# dekstr's MTS aquariums (Warning: 56k)



## dekstr

*Edit: I turned the images into text-links so it won't be 56k unfriendly. Can't change the title though.*

I figured since I have so many tanks, it'll be more efficient journalling all of them at once.

I started with a 20 gallon tank in September. In November, I set up a 2.5 gallon nano-tank. Upgraded the 20 to a 55 gallon tank in December. Gave away the 20 gallon to my friend. Set up an aquarium rack in December with four 10 gallons and one 20 gallon long. Setting up a 10 gallon shelldweller soon.

I am running out of money though, so probably no more tanks in a long time, or at least until I start job placement in summer.

All the tanks except for the 55 gallon are low-tech, non-co2 tanks. I'm pretty busy with school so I don't have a lot of time with tanks. This works out well because the tanks don't need a lot of maintenance other than occasional top-offs and water changes. However, I have to save I did spend a lot of time setting them up and getting them up and running.


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## dekstr

If you want specifics and details, just PM or post.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/820/13up7.jpg
This is my metal basement aquarium rack. Next time I build a rack, it's going to be out of wood since it's a lot cheaper.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2852/79335655qj4.jpg
This was my quarantine tank. It had 16 cardinal tetras. They have moved to my main 55 gallon tank now. Right now, it has one juvenile red cherry shrimp that hitch-hiked on the java-moss from my old 20 gallon tank.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6896/24774166wx0.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/4770/11ym7.jpg
This is my 20 gallon long aquarium. It has 40+ Sawbwa resplendens (got them a few days ago) and 1 peppered cory. The asian rummynoses are kind of skinny right now with sunken bellies--I read that they need live food, which I don't have. I'm trying different combinations of dry/frozen food right now.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5804/27620674qs9.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/7585/17942973zz0.jpg
My new goldfish addition a few days ago. Can someone help me determine the gender, so I can name appropriately? He/she's supposed to help me eat the excess duckweed/plants I have. I'll move it to a larger tank as it gets older.

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/9138/30274487yy8.jpg
My guppy tank, 3 female, 1 male and 10+ fry. As you can see, it's a work in progress and I'm just waiting for some driftwood I ordered to arrive. The male is literally in mating mode 24/7 lol, thus the need for 3 females.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3599/10gs4.jpg
This 10g tank has 3 white cloud minnow fry in it. It's pretty incredible how they got there. I got 18 WCM adults from BA on boxing day, within one week, they all died. After some discussion with members on another forum, the conclusion was probably a bad batch. I left the tank for dead, tore it down and replanted it. Three weeks later, I see those 3 fry swimming.

This was my first aquarium: A 20 gallon tank. It had rummynose tetras, otos and cherry shrimp.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7233/67827429ro6.jpg

This is my current 55 gallon tank.
Fish include:
19 Corydoras pymaeus - pygmy cories
18 Hemigrammus bleheri - rummynose tetras
16 Paracheirodon axelrodi - cardinal tetras
9 Nematobrycon palmeri - emperor tetras
6 Trichogaster leerii - pearl gouramies
6 Corydoras panda - panda cories
6 Corydoras aneus - bronze cories
6 Otocinclus sp. - oto cats
5 Botia kubotai - polka-dot loach, burmese loach
3 Ancistrus sp. - Albino Bristlenose plecos, 2.5" right now
and 7 amano + 14 cherry shrimp that are slowly being eaten by either the loach or gourami.
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/9660/97774960rq1.jpg

As you can see, I am not really a details kind of person and new to planted tanks, so the aquascaping is not very good or organized. I get a general idea of where the plants should go in my mind and then plant them.


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## Ciddian

those are wonderful!  I wish i had the room for tanks like that  I have to scatter mine around the appartment. lol

whats that container with the red top there? co2 diffusior?

Btw i love your goldie.. :3


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## dekstr

Ciddian said:


> those are wonderful!  I wish i had the room for tanks like that  I have to scatter mine around the appartment. lol
> 
> whats that container with the red top there? co2 diffusior?
> 
> Btw i love your goldie.. :3


Thanks!

I still live at home w/ parents so I keep the rack in the unfinished basement.

Yup the red peanut butter container is a CO2 reactor lol. It's really ugly but worked too well. It started to diffuse the CO2 so well the fish started gasping. It's not there anymore, I just run the DIY CO2 line straight into powerhead now.

I like the goldie too. It's kind of slow in reaction time and has poor eye-sight though lol.

Edit: I forgot to include pictures of my nano-tank.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/388/96750894cg5.jpg
This is the last picture of it in decent shape. I neglected it and got over-run with slime algae. I drained the tank and ran emersed for a bit. Now it's back with water but will take a while to regrow. Needs more CO2. No inhabitants at all, it used to have pond snails.


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## Grey Legion

The Goldfish looks like a Lion Head.

Cool setups !!


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## Brian

Nice tanks.

How much did it cost to build your rack?

You can always go for Gorilla Racks from Costco... best racks and most breeders use them for heavy duty tanks.


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## dekstr

About $170 for rack.

The costco frames I think need to be reinforced--just to be on the safe side. At the Finatics store, there's a wooden rack that looks to be made out of 2x4s and looks very strong. Asking Mike about that, so I might do that the next time I do a rack.

$60 for tanks, $75 for substrate, $50 for lights, $30-40 for filters, $20 for heaters. Other stuff were from around the house.


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## Brian

The Gorilla Racks definately do not need to be reinforced.

There are discus breeders that put 1-2 120gallon tanks on each tier.


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## Katalyst

Your goldie is an oranda. Determining the sex can only be done by looking at its anal port up close.


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## dekstr

Thanks for help Brian + Kataylst.


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## Brian

What kind of substrate are you using for your nano?

I was following your thread on plantedtank but I forgot what it was.

Essentially, I want my 35gal to look like a bigger version of your nano... before it got overrun with algae


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## Katalyst

Here's an article on sexing goldies.

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4468/fishsex.html


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## Chris S

Awesome tanks. I really like your 55g tank, the plants look very natural how they are planted and growing.


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## dekstr

Hey Brian,

I use about 2" of flourite black in my nano, sloped deeper towards the back.
I also added some peat moss as a bottom layer. If I did it again I wouldn't have added as much peat moss as it's still making my water yellow.

Hey Katalyst, thanks for the goldie sexing link! I'm planning to build a big goldie tank soon (40 gallon breeder).

Thanks for comment Chris_Stewart. Since that picture, I'm fighting staghorn algae and driftwood on left side has been removed.


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## Brian

In your opinion for a low tech tank... is fluorite needed for glosso and hairgrass like yours?


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## dekstr

Brian said:


> In your opinion for a low tech tank... is fluorite needed for glosso and hairgrass like yours?


IMO it doesn't hurt to have richer plant substrate even for a low-tech tank like flourite. I haven't tried regular gravel for my plants so I don't really know the difference. But I use some sand for my main tank and I notice the hairgrass growth is much more aggressive than the flourite areas.


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## Chris S

Brian said:


> In your opinion for a low tech tank... is fluorite needed for glosso and hairgrass like yours?


Brian,

I'd say that having a rich substrate is even more important for a low-tech tank.


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## kris

*????????*

question to dekster? you say that in your 55 gal you keep 87 fish of all sizes? is this mistake or? i am beginner and i thought this was excessive to keep this many in 55 gal?


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## kris

*quote*

This is my current 55 gallon tank.
Fish include:
19 Corydoras pymaeus - pygmy cories
18 Hemigrammus bleheri - rummynose tetras
16 Paracheirodon axelrodi - cardinal tetras
9 Nematobrycon palmeri - emperor tetras
6 Trichogaster leerii - pearl gouramies
6 Corydoras panda - panda cories
6 Corydoras aneus - bronze cories
6 Otocinclus sp. - oto cats
5 Botia kubotai - polka-dot loach, burmese loach
3 Ancistrus sp. - Albino Bristlenose plecos, 2.5" right now
and 7 amano + 14 cherry shrimp that are slowly being eaten by either the loach or gourami.
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/9660/97774960rq1.jpg
87 fish ???


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## KnaveTO

depending on a variety of factors you can keep few or lots of fish in an aquarium of that size or variuos others. The factors that need to be taken into consideration are the footprint of the tank, the bioload of the fish, the size of the fish, the desisty of the plants, the filtration system, and water exchange system. The 1" rule as so many people go by is well out of date and completely inaccurate. So a 55gal tank can have 87 inhabitants if and only if the rest of the above is above average in systems.


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## kris

wow that means that i have 4 tanks way underpopulated...THIS INFO IS very good , yet most books agree with the 1 inch per gallon rule. thank you for response...


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## dekstr

kris said:


> wow that means that i have 4 tanks way underpopulated...THIS INFO IS very good , yet most books agree with the 1 inch per gallon rule. thank you for response...


You have to check the date the books were published.

Some info on books are outdated, especially w/ the pace of internet. Nowadays usually the most up-to-date information is on the Internet in forums like here. However, downside is that anybody can say something and pretend to have authority on the subject when they do not. In most books, information has to undergo rigorous cross-checking by reputable experts on the subject before they are published. So you have to check your sources.

For my fish tank, there might be a lot of fish, but most of them are very small, 2-3" w/ except of gouramis, loaches and eventually BN plecos. As well, their body shapes are mostly slim (gouramies are very flat, loaches are very long and thin, etc. I wouldn't be able to have 87 goldfish, for example, which have very stocky body types and are big eaters.

I also took my time in planning the stocking list, taking into consideration the fishes' behaviour, where they like to swim, etc.
It took me about *3 months to*half a year to get to the stocking level it is now. I had to add only a few fish at a time (about 6 each week or so).

My tank is also moderately planted, and I will continue increasing plant density. Furthermore, I have to do 50% WC weekly, mainly to clean fish poop that accumulates.


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## dekstr

*February 11, 2008 update!*

A lot has changed in since last update.

For basement rack, they are all non-co2, low tech planted tanks. My goal is to have low-tech, non-co2 tanks that look great and are super low maintenance.




Top rack, 20 gallon long: 
40+ asian rummynose, 3 peppered cories, 3 oto cats
Goal: Asian rummynose species tank displaying their natural habitat (minus otos + cories, as they are clean-up crew).

This is my favorite tank right now.



The asian rummynose behaviour is very neat. The males have coloured up really well, their nose and tailfin are burning orange, body is dark sky blue. They like to show off to each other and to impress the females. I'll take a video of their behaviour sometime to show you. Nothing like I have every seen.

I'm very happy I got them to bulk up after getting them w/ sunken bellies to start. I tried a variety of food the first week, freeze-dried tubifex, freeze-dried krill, tetramin crushed flakes, frozen brine shrimp and Nutrafin shrimp pellets. First week they weren't really responding to flakes, even though I read online they eventually can be weaned off live foods and onto flake food. I tried shrimp pellets the past week, and they have taken really well to it! It's as if something they can pick at on the bottom really piques their interest.

I am willing to trade away some of them for live food culture. I want to try to breed them, so I need live food first. You will have to teach me how to culture the live food as I have no experience w/ that.

The driftwood I ordered came in. It is floating at the moment... waiting for it to sink. I just planted randomly as fast as I could, aquascape not starting until driftwood sinks into place.




Middle left, 10 gallon shrimp tank: 
40+ red cherry shrimp



I haven't really decided whether to change the layout or not. I got the shrimp from Kate a few weeks ago.

Middle right, my Tom Barr inspired non-co2 tank. See article: http://www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html
It has onyx gravel and vallisneria species only. Three white cloud minnow fry, they have doubled in size in less than a month!



Bottom left: My goldfish tank. The goldfish in picture is an oranda. His name is Pickles. Hopefully the tank is temporary. I am willing to trade stuff for a large sized aquarium, specifically a 40 gallon breeder.






Bottom right: My guppy / platy tank.
4 guppies (3f 1m), 3 platies (2f 1m) and 13 guppy fry (1 month old).
Giving fry away to btmif and his friend tomorrow.





I haven't decided how to decorate this tank.

This is my new project, 10 gallon. Haven't decided what to do with it yet. Probably some sort of plant experiment, or a breeding tank.

Night shot of my 55 gallon w/ moonlights.



Some recent pictures of my nano 2.5 gallon.


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## Tabatha

Great set-up, I'm envious, keep the updates coming!


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## dekstr

Tabatha said:


> Great set-up, I'm envious, keep the updates coming!


Thanks Tabatha.

Don't be envious, cause it's nothing special, just little basic fish tanks w/ plants in them.

Will keep everyone updated.


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## Brian

Nice pictures on the back wall of the 2.5 nano


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## dekstr

Brian said:


> Nice pictures on the back wall of the 2.5 nano


Way to comment on my tanks! hahahaha

I only drew some of them. My friends drew all the ugly ones, like that giant frog thing.

I drew the dinosaur lol. I like dinosaurs but no serious-dinosaur keeping.


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## Ciddian

i love how organized everything looks 

The nano is awesome!


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## dekstr

Ciddian said:


> i love how organized everything looks
> 
> The nano is awesome!


Thanks! The rack looks organized, but it's a mess down in the basement! 

I'll have more nano-pictures coming up! I moved it beside my 55 gallon on the kitchen table by the windowsill. Cranked up the co2 and sunlight should help for rapid growth.


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## dekstr

Here's some update pictures of my 55 gallon tank: Still working on pruning the algae affected areas.

Update! I did a complete tank tear down a week or so ago. Too much BBA and staghorn, decided to clean out everything.

After reading up on lots on Tom Barr's site, decided to do a couple of things:
With no co2 cylinder yet, I couldn't crank up the co2. So for now I will have to compromise with reduced lighting at 2wpg. Bought a 500mL bottle of Excel and started double dosing. So far day 7, no ill effects on shrimp, but only some BBA is turning red. Prune affected parts like crazy. Increased waterflow! Fish seems to like it, particularly cories and loaches. Dose as per EI but w/o KNO3 for now.

The filter was super dirty...clogged the laundry sink with mulm.
Got a new powerhead, the maxijet 400 and I really like it! First brand new equipment I have gotten in a while.

Here are some pre-tank teardown pictures of my old scape:





Wow no wonder I had algae problems! The plants were so densely grown in after not pruning or replanting for months! I got like 20 stems of blyxa japonica out of the original 3-4 stems. 1 small pot of pygmy chain sword and dwarf saggitaria took over half the tank! Other plants suffered with less light and tons of mulm build up wasn't good. Cleared up lots of debris and now the tank looks much better. Less densely planted but each plant has more room.


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## dekstr

Here are some of the rack:









Before and after.

WCM finally big enough to be visible on the camera. 1-2 months ago they were 1/4 of that size.



Guppy/platy tank is still ugly.



Goldfish is camera shy.


Happy snail on a cucumber slice.


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## Fishfinder

Nice pics. And lol your tank count is 6 now


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## dekstr

Lol yeah I forgot to include some pictures.


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## dekstr

Some more rack pictures:






GSA on my livebearer tank.
Staghorn in my betta tank.
GTA in my goldfish tank.
GSA and staghorn in my sawbwa resplendens tank.
Staghorn and GSA in my shrimp tank.
All the algae grows very slowly though, I just pull it out every once in a while, no worries there!


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## dekstr

---

Some recent nano pictures:




Bacterial bloom right now. Plants are growing well. Glosso not enough light intensity.

---

I did some minor touches as topfrog007 from plantedtank.net suggested by trying to hiding the heater and any filter pipes. What do you think?

This tank had not been getting the attention it deserved so BBA + staghorn ensued. Recently I have been spending a bit of time each week pruning aggressively while continuing with 2x excel treatment. The vals and blyxa aubertii are said to die-off or not fare well under excel treatment, but it's been 1 week so far and they're doing fine as before. However, I shouldn't have spot dosed excel on my java moss--the spot-treated areas have died off along with the algae.

On the whole, even though the excel hasn't killed anything algae, it has definitely made it stop growing.

This time I used more focus on pictures (literally). They're not as blurry and I tried to take closer macro-shots of some fish and plants. My photography and plant-growing skills are slowly improving with strong positive correlation!

Note: I removed the Aquaclear 20 powerhead on the right, but in its place I added... DUN DUN DUN...another Eheim 2215 canister filter! It's run on half full thin filter floss as the media. I'm using filter batting for the long run. I might balance the amount of ehfi_mech from the other 2215 to this one to get more efficient filtration (but that's another time). Each spray bar is positioned vertically aimed towards the glass on either side. This reduces the current to just the right amount.

Here are the pictures, enjoy! Feel free to comment honestly!:


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## dekstr

My latest project. Running emersed HC and riccia fluitans right now. ADA AS amazonia II, DIY 26w lighting canopy.


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## dekstr

Tank count...2.5, 5, 10, 10, 10, 10, 20, 55. That makes... 8 tanks! 

This is my limit unfortunately.

I might cut down as it's getting quite busy and I waste too much time on this stuff.

Not doing really well at school and I need to set my priorities straight.


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## Darkblade48

dekstr said:


> I might cut down as it's getting quite busy and I *waste* too much time on this stuff.


Wrong choice of words there 

I like the saran wrap over the (what I assume to be) a nano for the emersed HC and Riccia (though I've never seen Riccia grown emersed).

Keep up the good work; your pictures make me want to fix up my 90g (it's a wreck right now).


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## dekstr

Darkblade48 said:


> Wrong choice of words there
> 
> I like the saran wrap over the (what I assume to be) a nano for the emersed HC and Riccia (though I've never seen Riccia grown emersed).
> 
> Keep up the good work; your pictures make me want to fix up my 90g (it's a wreck right now).


Too bad I didn't take pictures of my 55 gallon when it was overrun with algae.

Waste is a good word when I could be studying instead of pruning plants!

I'm not too sure if the Riccia actually growing emersed though. Slowly growing I think.


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## Darkblade48

I surf various aquarium forums instead of studying; I think your point is moot


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## Ciddian

Dex I love the updates.. I dont think any of your tanks are in an ugly state at all 

i am sorry about the java D: I did the same with the excel. It went white and was very unhappy. I ended up going with flags for my hair algae issue cause i just couldnt get it to go away..

I am excited to see this ADA tank


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## dekstr

Ciddian said:


> Dex I love the updates.. I dont think any of your tanks are in an ugly state at all
> 
> i am sorry about the java D: I did the same with the excel. It went white and was very unhappy. I ended up going with flags for my hair algae issue cause i just couldnt get it to go away..
> 
> I am excited to see this ADA tank


Thanks!

They're all a work in progress for sure!

The java moss I'm hoping to keep it in small patches of driftwood now so it'll be easier to maintain.

Hair algae is caused by excess nutrients and possibly some sort of limiting factor. So I guess there might not enough fast-growing plants to uptake the nutrients.

THat pseudo-ADA is going to be in emersed form for a long time. There's very little HC in there!


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## Chris S

I just think your setup is awesome... 

What kind of filter do you use on all those tanks...


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## dekstr

Chris Stewart said:


> I just think your setup is awesome...
> 
> What kind of filter do you use on all those tanks...


Thanks for compliment again!

Filters:
55 gallon - Two Eheim 2215 canister filters

The first one I bought from Pablo along with the tank and other stuff.
It has the standard ehfi_mech, ehfi_substrat and eheim blue coarse sponge foam. (Pablo, if you are reading this, great deal! Great filter!)

The second one I bought from this guy on aquariumpros.ca for $60 w/o the media. It's filled with cheap polyester batting.

20 gallon long -- Aquaclear 70. It has too much flow (rated for 70 gallons), but I have a piece of acrylic with drilled holes that directs the water flow throughout the tank to reduce water current. I haven't cleaned the filter media since December and it's still superb filtration.

10 gallon tanks -- betta tank and livebearer tank use Eheim liberty HOB 100s, shrimp tank uses a hydro sponge filter rated for 20 gallons, the goldfish one uses an aquaclear 50 because my oranda is a messy poop machine.

2.5 gallon uses a red sea deco art nano filter.


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## Chris S

The reason I ask is that I`ve been thinking about getting a couple other small tanks (10g or so) and was thinking about using a canister filter for both, ie. splitting the input and output. I was curious if you did this, as your setup seems to be just right for it!

I`ve also been thinking about adding another filter to my 40g, did you find adding the 2nd, which I assume is for circulation, helped....

Something is wrong with my keyboard too....can`t type question marks = (


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## dekstr

Chris Stewart said:


> The reason I ask is that I`ve been thinking about getting a couple other small tanks (10g or so) and was thinking about using a canister filter for both, ie. splitting the input and output. I was curious if you did this, as your setup seems to be just right for it!
> 
> I`ve also been thinking about adding another filter to my 40g, did you find adding the 2nd, which I assume is for circulation, helped....
> 
> Something is wrong with my keyboard too....can`t type question marks = (


Ooh it'd be interesting to see how a canister running through 2 tanks will work.

The only major concern I see is whether the filter willl equally distribute the inflow/outflow through two tanks. As you know, the inflow and outflow rate might be different (i.e. clogged intake)--so that could cause flooding if they are not at the same rate.

Adding a second filter definitely helped. More specifically, although the filtration is superb in the Eheim, I find that its water turnover rate leaves less to be desired. The 2215 barely turns the water over two to three times an hour. I find that whenever I disturb the substrate, a lot of debris floats around and barely gets filtered out.

With two, the amount of floating debris in the tank is filtered out much more quickly. Water movement also improves a lot--the current is very gentle but consistent throughout the tank. Debris doesn't settle on the bottom as much so I like that.

Water current is also not that strong with only one Eheim 2215 spray bar. A powerhead helps a lot if you don't want another filter. If you add a pre-inlet sponge to the powerhead, it helps a lot with trapping debris as well.


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## Chris S

The biggest problem I had was that the Pondweed in my 40g covered probably one fourth of the surface. Without the spray bar pointed directly into it, cyanobacteria (or BGA) would form quite quickly, eventually leading to its spread to some of the lighter plants in the tank, like hairgrass and even some of my Ludwigia.

Once the spray bar is pointing right into it, circulation in the tank goes down. While the BGA goes away, some other algae types start in some dead zones (albeit, at a controllable rate). Catch-22!

I think I might try getting my hands on another 2213, see what difference that makes. Regarding a powerhead, I just don`t want an ugly thing like that in the tank...not that my aquascaping abilities are any good anyway!

As for splitting the canister filters between two tanks - I thought that the problem you suggested might come up, but wasn`t sure how fast even small amounts of debris might fill up the opposite tank.

I guess it might be worth exploring a bit, perhaps on a couple tanks that are half or so filled. 

Thanks for the info!


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## kris

*dexters tanks*

they all look sick tanks... never say your platy tank looks bad? no way ...8 tanks limit? hehehe rethink that dexter...


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## dekstr

kris said:


> they all look sick tanks... never say your platy tank looks bad? no way ...8 tanks limit? hehehe rethink that dexter...


Hehe most of the tanks could use more TLC though.

The filter in my 20 gallon finally clogged after 3-4 months of no maintanence. Just cleaned it, so much gunk it took me longer than expected to clean!

Thanks for comments though.

Yup 8 tank limit. I might need to cut down, starting to become a lot of work.


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## JamesG

I thought my 9 tanks were a lot of work until I finally bit the bullet and bought a python. Now my real dilema is where can I put more?? Within 50 feet of the kitchen sink of course.


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## dekstr

JamesG said:


> I thought my 9 tanks were a lot of work until I finally bit the bullet and bought a python. Now my real dilema is where can I put more?? Within 50 feet of the kitchen sink of course.


Hehe looking for python donations!

Good idea though. Maybe I should bite the bullet too.


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## Pablo

dekstr said:


> Hehe looking for python donations!
> 
> Good idea though. Maybe I should bite the bullet too.
> 
> Two sets of Piping around your house. One is on a constant syphon with a T valve to remove water.
> 
> The other just jets in fresh water.
> 
> Bradley in Aurora has such a system in his basement. Its sexy.
> 
> You move a switch, ALL your tanks drain 25%, move another one, they fill up.
> 
> Its mental.


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## dekstr

Pablo said:


> dekstr said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hehe looking for python donations!
> 
> Good idea though. Maybe I should bite the bullet too.
> 
> 
> 
> Two sets of Piping around your house. One is on a constant syphon with a T valve to remove water.
> 
> The other just jets in fresh water.
> 
> Bradley in Aurora has such a system in his basement. Its sexy.
> 
> You move a switch, ALL your tanks drain 25%, move another one, they fill up.
> 
> Its mental.
Click to expand...

I don't have any water outlets in my basement. Do you know how much it costs to set up such a system.

Even some sort of DIY python would be great. Right now I have a 25' garden hose that pumps the water from the main floor kitchen faucet into a big bucket (about 30g). Then I manually scoop the water from the bucket with a smaller bucket to fill up the tanks.


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## ksimdjembe

*the ol' 55*

this tank looks great. i love the gouramis. the planting scheme has potential and wil mature well given time. kudos!


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## dekstr

ksimdjembe said:


> this tank looks great. i love the gouramis. the planting scheme has potential and wil mature well given time. kudos!


Thanks. Those gouramies sure cost me the most. I got them for about $15 a pair at BA during Christmas.

This week they are on sale for like $5 a pair.


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## dekstr

Hey all,

If you are bored and have time to kill at work/home, you can visit my youtube to look at random aquarium videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dekstr


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## dekstr

Tank-tear down pictures on March 1:




I drained the tank water into the water bucket. The tank went to a little more than 1/2 the water level, so I guess that's about 30 gallons of water pumped out.

It took me about an hour, but I should've taken some pictures of the all 80+ fish in the giant blue water bucket. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the last pygmy cory after about 10 minutes of effort. So I gave up to save stress for the fish and myself. However, I definitely improved my netting skills. I put the fish back in after planting on the first day of planting.

Then it took me 2 days, 4-5 hours each day to finish planting. Most of the time was spent pruning off all the BBA infested leaves. It was back-breaking work, but I got pretty quick at stripping leaves off with just my hands.

All the removed leaves have grown back now.

The bucket had the canister and heater running it, with pieces of driftwood. The fish were swimming in circles!

Here are some 'preview' pictures!


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## KhuliLoachFan

*i like your tanks.*

i think you've got bit by the aquarium bug pretty bad. 

I think your goldfish is super cute.

W


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## Darkblade48

What's with the blurred out image (the bottom half is blurred out)?


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## dekstr

KhuliLoachFan said:


> i think you've got bit by the aquarium bug pretty bad.
> 
> I think your goldfish is super cute.
> 
> W


Haha yeah I have some sort of contagious aquarium bug.

Working on 'recovery' right now.



Darkblade48 said:


> What's with the blurred out image (the bottom half is blurred out)?


It's not ready to be shown yet! I'll post one when it gets more photograph-able.


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## dekstr

Here are some pictures of the 5.5g and 10g in my room.

The 10g used to be the livebearer tank in the basement... I gave away all the guppies and platies and now it has 6 CPD and 12 bee shrimp. I'm planning to breed the CPDs.

The 5.5g right now has 2 WCM and growing out.

Enjoy!


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## Brian

Nice, good luck with the CPDs.

Since my plants grew in, I hardly ever see mine anymore.

Where did you get the bees from and how much? I am looking to grab a bunch for my new 35.

BTW - You've got a male and a female in your pics that you've shown 

I have 2 females and 4 males, lol.


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## dekstr

Brian said:


> Nice, good luck with the CPDs.
> 
> Since my plants grew in, I hardly ever see mine anymore.
> 
> Where did you get the bees from and how much? I am looking to grab a bunch for my new 35.
> 
> BTW - You've got a male and a female in your pics that you've shown
> 
> I have 2 females and 4 males, lol.


The bee shrimp I got last week from BA Scarborough, they were on sale $1.99 / pair. They are just assorted bee shrimp though, so they don't have any special patterns or colours.

The ones I have range from yellow, black striped, orange, transparent, peppered and random specks here and there. They're very hard to catch as they are very jumpy and almost invisible as they camoflauge really well.

I still don't think any of mine are male. Sorry about the poor photography skills that makes it unclear.

If you go to page 3 on this academic journal on CPDs--> pdf (warning: large file), there's a really detailed comparison between male and female. The most notable and distinguishable feature is the anal fin. The females have a clear anal fin whereas the males have an orange-y black fin. All of mine have clear anal fins.


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## Brian

Yeah, that was what I was using as a reference... I thought the one in the last pic was a male but I guess its because the other one was blocking it.

If you want, I'll give you a male for a female (or maybe 2 for 2 to make the trip worthwhile).

They are a PITA to catch though, lol.

I thought bees were the black/white like crystals?


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## dekstr

There are a lot of varieties of bee shrimps. The species itself has so many variations that they're still separating many of them into new species. They were simply labelled as bee shrimp. They have some random stripes here and there. Some are orange, some are black and some are clear.

Hmm we could do a swap if it's convenient. I'll talk about it in a few weeks after exams.


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## dekstr

Here are some pictures of my new aquascape for my 55 gallon tank! Enjoy!

Suggestions / comments / advice always welcome!

Also you can see this journal on plantedtank.net too, but for ease of viewing I will repost them here.


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## dekstr

Second part:


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## dekstr

And here is a random youtube video of the tank.

Click on picture for video link to youtube:


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## Tabatha

WOW Dekstr, AWESOME tank, it's a real paradise for your fish!!! I really enjoyed your video.

What's your fish list? I recognized your gourami, rummy nose, cardinals and corys but I didn't recognize your loaches?

Cheers,

Tabatha


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## kweenshaker

that is absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!!!
I need to get CO2 so my plants look more impressive, but I just can't be bothered atm lol


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## holocron

NICE .. i always love seeing pictures and videos. Nice work.

where did you get that nice driftwood?


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## Darkblade48

How's the drop checker working out for you?


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## dekstr

Hehe thanks everyone.
---

Kweenshaker: I'm actually not running any co2 right now. I was using DIY CO2 before but it's just too hard to evenly distribute the co2 in a large tank like this. You get fluctuating co2 levels which really triggers the BBA to come out.

Once I get a summer job I'll get the co2 cylinder (I have regulator already) and it'll be fun to add some pressurized co2.

Ever since I stopped adding CO2 last month and used excel instead, growth has been really steady and algae curbed back a lot.
---

Holocron: I bought a whole bunch of driftwood from this forum member on plantedtank.net, I think his name is badcopnofishtank there. I got 9-10 nice big pieces of malaysian driftwood for about $50, but customs was brutal through UPS, ... something like $40 and they don't even warn you until you get the package at the door!


----
Anthony: The drop checker is blue right now . But it'll come in handy once I get that co2 cylinder.

---

Tabatha: The loaches are burmese border loaches / polka dot loaches, scientific name is Botia kubotai. They are supposed to grow up to 4-5".

The fish list is:
18 or 19 Rummynose tetras (Hemigrammus bleheri)
16 Cardinal tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi)
9 Emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri)
6 Bronze cories (Corydoras anaeus)
19 Pygmy cories (Corydora pygmaeus)
6 Burmese border loaches (Botia kubotai)
1 Albino Bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp.)
10 Oto cats (Otocinclus sp.) 
6 Pearl gouramies (Trichogaster leeri)
2 Siamese algae eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis)
and a couple of large RCS and amano shrimps that haven't been eaten lol...


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## kweenshaker

dekstr said:


> Kweenshaker: I'm actually not running any co2 right now. I was using DIY CO2 before but it's just too hard to evenly distribute the co2 in a large tank like this. You get fluctuating co2 levels which really triggers the BBA to come out.


WHHHAAAAT?? So you mean all I really need to do is get some excel? My plants have NEVER looked as lush as yours...I just figured it was because I'm too lazy to use CO2. (I have lots of light and use fert spikes under some plants [like swords] and chuck a fert tablet in with every water change.)


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## dekstr

kweenshaker said:


> WHHHAAAAT?? So you mean all I really need to do is get some excel? My plants have NEVER looked as lush as yours...I just figured it was because I'm too lazy to use CO2. (I have lots of light and use fert spikes under some plants [like swords] and chuck a fert tablet in with every water change.)


With high light, you need proportionate amounts of co2 to supplement the growth of the plants. Otherwise the plant growth will be limited by co2, even with fert tabs, so all that light + fert tabs will be wasted. Plants don't grow as quickly so algae takes advantage.

Excel is basically a carbon supplement/source for plants. The ingredient in excel is polyccloglutaracetal and from what I understand, it contains carbon in this chemcial that plants can use. One interesting side effect of excel is that it is a minor algaecide. This is because glutaracetal is actually very toxic (actually used in hospitals as a sterilizer)--but the concentrations in excel is very low so no major worries there.

I think Anthony (darkblade48) can explain this a lot better lol.

So it's very good as a substitute for CO2 addition because it enables plants to have a supplmenetal carbon source as well as keeping algae at bay with its minor algaecidal properties. The only downside is the $$$; excel isn't cheap! But it's still great for smaller tanks.

If you go to SeaChem's website, they say that if CO2 is a 10, then excel is about a 6 in terms of effectiveness for plant growth.

If you lowered your lighting you will have about the same growth if there is no co2 addition and experience less possible for algae.

Good luck!

On a side note: Plant growth is about 5-10x faster in about 2-3 wpg with co2 addition as opposed to non-co2.


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## Darkblade48

As dekstr mentioned already, Excel is a form of glutaraldehyde (marketed as polycycloglutaracetal by Seachem).

In this form, supposedly, carbon is more bioavailable to plants to use. As such, it serves as an alternative source of carbon for plants (and also as mentioned, it's still not quite as good as CO2).

Glutaraldehyde is toxic, and is used in (higher concentrations in) some hospitals as a disinfectant. However, at the concentration that we are dosing into our aquariums, it is fine.

It is also worth noting that glutaraldehyde seems to exhibit some algaecidal capability; this may be because it is able to interfere with non-vascular plants (i.e. plants that do not have roots, phlolem, xylem, etc). Such plants include algae, Riccia, various mosses, etc. It is currently unknown why some vascular plants respond poorly to Excel (i.e. Vallisneria).

Also, I've read about people using glutaraldehyde (the chemical) itself to dose, and the effect was comparable to Excel. Of course, glutaraldehyde is not easily obtainable unless you have lab connections, etc, and should only be used by the experienced, as it can be a hazardous chemical.


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## kweenshaker

that's great - thank you both!! I'll get some and try it out.  Would be SUCH a bonus to get rid of algae. I can never get rid of it completely, especially on my anubias.


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## Darkblade48

kweenshaker said:


> that's great - thank you both!! I'll get some and try it out.  Would be SUCH a bonus to get rid of algae. I can never get rid of it completely, especially on my anubias.


Note that Excel only gets rid of some types of algae (I've had good experience using it against Staghorn, BBA, and Thread algae, but not diatoms, green water, GSA).


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## kweenshaker

Darkblade48 said:


> Note that Excel only gets rid of some types of algae (I've had good experience using it against Staghorn, BBA, and Thread algae, but not diatoms, green water, GSA).


Mine is staghorn, so hopefully I'll be good to go 
Thanks again. Maybe my tank will eventually look good enough to post pics of!


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## dekstr

My tank has a lot of algae too lol.

There is a lot of green spot algae on the right side where it gets sunlight by the window sill. But I kind of like the 'natural' look to this non-invasive algae that only grows on the glass. Thread algae pops up once in a while but I just pull it out once in a while and leave the rest to my pair of SAEs.

One of the most important thing to keeping algae manageable is doing the simple things consistently. I learned most of it the hard way lol:

For example:
- try to prune as much of the affected leaves that are covered in algae (very time consuming but very effective)
- do consistent water changes
- dose regularly on a consistent schedule
- keep the filters and substrate from getting too dirty
- don't overfeed the fish
- trim the plants before they become overgrown and shade out light from other plants
- have a good algae eating and cleanup crew (SAEs, oto cats, cory cats/bottom dwelling fish, bristlenose plecos, apple snails, malaysian trumpet snails, amano shrimps, cherry shrimps, american flagfish, etc.)

It is very hard to have a 100% algae-free tank permanenetly, the goal is to keep it manageable.


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## Ciddian

Oh dex, whats your usual water change schedual for your tanks? (sorry if i missed this somewhere)


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## dekstr

Ohh I don't think I mentioned it.

For the 2.5g, 5.5g and 55g: It's 50% per week.
The rest are 25-35% every 1-2 weeks.


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## dekstr

Oh but for the "low-tech" 10g I just do top-offs.


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## dekstr

YAYYYY I GOT A 20 POUND CO2 CYLINDER1!!!!!

I finally got a job, so this was the present I gave myself after saving for months.


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## gunnerx

dekstr said:


> YAYYYY I GOT A 20 POUND CO2 CYLINDER1!!!!!
> 
> I finally got a job, so this was the present I gave myself after saving for months.


Congrats!!


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## Ciddian

Yay you deserve it!


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## Darkblade48

I look forward to seeing even more explosive plant growth now 



Ciddian said:


> Yay you deserve it!


Shouldn't you be sleeping


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## Ciddian

LOL soon soon... :3


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## Fishfinder

Nice, maybe some updated pics? and yeah.... having a job definetly helps the aquarium addiction! I mean hobby!


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## Ciddian

dex can you get photos and show us how the co2 is hooked up? Only if you have the time :3


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## dekstr

Fishfinder said:


> Nice, maybe some updated pics? and yeah.... having a job definetly helps the aquarium addiction! I mean hobby!


Hehe $$$ sure helps w/ the hobby.

But I think I am past the MTS stage, just concentrating on easy maintenance and good looking tanks now. But yeah just saving up as much money as I can to pay for school so I won't be crushed by debt when I'm done.



Ciddian said:


> dex can you get photos and show us how the co2 is hooked up? Only if you have the time :3


Sure that shouldn't be a problem. It's really dark right now so I'll take them tomorrow.

I basically followed the instructions from http://www.rexgrigg.com/regset.html to set up the regulator even though it wasn't the same brand or set. It's very straight-forward.

I'll also show you the ghetto temporary co2 regulator I made with a medium Tim Horton's ice cap cup and maxi-jet powerhead. This is for now until I build the inline reactor.

Oh yeah get a nice quality check valve, water will ruin a regulator.


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## dekstr

Here are some pictures.

I'll explain tomorrow or something! Gotta sleep!


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## dekstr

oops missed one picture!



BTW yup those are green dots of algae on the glass... haven't bothered to scrape them off!


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## hojimoe

hey dekster, where'd you get the cylinder?


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## Darkblade48

hojimoe said:


> hey dekster, where'd you get the cylinder?


I'm willing to bet that he got it at Hydrotech hydroponics 

20 lbs tank of CO2 (They do swaps) for $105 + tax.

Edit: Just noticed that there's a big Camcarb sticker on the tank 

Edit 2: I'd be a bit careful with that CO2 dosing too, the drop checker looks too yellow for my taste.


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## hojimoe

woah, dex!!! did you get that reg/solenoid/needle combo from hydrotech hydroponics for $240??? hey big spender! !


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## Fishfinder

But yeah just saving up as much money as I can to pay for school so I won't be crushed by debt when I'm done.

Yea, i know what you mean.... im starting it next year, i think ima try a nano for my res room , im sure it will be an interesting conversation piece now and then lol!


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## Tabatha

Omg, I Love It!!!


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## dekstr

The cylinder is from hydrotech hydroponic. Google hydrotech hydroponic.

It's 105 + tax, which is around $120 total. 

The regulator is the milwaukee regulator that's sold on aquariumplants.com. It was around $120?

Beat rush hour traffic on East bound 401 and northbound 404 to get the cylinder!

Yellow means pH is > 7.0 right? I used the drops from my pH drop test kit and Anthony's 4 dKH calibrated solution.


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## Darkblade48

dekstr said:


> Yellow means pH is > 7.0 right? I used the drops from my pH drop test kit and Anthony's 4 dKH calibrated solution.


 No.

The colours indicate the approximate levels of CO2 in your tank. Yellow means > 30 ppm, Green means ~ 30 ppm, Blue means < 30 ppm.

The kH of the reference solution is known and held constant (i.e. 4 dkH). The only variable that changes would be the pH of your aquarium water. The lower the pH of the aquarium water, the more CO2 is dissolved in it. This CO2 will diffuse through the drop checker air space, and back into the water within the drop checker, changing the colour of the bromothymol blue (BTB) indicator.

Edit: This hopefully will explain it better.

Using a CO2/pH/kH relationship chart (source: Chuck Gadd's aquarium calculator), the pH is listed across the top, and kH down the left. I've set the minimum CO2 level to be 15 ppm, and the maximum to just above 30 ppm (just so that the 30.1 ppm in the chart doesn't register as "too high")



Since the dkH of the drop checker solution is 4 dkH, that is the only kH line we are interested in. Next, the indicator BTB is as follows: blue at a pH of 7.6, and yellow at a pH of 6.0. In between, the solution will appear yellow-green, green, and blue-green, from low pH to high pH, respectively.

When the drop checker is unequivocally green, you'll notice that, according to the chart, we have 30 ppm of CO2. As the pH increases, the amount of CO2 dissolved decreases, and the drop checker solution will slowly become more blue.

Going the other way, if the pH decreases, the amount of CO2 that is dissolved increases, and the drop checker solution will slowly become more yellow.


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## dekstr

Oh alright thanks once again Anthony.

The colour is a kind of off then, because it's always yellowish, even in the morning when co2 has been turned off the whole night. Hm...


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## Darkblade48

dekstr said:


> Oh alright thanks once again Anthony.
> 
> The colour is a kind of off then, because it's always yellowish, even in the morning when co2 has been turned off the whole night. Hm...


It shouldn't be the drop checker, but you can check this easily: take the drop checker out of water and just leave it for a couple of hours. The solution should turn blue within 3-4 hours.


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## awbowden

> I used the drops from my pH drop test kit


Is this bromothymol blue?

Andrew


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## Darkblade48

awbowden said:


> Is this bromothymol blue?
> 
> Andrew


It should be.


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## awbowden

> It should be.


Oh, I wasn't aware that it was. That means I now have 6 things of bromo blue.



> The colour is a kind of off then, because it's always yellowish, even in the morning when co2 has been turned off the whole night.


Perhaps you need to change the solution if it has been in there for a while. I found that if I use mine for about a month+ it will be a yellowish colour all the time as well. Not sure as to why, perhaps Anthony could explain.

It may also be a sign that tank water has leaked into the drop checker, this is if it is a 2-piece like the RedSea ones.

Andrew


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## Darkblade48

awbowden said:


> Oh, I wasn't aware that it was. That means I now have 6 things of bromo blue.


Indeed, any pH test kit that uses BTB (bromothymol blue) would work with a drop checker solution.



awbowden said:


> Perhaps you need to change the solution if it has been in there for a while. I found that if I use mine for about a month+ it will be a yellowish colour all the time as well. Not sure as to why, perhaps Anthony could explain.


I've also found this to be the case. I've read posts on Plantedtank where people say they change their solution every 2-3 weeks, and I thought this was too frequent. I tried to go for about 4 weeks without changing the solution, and it also stayed yellow. I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the BTB degrading (doubtful).



awbowden said:


> It may also be a sign that tank water has leaked into the drop checker, this is if it is a 2-piece like the RedSea ones.


I've found that the opposite is usually true (i.e. the liquid from the drop checker leaks out into the tank; this won't harm the fish, but you'll have to seal up the leak with some glue). Also, if water does happen to leak into the drop checker, at best, it would dilute the solution a little, rather than keeping it only one colour.


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## Chris S

I change mine every 2-3 weeks, I find the colour gets dim and starts to turn yellowish all the time.

Thanks for the co2 checkers/and solution btw Anthony - much more effective than tank water


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## Darkblade48

Chris S said:


> Thanks for the co2 checkers/and solution btw Anthony - much more effective than tank water


A reference solution is always better than tank water 

Still got tons of stock (40 dkH) solution left over, heh.


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## Chris S

Make me a diffuser!


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## Darkblade48

Chris S said:


> Make me a diffuser!


Do you mean a reactor?  It's just some PVC piping and bioballs inside LOL.

I do have a ceramic disk diffuser that I bought off a user, and never used it yet (I don't have pressurized! Argh!)


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## dekstr

Yeah your best bet is a DIY reactor. It's the cheapest and most effective way to diffuse large quantities of CO2. Only downside is that it might reduce the flow on your canister filter. A water pump/powerhead to power the reactor would also be a good idea.

Anyway I've been really busy recently (work and summer fun) and I don't check the forum as often as before. I spend all my time in front of the computer at work, so by the time I get home I am in no mood to use the laptop. I'm going to take a break from this internet stuff for the summer so don't expect me to reply to any PMs as often!

I'll be back!


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## Darkblade48

dekstr said:


> Anyway I've been really busy recently (work and summer fun) and I don't check the forum as often as before.


*Shakes fists at you* Some of us are still writing exams.

I want to see updates to your 2.5g nano


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## hojimoe

Darkblade48 said:


> *Shakes fists at you* Some of us are still writing exams.
> 
> I want to see updates to your 2.5g nano


lol @ exams, my gf still has one more thursday morning, I finished my exams a couple weeks ago, but still had practical exams, projects due, and today I just finished my project/presentation worth 40% 

lol ...one day left, lab clean up and meetings with head of dept.


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## Darkblade48

hojimoe said:


> lol @ exams, my gf still has one more thursday morning, I finished my exams a couple weeks ago, but still had practical exams, projects due, and today I just finished my project/presentation worth 40%
> 
> lol ...one day left, lab clean up and meetings with head of dept.


And to imagine that I still have two exams tomorrow, another one Thursday, *and* still have to go into the lab after my last exam


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## hojimoe

Darkblade48 said:


> And to imagine that I still have two exams tomorrow, another one Thursday, *and* still have to go into the lab after my last exam


haha just got back from a bar (madison if you know it).... half my class was there, good ol' time, i had to keep to minimal drinks b/c i may be having wisdom teeth/tooth out tomorrow  and b/c i haven't had a real meal since saturday :\

can't chew lol :\ and I hate soup so don't even try it!


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## kweenshaker

hojimoe said:


> and I hate soup


I've never known of anyone else who hates soup!! People think I'm so weird. _"How can you hate SOUP?!!"_


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## Darkblade48

kweenshaker said:


> I've never known of anyone else who hates soup!! People think I'm so weird. _"How can you hate SOUP?!!"_


It's true! How can you hate soup?!


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## hojimoe

Darkblade48 said:


> It's true! How can you hate soup?!


 *shakes fist at you*!!!

so true though, i get it all the time


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