OnlyGenusCaps

That's like the epicenter of my misspent youth! No finer place on Earth. Or it was at least.

That's a rough day on it's own, and doubly so given that you are recovering. I'm heartened by the resilience I saw in your post. I imagine it took a bit to get there. Every hobby has it's challenges. I remember when I was learning to surf. Never had I tried something that gives you absolutely nothing encouraging until you get the process completely down. Then once you do, it's magic. But getting there is nothing but frustration and persistence. I think aquariums are almost more insidious. There is nearly instant joy, and it encourages expansion. They enjoyment grows, but inevitably there will be a day like yours. Or one where you get hit with a serious disease in your tanks. Or when your aquarium floods and waters the carpet overnight. Or one when... Well, you get the idea. Suddenly that joy is tested. It feels like that thing that was purely good is now a surprising source of frustration or pain. I think that is hard for people to get through, and I think it ends this hobby for some. It's why I am so impressed you managed to come back, at least in part, by the time of your post. Because the truth is, no matter if it is your first bad day as an aquarist, or you've lost track of them over the years, it still stings. I also believe that is why support, like this forum, helps, but also people who are willing to share their struggles so openly, like you do. I have no doubt telling people about your bad day, and pushing through it here, will help others when their time comes. Thanks for sharing your struggles here! Now, back to goofing up my projects and being my own biggest source of frustration. 😛

Well, I am afraid I will have to disagree. You and I interact on a fairly regular basis it seems, and you have been noting but lovely. No use in protesting either, I'll stand by that. For me, I've really only interacted on one other forum for any length of time. And that was because it was a nice and supportive place. I've tried two others that were not and rapidly grew disenchanted. That's my entire social media experience. I'm fine with that. But I think @Streetwise asks a really interesting question. And it had gotten me thinking about the role I (try) to play here. When I first arrived, I wanted to contribute broadly; though I've never been good about playing the welcome wagon (I'm absolutely not disparaging people who welcome every new member, it's really important! I'm just not good at it.). I was in the fortunate situation that when I arrived here, I knew a couple people. Really good people. Over time, I've found I gravitate to focus on topics of interest, and to interact with those folks I like very well. Some of the community I've built here is through shared interests (same kinds of fish, or filtration preference, etc.). And following their journals is a big part of that enjoyment for me. Other journals I check in on less frequently, and I really only do so because I like the folks doing them. They may be doing things very different than I am, but it's nice to see what they've been up to, even if it doesn't have the added benefit of being directly applicable to my efforts. It's part of the community I've built here. Along those lines, I also try to keep folks posted on local happenings in Minnesota. Through I don't consider myself a Minnesotan, and probably never will, this is where my local community is right now, and I'd like to not only keep the folks from MN on this forum posted about happenings locally, but extend the offerings locally to those across this forum where they can participate as well. That's about it. That's what I try to do. I come up short. Often. But the next time I log on here, I get another chance to live up to the expectations I've set for myself. We'll see how I do tomorrow. 🤪

Got it. Those corys are small! Probably not. People don't ship sand far. It's inexpensive, weighs a lot, and is found in various forms just about everywhere. Not much economic incentive in most cases to move it far. The play sand I find here is chunkier and sharper. I'd even thought about shipping in dune sand from Oregon. Found a site and everything. That would end up being some expensive sand though! Oddly, if I could get the sand they mine not far from here that goes to the fracking operations in ND, that would make great sand for a tank! Hmm.... 🤔

I suspect I don't understand how small the corys are. That's nice sand by the way! I wish I could get sand like that around here. 😢

You could read it as "what province are you in?" All the Canadians do it that way, so why not the Netherlanders too. 🤪

So much death in that tank. Perhaps it is now time for some new life to arise there? But just who is the father? We'll find out next time "As the Tank Turns"!

I love khuli loaches! They were the first fish I ever kept way back in Jr. High. I'm surprised that with all of the cover in there, there aren't more spots the corys can hide. That's more of a headbutt than I suspected a kuhli could deliver. I always think of them as more fragile fish. Did you give it a helmet?!

Really?! Wow! I never watch that channel. I feel like that dude puts stuff together and then throws it away or something. Perhaps I am missing out though! I will do. And I'll tag you in it. But, I suspect mine will be the janky version of yours. 🤪

I love this! I've just bought a plastic planter to do basically the same thing on my deck for the summer. I wasn't sure how I was going to do the outlet to the pump, but I think I am going to try to copy your approach. My best Idea to this point was to drill a spot in the edge for the outlet to come up and run the tubing through bamboo. It was going to look a bit hokey. I like the PVC supporting the light grating much better! I might go with some sort of a black tub so I can create a biofilter of sorts and control where the water leaves, but otherwise I'm pretty sure I'm going to copy emulate your approach.

Sorry, I should have elaborated. I suspect a PVC loop is quite specific to this situation, and not something to toss out like it is common knowledge. That's my brain fart. A PVC loop is really just what it sounds like; it is a looped connection of pvc pipe. The idea is that if you have a straight pipe of pvc running out from your pump, then as the air is pulled off the line from close valves, it decreases the pressure available to those valves further down the line. With a loop this is minimized because the line can more easily equilibrate the pressure throughout. At least, that's the idea. I suspect you'll need to get a bit creative to incorporate a pump like this into your space. In the end, it might not be worth it for you; if it disrupts an enjoyable environment. As I now work to improve the aesthetics of where I have my tanks, I have a better appreciation for how important that can be to the enjoyment of what is actually in the tanks. I'm glad you have a space you like so much! I aspire to do just that.

Well, it's been a bit and there has not been a ton going on in the tank. No new breeding activity. Not sure why. The Cyps could give it another go for sure, but I suppose it woild be futile with the Julies in there. I think most of the Cyps will end up heading down to the tank room (my Subsclarium Journal linked in my signature), with a few of the extra males left in this tank as dithers for the subordinate Julies. The Juli fry are growing and getting quite big! Believe it or not, the fish toward the bottom of this photo is one of the 3 fry from the first batch. (As a side not, it's really not that blue in there. I need to get one of the photo app the reefers use to color correct their pictures.) I'll probably need to trap and BAP these soon. Although the parents have been really tolerant of the offspring. Perhaps because they haven't spawned again? Don't know. Besides the spawning slump this tank seems to be in, everything else seems to be going well. The fish are happy. Mostly all getting along, which is a small miracle for cichlids. The tank boss has gotten a bit bossy, and has claimed much of the open water for himself. I don't think this bothers the Julies much, but the other Cyps would probably be happier if they didn't have to hang by the rocks so often. Another good reason to move the Cyps to new digs downstairs when I can. Still, they make a nice little shoal!

Unfortunately, I can offer no advice on running a linear piston air pump straight into various airlines. I put in a pvc loop. Theoretically, I suppose you could take the diameter of flex tubing that fits straight onto the pump and run that low, or though a wall, and branch from there. I suppose if you had a hidden location that was central, you could run it into a mini pvc loop just a few feet around, and branch off of that like a manifold to the various tanks. I think it will depend on the layout of your space and what you, or your spouse's tolerances are for pvc versus a web of airline tubing. One thing you might do is to figure out if there are in folks with fish rooms you like the look of, or are similar to your space, on the You Tubes, and try to figure out how they have hidden equipment. Sorry, I can't be more helpful.

If I am counting correctly from your text, it sounds like you have a dozen air outlets you are running now, yes? To me, I'd say the pump upgrade is worth it anything after 12. I've told others that as a basic benchmark, but in your case it would also only use one outlet, freeing up others. That would have a secondary advantage I'd guess. The other thing is that the linear piston pump can really crank some power. I've found that for a couple of my species I've been able to get powerhead like flow with just my jet tubes. Some of the fish have really loved that! Now, you do have to keep the jet tubes clean, but with that caveat, it's so easy to dial in the flow you want. In your case, you could even plumb it so the pump is outside of the room and somewhere else in the garage (not that it's too loud - my little, cheapy, diaphragm-pumps are louder). I think from a very pragmatic standpoint, you are at a stage where it makes sense if you have any expansion plans. My 2¢.

So, you mean like an aquarium version of the BioPod?

Nice rack system! I'm assuming this will be a sump that is common to all of the tanks, yes? Are you looking for the sump to largely do biological filtration, or do you want to try to get mechanical filtration out of it as well? What are your priorities for the sump, i.e. does it need to be efficient at converting waste from high stocking or messy fish, does it need to be ultra quiet because it is in an area where noise will be an issue, etc. It looks like you have a single drain line coming in to the sump, is that true? Are the tanks drilled for overflow or will you need siphon boxes? Sorry for all of the questions, but a nice big sump and set up rack like that really gives you a chance to dial it in to be exactly what you want it to be. Sicce makes nice pumps! And the Syncra 5 is a big one - probably something around 1,300gph. But always cut the gph in half for your estimates, especially as you are going up a decent distance to the top tank. I believe it is an A/C pump so it should be reliable, but will have that A/C pump hum. This should be a cool build! I'm excited for you!

If you added them at night, so they would go unnoticed by the cichlids when first introduced them (and assuming you have enough rockwork and hiding places), you might try Asellus sp. (freshwater isopods). Mine have made a tank crystal clear of algae. If you have driftwood though, they'll go after that once the algae is gone, but if their population gets large, the cichlids would probably find them, and have snacks. Might be worth a try?

Young? Young?! Why, I'm old beyond my years. I was born 40 so I had a head start getting all old and cranky. This'll be me in a year or two.

Now that would be a feat of advanced technical design!

It's really coming along now! I think you fin ally have a great start. I look forward to the results, which seem like they'll happen in my lifetime now. 😜

Thanks for posting this! It is always interesting to see fish in habitat. We can learn so much form it, especially when they are as rare in the wild as this species. That is some mulm laden habitat! Really open to their scale too. Not at all what I would have guessed. Very cool!

I like the rack! Really nice wood look there. I have a dumpy garage rack so yours is aspirational! On my rack, I have a bunch of 20H's. I'll say that the bottom dwellers are kind of nice there, because I get to be eye-to-eye with them. But overall, I'm glad my longer term plans are to have them be for fry tanks. Other than the bottom dwellers when I am on the step stool, I can't really enjoy the fish there in the same way. Fry tanks are practical, but rarely really enjoyable to watch. Anyhow, that's why I'm planning on going that route.

Good luck, sir. I'm rooting for you! I mean... And the tower. I'm rooting for the tower too.

First off, you are far too kind! But I appreciate the kinds. Frankly, it didn't have to be all that good to be a significant improvement, so I had that working, strongly, in my favor. 🤪 Maybe. All I know is that I saw these in [Redacted: name of bib box store] and kept thinking about them. Then when Zenzo put out the vid on spending time with your critters, I realized that I really did want to enjoy the time there more, and spend more time there, but it was a pretty ugly space. Thus an idea was born! So, I knew 0% of that. Thanks! That said, the sewage stack has been partly (except the port/opening/door?) behind the foam wall for about 6 years already. When I was cleaning out the insulation around it to make a bit more space to reduce the bowing, there was no sign of moisture back there. This time it is sealed in closed cell spray fora with a layer of silicone over it. Hopefully that continues to work out well. 🤞

I'm so sorry you got hit with this @Beardedbillygoat1975! I hope you feel better soon. The tub and fish are looking good at least. They will wait until you have more energy. Until then, rest and recoup.