboonScience]

I am excited about this one. Have spent some time clearing the equipment in that picture from the space.

Mark and Andy, I may need some help when I get to the calanoid cultures. I will be asking for sure. I have also thought about giving Proales a crack.

Mark, what was that red that was at your MACNA booth? It is growing nicely! After being in the open for three days, the ciliates had taken off but they were easy to clear. Culture is pure again.
Thanks
John

[enigma]

Porphyridium purpureum

It's very high in f3-carotene and f3-zanthan. Good for color enhancement. Enjoy

[BaboonScience]

Porphyridium purpureum

It's very high in f3-carotene and f3-zanthan. Good for color enhancement. Enjoy

Thanks!
Pretty cool algae and a good size for copepods.
Seems to culture well also.
John

[BaboonScience]

There has finally been a lull in my work load. Thank heavens!
Now I have time to finish off the lab. I have been working in a half completed lab since the work load picked up. Originally, my objective was to have a full temperature controlled (72 F) 8' by 12' Incubator and microscope room. Due to time constraints, I had to settle for 8' by 8'. I also wanted to have a 8' by 12' wet lab and prep area next to it with the entrance to the microscope area through that room. That project had to remain half completed as well.
Now, I am completing these two projects with some additional features.
Space for copepod cultures.
Full fume hood.
Additional incubator space so that I can keep projects separated.
Full filtered air supply.
Fully automatic temperature control for both sides.
Automatic pasteurizer for culture water.
All counter-top wet chem instrumentation.
Office area on the second floor, if time permits before the next project.

Really hoping for a few weeks of lull.
I have cleared the chaos of stored equipment and built the walls.
Since this is a separate build from the greenhouse, I guess that I had better try and separate the two threads.
Yes, there is more to come about the greenhouse build as well. That is next on the list but can wait a few more weeks. Still have to finish up on that tidal system, which means building a new rack.
John

[Suzy]

Wow! What an amazing place to work! A full hood? Sweet!

[BaboonScience]

The split is almost done.
The link to the greenhouse thread is in the first post of this thread.
John

[Suzy]

I will anxiously await to see how you incubate your cultures to keep them separate, and how the hood fits in. I never, ever thought a home hobbyist had the capability for complete sterility, but I would love to be wrong on that.

[BaboonScience]

Suzy
That is coming.
First, I have to clear the clutter of the wall builds, Move some equipment around and finish the insulation.
Then I hang the remaining interior walls and build the cabinets.
I want to get some pictures of all this so I can remember why my back hurts so bad!
John

[Suzy]

Good! I am on a need to know basis!

[BaboonScience]

The pictures will not be up tonight.
Tina and I lifted the cabinets in place in the microscope area tonight. What an ordeal.
The microscope table gets moved into place tomorrow, then that part should be good to go.
Next is to put up some shelving to get the rest of the supplies off the ground.
John

[Suzy]

I try to keep cultures separated but it in impossible in one room.

Rotifers are evil creatures that will fly through the air, leap tall buildings at a single bound to stop harmonious pods from living peacefully in their own world....

[BaboonScience]

So, Sorry, STILL no pictures. I took them and they are downloaded to the computer but I have been too busy to upload.
Today, I had to go in and get a replacement pump for the skimmer in my main system. That is another project that I need to start a thread on. The home built skimmer for the 1000 gallon system.
OK, at least the microscopes are back in the clean room and the incubators are back on environmental control.
Pictures coming, soon, promise!
John