dasaltemelosguy
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Posts posted by dasaltemelosguy
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This may be overkill but I find the best deals in UVC sterilization are the whole-house units. They easily hook up to inline aquarium filters (I have mine on 2 of my Fluval FX6's). I haven't seen any algae since installing these.
For example, this light has a huge, 55W UV. It can output 700GPH at 99.99% sterilization and it comes with 3 bulbs and 2 quartz sleeves for under $85. Although the bulbs are rated for 9000 hours, if they are kept cool (i.e. not allowed to run when dry), they can still disinfect for up to 2-3 years. My bulbs still output germicidal levels of UVC after a year of continuous use.
As for knowing when to replace the bulbs, this test card will light up if there is a germicidal level of UVC present. It makes it a quick and simple task to know if your light is still disinfecting.
Even if you do not need this amount of output, the efficacy of sterilization goes up in exponential proportion to the bulb length. The reason is known as "shielding" where bacteria fall in the shadow of debris. The longer the bulb, the lower the probability that bacteria escape the light.
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@TealStarlight, The O-ring around the lid and The 2 seal O-rings around the number 1 on directions inlet & outlet discreteness. How do I know when it’s time to replace it? How will I know when its going bad before its too late and starts leaking? One YouTube video (link below) said when it starts to get hard but how long should I wait? I can’t find the information. I’m really confused.
It will start leaking air well before it leaks water. When you start getting a lot of bubbles in the output, it will need some attention.-
Where can I find this information ?
The SunSun's use a pressure fitting so as they wear, you cannot compensate by tightening a screw or the like. On all of my 704's I had to add Teflon tape around the channel where the O-ring goes to make the O-ring tighter and that has always worked for me.-
What would prevent a large water leak like one amazon 1 star review said 50% of gallon tank was on floor. Keeping the inlet high to the top of tank or smthng?
I have only seen the top "pop" when the output was completely obstructed so the internal pressure built up too high.- What kind of grease do I use for the gasket? Pics attached. One youtube video said to use silicone and grease around the gasket where do I apply it at how often do I apply it? and where can I buy the silicone grease?
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Is petroleum jelly safe to use on gaskets and it safe for fish such as comet Goldfish?
I use plumbers' silicone. It's made for faucets and the like so it's non-toxic and non-caustic to the ring material and has always fixed any leaks I've had.-
Where can i get Gasket replacement parts and 4 seal rings for inlet&outlet discreteness piece cuz im still waiting to hear back from the company. Super grateful for the help I love my goldfish so much. I am so grateful for the help.
I've never needed to replace a gasket on mine. Teflon tape and silicone has done the trick for the past 5 years. But if you need them, eBay is a great source for these parts at a discount.The only area I have had consistent trouble with SunSun's is the UV bulb gets hot enough to melt the tube structure in the trays. This took several years to deform enough to have to replace them (I used 2" PVC pipes-or you can buy replacement trays) though, but it happened on all 3 of my SunSun's.The only other aspect of note that may be redundant is the base must be aligned with the front or the UV light will not turn on. It uses a small magnet glued on the front to trigger a magnetic switch to turn off the UV if you open it.As a whole, the output and reliability is hard to beat a SunSun for the money.-
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On 3/26/2024 at 6:35 PM, TealStarlight said:
Anyone got the sunsun hw-3000 canister filter that could help me with the instructions? What pieces go together and how to stack the floss? I know how to stack the biomedia but do you keep them in the zip bag? If somebody could draw arrows with markup on these pics would really help out.
For the number 2 mark up'd pic my question is would i stack 2 of these floss pads on the blue pad? What should i do with the other 2 of the 4 floss pads? For 1 10.5" long comet goldfish in 125 gallon tank
This video from the Pond Guru shows how he loads his SunSun 302 but they are all similar except for the number of trays (i.e. the 704b has 4 trays). They are all pretty much similar in that the flow is from bottom-to-top, so you want the first tray to have the filter pads that @NOLANANO suggested. i used the same ones. From bottom up: Coarse filter, Medium filter, Fine filter and the rest of the trays are filled with biomedia. Pond Guru uses Biohome but use whatever biomedia you prefer or have in its place. They often add some ceramic rings in the very bottom, below the trays as it's supposed to help prevent clogs and improve flow into the trays.
Most people recommend using these in the very bottom. I just add more rings there.
It's not easy to find a better choice/$ than a SunSun for media capacity and GPH. Good luck.
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On 3/11/2024 at 12:46 PM, flyingcow said:
Is there information on this being toxic to fish? Never heard of this before! Not trying to question you, but I have been having an issue with fish death that I'm 99% sure is parasitic, and a parasitic treatment has stopped the fish death for 6 weeks so far, but now I want to understand this better.
@MattyM & @flyingcow, yes, Pothos has that reputation, but many houseplants have that oxalate in the leaves. When we were measuring these types of plants for nitrate uptake, we definitely saw what you were concerned about - some are nutrient hogs and pothos was 2nd only to lucky bamboo in that regard. Particularly under red light, it was an incredible nitrate hog.The oxalate would be mildly toxic if it were water soluble at a pH fish thrive it, but it requires a very acidic environment to actually leach into the water. The oxalate is therefore in crystal form in the leaves and when animals chew on it, it is an irritant. When it dissolves in a pH below 5, it forms oxalic acid which is not toxic at all so you're safe to use it.In the article the others mentioned, there's a late addition where I tested the water for the oxalates with urine test strips as that same test will be positive for oxalates to test for kidney stone risk. None dissolved into my tank water at a pH of 7.5. I literally had to boil the pothos leaves to get any measurable amount of oxalate into the water:
Insofar as sucking up all the nutrients for aquatic plants, I can't say but I wouldn't be surprised as it did not mix well with most other houseplants grown emergently. Most that I tried in the beginning died and I assumed, starved out by pothos and lucky bamboo. But I could be wrong about the latter. I had success with balancing the nutrient uptake with stronger lighting over the other plants so you may be able to balance the uptake with the lighting.This is the oxalate / pH. As you can see, there's not a lot of aquatic situations that would see the oxalates dissolve.The diamond line is calcium oxalate:
These tanks are packed full of houseplants. When I first installed them, they tended to uptake more nitrates in the beginning. It dropped an overstocked, 200-gallon, large cichlid tank from 80PPM to 0PPM! This eventually settled out at around 10PPM of nitrates which was still quite a reduction:
The plants growing in these tanks are:PothosLucky BambooLotus BambooMonsteraPeace LilyAnthuriumPrayer PlantBird of Paradise (cuttings)EarthstarsCordylineI used common plastic lighting grid from Lowes and cut it to size to support the plants and pass the light.All of these seem to be growing. The Earthstars or bromeliads made no sense, at least not with my limited knowledge of plants. They are epiphytes and literally can get moisture from humidity. I added them for 'temporary' color, assuming they'd die in a week or two, but they've doubled in size in just weeks. So, it was a total surprise to see them THRIVE in aquariums.In fact, their growth was so out of the ordinary, I joined a bromeliad Facebook forum just to ask some experts why it worked!🤣(they all seemed to think that it was probably the unusually high availability of nitrogen for that plant)VIDEOS OF THESE TANKS:-
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Beautiful fish. I have a jurupari, a mirabilis and a brasiliensis and I may pick up some tapajos. The mirabilis is the most aggressive fish I've ever owned but he's in a tank full of giants which keeps him under control.
Perhaps you may see yours in one of these charts:
Geophagus - List of fishes - Fishipedia (fishi-pedia.com)
Fish Identification (fishbase.se)
26 Geophagus species ideas | cichlids, aquarium fish, south american cichlids (pinterest.com)
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On 3/4/2024 at 8:07 PM, doktor zhivago said:
The trumpet shaped objects are stentors
Thank you! I've never heard of them before. And these certainly match the description and appearance of stentors.
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Hello All,I have a fry tank full of EBAs being grown out. It's about 2 weeks old. About 2 days ago, small, white specs began appearing all over the glass. They now cover every square inch of the inside of the tank.These are the white things on the glass:
These are the fry:
These are the parents:
Not knowing if I was looking at plant or animal, I put them under a microscope, and it seems they are alive and have motor ability. It appears they have tentacles and try to snatch unwitting passerby microbes. They look a little like some anemones.This 1-minute video of them is recorded at 400X:Does anyone know what they are? Thanks for looking!
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Hi @suzanneisalive,
I've had dojos for about 4 years, raised from juveniles. When I first got them, while in QT, a vicious, fast-moving infection tore through them and @Colu helped me medicate them. During the course of antibiotics, they all developed a similar issue with constipation and buoyancy. Unable to sink, unable to stay upright, and I may be anthropomorphizing here, but they looked terribly uncomfortable.With 6 of them unable to sink or swim normally, I used the Epsom salt bath which worked on one but not the other 5. I did some research on using vibration devices for impaction on fish and spoke with @Odd Duck about it. She had mentioned also that she has seen similar devices work for sand impaction in, I believe, axolotls (but I don't actually remember what the specific creature was).When I used the Epsom salt alone, at least with dojos and with one silver dollar, I had mixed results. For one, it seems to greatly irritate the dojos. I don't know if that has anything to do with being scaleless or they were just so sick.However, when I combined the Epsom salt with the device below, the dojos released an incredible amount of fecal matter overnight. The following day, you could see the swelling had reduced and the buoyancy issue was gone.However, two of them died anyway so it was inconclusive. Of course, it could have been too advanced, or the prior infection may have done damage as well. But I can tell you that it "emptied" them out and rectified the buoyancy issue.What I am still mystified over is the 'psychological' effect the vibration had on them. I've since seen this with a sick German Blue Ram and a silver dollar. It renders a calm across the tank and in fact, some of the fish make an effort to stay or 'hug' the vibrator.Dojos seem prone to this issue. Ever since, once a week I soak the entire tank's food in Garlic Guard with a teaspoon of Epsom salts dissolved in it and I've not seen this issue since.I'm sorry I have no more than anecdotes for you, but this is what I used to the mixed results cited above:Here are two links that may prove helpful. The first is a better alternative to sterilizing your plants in the future:And this is a short piece on the potential benefits of vibrational therapy:Good luck.-
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On 2/17/2024 at 3:33 AM, Lennie said:
@dasaltemelosguy may help with dojo loaches
As odd as it may seem, that sounds like typical Dojo behavior. They will lie on one side, lie on their backs, hang upside down or in impossibly convoluted, contorted positions that makes you think they are ill or even dead, only to scurry off once stirred. I am not exaggerating when I say I’ve thought “I found a dead Dojo” easily a dozen times but it proved to be no more than they’re just plain weird. IMO what you’re describing are just Dojo’s being Dojo’s.
BTW mine were in a tank treated with salt several times and they tolerated the salt level that @Colu recommends well. In fact, I went up to 1/5 on the salt without noticing any distress in the Dojo’s for what that’s worth.
They hold their heads above the water line and spit, so you’ll hear their mouse-like noises and see water on the floor frequently. The only tragic negative is they are precise and targeting jumpers. If a hole in the tank lid exists that they can fit through, they will fit through it.
You can hold them, pet them, hand feed them, even pick them up out of the water. Overall, a hardy, friendly, weird and fun fish. There are few fish that I kept when first I started fishkeeping that I’d always want to keep but Dojo’s top that list.
Good luck.
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On 2/14/2024 at 1:36 PM, Guppysnail said:
This is a good question for @dasaltemelosguy
He found one for me I bought. Mine actually does much more than I know how to Use 🤣. He would know if that kit has what you need to do what you are wanting.
@NOLANANO, I was also going to suggest a student scope as they tend to be ‘no frills’ and inexpensive. I’m no expert but I believe you will not be able to see bacteria with the scope you have a link to, but you’ll see a plethora of invisible creatures, nonetheless. Just a scrape of the underside of the tank lid is a miniature ‘wild kingdom’. I believe you would need 400X minimum to see bacteria but I’m going to tag @Odd Duck because she would know much more about this than I do. This video has a nice comparison of specimen sizes and magnifications to give you an idea of how much magnification you should have.
Comparing Microorganism Size Under the Microscope - 40X, 100X, 400X, 1000X
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On 2/10/2024 at 2:17 PM, tetra said:
There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the internet, stating that dojo loaches can happily live in water as warm as 77F (this is according to Seriously Fish) but as low as 55F. Though the warmest recommended for long term according to Seriously Fish is 74F. Other sources say no higher than 70F, then others say the warmest you can keep them long term is 68F. Then some say as low as 64F or lower.
In your experience, what temperature would be okay for them? My tank is 75F right now, but I’m willing to go to 73F if it’s okay for dojos. Any lower, and it’s kind of pushing it for my tank at least.
I have no information to add aside from anecdotal experience, but these Dojo's have lived with these SA cichlids for almost 4 years. This particular tank has never had an illness and these Dojo's have grown to circa 8" from under 2" when I first got them. I have kept this tank at 77*F for their entire lives. Wonderful fish. Friendly, not shy, zero aggression. They allow you to pet and hold them, even lift them out of the water. Tragically good jumpers though!
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On 2/8/2024 at 6:17 AM, doktor zhivago said:
i have a peace lily i'm gonna add to the tank eventually but i need to take him out of the pot to propagate and I'd rather wait till it gets warmer outside so i can set him out in the sun to recover. As a fly fisherman I would love to do a native fish extremely high flow tank for brook trout and sculpins and madtoms and stuff but I that's a long term dream as well as possibly having legal issues. I know lots of guys around here raise rainbow trout as bait for stripers but they can get huge compared to the brookies
On 2/8/2024 at 5:42 AM, Guppysnail said:You may want to look to also establishing a riparian style tank.
...I find almost anything that can tolerate “wet feet” (wet undrained soil) do fabulously.
@dasaltemelosguy has also gone a step farther and really took riparian to a whole new level recently. I’m in awe of his new riparian and now aspire to upgrade mine.
My introduction into emergent plants in aquariums was actually by taking part in an experiment where we were measuring, comparing and optimizing nitrate uptake and emergent's proved to be very powerful in that regard. I did what @Guppysnail did by replacing part of the lid with lighting grid to support the weights and keep the stalks (of the lucky bamboo) erect. This latest incarnation quite literally dropped the nitrates in these large tanks to zero. That will change as they stabilize in growth but nonetheless, they are quite the nitrate sinks.
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On 1/28/2024 at 2:19 PM, anewbie said:
So i moved it from one of those el cheapo ge surge protector and put it in a linear extension cable and at least for the 5 minutes before i left the room it was behaving. I'll check tomorrow if it continues to behave and report back.
That may be enough. In high fidelity work it is not uncommon to plug all of the devices in what is known as a "power conditioner". It's really just a big power strip with noise filters but the better ones have the same device that is in a Variac to boost the voltage as losses of a few volts are inevitable. Especially when many devices share the strip. Some designs won't work at all on a strip because they have power tolerances so tight, they cannot even suffer a few volts loss without problems. That chugging is a classic motor speed control problem as well. What you've just done may be enough but of course, it may not be but it's a good test, nonetheless. It also may be subject to the time of the day as peak usage sees house power down slightly. It's much worse in the Summer as you can imagine. I've seen huge home theater installations where the picture literally changed size when the AC kicked on! That is deregulation and is what is going on with the FX6. I use one large Variac for all six FX6's but for one or two, a Variac this size is plenty:
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On 1/26/2024 at 5:09 AM, anewbie said:
Well that superjet looks impressive; but it is of course 5x the cost of an fx6. The vibration is what you expect when the filter tries to kick out air; the hoses shake and it makes a noise but the vibration comes from the canister filter motor - there is nothing around it that generates any vibration 'cept for a very small air pump. Hum - here is a video:
I have six, FX6’s that have never failed or leaked. They all however have this problem in the video.
But this is not a mechanical problem. It’s an electronic problem.
A power supply for a motor requires that it have a redundancy of voltage so enough is always available for peak demands or in lower voltage environments. The FX6’s voltage regulation was apparently designed for 240 volts so when this is translated for American power, it’s set for 120 volts. However, it's not uncommon to see house voltages vary from 120v down to 110v or even 105v. It is here where the FX6 has barely enough power to keep the motor regulated.
Certain situations cause the filter to require more power; If the flow is restricted, if your house voltage is low, if the outlet is shared by many devices (dropping the effective house voltage), or if you use an extension cord or power strip (also dropping the effective house voltage), etc. If anything drops the house voltage enough, then this “chugging” can occur. It’s due to the motor pulling more current on the push cycles of its rotation and the voltage for that momentarily higher demand falls and isn’t available when the motor is at peak demands.
It can also be caused by the filter being run for long periods on lower voltage outlets or if a filter has been dormant for a very long time. Long term operation at less than 120v can deform the capacitors and make them less efficient and cause this chugging.
But that chugging will go away if you feed that FX6 with about 130vac vs 120vac normal house current.
Often, you’ll find the outlet with a chugging filter will have a voltage drop and read perhaps 105-115v from the drop caused by other loads or that circuit in your house.
However, a chugging filter can sometimes be “fixed” by operating it at a slightly higher voltage for 2-3 days. I’ve repaired two such chugging FX6 motors in this way.
The capacitors in the motor’s power supply tend to assume an internal shape over time from either running at a lower than optimal voltage or if left dormant for months or years. When this happens, the capacitors become less efficient at higher voltages and the overall power to the motor suffers a voltage loss. This contributes to the low voltage chugging problem, but often the capacitors may be ‘revived’ by a technique called “forming”.
A Variac is an autotransformer that can supply typically 130v up or to 150v and any value below this. By plugging the filter into a Variac and running it at 130v or as high as 140v, it “reforms” the capacitors in the motor’s power supply to perform at higher voltages making them perform more efficiently. Flow improves, noise drops, chugging stops and it uses significantly less house power.
I would guess that the Fluval was designed in the 240vac configuration and was converted for American house currents (120V). That would suggest the voltage regulators powering the motor are designed for 240/120 and many American households have less than 120v available on the wall and so that can destabilize the voltage regulation.
The room I have my system in has such a voltage drop. Only about 112v is available so I use a Variac to power my filters and the flow is strong, smooth, linear and consistent.
Since I have six FX6's, I use only one Variac for all 6 such that it made the addition of the Variac worthwhile. Otherwise, a $70 Variac per FX6 could make one think otherwise.
Still, in hindsight, I wonder if a decent pond canister would have been better. They are less than half the price of an FX6 with potentially enormous GPH’s. The submersible pump makes me nervous, but you can’t beat the $/GPH.
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On 1/22/2024 at 11:30 AM, TJOBrien said:
What are you supposed to do after the 30 minute "rinse" i can find literally nothing in the hundreds of pages of documentation that says what to do after that. Can you leave it or does the water need to be changed again before resuming normal use?
I'm confused, what's the reason for the Patent? There's nothing proprietary used here, it's a great idea but doesn't require anything unique so trying to profit off it seems odd. Is there another reason for a patent other than trying to keep others from making money off the idea?
Please help me understand.
Also, WHY IS NO ONE MAKING VIDEOS ABOUT THIS ON YOUTUBE? All the videos I am finding don't show any real details, results, or instructions. This should be the biggest thing since silicone.
Hi, Reverse Respiration took about 6 months to design. The ultimate approach was preceded by several other “non-chemical plant sterilization” techniques which included ultrasound and electrolysis.
Carbonated water was originally added to both asphyxiate the pests and to equalize the internal pressures and protect the plant from our more caustic approaches like ultrasound. Ultimately, we found that carbonated water alone achieved our goals alone and we abandoned the other technologies.
However, the experiment ended up costing thousands of dollars with months of breeding parasites, buying plants, chemicals, hardware and shipping as well as expensive machinery such as electrolysis, power supplies and ultrasonic cleaners. It was funded by 3rd parties and so the intellectual rights are privately owned although they are free to the general public for use. To that end, the patent filing was largely to secure the rights of ownership and proper accreditation rather than a marketing goal.
Insofar as the final stage goes, I believe everyone just installs the plants after the final stage as it’s just water by then anyway. In fact, I think people place them directly in the tank from the seltzer which suffices as the "anaerobic kill-off" final stage. If I’m wrong about that, please someone correct me.
RR is spreading greatly, and to date, the website has seen over 40,000 tests so far. I imagine private videos will be made over time. We’re hoping to see videos made, but hopefully done professionally.
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@Fish Folk I may not be fully understanding what you need or what is acceptable but is an immersion cooler acceptable? I put a couple of pictures of a crude employment of such but there's a lot of options that can be had for under $100.
It seems that it could work best with canister filters, or any filters coupled to the tank via hosing. In its crudest incarnation, a longer filter output hose used and looped into a bucket of ice can cool with amazing efficiency:
For example, a typical 5-gallon bucket filled with ice with about 33% of the output hose length submerged, will reduce the temperature about 2*F/hour.
It will last for about 25 hours before replacing the ice. But the longevity and efficacy are based on the GPH and affected by the environment.
The ice bucket line is yellow, the cooler option line is green. Please excuse the typo, it should read "25 hours" for the green line.
The above mentioned "cooler option" is a more permanent situation that can be had by replacing the ice bucket with a common camping cooler for about $50:
The efficacy is relative and not based on the absolute volume. That is, the performance is determined by the GPH, and the percentage of the output hose submerged in the ice water. Without computing the requirements for better accuracy, if about 33% of the output hose of most canister filters was submerged in this device filled with water, the tank temperature would match the temperature in the cooler in about 5 hours. The temperature could be 'regulated' by simply immersing a lesser % of the hose.
Alternatively, there's a Peltier device. Strapping a cheap Peltier cooler to the output hose could reduce the temperature more predictably:
These run off of common, large, 12VDC 'wall warts'. It works but it's very inefficient and the fans are noisy. They are cheap though, like $20 or so.
A more permanent solution could be done with a small, submersible pump in a camping cooler and an immersion cooler coil under the gravel. These tend to look like this as they are for home brewers and are known as Wort Coolers, but they also come in flat & compact shapes:
The coiled cooler comes in a variety of flat designs and in stainless steel. Or it's easy to unwind them and reform them into a shape you can use. All of these devices are under $60 and enjoy superb efficacy except for the strap-on Peltier device.
I may be way off base with your requirements and the amount of DIY desired, but I thought I'd mention this in case it proves of any value for you.
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@Lennie, to your point, I once had a quarantine tank holding about 20 juvenile South American cichlids. I remember they were in QT for about 3 weeks without issue when I added one more fish who turned out to be extremely aggressive. He was there but a few days and was terrorizing the tank and the entire tank came down with the worst case of ich I had ever seen. All but the aggressor caught it.
Also, to your point, my severums came down with what we ultimately believe was probably viral lymphocystis. A full 6 months of nearly every available antibiotic, dewormer, and anti-parasitical drug had no effect, nor did salt.
The illness certainly had all the visual hallmarks of lympho as well as the symptomology. Although it was unsightly and oft times made it difficult for them to swim, it never killed any severums.
At this time, @Guppysnail, @Odd Duck, @OnlyGenusCaps and I were experimenting with aquarium cycling acceleration techniques and beneficial bacteria products, and it finally dawned on me that I could try a probiotic approach on the alleged lympho. Why not, nothing else worked.
I dosed the severum tank daily with 10X the normal dose of BB. No fish seemed to notice. It had no ill effects and in fact, it made the water extraordinarily clear.
Prior to this, the full 6 months of treatments included:
Minocycline
Erythromycin
Tetracycline
Kanamycin
Metronidazole
Doxycycline
Nitrofurazone
Praziquantel
Levamisole
Fenbendazole
Malachite Green/Formalin
Methylene Blue
Salt
And I’m probably forgetting others we tried, also to no avail.
The University of Florida published a study on anti-viral treatments in fish and provided these images of a lympho-infected fish (left) that appeared similar to what I see on my severums (right):
Their microscope image of the infected and distorted cells is quite similar to mine although UNFL’s image (left) is much higher quality than mine (right):
But inside of a week of inundating the tank with beneficial bacteria, this happened:
Days 1-3 Day-4 Day-5
Where 6 months of drugs failed; a week of BB arrested what we think might have been lymphocystis. Why did it work? I wouldn’t know. I know next to nothing about biology. To that end, and this is pure speculation on my part, but my thinking was to ‘out compete’ the pathogen with a harmless bug. I guess dumb luck is still luck! 🤣
I consulted my friend @Odd Duck, and she suggested what we might be looking at here was the denial of binding areas; basically, the population of ‘real estate’ by the BB that therefore denied areas for the pathogens to attach and reproduce.
I was also discussing this with my friend @Guppysnail to perhaps create an article about it but I decided not to as I’m ill-equipped to do more than speculate. In addition, I had no way to verify that this indeed was lympho.
But what about immunity? What we all noticed when applying BB therapy was often the fish seem to have increased color and energy. Greater appetites and increased frequency of breeding. Water clarity improves as well. We have no way to assert with any authority that it did indeed improve their immunity nor anything definitive about the aforementioned binding area concept.
But whatever it was, the affliction resisted months of antibiotics and anti-parasitical drugs, yet we saw it arrested in just days by repeatedly dosing the tank with BB.
So, while not particularly useful, given the lack of verifiable data, I thought it was interesting and to your point @Lennie.
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On 10/25/2023 at 7:42 AM, anewbie said:
I'm looking for a good kh test kit for measuring low kh water that is more sensitive than api drop method - i'm pretty sure hanna has one but that would be around $80; so something a little less expensive would be helpful. Suggestion ?
It's a little more convoluted but once you do the conversion, it's very accurate to use the ohm settings in a common multimeter to measure TDS. A cheap ohm meter like this:
...will give you an ohm reading that you then can convert to siemens or TDS directly using an online calculator like this one:
Conductivity convertor, Siemens into TDS PPM and MHO (lenntech.com)
or;
The trickiest part is making sure the distance between the probes is precise and constant. The value will fluctuate greatly if the probes move, or the water is in motion. I think the calculators above use 1CM as their standard. Make sure the ohm meter can measure 2 megaohms or higher.
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On 10/25/2023 at 11:00 AM, Lennie said:
Has anyone tried breeding Acarichthys heckelii / Threadfin Acara?
I am considering to buy a group of juveniles and grow them up together and let them choose their mating partners, if there will be any.
However, I keep seeing different stuff about their breeding age. Some say 2 yo, some say 3. Some talk about much smaller size, some say 7''size.
Is there anyone who may share their personal experience?
@dasaltemelosguy I know you have some. Have you ever experienced any breeding behavior mate?
Hi, I have a heckelii and a mirabilis. My heckelii is larger (6") but much shyer than the mirabilis (4"). The latter is a little nippy but my heckelii has never exhibited any aggression. The larger one below is the heckelii and below that, the mirabilis:
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On 10/5/2023 at 5:03 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
Wow! What amazing tanks! I would have to echo @Shadow about the pvc but knowing you from here I HIGHLY doubt you didn't engineer it out prior to this even being set up. I admire your skill my friend. They are absolutely stunning. That along with trying to make sure everyone is as optimal as they can be is definitely science and magic all at once.
I know, the term "PVC" can be deceptive. In my HIFI designs, I use these as loudspeaker enclosures due to its strength and inertness. This is also why I had so much of it lying around. It’s an amazing material. In some Japanese architecture, they actually use these columns as bridge supports! They are stronger than concrete and weigh only a few pounds and being so inert, they are more resistant to chemicals, temperature and water damage than concrete or cement.
Of course, none of these matters if you place them in the wrong spot! We did that and the floor began to sink. This was after it was up & running and full of fish. So much for calculations. Lifting a full 200-gallon aquarium was harrowing but it actually ended up very easy to do. A stud-finder and my car jack did the trick as we lifted the 2000lbs edifice and relocated the columns over the floor joists. The fish never noticed but I needed a drink!
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On 10/5/2023 at 4:25 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
@dasaltemelosguy, thanks I'll definitely look at your journal. I still plan on only doing nano fish in this tank nothing bigger than say a long finned-pleco, roseline shark or silver tip tetra. Everyone of course will have to get along and like similar parameters so that will be an ongoing thing.
This I think will be an interesting build. Being a custom tank it will be a room divider, Intrepid Partner decided the dimensions and did all the talking with Custom Tanks (low iron glass, and I think he got black silicone). I don't have the current measurements however last we spoke it will be at least 9ft long and will be a bit more narrow than a typical large tank due to the divider title- it will be tall but neither of us are concerned about that. He is going to build the cabinet himself (he works metal for a living building custom cars and used to work in a lumber mill) we've been under the house to look at reinforcement recently and to our delight there is a cement wall all along where the tank will go (as it used to be the wall to the garage but the house was remodeled)- so stability shouldn't be an issue at all.
This is how it will look in a floor plan the blue is the tank of course:
I'm actually more nervous about scaping a tank that you can see on 3 sides with 2 of those sides being 9 ft long. Oi. @lefty o it really is going to be cool I'm excited! @anewbie and I can totally see why it's hard to take a decent picture of a large tank. With a tank that is a divider like it will be I doubt any pictures that aren't taken up close are going to be good.
Scaping and fishkeeping will be my responsibility. Intrepid Partner, this is his favorite part- geeking out on building and tech. He is very supportive of my hobby and is looking forward to just kicking back and watching it. I'm very lucky.
I absolutely love the layout. Your stuff is so artistic, it’s little surprise your room design follows the Golden Ratio. The tank sounds like the stuff of dreams. The glass alone is!
We wanted to do something similar, but the floor joists were dead center. So, we have a linear, 50/50 dissection of the space which can feel ‘stagnant’ from viewing some angles.
When we set up the room divider tank, it was originally against a window with a painted, black back. In the new location, the fish absolutely freaked out having all 4 sides open! It took about a month for some of them to stop hiding! (Speaking of hiding, I still have to enclose the wires and hoses!)
Yours will have a dynamism mine doesn’t from this alone, let alone that glass quality! Can't wait to see what you come up with.
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On 10/5/2023 at 11:35 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
.....now a work in progress. Intrepid Partner has ordered the tank from Custom Tanks...196 gallons here we come....
This is by no means as sophisticated as what you're proposing but I think it holds some relevance to your project. It was really just a simple, new build because everyone grew so large, I was faced with rehoming or expanding, and the latter won the day because I didn't want to part with any of these guys. The larger of these tanks is the same size as what you're getting, I believe. When I was shopping around for a larger build than my 125, the 240's were too deep for my reach so a 200 gave me just enough depth that I could reach the back...barely. As you'll see, we had an unexpected adventure when the floor started to sag! But with some car jacks...and Advil, it all worked out:
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On 10/2/2023 at 7:18 AM, HelplessNewbie said:
Ooh, I am so tempted to buy this, instead of a diy stand: https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Classics-Workbench-Workstation-Warehouse/dp/B0CHK6Z573?ref_=ast_sto_dp
I found it for $169 elsewhere shipped. I like to buy things that can easily be repurposed. If we take down the tank, we can still use this as a workbench or table.
What do you guys think?
This may be overkill but I've used this under my 120 for years.
Gladiator 4 ft. Adjustable Height Birch Top Workbench GAWB04HWEG - The Home Depot
The height adjustments are rated for 3000lbs, so no worries about shearing as @Biotope Biologist rightly pointed out.
The "Gladiators" and "Huskey's" are so well built, you probably can go with a much smaller one than I used.
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On 9/20/2023 at 8:38 PM, Tedrock said:
Howdy Nerms,
I need your assistance with a possible whitty or catchy "Aquatics" High school club title name that doesn't use the word Aquatics. I got admin approval for a club but the only restriction I have been given. . . I can't use the word "Aquatics" in the club title. Rational is that it might too confusing with swimming ... I guess. So please sling some possible club names at me.
Many thanks,
Tedrock
"Think Tank"
"Catch of the Day"
"Rising Tides"
"A Fish in the Water"
"Small Fish in a Small Pond"
"Something Fishy"
"Many Fish in this Sea"
"Fisherman's Dwarf's"
"Drops in this Bucket"
"Water Course"
"Tributarium"
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Does anyone use inline UV sterilizers? If so, which ones do you like?
in General Discussion
Posted
Exactly. They use standard garden hose fittings which in the case of the Fluval, is 3/4" and fits perfectly. I used the clamps you're speaking of for this and the 5/8" hoses on some that I already had in place.