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Mafkees

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Everything posted by Mafkees

  1. Well, cyano is an anaerobic bacteria. You might want to consider dosing the tank with hydrogen peroxide on consecutive days. If you can keep the oxygen percentage up for long enough, you might just starve the cyano.
  2. Spot dosing hydrogen peroxide 3% solution does it.
  3. Within 24 hours of adding ten otocinclus, the diatom algae was decimated. They are most impressive little creatures.
  4. I finally got round to visiting my LFS to purchase a background plant and ten otocinclus to deal with diatom algae.
  5. If you compare the picture below to the one in my opening post, you'll notice most of my plants have turned distinctly brown. This is diatom algae, a phase I assumed I'd skip because of my mature filter. I however didn't turn out that lucky. I added ten otocinclus (who are accustomed to dry foods, too) to deal with the diatoms. Also, I finally I added a background plant to increase the sense of scale. I think this succeeded nicely.
  6. I figured it'd be fun to share some moving pictures. I created two videos: the first I might call 'A minute at the riverside' and the second is intended to show off the surface agitation I have going on. https://player.vimeo.com/video/552021972 https://player.vimeo.com/video/552020999
  7. Thanks, that was a fun read. Allow me to dive deep and perhaps explain some of your struggles. What I will write below is in no way intended to criticize your setup. Some thoughts: Your setup You mentioned the concentrated output from the power head has a more obvious effect on the tank than the diffuse intake on the sponges. This is explainable and perhaps best compared to a canister filter. You see, using the power head-and-pipes-concept as a manifold is similar to what happens when installing a canister filter with intake and outflow on either ends of the tank. You are creating movement in the watercolumn, opposed to moving the watercolumn. After all, you extract water from the watercolumn, put it through the pipes (alternatively, the canister filter) and then insert it back into the watercolumn through your output nozzle. Here's the key to my point: this output nozzle has a limited surface area and physics state that moving a high volume of water through a limited surface area equals high speed flow. Let us call this high speed flow 'jet flow': a narrow and fast flow of water. We learnt that your output nozzle is inserting a jet flow into your watercolumn, which means the areas most affected by the jet flow are those directly adjacent to the jet. As stated above: you are creating movement in the watercolumn, opposed to moving the watercolumn. Those neighboring areas will become quite turbulent due to disruption of that part of the watercolumn, whereas areas farther from the jet remain relatively unaffected. Illustrating my theory: the area behind the output should be relatively low flow. Further illustrating my theory: after shutting off the power head, your watercolumn should be idle within a few seconds. Comparison to my setup Now, comparing my tank to yours to further illustrate my theory. There are two prime distinctions between them: 1. The surface area of the outflow. Your outflow is circular and perhaps one inch in diameter, whereas mine is rectangular (equal in shape to the watercolumn) and with a surface area equal to the surface area of the watercolumn directly adjacent to it. The same applies to the intake because that is equal in size to the outflow. This means that any water from the outflow affects the entire watercolumn, because it is the watercolumn moving through the manifold. In other words: I am moving the watercolumn, opposed to creating movement in the watercolumn; 2. My output affects the watercolumn from below whereas yours affects the watercolumn from the side. Your output is pointed toward your intake, not promoting any water other than what's directly in between them to move. My setup eliminates turbulence because there is no movement in the watercolumn and guarantees an equal distribution of flow through the tank (if you leave hardscape out of the equation, because hardscape of course obstructs the flow and alters the mechanics of water movement). I have in fact tested my powerhead on 100% capacity (75x tank volume circulation per hour) and the minnows handled it no problem. That is because the flow is diffused over the entire watercolumn. Illustrating my theory: the water speed is roughly equal in any given part of the tank. Further illustrating my theory: after shutting off the power head, my watercolumn takes a few minutes to settle (because it was moving, opposed to creating movement in it). Conclusion (& solution)? Do the fish mind? Your fish are happy, evidently. Breeding and all. All of the above was merely an attempt to give proof of concept. From your journal however, I could tell you are looking for solutions to your problems with different flow levels throughout your tank. Allow me to propose a solution to your problem with the flow, of course this is only theory from my part but it might be worth a shot. 1. Lower your output spraybar to roughly ground level, pointing it either straight up or slightly toward the right hand glass (away from the intake side); 2. Only place intake holes facing the left hand side glass (away from the output side), so water is forced to the other side of the tank, affecting a maximum proportion of the total watercolumn. Please consider the graphs below. The top one is your current setup (question marks indicating low flow spots) and the bottom one is my proposed solution.
  8. Thanks, you guys, for the kind words. Current stocking is 12 white cloud minnows and 18 corydoras aeneus. The cories seem to be doing well but local suppliers seem to have extremely weak strains of white clouds around these parts, because every time I try to add to my current stocking, I get major losses. Therefore I think I'll leave it at this, for now. Perhaps some otos in the future, once the system is more mature. Full side to side flow is not my holy grail. In fact, I am interfering with it by using my surface skimmer in the way I am, but I consider this a worthwhile trade-off. My pump currently runs at 35% power so if I'd step that up, it would overrule the surface skimmer flow with ease, but the fish currently wouldn't be able to handle it. I am raising the flow by 1% every day and I plan to cap it out on 60%. Fun fact: handling the flow is no problem for the fish currently, it is the intake grid they struggle with. Cories tend to rest on surfaces and when they rest on the inflow grid, it stresses them out when the current is too strong. I currently do have dead spots but I think those are both realistic and desirable, like you described. Fish should be able to relax. My corydoras (at least the bigger ones) spend most of their time scouring the outflow grid, which is the most high flow area in the tank, playing in the flow. It's a lovely sight. I strongly believe laminar flow to be beneficial to all fish that can handle the flow. It makes for a predictable water flow and avoids 'jet' effects. Would you mind sharing some pics of your setup, or could you point me to your thread?
  9. Thanks a lot, guys. Here's a pic of one of the inhabitants I added past Thursday. A corydoras aeneus. I added 18 of them.
  10. Hello guys, I've been 'a fan of the show' for many years but somehow I hadn't heard of these forums until just now. I decided this was a nice time to join since I started a new setup a few weeks ago. I already uphold a diary on a Dutch aquarium forums but the crowd there is rather limited. I am hoping to interest and possibly even inspire some people with my latest build, a custom built aquarium with the following dimensions: 100cm length, 40cm width and 32cm visible water column depth. This system was designed with one goal in mind: to replicate a laminar flow river stream environment as closely as possible. Strictly speaking it is not a biotope because the plants and livestock have not been selected to match any biotope, but the aquarium style and build I think justify the 'biotope' label. In short: the water flows from right to left, sweeping over the wood and across the rocks before being drawn into the left hand grid and circulated back through the right hand grid. In order to achieve this, a plain tank was built with 100cm length, 40cm width and 40cm depth dimensions. A false bottom measuring 78cm in length was then installed, elevating the scape-able area by approx. 8cm and thus leaving room beneath. This room is utilized to circulate water in order to achieve the desired laminar flow, and is closed off (to keep fish out) by custom designed and 3D-printed grids in each corner. The pump responsible for the water movement is an Aqua Medic Smart Flow 7.1, capping out at 10.500 liters per hour (roughly 75 times tank water volume an hour) but currently running at 35% power. Further tech used involves an Oase Biomaster 600 (thermo) which has considerable power but serves for biological filtration purposes only, a Chihiros WRGB II light in 90cm length, a basic pressurized CO2 kit and a surface skimmer. I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts on this build. Kind regards from across the Big Pond, Mafkees
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