New Aquarium

Hi FC & all,

Had a couple of tank surprises this week, first was seeing a strange white creature nestling in the crown of a plant, managed to get a pic, though just of its tail, which unlike the pic, it does have three segments not two, so that helped identify it as a DamselFly nymph.

Was a bit concerned as I did get some Dwarf Corys that @BigC suggested and they are not much bigger that the Nymph so decided to get it out and luckily manage to catch it with a siphon tube, plus they say the nymphs can get bigger and live for up to 2 years in the water.

Then this morning before lights on, thought I noticed something on the inlet pipe and closer inspection found it was a hatched Damselfly !
Managed to net it a take a very quick pic before taking it outside, though wonder if I was better to mercy it with it being so cold today ?

Looking on the web, seems it not uncommon to get them in the plants, though I never noticed anything so big, and doubt they could go from eggs to flying in 6 weeks... ?

Wonder what else is in there !! Anything strange in your tank ...?

 

@ricky101 Have you been told to rinse all incoming plants in salt water then clear water, especially in the nooks and crannys before you put them in the aquarium. Just takes a second. That would cut down on these problems.

 

Hi @Fat Controller

12v 120mm cooling fans are what I have used on my old marine tank and will be using on the planted tank, but you will also need regular water top ups as the evaporation can be quiet large.

I used the micro in my controller to provide a 3 stage PWM output so it only runs the fans as fast as necessary, plus the lower speed means quieter.

As you say you doubt the heater has come on at all, I would add up the wattage of all the pumps that you have running in the tank; it may be that all the heat from them is keeping it warm eg 60 -100 watts.

The covered tank lid with tubes is also another large heat source, can you ventilate it better, even a small 12v 50mm fan will improve things.
However think the best option would be to remove the lid and have it as an open top tank using some cooler led lighting, you can pay a fortune for the high powered fancy ones, but for a lightly planted tank, only some basic leds are really needed and lower lighting mean less nasty algae.

Quiet a few diy led lighting projects around, some very advanced but some still simple, some even use pendant lamps, worth scouring the planted tank forums for ideas.

 

Hi @Barb in Pa,

Had a total of four damsel flies hatch out, thankfully nothing more since !

Have plenty of little pond snails, though seems its best to keep them as they do not eat the plants, just the algae off their leaves and will self regulate their population..

Yes, should have thought of doing something like that when I first started, will try your salt suggestion if I buy any more plants, the tanks quiet full as everything has been growing well, adds a really nice touch of colour and movement during these dim and dark days.

 

Hi again @Fat Controller,

Just been looking back at the old posts, forgot you have tubed LEDs, not fluorescents as I mentioned , though it seems you have up to 69w of electrical power going in or around the tank.

If it was me, as an experiment I would remove the lid and let the powerhead pump just flow 100% around the tanks surface and fit the led tubes to some brackets say 6 " inches above the tank, so it can release as much heat as possible and also make it easy to direct some fans onto the waters surface.

Also what about the canister filter with its larger 35w pump and 9w UV, assume its in the cabintes cupboard, its there a good air flow /ventilation around it or is it almost sealed so meaning most of the heat is take up by the water ?

My little 55ltr tank is just 6" away from the ch radiator in a warmish room, but have not seen the temp go up by more than 0.2c from the set 23.0c.

Have to say its the first open top tank I have ever had, but find it does add a new dimension to the tank, more a sense of being part of it.

Finally got my new diy controller set up with its touch screen, which I find is really handy.
( ignore the invalid testing min / max temps shown)

 

Hi @Fat Controller,

Well perhaps others might give an opinion as to how much filtration the hood unit offers over the canister and tank contents; they say the plants and gravel are home to the majority of the bacteria, so removing the hood might not be too much of a problem if so needed, but thats really what you prefer for your situation.

How are your plants doing, remember you saying quiet a few had faded away ?

Have looked at those Boyu 16W led tubes on the web and given you only have two, seem surprised you saying its too bright as my 18W unit on my 15" cube tank does not seem overly bright ?

Could find no info if the actual tubes are mains powered or DC powered, though if mains you could try a light dimmer and see if you can reduce the intensity that way... ?

Mine are DC powered from a wall pack, so its easy to use use the controller to vary the brightness and even add sunrise /set fading.

Out of interest, have you got a thermometer in that room and monitored the temp over the day to see how high it actually gets , perhaps in summer when the heatings off the room might actually be cooler ?

If you use the Inkbird it will be to control mains fans unless you use an output relay to switch on a supply for 12v supply fans ? just that mains fans are usually quiet a lot noisier as I'm sure you know.

 

Hi,

I got some little fans, a bank of 3 x 25mm or 30mm , used for cooling HDDs etc, they were the noisiest little things for their size, so do choose and try one of them first, some sellers do list a db figure as a guideline.

Kaptan tape and switches ??

 

Hi @Fat Controller ,

Its a good year now since you started this Aquarium thread and was interested to know how its been going on as I know a lot of your time this year has been spent on the new outside apartment !

Mines been growing away ok, probably too many plants in it atm, but the fish seem happy enough and its still enjoyable and relaxing to sit back with a cuppa watching their little water world.

 

Hi @Fat Controller ,

That looks just dandy, really like those very fancy Angelfish !

Glad it all worked out after all those initial trials and tribulations.