Hmm... just a couple more thoughts here, regarding the tank sweating I'm aware it will happen and have no problem wiping it down whenever I wanna take a peek, although due to the small size I would feel comfortable building an acrylic tank myself a little later down the road, a project I've already looked into which sounds fun
and burger chow that's a great idea, I'll have to look into it, anyone from Calgary happen to know of any such auctions by chance? also still keeping an eye out for a thermoelectric cooler any electronics recyclers would be a possibility
also since these DIYs have a history of failing I was wondering if I could get around the duty cycles by pulling the cooling units from 2 coolers so that they could alternate the work and possibly act as each others back up giving me time to fix any problems, I still really like the idea of the peltier element, if I could work that into it perhaps the water cooler could act as the helper/backup
as for collection laws I have a secret weapon, my girlfriend is a coastal status first nation and has lots of family all the way from Vancouver to Prince Rupert, she can even collect abalone provided we don't have to dive for it