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

Bill,

Actually partial flow through can work as a way to dilute nitrates, and add fresh water for warmwater systems too. So that's option number 4.

Case in point: I have a garden hose and garden nozzle that I use that is connected to a shut off valve, waterline, and my well tanks for water changes and misc. uses. Over time it developed a kink near the end from bending it to fill the iron removal dual tank system, and scour out the clarifier tank after draining. This even though the hose was supposed to be kink resistant. Cut off the section of hose with the kink and tried to use two different hose mending kits to reattach the nozzle, and it was less than satisfactory -- even with a hose clamp.

Anyway, if the shutoff valve is left on the nozzle drips. Decided to use that to my advantage. Clamped it to the clarifer tank and let it drip into the tank. Over 24 hours it add a few inches to the system, but not enough to overflow it, as long as I did periodic flushes with the knife gate valve on the external standpipe on the floor. I do this anyway twice a day (about 4 gallons total per day).

No worries about cooling the water or iron buildup, as the flow is too low to be an issue. If I wanted to increase the flow by adjusting the nozzle, I could install an overflow to the floor drain.

JKB,

I hope you have better luck with noise suppression than I did with an upright Sears Craftsman compressor! LOL This thing is really loud!

Anyway I made a hole in the wall between my shop and shop bathroom for the airline, and put the compressor in the bathroom and closed the door.

I was very disappointed when It kicked on. Virtually no difference in sound!

Will spring for a "Silent Air" compressor one of these days, but they aren't cheap!

Cool set up. How many cubic feet? About 3 1/2?

There is info on water parameters by species, but you have to find it. With the net being like it is today...

Some of my books get down to the nitty gritty on water quality for various species, but they are in a box buried under a lot of stuff after this recent move. Gonna take some effort to dig them out.

I got this big Gaylord box from a friend and packed a lot of my stuff in it from the shop, planning to bring it home. A guy from work brought it to our new warehouse. Figured I would just go there and load it up on my truck with the fork lift. That ain't gonna happen anytime soon. This guy buried it way in a corner under a 30' row pile of junk. You have to move all that stuff to get to it and I had to climb all over this crap to even find it. Guess what he's doing next week

Cecil, only about 2.5 cubic feet of media in there, but that is only temporary to get the media started. It will be transferred to a barrel then I'll connect it to another barrel full of water and recirculate water thru the setup rig. That way I can mess with it and tweak where need be.

The other reason I started it in a glass aquarium is I wanted to see what is happening down below with the bubbles and media movement. It's quite interesting to see how the media reacts to different bubble sizes, so every couple days I'll run thru the different diffusers as the media gains weight to see what is happening.

I can tell you right now that a few large bubbles will bang this stuff around a heck of a lot more than a million small bubbles will at every stage so far. See how it goes as it get's heavier.

The hole saw's I need to install the Uni-Seals in the barrels are in the Gaylord box

Thanks. The API test kit literature recommends no higher than 40 ppm for fresh water aquarium and I found the same number a few places on line for "typical community" so I will go with something lower than that.

If you start getting heavy, you may want to check TDS as well. Silent killer that you will be scratching your head about for a long time.

Basically an indication of how worn out your water is.

Read up on it. BTW, TDS is Total Dissolved Solids.

Personally wouldn't be afraid of going higher with percids, centrarchids, and minnows. As you may know the centrarchids have a reasonsble resistance to nitrites, and I would think if they are resistant to nitrites, nitrates which are less harmful wouldn't be that big of an issue.

Thanks. Definitely good to know!

JKB,

Seeing any nitrites yet, or did you have some from the get go by adding bacteria?

Have not checked it yet, but will tonight.

1st API kit I got was only Ammonia, as they were out of everything else. I manned up and braved driving to the Lakeshore Mall where all the women driving around have cell phones stuck to their face, and it was a crappy day to drive around here with the snow and ice.

Anyway, I survived and picked up a Master Test Kit, so I'm moving forward.

Petco didn't have many Aquariums left. No 40G breeder tanks, which are nice. One 55G, which I thought about, but still had a bunch of 10G and 20G left. They also a number of smaller ones in the same display.

Possibly get the Emerald Shiners tomorrow. Quite the spunky rascals!

Based on reading the color charts correctly, and doing it twice. Ammonia is Zero and Nitrite is between 1-2 ppm.

Think the bugs may have worked?

Sounds like it. They definitely sped things up.

I'd add more ammonia once nitrites also drop to zero and see what happens?

As you know once both ammonia and nitrites drop to zero fairly quickly after adding more ammonia, you should be cycled and ready to add fish.

Are you seeing any nitrates yet?

My experience has been that even though the system is cycled, initially the ammonia and nitrites might tick up a little after you add fish until you have a mature stable large population nitrosomonas and nitrobactor bacteria.

There's lot to be said for a colony of bacteria that have been around for a while. I no longer start new ones for the schools partially for that reason. I bring live colonies on the media.

That's the plan, Cecil.
Once the Nitrite's hit Zero, I'll dose it again with ammonia and roughly time it to when things hit Zero again.

I'll test everything again tonight, including Nitrates.

Seems to be working tho.

Zero Ammonia, about 1 for Nitrite and 5 for Nitrate last night. Test it again in a couple hours.

Carefully dosing again to 4ppm, but this ammonia is diluted pretty good so I'm taking my time.

With the ammonia I have, it takes about 30ml (2 tablespoons, or 1 liquid oz) to get the 40G tank up to 4ppm. It's diluted pretty good.

The ammonia drops pretty quick, and I'll check it before I leave tomorrow, and suspect it might be gone by now.

On my way back I'm gonna stop at Big R in Indiana, probably Elkhart and pick up one or two of these: 300G Tank

It would be nice to get the 500G round tank, but two problems. 1) It would hang off the side of my truck too far, but I could double check down there. 2) Can't get it into the basement, unless I demolished one wall on the staircase, then rebuild it. Too much work!!

Just give Gibbs a call on NCIS for advice. He routinely removes large boats from his basement with no demo.

Have a good trip man! Be safe!

Thanks, see how it goes.

Had to look that up, but I don't watch TV, so still clueless.

The guy builds boats in hs basement and somehow gets them out when they are completed. It's a mystery!

I saw a boat in someones front yard on the way down that looked like it was coming out of the ground. Some art thing.

Question.

Before I left, I bumped the ammonia back up to 4ppm.

I was only supposed to be gone for 3 day's, maximum, but I ran into a whole lot of problems with the power quality in this factory...

Anyway, it's gonna be at least 7 days now.

How long can bugs live without food?

Not sure what others will say but I say they will be fine. Worst case scenario is it may take you just a little longer to become fully cycled.

Lack of water, too cold of water, and lack of oxygen are the real showstoppers.

Finally got back. I'll check things in a bit.

I stopped at Big R in Rochester, IN a few hours ago and picked up two of the 300G tanks.

Last night I figured out a way to haul the 500G tanks back in my truck. When I got there, the 500G tanks wire upright and half full of ice. Guess I'll do that at a later date.

So did the bugs survive?

As wondering the same thing. But I think I know the answer.