Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

AdamTill

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    292

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by AdamTill

  1. AdamTill
    False bottom cured enough to be stable, so I ran a bead down the length to permanently secure it in place, added a bead to bridge the gap between the false bottom plates, then added the substrate supports on either end. That’s pretty much it for the initial glass, so all that’s left is to wait for the silicone to cure then go back and scrape off the little smears and irregularities. None of it will be seen since I’ll eventually obscure the parts below the false bottom, but I prefer to leave things tidy looking. I put in orders for both some plants and the parts for the end grids, and they’ll show up when they show up. Looking forward to seeing it come together though
  2. AdamTill
    You also don’t want it in the water since if it pops off you could start a syphon
  3. AdamTill
    I’ve used adults with no issues (cherries). They eat the unfertilized eggs too which is helpful (so they don’t rot). Fry safe too
  4. AdamTill
    Depends on your fish. You can’t have too much “filter”, but you can have too much flow. Likewise, if you have a bubble nesting fish (betta etc), you may not want a sponge filter.
  5. AdamTill
    Took 5 mins at lunch to bond in the false bottom. The two piece setup worked much better anyway, since Marineland apparently didn’t make a perfectly square tank lol.
  6. AdamTill
    The temp was a project that got mentioned a while back, the gauge has a probe in the back like a meat thermometer that sticks into the water flow. Pretty sure the unknown one is a pressure gauge. Dean talked in one of his aquarist podcast interviews about monitoring pressure decreases as his sediment and carbon inline filters fill up. As they clog, pressure drops
  7. AdamTill
    You can always change as much water as you like assuming that the tank isn’t so dirty that the clean water is a shock. My goldfish fry tanks got 100% daily water changes. On that note, if you’re not pulling the eggs into a different tank they and/or fry from them will get eaten
  8. AdamTill
    Pretty much my water. Looks great with tannins, no risk of low pH issues lol. Don’t expect meaningful drops in pH. I also ran the setup with pure RO water and didn’t notice any meaningful differences, but it was a LOT more work to do changes.
  9. AdamTill
    Sink hook for pumping out change water, tube connects to right side below counter level like in the post above this one
  10. AdamTill
    Double pvc elbows. Going to swap this for a spray bar soon though. It’s worked well enough for a year, but a spray bar would be even more gentle.
  11. AdamTill
    Last step was to clue into the fact that I can’t get a single piece false bottom into the tank past the frame. Oops. The tank in the video does this because it’s rimless, but the geometry involved hadn’t quite occurred to me until I tried to fit the bottom. A quick trip to the glass store for what turned out to be a free cut solved the problem, and the two piece bottom won’t affect anything anyway.
  12. AdamTill
    The tank is 48” long, and I allowed 4” on either end for the grating which exposes and returns the water flow. There will be some form of pumps under the false bottom (potentially combined with a canister filter or similar), and the water they push will flow through grates on the ends. Not going for raging stream, but decent flow. I imagine using the canister for 24/7 flow, and maybe turning on stream pumps for faster flow during the day. I decided on having 1/3 of the tank as the false bottom, and the false bottom needed some support. That’s done by using vertical sections of glass which narrow in the middle, and both support the bottom and channel the water a bit. These are getting bonded in here using silicone.
  13. AdamTill
    I waffled for a while in terms of doing a prototype in the 29 or a 30 long I also have kicking around, but I also may have treated myself to a Co2Art system as well. That means I need a lockable stand (toddler around), and I won’t be able to make something until the spring (it’s cold in Canada lol). In the end I decided on a Marineland 75 gallon tank and stand. Don’t love the stand (it’s the same style as the one I use as a cat litterbox), but it’s okay. It’s also the largest tank I can fit in the area of the house that’s safest from the baby. So, using the rough measurements that Jurijs provides in the video above, and allowing for a bit of fudge factor, I figured out what glass I’d need to get cut. A quick call to a local glass shop, and they had them made up the same day out of 6mm float glass
  14. AdamTill
    So, I may have done a thing. To celebrate getting a different job for the first time in 12 years, I decided to also start a hobby challenge I’ve been eyeing for a few years...the false bottom stream tank. In my early oto breeding research years ago I kept reading that they come from slow moving streams. My early tanks were done using a central island and had a current that wrapped around that island, and in the evenings I’d often get to see 20-30 otos doing “laps” around the island. You wouldn’t see them all day, but in the evenings it was apparently exercise time 🙂 Since I’ve sort of proved that breeding them is possible repeatably, I thought it might be fun to combine the two concepts (breeder tank + stream tank). I always struggled to call my island tanks “stream” tanks since the current was there, but it wasn’t what you’d think of as a linear stream. This sort thing is perfect however:
  15. AdamTill
    Goldfish THRIVE at that pH, they love the hard, high pH water. Look up Zhao’s Fancies...his water is harder and higher pH than yours. I can also attest that I’ve grown out some lovely goldfish with water that seems almost the same as yours. Also, if the goldfish is the intended inhabitant of this tank, you can just move him and his filter over. The amount of bacteria you need is proportional to the waste being produced, not the tank size. So as you wait for the sponges to populate the old filter can be handling his waste. Just a thought.
  16. AdamTill
    Kind of a hack, but if you scroll to the bottom of any page you’ll see a theme drop down that I don’t think is supposed to be public. Change the theme to 1.1, the dark mode button will be back, toggle it to whatever you want, then change the theme back. Workaround for the short term anyway.
  17. AdamTill
    Oh agreed, someone just asked if it was possible.
  18. AdamTill
    Yup, we call that chasing. Chaser will be male, chasee female. Warmer temps will tend to keep them in spawning mode. Watch the female to make sure she’s not getting beaten up too much, and monitor water quality too. If they actually spawn the male milt in particular can cause a nasty nitrite spike that meant Insta water change when I saw breeding behaviour.
  19. AdamTill
    I’m personally not a huge fan of the flow pumps (assuming you just want flow, not wave action per the neat post above) with the semi open, directional cages. Having otos in a lot of tanks, and seeing how curious fish die easily in those sorts of devices, makes me cautious. That said, I do use fixed pumps with foam intake guards. Two in my most recent 29. One runs all the time near the surface, the other just during the day at tank mid level. I just use a zip tie and chunk of Aquaclear foam for now, with the goal of something less ugly later. That said, this works well (much better than the surface skimmer I used previously).
  20. AdamTill
    Yes they are, which is why the Aquarium Coop store racks work.
  21. AdamTill
    I still personally recommend the Eheim Everyday feeders, have used a dozen with no issues
  22. AdamTill
    It’s easier obviously, but with latex and a roller probably doable. Wouldn’t use spray paint around live fish myself (or indoors at all)
  23. AdamTill
    Tds meters are not complicated things, so the inexpensive ones work fine. If you haven’t done so already, find Cory’s videos on TDS. In a nutshell, don’t try to match the TDS from your tank to something someone on the internet recommends (in more than a broad way). TDS is just “stuff” in the water that makes it conductive, it doesn’t tell you what that stuff is.
  24. AdamTill
    It makes sense to me to do so as well, with meds being hard on them. Requires a generously oversized qt tank or willingness to redose meds though.
  25. AdamTill
    Likely so that there’s less ammonia produced by the fish and less likelihood of needing to do a water change (which would require redoing the meds)
×
×
  • Create New...