Wednesday, November 8, 2023

56 Gallon Column Tank

This tank will be Sub-tropical (No Heater). The plants in the back are from a local store (Tideline Aquatics): Amazon Sword, Crypts Spirals, and Hygrophila Angustifolia. Along with my Val and java moss from my other tanks.

The plants are in the back with some peat moss, muck dirt and plant gravel from an old tank. I topped that off with a layer of gravel. The front section is sand. The hardscape separating the two sections is a large rock and some mesh plastic sheets.

As far as stocking, I am targeting my three Gold Dojo loaches and White Cloud Moutain Minnows.

Room temperature should work fine for these species. I really love how the Dojo Loaches interact with their environments. White clouds were bred in my outdoor tubs this summer.

I added a school of the White Clouds on 11/7/23. The corner filter on the left came from another tank. The sponge filter on the right was made from an old HMF 125 gal filter. I am using a tube from the Swiss Tropicals system with the sponge (4"x12"). The filter system is using air only in this tank: one corner box filter and one sponge filter. The lighting for this tank utilizes two 30" LED lights

Below are the pictures from 2 months later (1/22/2024) and the aquarium is fully stocked with fish and plants. I will say, the loaches do spend a lot of time shifting through the sand. I have removed most of the black rocks from the sand as they all disappeared with the loach activity. The white cloud mountain minnows are a good dither fish and will school when the loaches are swimming about the tank.

The two filters are working well together: one box type from Jhemco.com and the sponge filter from Swiss Tropicals. Both are keeping the tank balanced.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

55 Gallon Sub Tropical Aquarium

One of my 55 gal tanks required a stand build and then setup for a power head and HMF (Hamburg Matten Filter). The HMF with plumbing under the gravel will provide great filtration and quiet operations. Easy and inexpensive to replace. This project began October 2023.

Building the stand:

I used 2x3s for all support. I had 3/4” plywood on each end and some back pieces to add to the support.

The Front was a 1/2” sheet of maple plywood.

Now the Filter system. I have used HMF filters for many years and wanted to keep the one for this tank. I researched some river tanks that used power heads but none integrated the HMF filter. I flipped the filter that had the air tube at the top and put that on the bottom of the tank. This allowed the plumbing to be on the bottom. Using the shape for the most stability, I put the PVC pipes together.

NOTE: I built a wall out of acrylic and some plastic mesh so cleaning the HMF filter would not disturb the gravel. Usually when you pull the filter out the gravel caves back into the empty cavity, making a big mess.

Since I have a black background, I painted the PVC black. Power heads are usually black as well.

Added Gravel, hard scape, plants, cover and a light:

Plants are all from my summer Tubs. The dwarf Sag and Valisneria can take the cooler temperatures. Thinking about the fish now.

In a week or 2, I will update with the fish being added. The fish have been brought in from the tubs and are all out in the garage now so will choose later.

Here is the tank as of 1/22/2024:

Barbs are doing well. Most of the gold barbs were bred in the outdoor tubs. I put three mature gold barbs in this tank to give me a total of 11. The Odessa Barbs (6) came from Select Aquatics and are beginning to color up nicely. There are also 5 albino cory cats in the tank. No heater, one box filter and the HMF filter are doing a great job keeping the tank stable.

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Menola Aquariums

We moved in Dec 2021 and I have been building shelving. I brought 3x33 gal and 2x 15 gal aquariums from Bunker. Also the Fluval Spec and the half 10 gal. I purchased a new 15 gal tank to complete the rack.

Here I am going to focus on the Aquariums and Tubs at Menola Court.

July 28, 2022

All tubs have fry. Platys have tons of fry and the White clouds are multiplying. Below are the fathead (Rosey Red) minnow fry. They are dark so I read the white gene is recessive. But there are many fry with 3 different sizes.

Mar - July 2022

The existing 3 tubs are doing great. I have been trying to remove the Gumbrosia from them. The small tub on the left with the cover has White Cloud Moutain minnows - lots of fry. The next 40 gal has some Dalmation mollies and Platy (Xiphophorus variatus). The middle large tub has Rosey Red Minnows that have survived 2 SC winters. The empty tub on the right has some platies right now Xiphophorus maculatus Red Velvet. There are many fry in there as well.

I am keeping 3 smaller outdoor tubs below. The 3rd one is missing from this picture but has a water Lilly in it. All these tubs have Gambusia Mosquito fish in them

Testing the temperature in the garage to see about how hot it gets. So far high reading was 80 in the top row. I added a fan and that keeps them all uniform.

Jan-Mar-2022

Fluval Spec from Bunker and Barringer

48" 33 Gallon Rack 7" Spacing -- 24" 15 Gallon Rack 7" spacing

10-Mar-22

Air pump in place and all tanks have some fish in them. New 15 gal went on the bottom Right rack and I emptied the half 10 gal.

Most tanks have Rosy Red Minnows but the bottom Right has White Cloud Mountain Minnows.

Monday, March 29, 2021

2021 TuffStuff 110 gal tub journal

6/29/21

Below are some of my plants and the 100 Gal TuffStuff Tub. I have added some rosy red minnows to the tub and there are many tree frog pollywogs in there now.

The sunny succlents area.

The TUB

Hardy Water lilly bloomed

The shade garden.

Solar fountain and many understory plants beneth.

3/28/2021

I had cleaned out the big tub and moved plants into other smaller tubs.

I emptied the 100 gal tub and removed all old debris.

I lost all my anubis nana and Buce -- sad -- the cold was to much. However, all my java fern, Sagittarius, Hygro polly, and other stem plants survived. Bolbitis seems to have survived but the larger leaves died back -- we will see.

I will try to post a picture later.

I also bought a small solar pump to try on the tubs.