Filtration for my 500

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
That will be enough. I'm doing the same thing (filtration) on my 450. I use my Nu-Clear filters just for mechanical filtration and the trickle system keeps the water quality in check. Initially I was checking my water almost weekly and tweaking the trickle up or down as needed. Now I do a sanity check every 3 to 4 months. As the fish grow, eating more, I need to slightly adjust my trickle. I'm up to about two gallons an hour now. The plants around the house love it. I ran the trickle to a garden hose and move the hose to a different tree or bush every couple days.

how do you figure out the rate? i mean, do you really put you trickle line into a bucket for an hour an let it run or have you figured out a drip rate per minute equal a gallon rate per hour?
I put it in a bucket. The rate is just a starting point it really doesn't matter it's just a number. What matters is the water quality. I want to minimize the amount of water used but keep the tank clean. I'm tweaking the flow slightly after testing the water parameters. I noticed the summer months I need more flow and the winter the fish seem to be less active. Temps in the summer get to the high 80's winter the heaters kick on at 79.
 
"Temps in the summer get to the high 80's winter the heaters kick on at 79."

that seems like high temps me. so your tanks run with with a low of 79 and go up from there? i was shooting for 76, is that to low?

"I had a 10" piece of natural driftwood I found at the river in one of my tanks. I brought it home soaked, and it sank immediately. At one point I removed it for a week or so and it dried out. I put it in another tank and THREE MONTHS LATER it's still not completely soaked. It's in a little breeder/growout tank so no biggie. Just thought I'd let you know the 'potential' time it could take."

wow, 3 months, well i'm about 1/2 way there.... the rocks should help hold it down for now..... thanks :popcorn:
 
"Temps in the summer get to the high 80's winter the heaters kick on at 79."

that seems like high temps me. so your tanks run with with a low of 79 and go up from there? i was shooting for 76, is that to low?


Depends what your keeping of course but 76 should be fine. I might drop mine to 76 too. At least in the big tank, I'm not growing those fish out. I don't want them any bigger :)
 
it seems like FW fish are a lot more flexable than the SW fish so i plan to just see what the systems normal operating temp is and adjust from there. hopefully it'll be in the mid 70's and i won't have to spend money on heating or cooling......... :)$$$:)
 
It's time for a lids because i'm having some humidity issue. it's causing a warpage in my big door over the top of the tank. yesterday i went a got a piece of used glass cut because i had broke one. today i changed my plumbing on my return. i was worried about leaking with the lock line and it stuck out to far into the tank.... yea, i change plumbing all the time..... so here is the new return
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now i need to cut holes in the new piece of glass to fit around the return pipes. so go get the dremmel and the diamond coated bits.
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here the slots are cut and i'm ready to install the new lid
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i probably should have dried off the glass. maybe i'll try again next week.
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after that stupid mistake, i went out and got some plexi-glass (cost twice as much as glass but easier) and used the band saw to cut out for the return pipe holes. now that was easy.......
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the other day i put in 20 "minnows" from petco to liven up the tank a little. they swam around in a nice school and made the tank not look empty. After about 5 minutes the Oscar started chasing them. they were about 1/2 his length but by the end of day 3 they were all gone. the Oscar is a real pig.... fun to watch him hunt though :):):)

time to get some other fish in there before my Oscar thinks everything is a feed fish...........
 
it's about time for an update. the acrylic was another mistake, it sags big time. i can't flip it over because of the holes. i attached it to my glass and that helped a little but it will have to go at somepoint :(:(...... more dremmel work :).
i picked up a 7" silver Arowana from my LFS. the minute i put him in the oscar started beating on him. i had fed the Oscar about 20 pellets and i thought he would just leave the aorwana alone but i was wrong. i missed the oscar with the net on the first attempt and he wouldn't give me a second chance. i finally had to fish the oscar out with a hook and a fly as bait. he went into my sons crawdad tank. they are a even match but i think my son is going to give him to a friend. no more cichlids until the other fish are much bigger!!!
i made an order from PetZone and it should be here tomorrow. i'll have to post pics.... mostly got Pleco's but i got a surprise.....

here is my silver, not a great pic but you can see above his pectoral fin where the Oscar hurt him.
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i also ordered some Dats but they came in a little small so they are in the guppy tank for now. just starting to eat pellets :thumbsup:
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