Building Dean's "Fry System"

[jwcarlson]

Before anything else, I just want to be clear that I'm absolutely no sort of fish breeding authority.  In fact, I'm the polar opposite if you go looking through my other threads.  And I have no intention on breeding a zillion fish.  But this seemed like a fun use for a tank that I otherwise would let sit empty or give away.

 

With that out of the way, I've had this 37 gallon aquarium that I bought about two years ago and to be honest, I hated everything about it.  It's been sitting empty for most of the last year.  I hate the footprint (mainly the height).  This is probably the peak of this tank's appearance.  I struggled to keep plants going, probably in part due to the height.  It's since been relocated to a 40B.

It's been ugly and hanging out in my daughter room.  As part of a larger basement project (adding two bedrooms to the basement which previously was entirely unfinished), I've been making some improvements to my "fish room" as well.  Eventually I think all of my aquariums will end up down there.  And maybe eventually it will be in good enough shape to post a picture of what I've got going overall. 😄

So I got it cleaned up and relocated this weekend.  I had "duty" at work and it was almost non-stop most of Thanksgiving break (four days), so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to.

I watched Dean's fry system talk live in October and I thought it looked interesting.  And I'd seen it before in his fish room videos as well.  It dawned on me in the middle of his talk that I didn't have to make an excuse to go buy a 20L because I had this 37 which is basically the same footprint AND it doesn't need a lid!  Unfortunately all the dimensions and construction are JUST far enough off that you can't use standard lids and whatnot.  But I think it's close enough for this.  The bowls down below are my two oldest kids "Walstad bowls" that they set up a couple of days ago.  They had their own "eco systems" (as they called them) set up in old ice cream buckets and all I could imagine was them picking them up by the handle and having them blow out all over.  Still a possibility here, but more permanent this way.  

Dean's fry system is WAY overkill for what I've got going on, but I'm an engineer and a tinkerer and winter is here with 3-4" of snow Saturday and into Sunday and it's dipping down into single digits already.  So time for some (more) indoor projects.

I took no pictures of the actual build of the air/water delivery system for some reason.  Probably because I was watching Dean's video (or at least parts of it) a zillion times trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.  Not too difficult to do if you're relatively handy.  I'd suggest clear PVC cement so you can't see how messy you are.  This is actually the cleanest PVC gluing job I have every done.  I barely got any on my hands!

I forgot vinyl tube at Home Depot the other day, so pressure check had to wait until I picked up tube tonight after work.  Worked well, no leaks even dead headed with all valves closed.  Air also tested and worked well.

Finished filling it up and let it all rip.  Squeezed some sponges in and will get some cycling going.  I still need to put the trays together as I bought ones that are the large and medium instead of the smalls and mediums.  They fit, but the biggest one is quite large.  Some smaller ones should be here sometime this week.  It looks like my reflection is snorkeling! 😄

Thanks for looking.  That's all for now.  I didn't seal the void around the screw/PVC interfaces yet, but I did seal the threads and holes.  I wanted to make sure I didn't need to disassemble before I put a bunch of silicone in there.

Parts list:

GE Silicone 1 (now called GE all purpose silicone make sure it says 100% silicone)
GE Silicone 100% Red Tube - I did not use this.
Aluminum Flat Bar 1"x48"
7/32" drill bit
3/16" drill bit
10-32 tap
PVC:
    5' 1/2" PVC
    2x 1/2" Slip/Slip Elbow
    2x 1/2" Slip/Thread Elbow
    2x 1/2" Caps
    2x 1/2" Slip Coupling
    1x 1/2" Threaded Plug
    1x 5/8"x1/2" Nylon Hose Barb
    PVC Cement    

Zip Ties - regular
Zip Ties w/ screw/mounting hole
Plumbing Joint Compound (I did not use this, teflon tape worked fine on my water valves.)
PlastiDip White Spray Coating
1-1/2" 8x32 stainless machine screws 
1/2" 10x32 stainless machine screws
8x32 Nyloc Nuts
Heat Shrink Tubing

Edited November 28, 2023 by jwcarlson

[Guppysnail]

This is awesome.  Far beyond my non existent diy handywoman skills though.  
I totally relate to not liking a tank footprint. My 29 has gone through about 10 variations in the past 2 years. Hated all of them. I’m short so it is my nemesis.

 

[jwcarlson]

On 11/28/2023 at 8:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

This is awesome.  Far beyond my non existent diy handywoman skills though.  
I totally relate to not liking a tank footprint. My 29 has gone through about 10 variations in the past 2 years. Hated all of them. I’m short so it is my nemesis.

 

This is a taller 29, it would be right up your alley.  😄  For this particular purpose, the fry will be perfect eye level for me.

[jwcarlson]

Need to paint the bottoms but it's so cold I will wait until this weekend maybe. 

Playing with the water and air tubing.

 

I had a feeling this might be an issue and maybe it will be longer term.  Running tonight it is trickling through OK.  I might have to cut that lip inside the rim so i don't have to worry the sponge is going to get pressed and possibly cause an issue resulting in water going out the back of the tank.  I might be making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I am not letting it run overnight like this. haha

[jwcarlson]

Sterbai cory fry have made the move to the fry system.  Another set of sterbai eggs I thought were a loss have hatched about double digits of fry.  So we'll see how that goes.  I suppose I can get a try set up for them as well.  CPD trio have been in a hang on egg laying setup since yesterday evening.  I have like 10 CPDs and only 2 are female........

 

[jwcarlson]

Newer set of sterbai.  Still a few in eggs.

Edited December 3, 2023 by jwcarlson

[jwcarlson]

I have enjoyed cory fry so far.  Limited fry powder use is probably the main factor there.

[jwcarlson]

Here's the oldest group of sterbai.  There's 14 left.  Was over feeding early on.  I have a second group from a smaller spawn of 10 or so that are on BBS now and looking good.  They're SO orange.

The CPDs are mostly to the wall clinging stage.  There's about 30 of them.  Jacked with all sorts of picture settings so you can kind of make them out.

[Chris]

I've got this same Petsmart 37 that I was just thinking about putting up for sale the other day. Currently I've got bristlenose, cherry shrimp and mutt guppies in there, but it seems nigh impossible to keep plants happy. I've had a Crypt Wendtii planted (with root tabs) for 6 months and I've not seen any growth. Same with the Anubias and Java Fern. The amazon sword I had to move because it was just slowly melting.

This wouldn't be a terrible idea for this tank! I've listened to Dean's talk, but it's been a few weeks. Any reason you went with a HOB instead of putting a sponge filter down below?

[jwcarlson]

There's a sponge filter that the power head is on as well, @Chris.  The HOB Mainly for flow and a big biological filter.  I'm sure a sponge or sponges would work fine.

Edited December 12, 2023 by jwcarlson

[jwcarlson]

On 12/12/2023 at 4:39 AM, Chris said:

This wouldn't be a terrible idea for this tank!

I can't think of a better use for it other than I think it would be good for a breeding pair of discus.

[Chris]

On 12/12/2023 at 10:07 AM, jwcarlson said:

I can't think of a better use for it other than I think it would be good for a breeding pair of discus.

I've played around with getting a pair of H. Erectus (sea horses) for this tank. They get fairly tall, so the height would be nice. Just haven't decided if I want to invest in a chiller.

[jwcarlson]

Little piggies growing up.  

[jwcarlson]

Combined down the corys, they've close enough in size the big ones won't be able to eat the smaller ones.  I don't think it will be an issue, but I guess we'll see.  There's about 35 of them.

Two batches of CPDs, both around 30-35.  The left most just hatched.

[GoofyGarra]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:41 PM, jwcarlson said:

Combined down the corys, they've close enough in size the big ones won't be able to eat the smaller ones.  I don't think it will be an issue, but I guess we'll see.  There's about 35 of them.

ive never bred sterbais, but have done albino cories plenty of times. I had a case where i found some cory eggs and threw them in my breeder box full of cory juvenilles thinking they'd get eaten (Ethics aside...). Turns out, the eggs hatched and the younger batch of cories raised up just fine with their older siblings(?) despite the fact that the older ones could have easily eaten the younger ones.

[jwcarlson]

I feel like the corys need to end up in a bigger tank soon.  I guess I do have one bigger tray.  They're taking BBS still and I'm feeding Extreme Nano pellets once a day, they seem to go crazy for those as well.

CPDs in the other two trays, middle is about a week older than the one on the left.

Edited December 26, 2023 by jwcarlson

[jwcarlson]

First batch of fry moved to an upgrade last night. 

Feeding this morning:

[jwcarlson]

No pictures of fry rack, but there are still about 60 CPDs and recently the sterbai have been spawning frequently and there's maybe close to 50 fry going.  

The first batch of sterbai now in a ten gallon I was wondering if they'd grown much since I moved them.  This is yesterday, I have been trying to get them to eat freeze dried tubifex like the parents.  They're doing well and have certainly grown a bunch.  Sad to see them lose all that orange from full BBS diet, but tough to do that much BBS forever!

I am really considering moving them and the parents into my 125 together.  

I'm rotating through a variety of foods with them.  FDTW, Extreme Nano, some discus pellets that my discus won't eat, rarely some frozen Hikari blood worms, they still get some BBS twice a day, earthworm sticks, and blackworm sticks.  They're basically a garbage pail and seem like they'll eat anything.  The parents are fairly picky.

Edited January 25 by jwcarlson