Backyard Medaka Microfarm Journal

[modified lung]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:36 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

I'll be interested to hear how the skimmer ends up working for you.  I have a half built one for FW that I was working on for a bit.  Koi pond folks use them to effect, but with FW less likely to froth than salt they tend to need to be larger/taller, and require rare more air flow (essentially you need to create larger numbers of bubbles with greater contact time to get a stable, and concentrating foam).  From the diagram yours seems to site quite low to the water level.  That's a different approach than I have seen before.  Maybe that's the key?  I don't know, but like I said, I'm excited to hear how it works out! 

I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to argue this isn't really a protein skimmer which would be fair enough. I'm not sure what else to call it though. It definitely isn't going to foam much and I'm only using an air pump about the size of ACO's. But the water was noticable more transparent the next day despite taking out the filter sock. The cup is definitely collecting particulates too small for the radial settler to filter which is the goal. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned the cup out and this is what collected since:

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 10/17/2022 at 7:12 PM, modified lung said:

I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to argue this isn't really a protein skimmer which would be fair enough. I'm not sure what else to call it though. It definitely isn't going to foam much and I'm only using an air pump about the size of ACO's. But the water was noticable more transparent the next day despite taking out the filter sock. The cup is definitely collecting particulates too small for the radial settler to filter which is the goal. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned the cup out and this is what collected since:

No worries.  Don't worry, I definitely wasn't attempting to get into a semantic argument.  I think I understand what you are doing a little better now.  Thanks for taking the time to further explain!  I think I got a bit confused because I was building a FW skimmer for a while to test out.  Long story...

So, it's acting more like a skim trap of sorts?  That's cool!  You have the settling tank first (when I was planning a large FW sump, I was thinking of using one of these taken from the designed used for storm water, and then adding a refugium to it as well), which knocks out denser waste, and then this nameless wonder extracts the less dense waste.  I can imagine they pair well together.  I've never thought of an air driven skim trap, that's a neat idea! 

[modified lung]

On 10/18/2022 at 4:19 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

air driven skim trap

Yeah! That's exactly what to call it! 

On 10/18/2022 at 4:19 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

I definitely wasn't attempting to get into a semantic argument.

I didn't think you were. Maybe at in some point I'll try to to attach a real protein skimmer.

[modified lung]

Filtration Build (5) 

This filtration setup is working far better than I expected. The air-driven skimmer box (airlift skimmer? bubble skimmer?) is picking up quite a lot of particulates to small for the radial flow filter to remove. Here's what was removed after about 48 hours of running:

You can see I reworked the head design a little. I just cut two notched in a piece of ¾" pipe, fed airline tubes through the back notch and kept the front notch open. I then inserted a cap to force the bubbles out the front notch more effectively. I also added a cup with a small tube feeding out the front bottom (hard to see in the photo). This way I can more easily see how fast water is being deposited into the box by the airlift. I can adjust the speed by adjusting the height of the ¾" pipe. A very slow drip is all that's necessary. Less than a half gallon of water is deposited in the box to be removed each day which is less than 0.1% of the total water in the system.

You can see how clear the water has become below. If you look closely, you can still see all the solid matter from the heatwave plant die-off that is still caught on the stem of the water primrose. I'll have to take the primrose out and rinse it off at some point.

The best part of this filter combo is there's no mechanical filtration at all. That means no filter cleaning and lazy days from here on out. I'll still have to remove solids from the settler occasionally but that's easy.

I'll probably still mess with the airlift skimmer some more though. I want to remake the main body with smaller piper so it takes up less room in the sump. And I'd like to replace the head so it looks less like it was made out of junk ...which it was. I could also easily relocate the airlift skimmer outside the sump and it wouldn't take up much room. Then maybe I can move the sump to the back and out of the way because where it is now limits my reach to the back of the tanks and the radial filter.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 10/28/2022 at 4:01 PM, modified lung said:

This filtration setup is working far better than I expected. The air-driven skimmer box (airlift skimmer? bubble skimmer?) is picking up quite a lot of particulates to small for the radial flow filter to remove.

This is a really cool setup!  I wonder as you size it down, if this is not the FW answer to the foam fractionation (i.e. protein skimmer) from the salty side?  I'm genuinely interested in where this might go.  I can imagine nitrate tests on a smaller version to determine the efficacy, but if it clears that bar - this could be a serious innovation.  And I say that as someone who was trying to figure out foam fractionation for FW tanks.  Do you have a video of this in operation?  I'm really just super curious! 

[modified lung]

On 10/28/2022 at 4:50 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

This is a really cool setup!  I wonder as you size it down, if this is not the FW answer to the foam fractionation (i.e. protein skimmer) from the salty side?  I'm genuinely interested in where this might go.  I can imagine nitrate tests on a smaller version to determine the efficacy, but if it clears that bar - this could be a serious innovation.  And I say that as someone who was trying to figure out foam fractionation for FW tanks.  Do you have a video of this in operation?  I'm really just super curious! 

I was trying to think of ways to adapt this to an aquarium. But it's very dependent on a very narrow water level range. The only reason it works on my outdoor setup is because of the float valve hooked up to the faucet. There'd need to be an auto refill valve or you'd have to pay lots of attention to refilling water loss or make height adjustments every few days. Or there's something I haven't thought of.

I'll take some kind of video when I get a chance. I just got in a more powerful air pump to hook up. No one seems to make a battery or solar powered air pump in the "mid-power" range. They're either very small backup pumps or huge pond pumps, so I bought a live-well aerator made to hook up to your boat battery. I'm not sure these are designed for continuous operation so hopefully it lasts.

I'm going to size the main body down to 3" pipe. Which reconfiguration should I try? The 4th one is closest to what I already have. 

[modified lung]

@OnlyGenusCaps

Filtration Build (6) 

Reconfigured using 3" instead of 4" pipe for the main body. Also increased the discharge pipe to 1.5" from 1" (not cut to size yet in the picture).

The main body is still the same height so almost the all of it is still submerged in the sump—the water level is still right up to the top.

New, much more powerful air pump. I couldn't find an air pump that was fully compatible with my system that wasn't either too small or too large. So I went with this boat live well air pump with gator clips that hooks directly to the battery instead of the solar controller. Idk if that's a bad idea or not.

Foam refraction achieved.

The color of the discharge water is very different than the rest of the water. When I dumped this water into another bucket of rainwater, it all foamed up again. Must have been some highly concentrated dissolved organic compounds in there.

Interestingly the new configuration (which is now much more of a protein skimmer/foam refractionator) no longer collects fine particulates like the airlift skimmer. So now I have a filtration gap between larger solids (removed by the radial flow filter) and dissolved compounds (removed by the foam refractionator).

If I want to truly neglect these tanks without consequence like the lazy, good for nothing I strive to be, I will have to fill this gap. So the next idea is to reincorporate the airlift skimmer into a sort of epic duel rabid skimmer filter monstrosity thing. Those of you with week constitutions may need to look away.

Edited November 2, 2022 by modified lung

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 11/1/2022 at 9:11 PM, modified lung said:

Interestingly the new configuration (which is now much more of a protein skimmer/foam refractionator) no longer collects fine particulates like the airlift skimmer.

If you made a good skimmer (i.e. foam fractionator), I wouldn't expect it to do well with small particles.  Indeed, that's excellent supporting evidence your device is doing what you had hoped.  Well done!

On 11/1/2022 at 9:11 PM, modified lung said:

So the next idea is to reincorporate the airlift skimmer into a sort of epic duel rabid skimmer filter monstrosity thing.

That's a great idea!  FW setups rarely have effective nutrient export incorporated.  I think to think of "mechanical filtration" to actually be two thing that get lumped together.  The first is how it's often used in FW, which is water polishing.  Essentially pulling out unsightly particles.  The other is nutrient export, where the particles (or dissolved amphiphilic molecules) are removed from the system, preventing decomposition.  Obviously, when the latter is done well, the former is accomplished also.  I've long wondered if the prevalence of the use of live plants in FW and their associated uptake of N has meant there is less need for export in those systems than in SW.  With the increasing use of macros, both in refugiums and displays, in SW I'm seeing folks think of mechanical in more of a polishing sense as well.  Sorry, thoughts out loud...

[modified lung]

Last month or so I started an outdoor 55 gallon barrel half full with greenwater. It's filled with all sorts of protozoans perfect for feeding the fry. Since ricefish are top dwellers I wanted a good way to disperse the greenwater across the top of the water column. So I poked holes near the tops of this container and attaches some floaties. The container is filled with greenwater and placed under a slow flow spray bar.

I have a few interesting color mutations already. For all I know these are common but I haven't seen any reference to others also getting these anywhere  The first has a translucent, pinkish body. I have two of these, both male.

Another has a translucent, white-ish back half that fades into orange. I only have one of these.

Some of the Miyukis came out strikingly brighter than the others. Here's a few:

I brought the pinks inside for some hot winter breeding action. Since I only have males I brought in a few Miyuki females to cross with them. I'll probably try crossing with a few Yokihis afterward. We'll see what happens.

I brought in some Yokihis last a couple weeks ago for winter breeding. It took about a week for them to start after coming in from the cold.

 

In other news I'm doing an insultingly bad unofficial translation of the "Improved Medaka Variety Classification Manual" which I'll post on the forum at some point.

 

[modified lung]

High grade "iron mask" (top) vs mid grade "super light" (bottom) Miyuki. The difference is the length of reflective pigments/iridophores (or "outer reflected light") along the back.

In order of highest to lowest grade:

Grade A: "Gokuko" or "Iron Mask" = iridophores the entire length of the body up to the mouth.

Grade B: "super strong light" = iridophores to the eyes.

GRADE 😄😄 : "super light" = iridophores to about the base of the pectoral fins, behind the eyes. (Website won't let me delete the emojis but that's supposed to be a Grade C)

Grade 😧 "strong light" = iridophores along about half the body. (Grade D)

Grade E: "weak light" = iridophores along about a quarter of the body length.

Edited December 4, 2022 by modified lung

[Mr10]

I am just finding out about this post! Did we meet at the bayarea medaka meetup? This is Will (IG:bayarea_medaka) 

This is way to cool!! you have to do a talk for us on the meetup next year!

[modified lung]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:43 AM, Mr10 said:

I am just finding out about this post! Did we meet at the bayarea medaka meetup? This is Will (IG:bayarea_medaka) 

This is way to cool!! you have to do a talk for us on the meetup next year!

Maybe. I went to the meetup in July I think it was. I was only there for an hour or so. I don't know any bay area people's names. I live a couple hours out. I bought some fish from the labyrinth guy and some water hyacinth from the two guys next to him.

Edited December 14, 2022 by modified lung

[Mr10]

On 12/14/2022 at 12:09 PM, modified lung said:

Maybe. I went to the meetup in July I think it was. I was only there for an hour or so. I don't know any bay area people's names. I live a couple hours out. I bought some fish from the labyrinth guy and some water hyacinth from the two guys next to him.

We met for sure. I was the one selling the water hyacinth. Anyways, hope I can get some fish off you next time! 

[modified lung]

On 12/14/2022 at 12:29 PM, Mr10 said:

We met for sure. I was the one selling the water hyacinth. Anyways, hope I can get some fish off you next time! 

Neato. I think I've seen you at some Sac events too. Does the BA medaka society have talks? I've only gone once.

[Mr10]

We had 1 talk when we kicked it off on our first meetup. The second one was more casual and we just hung out and sold Medaka and plants. We also did raffles. We hope to get another one going next year when it warms up!