Help! J-P's Set up

[RTR]

OK, that helps a lot.

In general, tanks over 2W/gal NO (normal output = conventional tubes) require full supplements and either CO2 gas or generous Excel dosing. Tanks below ~1.5 - 1.7W/gal. do not, but may do better with a bit of help. In the area between, some supplements are likely needed. BUT, those rough guides are for lights mounted within inches of the water surface, and with some reflectors. Without any reflectors, and mounted feet above the tanks, NO lights are not particularly effective for plants.

Your two brightest tanks, numbers 2 and 3, are going to be algae heaven. It is not possible to operate widely varying light conditions in a circulating range without having some tanks over-supplemented (costly, and potentially feeding algae) and others under-supplemented (definitely favoring everything from green water through all the noxious filamentous algae). You cannot supplement gas CO2 in a setup with overflows and baffles - it blows off. You should find a way to balance the lighting a lot more between tanks and have it more even across the whole system.

[J-P]

I can lower the lights on the top half so that they are practically touching the water.. or I can add some small 2' tubes to go front to back for tanks 1(the deepest) and 4 (the shallowest). Possibly #4 won't need it being so shallow.

I am glad you mentioned the Co2 .. I was tinkering with the idea. I am going to try to take some new pics / video of the tank.. I'll post them if the pictures turn out.

[J-P]

ok here are more pics .. Sorry about thte shaking at the end of th video. I tried to press the stop button but it wasn't working.


The two top tanks in the centre look much darker then they appear. Camera auto adjusts for light levels.
One of my concerns is in the bottom section on the far right hand side. The sump / veggie filter receives very little light. What would be recommended for that area? Lighting and plant wise.

[J-P]

well something is brewing in the tank ...

my ammonia reading was at .844 !!
Nitrite is between .5 and 1.0

Previous nitrite reading (Dec 28th) was under .1

I also added more pool filter sand (re-cycled) and the remainder of the plant base substrait. I'm going to have to order more black sand though.

I wish those e-bay buggers would hurry up and send my heaters .. the tank is still too cold for planting and the plants are arriving soon

Also got some "stress coat" from the LFS .. then noticed it was out dated 3 years ago. Had the wife take it back for store credit and they gave her a water conditioner. Umm no ... Stupid LFS .. stick to selling dog food!

[J-P]

Tom's surface skimmer ... ok I got it working but am not happy with it at all. The out flow is next to the intake and the out flow is bottle necked creating a current that doesn't allow the skimmer portion to work properly. The skimmer postion has a wide inlet thus low flow copared to the outlet.

I will use it to create surrface current for the time being .. but looks like I'm going to have to scrap that Idea later on.

Don't do the metal strainer, it will rust and release stuff into the water.

Thank for the tip. I will re-think metal and maybe go for plastic?

[DarkStorm]

don't know why I didn't find this till now. awesome set up.

[J-P]

Thanks! It still has a long way to go yet.

Good news! The heaters (2x 300W) have arrived today! (Happy-Happy, Joy-Joy)

this will help accelerate the cycling process and help get that refrigerium up to temp so I can get my plants in.

still ticked off with the skimmer though... but got another crazy idea

[J-P]

Maybe this will be a good year!

I got the surface skimmer working!!

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20685&p=218627#p218627

[J-P]

quick update .. that scungy film in the photos ... 100% gone!

This make shift skimmer is working well!

[J-P]

Took another reading today:

Ammonia .12
Nitrite was hard to read it looks like 15~20
Temp is up to 72 F (getting there)

Should I be adding more ammonia? or hold off until the Nitrite is down?

[RTR]

Yes, you do have to keep adding ammonia to keep those bugs happy, but only at ~half to 2/3 the level used initially. Too much (too high a titer) of ammonia can inhibit the nitrite-oxidizers.

You are there when both titers are zero after 24 hours post-addition.

As your system warms up, the bugs will also grow faster.

[J-P]

** This is going to be a long one **
Well now day 1 has come and past, days 2-12 (cycling) are nearing an end, I hope and now it is time to start seriously thinking about stocking and design.

Last night Myaj kind of put me in my place regarding heavily planted tanks and SAPs. The issue was the dental work and catching 20 fish every 3 months. (she probably thinks I am a complete knothead!) After much consideration I think I have found a work-around. I have an old cooler that I use to drain water into when I clean my 30 gal. I could use that cooler to keep the SAPs in while I take them, one at a time, into the Finquil bucket, do the deed and place them back into the tank.
But that is getting a little ahead of the issue.


I would like the bottom half of the tank 210 gallon long to be heavily planted as per the origional structure of the tank. I have some plants arriving this week, but not nearly enough. I am hoping some will propigate quickly while I know others will propigate more slowly.
I am thinking of having a moss bed (85% coverage), with tall leafy plants. I MIGHT put 100~200 cherry shrimp in there, or use the 30 gal as the shrimp tank.

Ok ... now first things first. sorry for the rambling. Filtration and refrigerium.
I have attached a few photos of the filtration / refrigerium section. The previous owner suggested bio-balls, sponge and bags of carbon. I understand that there are mixed reactions to using bio-balls and that ceramic rings work just as well if not better. Maybe some pummice stones?
Would the filter media go in the top or the bottom section? And what kinds?

As for the refrigerium, any suggestions as to what kind of vegitation should go in there?
Thanks for the help!

[darb]

... I MIGHT put 100~200 cherry shrimp in there, or use the 30 gal as the shrimp tank. ...

your SAPs would love you for that and then want more the next day

Ok ... now first things first. sorry for the rambling. Filtration and refrigerium.
I have attached a few photos of the filtration / refrigerium section. The previous owner suggested bio-balls, sponge and bags of carbon. I understand that there are mixed reactions to using bio-balls and that ceramic rings work just as well if not better. Maybe some pummice stones?

Bio balls need to stay wet but not be submersed, ie a stream of water running over them and draining away.
All of the filter manufacturers make their own bio media, look at MOP, BigAls or J and L websites to name afew that are Canadian or ship to Canada.
There are also other bio filtration media such as fluid beds with Kaldnes Moving Bed being one of them.
All commercial bio media should have much more surface area than pumice

Would the filter media go in the top or the bottom section? And what kinds?

iIn the picture shown, the mechanical filter media would go on top. Filter it before it hits and clogs your bio media.
What media, a sponge or floss sheets cut to size, quick cheap and easy.

[J-P]

so the bio balls are on the top at the drain section, sponge and floss on the bottom?

[RTR]

Comments aimed at more than one individual:

You can have the bottom fully and densely planted, so long at the front potion of the tank is largely open water for swimming, and use taller plants behind. I have never seen my SAPs swimming atop a tall stand of plants - mine never did that. In front of tall plants or over lawn/carpet size plants in front of tall plants, but never over a tall understory - they would go through it instead. Just never happened for me - others experience may have been different.

Please, J-P, do not try to maintain a lawn of moss. There is nothing higher upkeep other than riccia rocks. PLUS the lawn collects more mulm than you would believe. Ready to roll up the carpet ever week to 10 days for a good vacuuming and then get it back in place? Consider re-thinking?

There is nothing wrong with submerse bio-balls IF they are the right bioballs. Wet/dry towers are intended to use emerse bit constantly wet bioballs. That is one design or size. Other bioballs are intended to be submerse. What do you think I use in my bio-only canisters? The answer is Dupla Minikaskade balls - which are miniature versions of their W/D emerse balls (complex hard plastic, and totally self-cleaning of old biofilms in either emerse of submerse applications). The larger are standard for W/D towers for me, the smaller are for canisters and other submerse applications. I don't think they are currently available in the US, no idea about Canad. I have relatives who go to and from Germany and Switzerland with some frequency, and others living in Paris - somebody would always bring me packages when I need them. I ave a lifetime supply now, and as they never wear out, mu son will inherit them.

I only very rarely had to trim a SAPs teeth. I fed mine a diet of at least 95% cultured snails, primarily ramshorns, but some percentage common pond snails. I have been saying this for years, but nobody else seems to try it. It worked well for me. I don't try to cause problems for my fish and for myself - rather I will go out of my way to avoid them. I don't need the extra work and my fish don't need the trauma.

HTH