Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

Woowala

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    150

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Woowala

    Dumb/Foolish purchases

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It being a pretty niche market, basically everything made for aquariums is price gouged to hell and back, and doubly so for subsets of the aquarium market, like reefs and shrimp.  If I can find a similar product but not made for fish tanks, it'll be 1/10th the price.  The trouble is recognizing when you're being penny wise and pound foolish, but in general if something is convenient or irreplaceable I'll spend the money, if not I won't (looking at you hardscape, lids, lighting).  Other things are just a racket imo, like bottled bacteria and almost all water additives.

    But every niche hobby is the same way.  I'm just happy I'm not into golf. 

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1

    Dry Incubation of Pseudomugil Eggs

    in Fish Breeding

    Posted

    Just wanted to give a final update on this trial run.  Not quite final results- 7/8 eggs hatched from the 28th, 4/4 from the 29th, 4/5 from the 30th, and 7/8 from the 1st.  Still giving the last 2 eggs from the last 2 days time, but overall a much improved hatch rate.  I didn't notice any difference in the fry or anything else really- no deformities, and the hatching was still spread out over multiple days for each collection. Seemingly no difference either between the eggs that were submerged a day before they hatched and the ones submerged 5 days before. I'll have to wait for another try to see how the fry develop later as all these fry were put into a tank with other normally hatched fry.

    Overall I'd say this was pretty successful- a bit easier than dealing with cups of water and methylene blue, and a higher hatch rate.  I think the conclusion is that I could do a better job keeping the hatchout water really clean, and if I did I might see a similar hatch rate with either method. 

    Water change plumbing issues

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yeah everyone's needs are a bit different.  I just remembered that he used a rain bird controller and manifold, so there was a chance it might be helpful. 

    Looking at that pic I kinda think your initial instinct might be right, and that you might just need a much higher powered pump. If you decide to do that instead of using the pressure from your home water supply, I'd just get a much bigger impeller pump from a major online site and return it if it didn't work.  #unethicallifeprotip, but it's rough out there lol.

    Dry Incubation of Pseudomugil Eggs

    in Fish Breeding

    Posted

    So quick update- half the eggs from the 28th have hatched, and one from the 29th the next day. Took about 13 days, but it's been cooler here lately so I'd attribute the slight delay to that and not this method.  Still waiting to see what the final hatch rate will be, but so far so good.

    • Like 1

    Water change plumbing issues

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yeah that's brutal. 

    Can you bypass the manifold to see if it's the problem, and/or shut off 8 of 9 valves on the manifold to see if it's just that the pump can't handle that many valves?  I think the pump just can't handle the pressure, and when it's too much the water just flows back through the intake of the pump, but it'd be nice to know that before buying a different pump.

    You could always just go to a big box store and get a diaphragm/transfer pump, try it out, and return it if that's not the problem.  Which is what I'd probably do, but it's a hassle.

    Water change plumbing issues

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Woowala

    Oof, 10% that's a lot.  Glad I didn't see that when I was looking for one haha. If the pump is powered then yes it'll detect the pressure drop when the valve opens and start pumping. Sorry I can't be more helpful, I learned just enough to set up my own thing. In the end it took me about a month of looking at various options and trying different stuff to get it to work. 

    This might be helpful

     

    Water change plumbing issues

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The pressure reducer after the valve might work.  Worth a try if you already have one/some but I'm kinda out of my depth here.

    Raising the drum up would reduce the total head but I think it'll produce variable flows as the water level in the drum drops, or it might just stop working once the water level drops past a certain point.  If you had a float valve in the drum so that the water level stayed constant it would solve that problem, but I think it's probably not ideal.

    I'm not sure if RO booster pumps have a pressure cutoff switch, but I know most diaphragm pumps for rvs do, so that when the tap is closed the pressure increases and the pump shuts off.  Many of them can run dry, same with RO booster pumps, but you'd have to check.  Or you can turn it off/on electronically with the controller.  The way I did my water change system is just by wiring a small water cooler diaphragm pump to a 12V power supply and plugging that into a smart plug and turning it off/on with my phone.

     

    Water change plumbing issues

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    If no one else knows, you might try finding someone doing something similar on youtube.  I have very limited experience but I suspect @TAB is right and that there just isn't enough pressure to make the valves work properly.  Impeller driven pumps are pretty bad for this application, at least that's my admittedly limited understanding.  You might try looking into a diaphragm pump, like a water transfer pump for an rv or an RO booster pump.

    Fry tray color impact on fry feeding

    in Experiments

    Posted

    Stands to reason it would make a difference if you observe them eating differently in the white tray verses other enclosures. Or maybe they just employ different feeding strategies depending on the environment. It'll be fun to find out. 

    I'd love to get a 3d printer for the same reasons. Would be great to just make some little bespoke widget instead of cobbling something together out of junk around the house. 

    • Thanks 1

    Fry tray color impact on fry feeding

    in Experiments

    Posted

    Interested to see how this plays out.

    Do you know if krylon fusion will adhere to petg? If the black fry tray shows promising results, spray painting the bottoms of some white ones would give you plenty of color options, and you might be able to find a color that allows both you and the fry to see well.

    • Like 1

    Do you always quarantine? Sometimes quarantine? Do you medicate? How do you decide?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Quarantine is less of a hassle than dealing with sick fish or invasive pests or algae.  You don't need to medicate if they look fine, just keep them separate from all your other stuff.  Maybe you'll decide to medicate anyway after a couple weeks, just to be safer, but some period of isolation and observation is a must imo.  The more tanks you already have, the more of an absolute necessity it is.

    • Like 1

    Shrimp died

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Easiest way would be to get some water before it goes through the softener like MWilk said and mix it with the softened water in whatever ratio gets you the right gh.  Or you could get a gh booster mix and add it to the softened water.

×
×
  • Create New...