SxAqua's Tank

[SxAqua]

Just a quick update.

Egeria densa coming friday along with amazon frogbit. Ow and a timer for my light.

Just a quick question. I haven't really thought the whole surface plant thing. I have an internal filter. Has anyone got some suggestions about how I can stop the frogbit getting sucked up?

I use a pond feeder ring it's pretty foolproof.

Thanks... I've just taken out the barrier in the tank as the frogbit has grown enough not to get swallowed up.

[SxAqua]

Just rearranged some plants tonight. Like the fact that my substrate will be perfectly smooth by the morning... gotta love Cory's

Just caught the little blighters in the act

[SxAqua]

Just been pondering what's next on the horizon.. Far too much time to kill

Just put some carpet down in the summer house and my mind started to wonder..


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So I'm just thinking I can squeeze a 4ft in this space with a little structural engineering.


Leaving my current tank to go in the summerhouse.

I already have plans to purchase a fluval 307 canister fairly soon to replace my internal filter as it can go as low as 550 LPH all the way up to a 300L tank. I'm going to bed that in and later on in the year think about the 4ft.

Leaving me with some fresh ideas for an outhouse tank. Possibly unheated(apart from winter perhaps). Run off of the water butt outside(doesnt have to be mind).

Apart from a cold water setup does anyone think I could get away with a lower temperature setup if i put an oversize heater in ?

This is all for later on in the year but thoughts appreciated

[SxAqua]

On a side note. My butts water parameters are ...



And my tap is


I've already tried when I first got the tank mixing the water to get a lower PH but the KH in the tap is so high it just rebuffs the butt water. I'm going to do some testing tomorrow with water percentages to see if I can get a happy medium.

I just cant rely on purely the water butt for the summer months if I wanted to achieve a lower PH.

[Andys temperate tank]

Depending on how warm your summer house stays in winter you could look at a temperate set up. Our kitchen tank is that but we have a heater in because our kitchen gets cold in winter.

And what have you used to test your water?

[SxAqua]

The above results are from tetra strips on an app. Actually as long as you shake off the excess water they are pretty good compared to the api test kit.

Also I had a lot of problems with my tank when cycling first time around. I was using 50/50 tap/butt water. He strongly advised men against using the butt water. I dont know if it contributed to my BBA or my worms but I'm keen to know if anyone uses run off water in their tanks? Pollutant wise, would a carbon filter be sufficient?

[SxAqua]

*A guy at Maidenhead aquatics

[plankton]

You'd need to ensure there were no nasties in the collected rainwater, maybe a carbon filter, and you'd have to boost the KH probably to ensure no problems as it's very soft indeed.
@Mol_PMB set up a rainwater collection system, he'll be able to give you more help.

[SxAqua]

Not updated for a while. I was hoping for a positive update today as I've got some new lights and some other bits in the pipeline.

But unfortunately I've just had my first fish death

I had bought a new pump/airstone set for an upgrade I'm planning. I tested the airstone this afternoon. All I can think is, I've turned on the pump and spooked one of the Rasborras and its jumped out behind the tank. Found it a few hours later.

Really annoyed because I had thought Id set it to the lowest setting but the dial turns round twice to get it to the lowest setting. So it blasted out quite hard which probably spooked the fish.

Extremely gutted but hopefully have a more positive update in the week with a few tweaks and some more fish on the way !

[Martinspuddle]

Sorry to here you've lost one.