ChemBob
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Posts posted by ChemBob
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Made progress on the overhead sump for the Mbuna Tank. I am using a planter for this. First, I made a template of the cross section out of cardboard.
I then drilled and dry fit the bulkheads. I forgot to grab pictures if this. I then cut egg crate to create dividers. First set will hold sponge, and the last will keep the biomedia from the return section.
Then I silicone the egg crate in place.
I then dry fit a PVC elbow on the inlet bulkhead to direct the majority of the flow down. I drilled a small hole as a siphon breaker.
Here is a picture of the finished product. The fitting inside are just dry fit. The exterior elbows are glued to prevent leaks.
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I just got 6 Kuhli loaches! I'm fascinated by them and so are my kids. Currently hiding in QT, so it'll be a while before I can get a good picture.
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Thank you @Streetwise and @DannyBWell! I appreciate it!
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Got in my foreground plants for the Planted Tank today. Excited for them to fill in, and hoping my cories and rams leave them alone long enough for them to root.
Pogostemon helferi aka Little Star aka Downai
And full shot of the tank.
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Normal. Shrimp will go nuts for it.
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I installed the Aquarium Co-op Power Head in a tank earlier this week, and it is much louder than I expected. I think I'm using it correctly, but I've never used a power head before. Does anyone have any advice to reduce the noise? I tried suction cupped to the glass and free standing on the sponge. Pardon the cloudy water. I just pulled the power head to make sure there was nothing in the impeller, and I knocked a bunch of stuff off the filter.
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Decided on naming the tanks for simplicity. The left tank is now the Planted Tank. The right tank is now the Mbuna Tank.
Made the shelf for my overhead sump filter for the Mbuna Tank. I am going to run water from the powerhead to the planter, and make a couple of dividers for filter floss, a emersed plants, and the return section. I have ordered bulkheads for the inlet and outlet.
The legs for the shelf are 2x4's resting directly on the floor behind my aquarium stand. They are attached to the stand for stability. I stained them black with some stain I had in the garage from another project. The shelf is prefabricated, so no finishing required. It is attached to the legs with standard shelf hardware, resting directly on them.
I took this week off, as my kids were off for half the week on fall break. This allowed me to get a lot done, so progress will likely slow from here on out. The next parts I need aren't arriving until next week.
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On 10/6/2021 at 10:51 PM, carefulest said:
Is that BBA on the wood?
Yes. Its been contained to the wood, so I haven't fought it too hard. It seems content to live on the wood, leaving my plants alone. When I pulled the wood to move it, I treated it with hydrogen peroxide. I do see some of it changing color, so I think that killed some. Once I get things balanced in the tank, I may get some Easy Carbon to spot treat what remains.
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On 10/6/2021 at 9:41 PM, LilBrick300k said:
Carinotetraodon Irrubesco, or red eye red tail puffer
They do well in community tanks? I see the Kuhli Loaches in there, curious if you have any other fish with them?
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Looks great!! What species is that?
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Today, I moved fish and reshaped the right hand tank. I also got in the rest of my coop order with the powerhead and crypt pink flamingo. First, I removed all substrate from the tank. There was a layer of super naturals sand on top of pool filter sand. I kept the top layer, mostly the super naturals (rubbermade tote), and kept out the majority of the pool filter sand (bucket).
I mixed about 8 lbs of aragonite into the super naturals sand to help buffer up the pH for the cichlids. I then laid down egg crate light diffuser and pit down small layer of sand to keep the egg crate in place.
I added my rock scape making lots of little caves and crevices. A number go through to the back side forming tunnels. This is fine before the majority of the substrate is added so that the rocks are directly on the egg crate. This will prevent digging fish from causing a rock slide. The rest of the sand was added, followed by water.
My pencilfish and SAE stayed in the old tank with the old sponge filter now powered by powerhead to keep it cycled. The pencil fish because i gunk they'll be easier to catch than cories, and the SAE because he's a bulldozer and I want to let the plants establish roots before I add him to the new tank. The old canister filter and a new sponge filter were put into the new tank with the rest of the fish. I'll be testing at least daily for the next week to make sure there are no ammonia spikes, and will be pulling back on feeding a bit as well.
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Fluval 3.0 came in Monday, so I was able to move hardscape and plants to the new tank.
Yesterday, I went to a landscape supply store and picked up 80 lbs of rock to play with for hardscape on the older tank which will keep sand as the substrate for the cichlids. I have some aragonite to mix in to help buffer pH up.
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On 10/5/2021 at 7:09 AM, Maggie said:
PH out of the tap is 8.4. But after one week in the tank, it's fallen to 7.2
Have you checked you tap water after bubbling for 24 hours? Sometimes there are additives that quickly leave the water column once the water leaves the pipes. Put some water in a container (cup is fine), test, add an air stone for 24 hours, test again. This will help you understand your new water.
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On 10/4/2021 at 2:23 PM, Dwayne Brown said:
within Washington state
Not quite the coast of be on. I'm on the gulf coast, so different rules and regs. I'll give this advice: mange sure you check your local laws before you do any collecting. No telling what laws are out there. A call to your local wildlife department would probably give you the info you need.
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Added substrate last night. Used 600 grams of Brightwell Aquatics Laterite powder, a 24 lbs back of Brightwell Aquatics Rio Cafe F, and two 20 lbs bags of red Eco Complete. The substrates are layered using a modified version of Bentley Pascoe's lasagna method. The Laterite is all on the bottom, followed by about 1/3 of the bag of Rio Cafe. The 2 bags of Eco Complete are layered next, with the remainder of the Rio Cafe on top. My oddest son was excited to help me with the substrate layering, and you can see him below.
I forgot to put the root tabs into the substrate before I layered it down, so you can see where I added some after substrate.
I then filled and hooked up CO2. My youngest son helped this morning while his siblings were at school. CO2 test successful! Now we wait for that Coop order to arrive.
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On 10/4/2021 at 1:41 PM, Biotope Biologist said:
Even in college and working for the state I have been stopped a dozen times in these areas by WDFW and tribal police
I don't have wasy access to a total zone, though it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for a day trip. 🤔
I'll definitely check on any laws or regulations before I do any collecting, though I don't have a tank to do that in at the moment anyway.
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@eatyourpeas are these all macro algae? Curious, do you one if these grow in brackish as well as full salt water? Be interesting to try some of the brackish species with a macro algae tank.
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Oh, one more piece of info. I don't leave the power banks connected to the pumps. I swap the pumps over to the batteries when necessary then back to normal power afterwards.
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I realize I'm a bit late to the battery power, but I use the Anker battery banks for extended outages to power the USB air pumps. The middle sized packs will last several days powering 1 or 2 USB air pumps. I don't worry about the heaters, as I'm in Louisiana, and typically I have the opposite problem if we lose power where I'm trying to cool the tanks. Though this winter showed I cam have the cold issue as well. We got fortunate here and only lost power for a few hours during a couple rolling blackouts.
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On 10/3/2021 at 9:23 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:
I like Bentleys method, I used it with Fluval stratum and it’s worked great. Can’t wait to see how things turnout. Have an idea of what your plant list will be?
For now, mostly pulling from the other 40, with the addition of a Coop Crypt Pink Flamingo currently en route. Existing plants are Cryptocoryne wendtii green and red, several anubias (gold coin, coffeefolia, golden), crypt spiralis, crypt lucens, Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, and water wisteria. I am not planning to have floaters. I'll likely add harder plants once I get used to the CO2.
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Blackout window film came in today (thank you Amazon!), so I added it to the new tank and to the side of my existing tank that will be next to the new tank. I want to keep the fish from setting each other and hop this helps keep the different light settings from hitting the tracks. The left tank will be much higher light than the right tank.
After the tank was set back, I rechecked my level. You can see one of my "assistants" in this one.
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On 10/2/2021 at 6:29 PM, Patrick_G said:
Did they create the new shirt to show off @Zenzo's muscles? Also,very jealous I missed the Murphy cake. Props to whoever made it!
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On 10/2/2021 at 10:16 AM, ARMYVET said:
When I ordered mine...I just assumed that I put the tank together with a butt load of snails and they would be like Suicide Squad and kill everything😈 .... then they came so small... I was worried the snails would slap them around...😱
Perhaps they will be small enough to chase the snails into their shells?
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On 10/1/2021 at 3:05 PM, amr427 said:
I have to collect them all
The stickers have gotten worse than Pokemon in my house. The Coop has been a great resource. Between YouTube, the forum, and their website, they have built a great community. Excited to see where it goes!
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Side by Side 40's Journal
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted
More progress on the Mbuna Tank filter, kinda. Hooked up the hoses to the filter. Did a water test in the bathroom, and everything looked good. So I brought the filter to the tank and set everything up. Fired up the powerhead, and water started flowing. The 2 returns keep up, but barely. I'll be adding either a third return or making one of them larger. Since I have everything to add a third return, that's likely what will happen.
Anyway, let everything run for about an hour, went back, and a small drip was coming from one of the bulkheads. 😔
It's too late to fix, so I shut off the filter and am running the sponge on air. I'm happy with how it came out, just need to fix the leak later this week.
Here is the filter with and without its lid. The lid will be separated into a few pieces, with a few holes for the planters, as I will have pothos and creeping Jenny growing.
Here is the powehead hooked up. Not a fan of the hose, but it works for now.
Finally, here are the 2 return lines. I put elbows on them to help direct flow. Not sure if they will stay or not.