Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Interested in an Aquarium?

Good to know Phil. It had me curious as to what sound level it is. Different opinions from different folks!!!!

If you put it outside, would the cold air cool the water down?

I can see one of these in your future......

http://www.omega.com/googlebase/product.html?pn=HHSL402SD&gclid=CMLBrYzoksoCFcIjgQod0OMAXw

LOL! Not yet. Still pulling stuff together for startup. Back in the 70s I always had multiple aquariums going. Man has technology changed! Some of my "go to" stuff from back then is hard to find or not even available now! Guess this old dog will be learning lots of new tricks! Almost choked when I saw what they want for plain aquarium gravel in pet stores now. It's more than the dang aquarium!

The plastic media multiplies and moves! I swear it does! Found some in my taxidermy shop one day.

Basement holds about 50°F during the winter, but these pumps warm up pretty good after a while so it might be a wash. Outside, I think if you built an insulated box, you would probably be OK with temps.

I gotta thank snrub for reminding me of something in a post he made on another thread. He didn't actually say this, but reminded me of something.

Back in the day's when I use to design and build custom bowl feeders. (PITA) I use to have a local transformer company whip me up these little choke coils in 1/2A, 1A and 2A sizes. Essentially an electromagnet that cycles at 60Hz. Pulls and releases 60 times per second.

There were mechanical methods I used to adjust the balance and rigidity of the rig, basically called tuning.

When it got to feed speed, I would use a variable output transformer and adjust the voltage to the coils which would adjust the magnetic pull force, and with the system rigidity, change the stroke of movement, but still cycled at 60Hz.

Now, snrub did mention back pressure in his post, and with the large bubble diffusers, there is virtually very little back pressure, but the large bubbles really mix it up.

From listening to this awful noise, and understanding how this stuff works, I might be able to change the force that these things are hammering at by dropping the applied voltage, lowering the pressure output and still get decent flow.

I should have a variable output transformer here, someplace, and also have a solid state gizmo from KB Electronics, but any motor rated dimmer switch with a speed pot should work.

Had a different brand - It grew legs

You gotta be careful, because they will jump in your pockets as well!

The journey begins....So I filled up a 10 gallon today using well water. Looks like real weak tea. Threw together an "old school" disposable filter I used in the 60s and 70s, as the old farm house had similar water, to clear up the water before moving forward. I don't want to use tap water as it is injected with hydrogen peroxide (kills almost all bacteria), run through an iron filter and then a water softener. This is going to be fun!

My question, the plan is to use RR for the first round. Think pulverized 36% grain based pond pellets will be ok for food? Any other recommendations?

Edit: I ordered a LED hood today for this brood tank so I can extend the photoperiod to 12 hours or so when I'm ready to attempt getting a spawn.

What's RR?

Sorry, RR is Rosy Red. Basically a pink FHM and the only fish available at my local pet stores I would be willing to throw in my puddle if I am lucky enough to tank raise some.

Bill D, u think those RR(Pink) will last long in your pond? I would think your YP would see them as a quick snack. What way did you go on the Aq? And a question for you or others, is it necessary to regulate lighting to get my Tp to spawn?

Tracy

I am sure they will disappear quickly. Just using the RR as a cheap way to "get my feet wet" in aquariums again and cycle the media. If I am lucky enough to raise some, they will be a cheap treat for the YP. I hope to move on to SFS, BNM, etc once I am happy with the setup.

I went with buying discreet components so far but may pick up a 20 gallon kit later. For the RR you need a 12 to 14 hour photoperiod to induce spawning.

Bill, where and how are you using the media? is it in a separate container from the Aq?

Tracy

Bill saw earlier in your thread that natural gravel war expensive... When I had my pet shop I used sand blasting sand. Wash it and your ready to go. I don't remember the size but think it was #3. It's a natural occurring gravel

Yes Bill, how do you plan to apply the media? The rest of us with the extruded media are barrel people

Speaking of extruded plastic.
I was told by one of our guy's that the extruder barrel blew up at one of our customers on a 1000HP compounding extruder. A guy in the plant got sprayed pretty severely with hot molten plastic. Upper body hit - head, face, neck, chest, arms and hands. He's going to be in the hospital for quite some time. They make reinforced plastic compounds on that line, usually run glass fiber and other vile reinforcing additives. High pressure and temps about 600°F. I was always afraid of that machine ever since they got it. The company in Chicago that built it, did a very poor job.

My first effort will be an in tank submersible filter (air powered). Current thought is a combo between sponge and media. Sponge for mechanical filtration followed by a media fluidized bed filter.

I was able to find some very inexpensive sponge filter cartridges today that have a pocket of activated charcoal "built in" that I thought were pretty cool and could remove some of the heavy metals, potentially making the fluidized bed media bio-filter more effective. I don't currently plan on replacing the charcoal in the sponges in the future but figure it can't hurt on startup. Once the charcoal is saturated, I will still have the sponge mechanical/bio filter followed by the fluidized bed media bio-filter.

Can somebody help me out on nitrate removal? How do you "barrel people" address it? Through frequent water changes? Anybody ever tried to incorporate a nitrate reductor with anaerobic bacteria? Another thing I'd like to use these tanks for is to propagate a few pond plants. Can the plants take out enough of the nitrate to see even a noticeable reduction in its level?

Guy I mentioned, say a prayer or two for him. The direct hit he took with hot gasses and molten plastic was in the face. In the face!!! Safety glasses saved his eyes, but he got burned really bad. He's in intensive care in the burn unit at a major hospital. Don't know what else to say.

Hope he makes it JKB. I hear of way too many accidents like this where equipment is under designed and/or appropriate safety measures are not in place in the interest of saving a buck. To be fair, I've also seen where employees have removed safety shields, etc. because they are "in the way" or don't follow safety protocols like lock out on electric when doing a "quick" repair or maintenance.

I'll share my thoughts about nitrates:

They're mostly benign for most species of fish unless they get really really high.

Three ways to reduce them, however.

1. Water changes. (as you mentioned)

2. Anerobic heterotrophic bacteria (as you mentioned)

3. Plants in the system to consume the nitrates

I prefer number 1 as the water changes have other advantages too, such as solids and nutrient removal.

Number 2 can be difficult to achieve small scale and can be tricky.

Number 3 is a great way to remove nitrates and at the same time produce an edible plant. It's the concept behind aquaponics.

That said, it doesn't have to be an edible plant for human consumption. I know of folks using duck weed in a separate flow through tank to reduce nitrates. Duckweed also consumes ammonia. They harvest it, dry it, and feed it to their tilapa. Don't understand it but it's supposed to have more nutrients in it when it dries.

I use a sponge filter on the intake end of my mag drive pumps that recieve water after it gets filtered by my clarification drum. I do clean them daily as if I don't they will clog too much and block flow.

Thanks for the inputs Cecil! I think I will go with a combination of your 1 and 3 options for nitrate removal. What level of nitrate would you consider to be a problem?

Thinking back, I did try a few aquarium products for nitrate reduction, but usually when they were getting high, TDS was also high, so did a partial water change and just used TDS as the marker. Can't remember the numbers tho, so I'll have to look them up.

Honestly don't know but there is literature out there. JKB?

I've had my color up there in the rich red (top of scale) for nitrates with my API Master test kit and had no issues with bluegill, tilapia, smallmouth bass, or yellow perch.

Trout in a coldwater RAS, according to some research I read, is a different story. Apparently they have issues with nitrates and do funky stuff like swimming sideways, deformaties etc.

Here it is:

https://www.ysi.com/ysi-blog/water-blogg...-than-you-think

Apparently the way to counteract a build up of nitrates in coldwater RAS is to do partial RAS. That is, a continual flow of cold fresh ground water to dilute nitrates and keep temps down and stabilize Ph. Not enough to be complete flow through like a trout raceway system but more than a typical RAS.

Called a couple bait shops near work this morning.

One place has "various" shiners for YP bait and 4"-6" White Suckers for NP bait.

Other place has Emerald Shiners for YP bait and large Golden Shiners for NP bait.

Gonna setup another 40G aquarium tonight and pick up a few dozen on the way home Monday.

Emerald Shiners and White Suckers do really well in tanks, but never had any luck with Golden Shiners, but they were small tho. It will be interesting to see what the "various" shiners are. Most do well in tanks.

Bio-Wheel 350's have been cycling from the start. I'll test ammonia later today, but gotta think it dropped a bit more.


Gonna put the noisy compressor in a cardboard box packed in foam insulation. Maybe that will quiet it down. Found my transformer, but it was one of the victims of a water leak and I would be afraid to hook it up without sending it to a motor shop for cleaning and testing. Don't need to get zapped again!