maxim_nz

you can't journey in aquatics/fishkeeping without a journey of UPs and hopefully only a few down/losses :dead%fish Can't say I really want to keep marines, I guess that is the 'green' side of me, would rather not take from wild populations. Anyway, nice tank, good coral growth and some nice macro shots. Good effort 8)

I usually do a big sniff test to test the health of the tank.. a good mature / planted & healthy tank should smell like fresh dirt. It should be a pleasant smell. If it smells fishy, that is bad :facepalm: and time to go looking for the floating carcass / missing loach jammed in the filter... or change the water

yeah it does/would. I try and keep it to the drain chamber in the grow bed, but it does escape into main pond. Dried and mixed with something (ground up trout pallets etc) it makes excellent fish food.

Well it's been 4 weeks and 1 day since planting, despite cold temps and a nights snail raiding party the lettuces are doing brilliant. The peppermint doing ok, and basil is still going (probably needs more light) As a reminder nothing but used goldfish water is feeding these plants (no dirt, just clay balls for grow media) Here is 28 days growth since planting and a reminder here is 1 days growth The duckweek is going amazing as well, must have scooped out well over 1 square meter of the stuff tonight (duckweek is one of natures best nitrate convertors) So if I can do it, you can too!

No 8) Had a large 24" Fire eel for many years in a 6' tank. Tank mates were 50+ giant danio's + huge family of bronze corys, Rosy Barbs etc... never lost any small fish to Fire eel.

Very, very sure MAF will not let you keep trout. You can catch and eat them with a license, but you cannot keep them alive in captivity. There would be a great opportunity in NZ to utilise the catfish already well established in the Waikato for aquaponics (they grow quickly, ok to eat apparently) but no, you are required by law to kill them if caught. Nothing else permitted. :dunno:

I've also stuck with commets for cold tolerance (the 4 platties out there still doing ok as well) and pond has been down to around 10~12C a few times. It is in an outdoor covered area. See how the platties handle this cold snap we are having at moment.. It will never ice over where is currently. Only once or twice a year will you get a frozen/crunchy front lawn.

Stella may be able to answer here: I'm not sure if it would be possible to stock natives at the ratio required to give the water some real grunt for plants to live off (goldfish are messy and make lots of it, as do Tilapia/Trout which we cannot keep in NZ)

yep, it was a hydroponics trough, which came as as part of a greenhouse setup. I bought it off a guy on trademe for $40! (wife wanted that huge 2M long behemoth shifted!) I've also got the immersion heater with it.. (not used in this setup) Originally planned to use large 1.5M spare fish tank (outside growing mozzies for fish food) but could not get a satisfactory stand/base for tank to sit on uneven concrete pad outside in conservatory.. a plastic trough cares not about uneven ground.

YES. It pumps into the grow bed from the filter/pump past the wee/clay pot man (who is aerating the pond) to the growbed using standard 13mm irrigation tubing and a flow valve to control output. (less output to plants makes clay pot man wee further) it flows thru the grow bed and exits via the same sized irrigation tubing that is curved over and so creates it's own siphon when water level gets to top of tube. Really simple, not rocket science. A little bit of fiddling to get intake flow just enough to start siphon at other end, but slow enough to not stop siphon easily draining grow bed.. Draining the grow bed gives oxygen to roots and stops them rotting apparently. Adding worms to the grow bed is also a good thing apparently.. have to go raid the compost bin! FUN = yes, you just want to keep adding more & more..

1 day of goldfish water since planting DAY 14 UPDATE PIC 14 days of goldfish water since planting (1 night of snail raiding party)

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=51725 I'm just using goldfish to get mine started.. Had almost 2 weeks growth since planting, going well. Will post update soon. Mizumo seeds have sprouted. I looking at 20-30 goldfish after 6 months established so I have got plenty of liquid gold to get next seasons tomatos pumping. I'm not sure eels are active enough to generate lots of CO2/waste for aquaponics unless you had HEAPS of them..

Here's my "aquaponics" pond.. 2M x .75M x .5M (approx 600litres filled at moment) After 30 years of tropicals, this is first time I've ever kept goldfish If your not sure what aquaponics is, well google or youtube "aquaponics" warning you could get lost for hours doing so... Here is my grow bed 24hrs after planting basil, lettuces (2 types) and peppermint and here is same growbed 6 days later Seems to be working fine, goldfish going well as are the 4 odd ball platties I threw in there as an experiment.. Thanks to Traceytrout for the duckweed (duckweed is an amazing nitrate absorber, it is a very underestimated plant) Growbed is filled with gravel and also expanded clay balls. It floods and drains via siphon every 8mins. I made use of the old clay pot man we had lying around.. he's now aerating the pond and growing algae rocks for the bristlenoses (hope this does not cause offense)

Listen to the noise they make!

Nice, BUT needs a backdrop... (I've used a nice solid blue paint before to good affect.) you could also try other solid colour ie: some black polythene - never been a fan of photo type backdrops. You want to give focus to the tank, not the wall, wires & tubes behind it you can see through the glass

we recently put down new carpet in our house: So had to move 200 litre 3 foot tank which housed around 60 platties / 40 bristlenoses and odds n sods catfish.. I ran out of time with work committments so one day I set up my 3 foot spare tank i kitchen, brand new sand, and transfered probably 80 litres of water from existing tank and chucked every dirty piece of filter sponge directly into the tank. 1 plattie did overnight test duties... :sick: The very next morning 1 x test plattie was :bounce: . So moved 3 huge bogwood logs, (found a pleco nest with eggs in it) and around 100 fish - it's way over stocked. Found the Kulhi loaches I'd not seen in years, and the jungle of java fern and some new and existing water. Existing filters were moved without being cleaned. Result: no losses, pleco eggs hatched, so had bigger problem with more fish in a smaller tank. In effect I moved bacteria with the fish/plants. New carpet, paint, ceiling, no more flaky walpaper = happy wife, it was worth it. Happy wife = happy life. Men should not forget this rule. old tank

Hungry catfish! - I have been to Thailand and seen some amazing catfish (including the mekong delta giant catfish in the Ayutthaya aquarium) but this video seriously impressed me :lol:

I just moved my 30 odd BN's and 30 x platties + assorted Corys, a few neons, Kuhlis etc to a standard 3" tank while we painted and laid down new carpet.. this is what the stocking tool told me.. (Eheim 2224) Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 16%.Help on Filtration capacity Your tank is too small - it will require massive amount of frequent water changes each week! Your aquarium stocking level is 537%. Your tank is seriously overstocked. (BN's breeding again!!) Unless this setup is temporary, you should consider a larger tank. ==== It has masses of Java fern going crazy (sucking up nitrates etc) and yes I do clean filters every weekend. Time to get that spa pool filter rigged up..

Look at the top tube coming out of the pump in this image. That is the only piping in the whole system, as the jebo pump is completely immersed. By the way give your silicon plenty of time to dry, I only gave it about 3 days the first time and when the foam got REALLY dirty and was sucked downwards by the pump it actually broke the silicon and split the glass outwards (pretty grunty pump) so hence the rebuild and much more care with the silicon (7 day drying time) Around 15 years ago I had a 6" tank (with big fire eel, corys, 50 odd giant danio and 2m long val - before it was banned..) I got sick of cleaning that so rigged up a massive spa pool filter canister on it. Only had to clean it twice a year after that.. so this current filter might be only temporary.. Going to be rebuilding a 5" tank soon.

Correct: No piping/hoses anywhere. Filter is completely submerged like any classic internal filter. The only 'pipe' is the 30mm long exhaust from the powerhead. So minimal piping to ever get blocked and cause issues. The foam was a generic pack of foam (from Hutt Pet Centre), it came in a bag with a large, medium and small block of foam. Don't recall it having a 'brand' on it. So dimension of filter was determined by the available glass (2 old tank lids cut down, 1 lid provided each large side, and 1 lid provided the bottom and smaller side.) I then made the width just barely enough for the powerhead and to small for the foam (so a snug fit) -In a nutshell I basically bought or acquired all the internals and then sized the glass to go around it.

If this was modified to become a HOB style that could defeat one of the objectives which was super reliability. No suction issues to restart following power outages, no hoses/snorkel intakes that can block, and bonus is fish can get into top of filter and browse the sucked up goodies/debris

Black perspex? - Good suggestion and noted. Downside = cost of perspex + cost of laser cutting. Most folk don't have a laser cutter in garage, but may have spare glass + glass cutter.

Yip all corrected, didn't take it first time around, despite using correct syntax. (had to reinsert IMG function from preview) Images all displaying

DIY Glass (internal) canister filter Issue: I had a Fluval 403 getting old, tap sucking air, hoses and intake gets blocked easily, baby platties and baby bristlenoses end up in bottom of the fluval. Also fluval could not make 2 weeks without a flush out and then it was really tedious getting the filter restarted due to the location of it, it meant I could not have more than about 10 days holiday without it becoming an issue. (ended up having 2 weeks holiday and lost 6 year old Clown loaches..) So had to come up with something better. Project Aim of new filter: 2 weeks running time without any blockages Does not suck up baby plecs or baby platties Keep tank clean (obvious) Restarts automatically following any power cuts (not dependant on sucking the hose!) Cheap. :-) So i figured an internal high capacity filter, shaped to minimise space impact on tank. (tank is 920mm x 750mm x 450, made by me in 1990, still on original silicon - 10mm glass with additional 10mm glass on all edges, making all silicon seams 20mm thick) The box Surplus glass from broken fish tank lid, and 1 piece of old perspex 450mm(h) x 240mm(w) x 75mm(d) Drilled hole in front perspex panel for powerhead exhaust Here's all the internal components, top to bottom Foam block cut to maximise surfact area - Filter wool pad - Old active media from fluval 403 - Foam block - Jebo R119 Aquarium Pump - Cut foam block in detail. (used super sharp kitchen knife to do this) This gives a far larger intake area and mitigates blockages from old plant leaves. The Jebo pump (I cut off the traditional 90 degree exhaust, siliconed it up and so pump uses the exhaust at the top for straight through flow and exits out the side of filter) this means the intake of the filter is away from the foam block above it. Here is some of the active media out of my now redundant Fluval 403 Foam: The foam is well oversize, so seals nicely against side of the filter (it is so tight there is no need for any internal support for the foam/active media) Completed filter ready to go! Progress: 7 months on. I recently had to rebuild it/resilicon it, so taken the time to photograph it. It does go for around 3 weeks before the foam starts to collapse and get sucked down by the pump. My heavily planted tank is super clean with this running. Neons and platties happily swim into the open intake and pick away at the goodies sucked into the foam and can easily swim out despite the 900L/hr pump underneath them.. No lost baby Bristlenoses sucked into it either. They all swim out if your hand gets anywhere near them. I usually only have to clean the top sponge and the wool pad, so all the active media and lower foam and all benefical bacteria does not get disturbed. Here is the tank, filter is behind plants/bogwood on left If anyone wants to see what it looks like after 2 weeks hard running I'll post another picture at next clean. This has cost around $70 minus aquarium bit's and pieces spares I had lying around.

Has anyone in the Wellington/Hutt Valley/Kapiti region gone and grabbed some buckets and got some local river sand for use? (if so any recommendations?) I do have some Eastbourne beach gravel in my tank (fairly fine, dark grey) but might go to a sand substrait so it's easier on the loaches / catfish. Most of my plants are Java fern growing crazy off bogwood anyway..