Jump to content

GrahamC

Members
  • Posts

    1576
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by GrahamC

  1. I'm doing my experiments in a 20L tank I bought off TM last week, and since the air at top is supporting 20Kg of water, then I suspect now that the air pump has no way of sucking any air out to bubble. Since the aim ultimately is oxygenation, I am now thinking I should just get an underwater filter and direct the outflow to the air space to agitate the water surface. That way I don't expose myself to any air leaks which might cause catastrophic failure of the 'vacuum' resulting in water everywhere!
  2. I pulled apart the air pump I was playing with and it just seems to have a vibrating diaphragm which is compressed and released with an electromagnet. So, it draws air from no specific location. I could seal the whole pump with hot glue and drill in an inlet hose for the suction side of things ....
  3. I bought a lunch box from payless plastics and encased the whole pump, and wires etc and ran an inlet pipe to the box from the top of the aquarium, but unfortunately I can't get air tightness .. so much for air tight lunch boxes! I think I'll see if I can use a glass jar that they use for preserving and penetrate the disposable lid. Putting the whole pump inside the air space of the aquarium would spoil the aesthetics somewhat The air at the top of the aquarium would be under negative pressure so those little bubblers may not have enough grunt to overcome it.
  4. Has anyone converted an air bubbler into a vacuum pump? I want to recirculate the air at the top of a bottomless aquarium so that I draw it from the top, and rebubble it back at the bottom to create a closed circuit.
  5. nitrite levels jumped to 1 ppm a couple of days ago. I had the original smaller ( 50L ) starter tank from a few weeks before I had to move to the current tank and that had 0 ppm. So, I was thinking that that tank had cycled since its ammonia was 0 and so i could move my fish into that tank. But because it is small instead I took the filter out of that tank and added it to my 160L one, and nitrite levels have dropped back to 0.25 ppm. I continue to do 20% water changes daily. Ammonia remains at 0.25 ppm, and nitrate at 0 ppm. But there's algae now on the glass .. so shouldn't this mean that there must be some nitrate around to support the algal growth?
  6. So it's odd that I can see the colours correctly under the aquarium lights and not sunlight :slfg:
  7. I think I solved it now. I got some water from the air hostess flying back this afternoon. In the sunlight the colour in the test tube for the Air NZ water (takaka aquifer) looks green, and the same colour as my tank. I then checked my tap water and again it's the same colour. But when I view it under the blue aquarium light, the tank test tube remains green, but the other two are now gold, which is 0 ppm. So, perhaps I have some slight green blindness ... I should ask one of female neighbours to check the colours for me. I've got a few weeks yet to solve the heat problem ...
  8. I've got my IP camera running now ... http://118.90.101.50 The apartment blinds are all drawn to keep the heat down ... the water temperature was going up to 25C with the mid day sun entering. I don't have air con either so may be forced to move the tank if I can't keep the heat down when summer arrives. The tank looks rather empty ... I am hoping to add more fish once the tank has cycled.
  9. Thanks. I have the sponge at bottom, activated charcoal middle, and the noodles at top. I've read that the charcoal is only necessary for removing chemicals like antibiotics and that I could replace it with another sponge. Perhaps the filter wool? The kits are only a week old. When I bought the pH kit from the shop, I read the instructions which said I needed a high pH kit for goldfish, and so I took it back to the LFS. They said it would be okay and so I then opened it and used it to find it wasn't The shop didn't stock the high pH kit and they said they would talk to their rep. Perhaps I should take a water sample for them to test. I think they said they would charge me $4 per test ... and that is after spending $100 on test kits from them! Perhaps I need to remind them of this. I did read that the Napier water supply is quite hard, and I can see all the water "spots" on my shower glass so this confirms that. But I also read that the goldfish can tolerate a high pH as along as it remains stable. I live in Wgton so will take some tap water back to the apartment to test tonight.
  10. I've got an Aquaclear 50 HOB filter. I don't know how efficient it is cause I can see debris floating in the water all the time. Yes, it is a drop based system - 10 drops of bottle 1, and then 10 drops of bottle 2, shake and wait 5 mins to read. I do find the colours hard to match ... but I've heard that town supplies can have ammonia in them. I know the water is not chlorinated or fluouridated; Napier water is drawn from the Heretaunga Plains artesian aquifer and is untreated. I think I'll collect some rain water next time it rains and test that ... so see what colour I get!
  11. I'm very new to keeping fish. A couple of weeks ago I bought a 160L tank off TM and have been trying to get the water right. I have 3 goldfish in it, and vacuum the gravel regularly to keep the mess down. Ammonia levels according to the API test kit say i have 0.25 ppm present in my tank, 0.25 ppm nitrite and 0-5 ppm of nitrate (matching colours is tricky! ). pH is 7.8 ( could be higher but that is as high as the strip reads). But when I tested the water from the tap, it also reads 0.25 ppm of ammonia. I had been doing 20% water changes every day to get the ammonia levels down ... but it seems my water source is already high. Should I just leave it like it is and wait for it to finish cycling? The fish seem to be okay, though my Oranda has lost a few scales, and one of my comets has a red mark on it which developed when the ammonia levels were 4 ppm. I've got the tank sitting on my kitchen counter, and since I am not there everyday, I setup a web cam so I can monitor them.
×
×
  • Create New...