Jump to content

wilkyb

Members
  • Posts

    75
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Posts posted by wilkyb

  1. Okay! So I left the 100w Eheim heater in a 10Gal Home Depot bucket set to 72’f and the result was without a busted heater! Thinking of it now, I will bring a timer with me & see how frequently the light goes on, and then use the timer the same way with my indoor aquarium. I’ll make some popcorn!
     

    The overnight forecast was 8’C. The heater was put into the bucket initially at about 70’f

     

  2. 6 hours ago, ererer said:

    Yeah, a storage tote isn't likely to hold heat as well as your pond, but it would be a cheap way to empirically establish a rough approximation for your conditions, and the pond is likely to perform better than a tote in heat retention, so if you designed your heating based on the tote experiment you should have a bit of extra wiggle room. Sorry, I can't suggest anything better at the moment!

     I’ll see what happens tonight in one of my Home Depot buckets which I normally use for water changes, and then I’ll report back! (Fingers crossed that the heater doesn’t fail)!

  3. 1 hour ago, ererer said:

    I don't know that there's a formula personally. And unlike inside, temps fluctuate a lot outside, so it's not just the low that will make a difference. Most heaters are sized based on needed increase over a stable indoor room temperature. Can you get a large storage tote of a similar size and place it outside with the heater and monitor temperature that way?

    Yea I think the wind & surface area to the water is a thing; as well as how thin the plastic container is on its own. I think the problem is heat retention in this case.

  4. Heyo,

    I have my planter aquarium I’ll be bringing outdoors once the overnight temperatures rise above 10’c. My question pertains to the heaters capacity to keep the aquarium warm without failure.

     

     Is there some kind of formula somebody could help me out with here? I have about 25gallons of aquarium with a nightly low this week of 10’c, and my Eheim 100w heater to boot.

     

    I plan on adding an additional heater for safety when I take it out front, but in the meantime, I cannot be testing for something like this with guppies being tropical (cannot go below 72’fh).

     

    But’d like to actually *know* if a solo heater could seal the deal. Can you guys help verify this for me?

    518DD070-3FBB-4C5F-AB39-72E815618C7B.jpeg

    44F3302E-3255-4590-BCA1-AF93729028EE.jpeg

  5. Any ideas what is happening / what can be done? 

    9D55E45A-2686-43D3-9CA8-A6686678BA68.jpeg

    9A3086B5-66E2-4FCF-B6C3-82A9FC759A2D.jpeg
     

    It’s 75/25 sand-garden soil substrate, seeds sprouted after about 10 days, then I topped it with 1/4” sand. 20gal tank with a sub pump filter but no air injection. It’s been running for about 3 weeks now & it begins to melt; 4 days ago I had furry see-through and very thin cotton-like stuff gathering on the grass, and now they are going brown from the tips & dying.

  6. 6 minutes ago, Koi said:

    Very cool setup though! Is it all gonna be done within the plastic tub?

    Yup. I’ll be adding support braces / slots for the plastic planters to sit their butts in the aquarium. As well, I’ll have to think of something to stop the centre middle from bowing out with the added water. I won’t be drilling into this cabinet.

  7. I’ve been doing aquariums for the past four months or so now. I’ve had really satisfying results there, and I also have a product that I am developing for sale & doing DIY workshops. The product is *drums roll*  1-4 gallon jar aquariums.

    This system here is going to be used for growing plants that I will transplant hydroponically to the jar aquariums.

    A few questions: Which plants are easiest to control, will transplant happily, and look the nicest?

    In my main aquarium I hang pothos from the water column. I wish for something like this for starter vines, but with flowers! That would be nice.

    I’ll provide more details if/as the questions & comments come

    14799B21-AAEB-4870-A262-A61CB1086257.jpeg

    4B8A2987-E720-4C56-8EFA-10E2E7D12469.jpeg

    2F391280-81AF-4870-9864-FEA340CA0F30.jpeg

    00C5559A-DF7B-4904-8F49-95A4E4842EF2.jpeg

    • Like 1
  8. 48 minutes ago, Schwack said:

    If you're familiar with Foo the Flowerhorn on YouTube, I think they've designed lids exactly like this! Not for sale, of course, but it looked very simple assuming you've got a few tools. I think at one point they were growing strawberries out of the top of the tank. The effect can be really beautiful.

    I hang pothos from my potted planter aquarium right now, and I'll soon be setting up a hydroponic aquarium garden with some nice vines & flowers. It's in a nook on top of a vintage cabinet & it's going to look aaaa maaaayy ziiiiingggg once it's in operation & all grown in.

  9. 4 hours ago, gardenman said:

    From a purely gardening standpoint, filling a hanging basket with garden soil is a bad idea for the plants in the hanging basket. Garden soil tends to compact and becomes an issue in a hanging basket. A potting mix is far better for hanging baskets than garden soil. If however you use just plain old garden soil (topsoil) it shouldn't cause much trouble for the aquarium/tub below it. I use topsoil for my water lilies and lotus and the plants and fish do great. A potting mix can cause more trouble for the tub under it as they're typically fertilized with time release fertilizer that could leach out and many are peat based which could lower the pH and hardness of the water beneath them.

    If the soil or plants planted in the basket have been treated with an systemic insecticide, things could get unpleasant for any fish beneath the basket. Systemic insecticides are often applied as granules on the soil surface and then absorbed into the plant through watering. If any traces remained in the soil surface it could be leached into the tank/tub beneath it and poison the fish. Systemic insecticides are very commonly used in commercial greenhouses so if you're buying plants for the hanging basket there's a reasonable chance they've had a systemic insecticide applied at some point. In some cases some commercial greenhouses just mix it into the potting soils they use. (A systemic insecticide moves into the plant's circulatory system making the whole plant poisonous to an insect that tries to feed on it.)

    The chlorine would be an issue for fish in the tub. It's not great for plants either. Much as our fish tanks are a thriving mass of living stuff, so too should be the soil for plants. Good healthy soil contains all kinds of life from bacteria, to fungi, and nematodes and more. Chlorine kills much of the stuff that's good in soil, just as it kills much of the good stuff in aquariums. If you have a choice, you'll find plants do better with rain water than treated water. Those who grow insectivore plants typically water them with distilled water or rainwater with no chlorine or fluoride and minimal or no minerals. 

    You mention soot and I have no idea where that comes from based on your post. 

     

    Hey I’ll consider getting a rain barrel, there’s an idea. The garden plants are watered from the hose typically. I’ll look into this!

    I’ll figure out what we can do about making sure this hanging planter has no pesticides within the soil it’s planted in.

    When I mention soot, I mean the soil that leaves the hanging planter and drips into the aquarium. This stuff I’d imagine does more good than bad; and the air bubble filter sponge will collect any excess anyways.

  10. 5 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

    One thing to be mindful of is the intensity of sunlight. It is so easy to underestimate how it will affect plants outside. For us, pothos withered, ludwigia died, even wisteria crashed. Only water lettuce did well. 
     

    To your question... the run-through might be faster than you’d think. You could test by putting a white pail under the hanging plant, observing soil leech, and testing some parameters of water run through. 

    There is an eavesdrop on this veranda which keeps it from the direct sunlight. In this spot it will get direct sunlight for 2-3 hours during sundown.

    I read somewhere that sunlight in the morning is ideal. I may put it in the backyard instead so it can get that morning sunlight, but I want to show this aquarium off to my neighbours in the front yard ! Lol

     

    Hey there’s  an idea: I could place a drip bucket beneath the hanging planter while watering. That doesn’t sound so bad!

     

    I prefer the minimal maintenance, so I’ll observe the effects of the drip into the aquarium before doing the drip tray method. I think using the city water from the house, however, is out of the question

  11. I’ve been working on a potted planter aquarium for 2-3 months now. I plan on bringing it out to the front veranda after the springtime warms things up outside. There is a place I’d like to put the planter aquarium that would be directly below a hanging flower basket filled with regular garden soil. The hose is connected to city water which is treated with chlorine. I have de-chlorinated water that I can use instead of the garden hose to water this specific planter.

     

    I have a few questions:

    Will the chlorine react / oxidize with the soil as it drips through & out of the basket from beneath? if it does, will it be enough?

     

    Will the flow-through minerals be absorbed by the plants in the aquarium after er it falls in from above?

     

    I reckon the soot may be a slight issue, but I think I can figure something out about that

     

    Here’s a photo of the aquarium. Thanks ahead of time!

    C1FB06B8-F714-4317-B4DE-1E0BCF18223C.jpeg

  12. 55 minutes ago, mgudyka said:

    Is this algae when the tank is so fresh and new??

    Yuppers, once the plants are absorbing the nutrients then the algae will subside. Excessive food / light energy will turn into algae unless it is consumed by plants. Once the plants are sitting pretty then the algae should subside. You could consider turning the lights on a lower setting, or for fewer hours a day; but since it’s an establishing aquarium then just maintain stable / steady parameters and let time do its thing.

     

    especially in an establishing aquarium, the more stuff you adjust then the more likely you may give yourself the wrong information about what is causing what to happen . Patience & learning how time can fix things that are naturally occurring (algae bloom)

  13. Keeping some plants at the water surface is important to keep guppies from fin nipping. Java moss, guppy grass, floating carpet seeds, water lettuce, dwarf lotus... 

     

    Guppies thrive in harder water. I think a ph above 8.5 will probably have some negative affects in the long run. My potted planter tank has a pH of around 8.0

     

     

    47112588-DF43-40CF-A4A0-A62DAC69CD31.jpeg

  14. Something you can try to circulate the water without electricity is the Trompe. Look up on YouTube Trompe device & there’s a great video explaining how it works.

     

     

    Essentially it is an inexpensive add-on to your garden hose that produces air bubbles via water flow & gravity. Whenever your sprinklers are running in the yard then air bubbles will be produced by the Trompe device. Run an air line from the Trompe air output into your pond.

  15. I've removed the sub pump & filter as it was sucking up the shrimp & smaller fish. The beer bottle bubble filter on it's own circulates the water adequately and has no risk of sucking up fish through the intake.

    Added to the aquarium are 9 guppy fry who are now close to being adult. The females have not yet given birth to any guppy fry of their own. I've also added cherry shrimp & two dwarf crayfish.

    For plants, hanging off the side is devil's Ivy. So long as the leaf of the ivy is not submerged in the water then they won't die. I've slipped them through a crevasse in the driftwood so they stay in place. There is some Java moss across the top of the water in order to create space between guppies who might get nippy, as well as floating carpet grass.

    It's a little bit messy now. I will be working on it more before bringing it outside for the summer. I will be using this potted planter as a test to see what potential damage the wildlife may do to it. I may build a metal grid locking piece that goes over the top if it is such a problem157141535_2880161165640166_8582552839292993875_n.jpg

    157260453_470495977436912_1162838830750369826_n.jpg

    157476521_439866957466122_6921117740764391556_n.jpg

    • Like 4
×
×
  • Create New...