THAT New Tank FEELING ^^

[ctoychik]

i get my massivores from hikari malaysia! SOOOO MUCH CHEAPPERRRR...u save tens of dollars per pack that u buy from a shop! totally worth it!

Actually, i successfully trained paimas to eat agricultural catfish pellets before - those are really dirt cheap (available in 25kg bags) ... they did not like it too much, but did accept them. I stopped giving them hikari when they hit 2'. Silver aros do not accept other pellets except hikari floating sticks (which are puny now that they are 2')

Arapaimas are actually quite wuss when it comes to eating large fish. I know an owner of LFS who said that his chocked to death on snakehead.

 

[dingoofus]

Bonza fish, should look a million bucks in the new tank.

 

[classic-chassis]

Are you having any issues with the overflow being at the top corner? such as gurgling and sucking sounds? Also have you found floating food or live food disappear down it rather quickly?
Or have you set something up to combat the above problems? Pictures if you have please.

 

[ctoychik]

Are you having any issues with the overflow being at the top corner? such as gurgling and sucking sounds? Also have you found floating food or live food disappear down it rather quickly?
Or have you set something up to combat the above problems? Pictures if you have please.

No, problems with the one with the corner like my other 8' tank - just a little bit unsightly. The old tank works perfect - water parameters are stable. No sucking/gurgling sounds. the only sound in my fish rooms are the numerous air compressors. Yes, there are some issues with floating stuff dissappearing there but i put white cloth thing on top of the bio balls below the inlet holes, so the excess food can be removed easiy (the sliding top on the canopy helps too. Normally i choose food that does not go into the inlet holes on top: prawns (those sink or taken outright by aros); live frogs - i think feeders will go into the holes (i don't feed feeder fish to these).

I don't put grill in front of the inlet holes case stuff clog it.

PS: i will take the pix on the insde of the corner filter when i go back next time

 

[classic-chassis]

Mine is exactly the same, i made a plastic box to fit over it and covered it with black sticky plastic so the blue outlet pipe doesn't stand out. the box is about 9in deep so food doesn't go directly in. it fits from out side the water line to about 9 inches below the water line.
There are a few holes around the box at the height of the outlet to skim crap off the surface, believe it or not i put a plastic microphone head ( like a small sieve) over the out let pipe to stop any big debris or frogs going into the out let. I now also keep Clown loaches which co up into the box to have a look. If the cover wasn't on it they could get sucked in i think.

 

[ctoychik]

Hey Guys,

The new 8' is connected and running now. I used the dirty water (+the gunk) from the other 8' aquarium to jump start the new filter system. I have also took part of the bioballs and dirty white cloth from the other aquarium.

Hmmm, did not go to udonthani to pick up paimas on SUN cos i was way too trashed from SAT night out - got enough energy to set-up and make the new set-up work...sort of. some problems became apparent after the water started flowing.

#1 When i used the pump to the max capaciy it draws alot of water back into the main set-up - which results in more water outflow by gravity which is good for circulation... in theory only!!! classic-chasis was right, the sucking/gurgling sound is horrible when the water does not fully submerge tthe outlet - really LOUD. there is no more room to add water to make it fully submerged. Luckily i have also found a solution to the problem (did not yet implemented it yet though), add another curve so the water is "siphoned" out rather than just by gravity - this way, the inlet is always submerged (hmm gotta protect the inlet otherwise live food (surface food) will be sucked into sump)). i tested out the idea with the flexible pipe -works like a charm but need to set-up PVC solution.

problem #2, forgot to add background poster (or tint) the back of tank!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! the piping guy arrived before the tinting guy. now can only use poster and not tint!!!

problem #3 (not a big problem) - father hates the fake plastic plants - but i am going ahead with these. I will use live plants in the sump.

problem #4 - the water level is slightly higher than i wanted ... by about 5cm. but the tank has not exploded ... yet

problem #5 - when the pump is switched on for any reason, the water backflows from outlet through pump back - errr no risk to empty the aquarium cos the pipe is not so long ...hmmm gotta rememeber to close the valve on the pipe prior to switching off the pump

Well, this is my first aquarium of this kind, so i am sorta learning.

So, now the water is cycling with reduced capacity - until i implement the siphon thingie. Because i used alot of old water, old media + the gunk in the sump - the new aquarium should habitable in a week or so i recon. Will use the green aro as a test subject for a week from now on.

PS: canopy is not yet ready too but will be the same as the other 8' set-up

 

[tigerRay77]

nice tank but is very bad sump

 

[ctoychik]

nice tank but is very bad sump

??? too little compartments? too little bioballs? no gravel? elaboration is always welcome

 

[classic-chassis]

Ctoychik, I've played about with this problem, including submerging pipes, extra bends, smaller pipes coming out of the big pipe with the u bend down and the air pipe up to suck air in.
No matter what you do if you have a power cut your main tank WILL drain to the lowest level it can as you have it at the moment. I nearly flooded my living room on several occasions.
I found the sucking sound is reduced if the inlet pipe is at an angle to the surface of the water. I also thought about making an impeller to fit over the inlet to break up the "mini whirlpools".
That's what the plastic microphone head does, it give the water lots of small holes to flow into rather than one big one.
I can't stress enough about the flood threat though, don't try to submerge the pipe completly by pointing the inlet down because the water level in your tank will drop, even if the pump is is on! unless you over size the pump in which case should the power go out you'll have a flood, because the level will drop to the outlet opening.
There is some complicated pipe system i saw, another poster with tanks like yours and mine was having the same problem, ( i copied my out let from pictures of his tank.)
I'll find it tonight and post it, i don't know if it works though and it's ugly.

 

[siebertn]

cool looking stand.
Something different from wahat im use to