Rate My Fish Tank

Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:36 pm GMT   Reply      

if it all works go to a boat dealer and get stainless steel allthread rod and nuts, then you'll be able to do fine adjustments and no rust.........can't wait for the pics man............Boss

Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:50 pm GMT   Reply      

Ok. I think I'll pass on the threaded rod and just bend the peices. I want the braces to be as intrusive as possible. Water's about 5 inches up so far. It'll probably take a few hours to get to the top. I made the verturi by sticking a short piece of tubing onto the end of the powerhead, making a little hole in the top, and sticking a section of air tubing in it. Seems to be working well so far.

I have this in front of the window so it should look pretty cool.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:52 pm GMT   Reply      

sailboat rudder bar is about 3/8 inch and anodized brass....might work for ya, and where it could be seen it would be ..................well ............."pretty" ..........sorry for the girlie word, lol

Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:12 pm GMT   Reply      

Where do you get that stuff? Hardware store, boating store?

Anyway, I ran out of patience and sucked it to the top with my mouth. My homemade venturi wasn't strong enough. Maybe with another one of my powerheads, but anyway. It works if you just suck the water up and leave it. I don't have any bubbles going into it so it'll stay this way.

It's kind of cool to see the fish up there. It's got the window behind it so the fish are pretty exposed. I'll see my GF on Friday so Hopfully I can get some pics then. I'll take some of my new planted tank too

Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:12 pm GMT   Reply      

Found three clown loaches and an unknown cichlid like fish dead due to oxygen starvation. The USD tank left too little room for oxygen to get into the water and I didn't have the venturi going. I just had a space about 3 by 10 inches of surface and even though thought I had good surface agitation there it wasn't enough.

I'll try to find a powerhead in my big collection that has a strong enough venturi to pull the 10 gallon USD tank full so I can have bubbles going up into it. If I can't I'll break it down and use the 3/4 gallon tank again.

The only survivors were a small tilapia and 1 or 2 mosquito fish. Oh well. Live and learn.

Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:27 pm GMT   Reply      

sorry to hear that

Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:14 pm GMT   Reply      

pics still not loading...

Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:33 pm GMT   Reply      

It's not worth a picture at this point. I need to find a strong enough venturi to continuously pull water so I can have bubbles going up inside the USD tank. Either that or I need to go back to the 3/4 gallon, which looks OK, just not as cool as the YOUTUBE video I'm trying to copy.

I'm continuing this topic in the "need to have more surface area to increase O2" because of the deaths I incurred.

Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:30 pm GMT   Reply      

Peter, the powerhead is pulling water? why isn't the venturi just sucking the available air at the top of the usd and then spitting it out in the form of bubbles from the bottom back up to the top?

Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:13 pm GMT   Reply      

There is a negative pressure, or vacuum at the top of the USD tank dependant on how high the top of the USD tanks water is above the lower tanks water surface. If you were to put a hole in the top of the tank air would rush in and the water would go down. In order to get the water to go up you have to suck air out against a vacuum. Since I want bubbles to go up into the USD tank all the time I have to have a powerhead sucking air out all the time.

I want bubbles to go in all the time because I want oxygenated air to flow through my tank because there is very little surface area on top of the lower tank and 4 of my fish died last night from lack of oxygen. I lost 3 clown loaches, an unknown cichlid, and a mosquito fish.

Right now it's working with the upper tank only half full. Bubbles are going out the powerhead into the USD tank and the venturi is strong enough to lift water half way. When it gets to a certain point some air leaks in around the bottom of the USD tank and the water goes down a little thus raising the lower tank level enough to make a seal again.

All the venturi's air is not getting into the USD tank so there is a slow rise until the lower tank goes down to a certain point to let air in.

Did you get all that? It's kind of hard to completely explain.

As soon as I get something that works and looks good I'll take pics.

Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:49 am GMT   Reply      

it makes sense, i didnt think it thru like that, but i get it now, thanks

Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:02 pm GMT   Reply      

sooooooo pk has this tank filled up yet?

Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:54 pm GMT   Reply      

Ya know....... I'm getting bored with it now to be honest. There's algae all over the upper tank and it's impossible to get into it so I can clean it properly. Since the 5 fish died of o2 starvation I only have a tilapia and a mosquito fish in there. It doesn't look as good as the YOUTUBE video guys tank does.

I'm spending my time with my 100 gallon with gars and the new 35 gallon planted with DIY co2, which is doing very well.

I'll probably take it down soon and maybe just use the little 3/4 gallon as an USD tank. The powerhead is pulling the water to a couple inches from the top, there are bubbles going up and into the USD tank, and I don't feel like or can afford to buy more fish at this time.

There was a $100 salt water tank I wanted to buy with lights, oak cabinet, 100lbs live rock, 4 fish, filters and protein skimmer, and I just can't afford it. I need $450 worth of new bulbs for my planted tanks and I will probably need to do a really time consuming and difficult overhaul of my 100 gallon to be rid of the brush algae for good.

I want to save most of the plants, the totally covered stumps with nicely pruned java moss and anubias growing on it, so I plan to remove the wood and spray EXCELL all over it and the plants to hopefully kill just the algae, bleach EVERYTHING else, and rinse rinse rinse. I'll have to set up another tank for the fish and treat that water somehow to kill all algae spores on the fish, and then get a cycle going again from scratch.

It'll be a huge job, and the USD experiment will just have to take a back seat for now.

I have my GF's camera again so as soon as I download all her pics onto a disk I'll take some new ones. The 100 gallon has grown back a bit, the gars are bigger (I want to get some feeding-time pics of them), and I want to take some of my new planted tank as well.

For anyone considdering making an USD tank, just make sure there is a big enough area of agitated open water surface or your fish will die of suffocation.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:48 pm GMT   Reply      

wow pk i didn't know there was such a mess with that one, would have helped if the full thread had pulled up when i was asking my ??, for some reason once in awhile my posts don't post or i don't get the full thread, and i can't check my pvt msgs anywhere else except my laptop, weird huh? sorry to hear you lost fish due to suffocation, i think with the lights and everything else you want to do it's best that the usd experiment take a back seat, you have your work cut out for you with your big tank, that's gonna take days.... i don't wish that on any one, it's such a pain. i wish you all the best of luck with that one, hopefully with the better lighting system and the overhaul it will kill off the algae, as far as treating the fish for the spores that's going to be your toughest task, i will ask some friends what they would recommend for that, so that you don't harm your fish. would be a shame to see either of your gar harmed by chemical treatments. maybe a bit of antibacterial/fungal treatment would kill off any of the spores that have hitched a ride in. i know that to prevent things from getting into my tank when i purchase new plants i use a shock treatment, luke warm room temp, then i do a quick dip in ice cold water treated heavily with anti algae tablets, then in to cool water and back into some room temp water, this cleans the plants and the root systems, and the cold water shocks any hitch hiking snails or other nasties, and they lose their grip on the plants, and fall off in the other two rinse cycles, plus bringing the plants back up to room temp before adding my tank readjusts them so that they will acclimate to the higher temp of the tank easier and not get burned by the high water temp, it's not perfect but it does keep a lot of stuff from hijacking my tank and i haven't had any issues with plant kill off due to the treatments. maybe if you got a big tub of some sort and filled it with enough water to cover your plants and dropped in double the amount of the tank buddies algae killing tablets and left em overnight it would kill off enough of the algae so you could rinse it and then gently wipe the leaves off with a damp soft sponge and put them back in the tank the plants may hold enough of the algaecide that they will resist any stuff that you may have overlooked when doing your overhaul.
Hope this helps,
Brandon

Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:51 pm GMT   Reply      

Most algaecide won't touch brush algae. I took a cup and filled it 1/4 the way with algafix and the rest with water and put some of the algae in and it didn't do anything. Someone said that EXCELL (gluteraldyhyde) will kill this algae, and it can be poured onto the leaves when the plants are out of the water. I was going to try that, and then maybe experiment with a dilute bleach solution to finish it off, then rinse and return. I basically want to save to plants on the wood if I can. I'll look at the ingredients in Tank buddies Tablets and if it's different than algafix I'll try it in a test cup.

As for the fish, I might just do a few fish transfers from one tank to another and keep the fish in the dark. I don't know. The algae doesn't look that terrible yet and I'll take some new pics with this camera so you can see what it looks like.

The biggest pain is going to be washing the gravel and removing and reinstalling the UG filter. I'm going to do it in the tank and I'll have to rinse and rinse and rinse. Maybe I'll get a python to help with that chore.

By the way, the SAE's are starting to get ahead of the brush algae in the new smaller tank with the DIY co2. It's not going to work for the big tank, but as these fish will stay in the 35 gallon that tank is going to be fine.

What a hobby eh? Peter