Thr33Swords

I have been reading up on using carbon for chlorine removal, and for the most part I have found that it is very effective at removing chlorine. In my head, I believe it should work since the water will be moving rather slowly (0.7 litres per hour) so the carbon will have a lot of time to adsorb the chlorine. The air stone at the end is there just to help get rid of any chlorine that didn't get adsorbed. As for draining the tank, I am planning on building a PVC overflow system, like this: That will drain into a 50 litre container under the tank, which I can empty once a day.

The problem I have is I live in a townhouse, and I don't have any space for a large drum for the water to age in, which is why I am looking into an in line filter of sorts to get rid of the chlorine instead. The reason for my design above is because I already have most of the materials necessary to build it, so it will cost me next to nothing where an in line filter system will require me to spend more money to get set up. And since I have recently lost my job, money is a luxury right now. (I've got a new one though, but still).

A few updates: The tank water has cleared up beautifully, I have about 50 plants in there (Think I'll add some more though) and the fish seem to be loving their new home. Now I can't wait for my plants to grow a little haha. I might get some already grown plants to populate the background however, seeing as how this is a low tech tank and these plants will take a while to grow.

How much chlorine is in the water? There is an average of 1.27 mg/L of Chlorine in the water. Does carbon remove chloramines and how much of them is present? Carbon does remove Chloramines, but it requires a very long exposure and a lot of Carbon to do so, luckily no Chloramines are used to treat the water in our area (from the 2012 WaterCare Annual Water Quality Report). How will you know when the carbon has been "used up"? That was one of the questions I was hoping to get an answer to in the OP. I know that inside an aquarium filter you should replace the carbon (if you use it of course) every 4 weeks or so, so I think I will just make it a part of my monthly tank maintenance.

Hey Guys, My next plan for the tank is to add an automatic water change system. I already know how to build the overflow for the tank, but I had an idea for a DIY carbon filter for the water feed to the tank, and I just want some feedback on my design: The purpose of this of course is to remove the chlorine etc from the water before it is added to the tank. With a 0.7 litre and hour dripper, I will effectively be doing a 25% water change every week. What I need to know is, will this design below work, and if so, how long will 1/2 a kg of activated carbon last before needing to be replaced?

Ouch >_< emptying and refilling a 750 litre tank sounds like a massive pain in the neck. I have to say I am stoked that it cleared up, I really didn't want to have to drain the tank as you ended up doing, mainly since I used up all of my dechlorinator filling the tank lol.

Ok so update time: after running carbon in the filter for a day it has completely cleared up. I also have my fish in the tank now and they are happy as happy can be. Thank you all for the suggestions and advice.

Hmm, I don't think it is, since the driftwood and half of the rocks all came out of my established tank along with all the silk plants I had in there as well (to bring over more beneficial bacteria). Oh, don't you just hate it when that happens? Luckily we have 300gb a month at home since we're all Internet junkies. Basically from the first link I am cycling the tank by introducing fish food and raw shrimp to introduce ammonia into the tank, and adding bacteria from my established tank as well as Nutrafin Cycle as a backup. The gravel from the second link is basically washed decorative gravel people usually use for the top layer in pot plants and gardens. I washed the gravel in a colander before adding it to the tank, but I think it still kicked up a bit of dust. I am guessing the cloudyness is either tiny particles from the gravel, or a bacteria bloom, but I still don't get why the Clarity I added made it so much worse haha.

Thanks for the replies. At the moment I am adding fish food to the tank to keep the bacteria alive, basically I am using a combination of option 1 and 5 in this link: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm The tests show that the tank is almost cycled (ammonia is 0, nitrite has spiked and started to drop off, nitrate is picking up), probably because of the fact that I ran the filter on the old tank for a month and also put all the old filter media into the new filter. I have two pieces of driftwood in the tank plus some rocks and substrate. Substrate is flourite and this stuff: http://www.daltons.co.nz/landscaping/bu ... ble-coarse I clean the filter by syphoning water from the tank and then rinsing the media in a bucket. My live plants have not arrived yet due to the weather in the South Island, so I am going to try running activated carbon in the filter for a day and see what happens.

So I have set up my 490 litre tank about 3 weeks ago and have been doing a fishless cycle since. Since I blew my budget on the planting substrate alone, I used Daltons decorative pebbles for the top layer as it was simply $8 for a 20 litre bag. I washed it as well as I can using a colander, and managed to get it pretty clear. When I flooded the tank it did turn a little cloudy, but figured it will likely settle. 3 weeks later and it's still cloudy. I have been seeding my 1800 l/h filter on my current tank for about a month, and recently moved it over to the new tank to start clearing it up. I ran it for a day and it did make a slight difference, but the water was still quite cloudy. So I started googling and found out about Seachem Clarity, and thought it sounds fantastic and went out to get some. Yesterday I added it to the tank, adding another layer of mechanical filtration to the filter. The bottle said that it should clear up in 1-3 hours, and if it doesn't work, I can safely dose again after that. 4 hours later and no change, so I cleaned the filter media and dosed again. This morning I got up and the tank is 5 times worse than it was to begin with, not to mention it is now a disgusting urine-yellow. As far as I am concerned, this stuff has done nothing but make the tank water look worse. So now I am stuck wondering what to do next. I want to try avoid having to do a huge water change, since I only have a couple of 10 litre buckets, and doing a 50% - 75% water change would take all day. What else can I do? I thought about adding activated carbon to the filter, since I know it is used to remove meds. Will this help? Is it possible this might just be a bacteria bloom since the tank is still cycling?

Only the top layer is plain gravel, underneath I have some flourite substrate. I am following the low-tech guide that I found here: http://www.sudeepmandal.com/hobbies/pla ... ank-guide/

Small update: Finished the canopy and placed all the rocks and driftwood inside. The plants should arrive tomorrow, I have ordered 60 plants in total.

That's exactly what I did It's been running on the small tank since Tuesday. I went from two hang-on filters to a huge canister filter. I bought some ceramic rings and other bio filter media, as well as filter wool and chucked it all in the canister filter along with the old media. I also plan on using the gravel, driftwood and the rocks from the current tank as well, so I should get a decent amount of bacteria in the new tank. I also have a third hang on filter, of which I have been seeding the last couple of weeks as well, to run the small tank as I slowly introduce the fish to the new tank. I also have a large bottle of Nutrafin Cycle as a backup.

Hey Guys, So I got a new tank made by Greg Kingston (you guys were right, Greg's handiwork is amazing) that is 181cm x 52cm x 52cm. He delivered it for me today, and now the fun can begin. It all started with me buying a new cabinet off TradeMe, for the purpose of getting a custom tank made to fit. I'll put some photos at the end of the post of the new tank sitting next to the cabinet with the current tank on it. So, I guess for this thread I will update as I make progress. For this first post I will list my goals, what I have done already, and my plans for the future. So without further adieu: Goal: To have a heavily, but still somewhat low-tech planted tank, with peaceful community fish with automatic water change system. What I have done so far: • Bought Cabinet • Custom tank made • New accessories purchased - 2 x 300w heaters (using current 150w as a backup), external canister filter, fluorescent lights and fittings • Wood purchased for canopy • Drift wood, plants and gravel ordered • Move the current tank out of the way to set the new tank up. • Build a canopy for it to match the cabinet and make it look like it was all one unit to start with. • Aquascaping and filling of the tank, the do a fishless cycle. • Slowly introduce my current fish to the new tank once cycled. What I still have to do: • Fill gaps, sand and varnish the canopy to match the cabinet. • Buy items needed for and build an overflow system as well as a drip system for automatic water changes. • Buy more awesome looking fish Photos: Added June 18th: Added June 26th:

Haha, yup. Luckily I realised the danger so only used warm water instead of hot water, so should be good

Sweet, that calmes the nerves at least. I also put two hot water bottles against the sides of the tank, hopefully that will help.

Hey guys, So I store my buckets and stuff for water changes in the cabinet under the tank, and it just so happen that the power plugs are in there as well. I did my weekly water change yesterday, around mid-day. I must have knocked the plugs, because I woke up this morning, and like I always do I came down to check on the fish and check the water temperature. I was shocked to find it has dropped from a nice 26 degrees to a freezing 17. I immediately started investigating and found the plug out of the socket for the heater. I have plugged it back in, and did a small water change with slightly warmer water just to try and get it to the 20's again. I know sudden temperature changes can stress the fish out, so I want to make sure I try and keep them as happy as possible. Does anyone have any advice how I can get back to the right temperature without resorting to doing a water change every hour or so with warm water? About an hour has passed and the tank is sitting at around 20 dergees, and the fish seem a lot happier than they did this morning. They were quite lethargic, and the neons were all hiding down the bottom under my plants, but now they're swimming around a bit more. Is there anything I should look out for? Is there anything else I can do to make them more comfortable until the temperature recovers? Thanks!

Yeah I've had a go at building tanks from cheap windows on trademe, the glass for my 150litre cost me $1 haha I've been getting quotes from various glass suppliers, and from what I have gotten back so far it seems that Greg is the way to go, the price he quoted me is about a 1/3 of the price of glass!

Thanks guys... to be honest I quite like the DIY side of things, so if I could, I'd like to do it myself, however I will get a hold of Greg and find out what he'd charge to build one.

Hmmm, that is a good point. I am in Mt Eden thanks!

I am planning my next tank build, it's going to be a heavily planted 500 litre tank, 1850 long, 450 wide and 600 high. For my 150 litre tank I used an old window I bought off trademe, but for a tank this size I'll need much thicker glass. So, can anyone recommend a place where I can go buy glass from? Cheers!

Yeah I definitely am... I used that light on my 57 litre, which was a lot shorter haha. A full length light is definitely on the cards. Thanks for the kind words guys

Wow, what a warm welcome thanks guys. Building the tank was actually much easier than I expected. I plan on building a 400 litre tank next with the intention of getting some Discus later on. We're called Escape, we're actually playing a gig 9pm at Thirsty Dog on K'Rd tonight haha Anyway, might as well show some photos now This is the tank during the build: Water Testing: And the final tank:

Hey guys, I am a 27 year old Graphics Designer from Auckland, I play drums in a band, play lots of video games, and I also dabble in motorsport. I am still relatively new to the hobby of fish keeping, but I am genuinely loving it. I have always wanted to get into the hobby, and a few months ago I decided to have a go. I bought a 57 litre tank off TradeMe and some accessories and started off with a few red Phantom Tetras. I did a huge amount of research (I am a bit of a research geek, whenever I attempt something new, I spend weeks doing research). Few months later, and a couple of neon tetras, a platy and a blue dwarf gourami later, I decided I want a bigger tank. Big tanks are rather expensive though, so I decided to have a go at building my own glass tank. I used an online glass thickness calculator and planned to build a 144 litre tank. I found some glass on TradeMe for $1.50 and the silicone at Hollywood Fish Farm for $11.50. So yeah, two months have passed now, and the tank is working perfectly, added some more filtration, and a Siamese Algea Eater too. I'll post some photos of my tank soon enough Anyway, it's nice to meet you all!