blueether

Do these help with the ID, can see the base?

Quick google and it looks like about $600 for PV cells and controller for 190w, plus the cost of gel cell battery array. At a push that could just manage to run the pumps/filter/lights on the 400l tank if we got at least 18h+ of usable light. I wouldn't want to try and figure the cost of running all three tanks/filters/lights/chiller with only 5-6h of good light

Have a 280w UPS with a dead battery and a standalone 600w pure sinewave inverter that I would have to rig to a 12v source and charger. Just need a bigger solar panal than I have and I could take all the flow and filtration off grid, would still need mains for the chiller I would think.

I have 2 cheep wavemakers, both will start in reverse about 50% of the time. Have to have an RCD on them so that they don't restart themselves on a power outage, otherwise it could (and does) get messy :tears: :sick:

I feed heart to the big tank most days or every second, and the small one every about two days. You do have to be careful not to over feed with it, and make sure it has no fat on it. Slice while frozen or use the Mrs' cheese grater (again with frozen heart) while she isn't looking. Most of my bullies are loving the Nutrafin Max Discus I got last week, only problem is it's not cheep.

Most streams that dont have too high a gradient, I got mine form a stream that is about 150km from the sea but is only ~60m asl staple: Ox heart culture: Mosquito larvae, small bullies live live brine shrimp, have yet to try whiteworms anything else: FD krill, Bloodworms, most of mine also love Nutrafin Max Discus

Even if you had partial reduction to NO2- or fully back to NH3/NH4 in the anaerobic zone it will have to pass back through the aerobic zone where we will have oxidation happening via bacteria (or archaea). Then is it does get into the water column there is the bio-filter It wasn't so much that i wanted to create a DSB, although I did have that at the back of my mind, it was partially aesthetics and need for atleast 50mm for a freshwater mussel. About 1/3 of the sand moved the the far end when I installed the two wavemakers.

Nice bit of wood, and layout

Solved the noise etc by the looks...

Joe, woosh...

That is one of the ones I was just re-reading, but not the one I wanted to find Just measured how deep the sand is and for about 1/3 of the floor area of 1200*600 the sand varies from ~75mm to ~120mm. The top 5mm-10mm is quite mobile with the flow and the bullies/torrent fish moving it around

Graham, there are two 5000 l/h wavemakers that pass water over the sand, so I would suspect that there is a slight head where the DSB starts to build up - this is where the flow from the wavemakers no longer move the sand. Graham, I also wanted to get others thoughts on how this is/might be working. Pic of some of the DSB at the front of the tank, deeper further back

I have read that they (anaerobic DSB) are "killers" (hydrogen sulfide/sulphate) an also that the critters actually stop DSB working to their best. I will try and find the link to one that states the latter.

I also picked up my 1200*600*600 for $110 with a unfinished stand, cost me another about $50 to make a solid stand and hood.

In the last thread I had about the ammonia spike I had I mentioned I had a DSB. This DSB has no snails/worms etc to turn it over but it still looks to be doing a fine job at lowering nitrates to near 0. There are no plants in there apart from a small amount of dust algae/diatomes on the glass, a very small amount of BBA on one bit of drift wood and some cynobacteria on another bit of wood. There was about 20+ ppm nitrate on the 25/2 before a 25% W/C and on the 1/3 there was below 20ppm tonight there is near enough to 0 nitrates in the tank. During the ammonia spike (and low pH, tested at or below 6) this process seemed to have stopped or slowed right down. Has anyone else played with a DSB on a non-planted tank and had similar results?

There is not a huge bio-load in the tank, there is probably a higher load from the snails. If I can convince SWMBO to let me get another 4' or better a 6' tank I'll give it a go with a bigger bio-load

lovley clear water and you go and 'murky' it up like that :roll:

If I read it right they are the same archaea found in stream beds/silt, so that could be a easy way to start a filter off*, if you don't mind the potential for introducing algae *Saying that the tank that my WCMM are in in was started with sand and silt substrate (silt was on Elatine gratioloides), never saw an ammonia spike.

that would defeat the purpose of the filter would it not?

Looks to this http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0023281

Sorry Graham, but I cant help how dumb goldfish are

Looks nice

I have picked up bits that sunk straight away, a bit that had been in storage for 10 + years and had been dry for a good 3 years before that that sunk within a day, and other bits that never sunk in about 3 months in a rubbishbin full of water...

ditch the hard shelled thing and go for fish, just not Geos

Was that with the reduced flow though?