- Thread starter Parm
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Parm
Respect The Sound System
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Another good idea
steviec_lj
Rust Welding Professional
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Not I sir, Mrs won't let me at the moment. Would love a tropical tank though!
Wendelspanswick
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I bought one of these to transfer diesel from 25l containers into my tractor:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/nav=item.view&id=271561789725&alt=web
It worked so well I bought a second one to pump water from the stream into plastic barrels in the link box of the tractor.
They come with a coarse filter to stop fish and gravel getting sucked up and you could pump the water through a filter bed back into the tank.
By varying the voltage you could control the suction as well.
I bought the 50mm diameter ones but they do a 38mm one as well.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/nav=item.view&id=271561789725&alt=web
It worked so well I bought a second one to pump water from the stream into plastic barrels in the link box of the tractor.
They come with a coarse filter to stop fish and gravel getting sucked up and you could pump the water through a filter bed back into the tank.
By varying the voltage you could control the suction as well.
I bought the 50mm diameter ones but they do a 38mm one as well.
Yup!
I just use a syphon gravel cleaner, I can't see why you need a pump, it easily sucks up all the muck from my gravel, I then take that bucket full outside and dump it on the garden.
I do have a small submersible pond pump that I use to put the fresh back in, that makes it a lot easier than trying to lift 5 Gallon buckets of water high enough so I can syphon it back in.
I usually remove 10 Gallons (just under 20%) and then replace it with fresh. My Ph stays at 6.4-6.6, Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate is usually 0-10, it's slightly high at the moment as we added fish & amano shimp recently.
If you don't like syphoning gravel change it too play sand (wash thoroughly). Use the biggest external filter you can get or add some power heads to create more flow around the tank. As long as you don't turn it into a whirlpool 99% of fish love lots of flow.
My tropical tank has a turnover rate of 22x that combined with a small army of corydoras catfish mean I have never syphoned my sand in 6 years.
Even my Seahorse tank has 10x turnover and they are one that don't like a lot of flow at all.
(btw I work in an aquatics shop)
My tropical tank has a turnover rate of 22x that combined with a small army of corydoras catfish mean I have never syphoned my sand in 6 years.
Even my Seahorse tank has 10x turnover and they are one that don't like a lot of flow at all.
(btw I work in an aquatics shop)
dedicated ? hardly !
Mine takes about 1-2 min a day to feed them. I usually do a 20% water change every other week, it's never took me more than an hour and that's it.
The bigger the tank the easier it is to keep, don't over feed them, don't over stock it with fish and use external filters, don't waste your money on the in tank ones that need new filter material every few weeks, they're a proper money pit.
Now if you were talking about marine you might have a point about upkeep. I did look into having a marine setup, bought & read loads of books, talked to fish shop owners and then decided it was more work than I could realistically see me keeping up with so stuck with tropical.
Barlidge
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^^^^ That's how I do mine, coupled with sand substrate and live plants, beneficial bacteria colonise all surfaces of the tank not just in the filters, IMO over cleaning can be detrimental.
My Seahorse tank (100l) takes hardly much more work than my 200l trop tank.
Seahorses are much more difficult than standard marines. It gets a water change once per week at 10% volume. Algae wipe once a week and clean skimmer cup out once a week and full clean it every 2 months. Buy pre mixed salt water that's good quality.
Because of the seahorses I have to feed lots. 3-5 times per day with a mix of live and frozen food.
This tank is always clean
Seahorses are much more difficult than standard marines. It gets a water change once per week at 10% volume. Algae wipe once a week and clean skimmer cup out once a week and full clean it every 2 months. Buy pre mixed salt water that's good quality.
Because of the seahorses I have to feed lots. 3-5 times per day with a mix of live and frozen food.
This tank is always clean
