My 'Pris' 2ft Tank Journal

[iewnuj]

Decided to start a tank journal and hopefully I will be disciplined enough to update the journal regularly. Please excuse me if I am posting at the wrong section but since 95% of the pros hang out here and so I figured this is where I can learn the most from all the pros.

I am a complete noob in setting up hence I welcome any comments or suggestions!

Note to moderators: If you find my style of writing too crude, please advice. I will try to tone it down.


A Short Introduction
Named after the most prettiest girl (IMHO) in my school - 'Pris' will be a experimental tank and its final objective is to able to keep a colony of CRSs.

Pris still in the making..


After more silicon injection and surgery, Pris was ready for collection today.

Cheong-ed back from school and fetched Pris home to introduce her to my parents.


Cant let my parents see Pris naked, so I covered her b**bs with black omaya paper.

[eviltrain]

nice. Another one who got poisoned. You going to placing your girl on that table?

[iewnuj]

nice. Another one who got poisoned. You going to placing your girl on that table?

Thank you. Judging by your shrimp rack, your symptoms of poisoning is much more severe than me.

Im swapping out my old 2ft tank (on WI stand) for Pris. Decided that for once I should maintain some shrimps and not an algae farm.

I am waiting for my bro to finish ******** in the bathroom right now, so that I can continue fondling Pris.

[eviltrain]

*Hint hint* some time algae is good for shrimps too. Hee hee.

[iewnuj]

17/08/2010

Managed to wrestle back control of the washroom and I lovingly carried Pris in my arms to the washroom to bathe her and to do a quickie. No I mean leak test on her.


Definitely not a virgin, no blood was spilled.


Next, I armed the hoses with insulations and rigged them up on Pris.



Close-up picture on the special feature of Pris



Added in about 8 liters of ADA Amazonia II, with old sea mud rock at the bottom. Attempted an mini aquascape, and found out I wasn't born with any arty farty genes.




Slowly filled Pris with water and much to my surprise, ADA Amazonia aquasoil doesn't cloud the water at all. (First time user)




End results:



An AAR on 17/08/2010

1. Rain bar isn't parallel to the tank!

2. Substrate isn't as level as I thought (was trying to expedite things when I realized how late it was)

3. My moss tying skill leaves much to be desired - the meshes that I pre-tied with mosses a few days ago became almost botak after moving the meshes from my old tank --> quarantine tank --> Pris. My meshes now looks like someone suffering from severe hair loss. I don't think the moss will grow out looking too nice. Any advice on this?

4. The roots of the java fern looks rather exposed. Any advice on this too?

5. Concerned on the heavy usage of SS meshes. Will it affect my water parameters in future? (especially so when Pris is going to be housing shrimps)

6. Placement of Co2 diffuser


I'm "trapping" the bubble on the mini ceiling as indicated in the yellow arrow. Is this is a good idea or will there be implications (e.g. algae growth) in the future?
Similarly is it advisable to place bioballs/ceramic rings in the partition to trap more co2 bubbles (and to house more beneficial bacteria)?

7. Can I start dosing ferts now? Or should I wait for the ammonia levels to drop before any dosing?

Thanks for reading! any comments?

[aquarius]

The present plants and the amount you have don't require you to use C02 and introducing them will cause you more headaches later on. It's better to have a non C02 set-up for CRS tanks and do add more ferns and crypts to have more variety of plants to the scape.

As for the C02 diffusor, it should be placed in the main display instead of at the partition area so as to allow better C02 distribution around the plants.

[freshwtrmonster]

thanks for sharing! you made me thinking to do something with my unused 2 feet tank.. i hope i got time to start this all.. lol.. cheers..

[iewnuj]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I do admit that the flora in Pris is very limited, I brought too much of the same kind of moss! I will see how Pris will turn out in a few weeks time before deciding whether to increase the variety. The Co2 will not be a permanent feature in Pris, I will remove/reduce the co2 once I'm ready to introduce shrimps into Pris.

As for the diffuser, I need to run a experiment to know if there is a difference between placing in the partition or in the main display. For that to happen, I would first need to acquire a drop checker. (camping in the marketplace ) Or is there any kind soul willing to loan me their drop checker for a couple of days?

On a side note, I made a very dumb mistake and burnt $40+ worth of LEDs today when I was trying to build a LED fixture for Pris! : Still feeling the pain in my heart/wallet right now, as its equivalent to about 6 hours of my hard earned part time pay. Furthermore, I do not have enough remaining LEDs to complete my fixture now and I have to re-order the LEDs again.

Sigh, what a demoralizing day today.

[iewnuj]

Day 13

Did some testing on Pris today. Results as follows:

PH - 5.5 (Tetra)
NO2 - 0.25 mg/L (API)
NO3 - 50mg/L (Sera)
GH - 999 (Tetra)

Water parameters are bad but hey, its just Day 13 .

My GH test kit doesn't seems to be working anymore, it refuses to change color even after I've added more than 10 drops of the reagent. Re-tested using tapwater and I got the same results, most probably the reagent has expired.

Pris has come under attack by hair algae and BBA, due to having only slow growing flora in Pris. Manual removal is futile, not to mention tiring. My next course of action will be adding in high nutrient absorbing plants. Im looking to add frogbits and hornwort into Pris. Anyone in the east has some to spare for me?

[reveru]

Try spot dosing hydrogen peroxide from pharmacy or Seachem Excel. Works wonders against algae.

[iewnuj]

Purchased a bottle of hydrogen peroxide while on the way to collect some frogbits yesterday. Went home and loaded 2ml of H2O2 into my syringe and started squirting on the algae. Reloaded another round and continued the shooting spree.

I shall report on the results soon. If the results are good, time to turn Pris into a killing field.

[aquarius]

A good plant to consider is hornwort instead of frogsbit cos it's difficult to get rid of frogsbit later and also it can be quite a nightmare when doing your tank maintenance with them inside. Btw you should pack in more plants or reduce the amount of lighting. Right now you're treating the syntoms instead of the cause.

[yongquan86]

oh my.. you are so detailed. anyway.. i wanna ask how you do the partitioning of the tank. I will only be back in sg in xmas.. so wanna do more research on those stuffs. what was the rationale behind it when you do this?

another thing. Would there be a biofilm build up since there is no surface skimmer?

anyway 'Pris' looks good..

[iewnuj]

Day 15 & 16

I had 4 hours to burn after school yesterday before meeting my friends for steamboat. After camping for 2 hours in the library, I was cold, restless, bored and very hungry ("fasting" for the steamboat). My mind began to drift away...

: "Lets go C328, its just 3 bus stops away from your school."

: "NO! You have already overspend on Pris already! You need the money to top up your ezlink card!"


In my bad state of mind, I just couldn't summon enough mental power to defeat the demon.

Total Spending : $20+ (Quite a big amount considering that I am now out of my part time job )


However on a better note, I got some hornworts from bro silfreaks today (for free!) 9999x thanks to him again!



Time for some pictures.

Did some testing today -
GH: 4 (API - Newly brought! and it works!)
NO3 - 50mg/l






Frogbits, hornworts and the new $1.50 thermometer I got to replace my cranky dymax. Note that the filter wool is getting dirty - last washed was on Day 2.

After torturing my corys in a pail for the past 2 weeks, I decided to use Pris to hold them so I can take some pictures and put them up for sale. Another lesson learnt - after 2 hours, all 3 of them were no longer in the breeding box.




Introducing you the cast of Prison Break -


Michael Scofield




Lincoln Burrows




and Theodore T-Bag


Now I am going to have another big headache when I want to net them up again...

FTS


Algae seems to be under control. After the 1st H2O2 bombing run, I do not see any more aggressive algae growth anymore. I have noticed the water flow seems to be stronger at the end of the rain bar, so I went and tilt back the rain bar to slightly compensate for the water flow. (there goes all the aesthetics)

Now everybody can see how bad my moss tying skills are, the more badly tied ones are kept in the background. My meshes are turning to look somewhat similar to my scalp. Its so ugly that I think its an insult for a thread like this to live under the "Aquascaping" section, I should had done this thread in the Beginner's Section.

[iewnuj]

@aquarius: As you can see, I got some hornworts today! Planning to reduce my lighting hours from 8 to 7 hours.

@yongquan86: I came up with Pris on my own and got it made by N30. Take note its a experimental tank, I still have no idea whether it works and I have not consulted with any professionals. My rationale for having a mechanical filter partition is so that I can wash the filter wool more regularly as compared to having the wool in my canister filter. I can also make use of the partition space to hide my water inlet so that it won't suck in any shrimps in the future. Furthermore, I can "hide" stuff like frogbits/hornworts so that I can have a clear view of the display area.

Of course, you have to understand my situation. I am still under the command of my COs (parents) and they prohibit me from anything bigger than a 2ft tank. Hence I try to make the best use of the 2ft space that was given to me. The cheaper and better way would be having a sump tank, but it doesn't make sense to have a sump just for a 2ft tank.

Regarding the bio-film, yes, there is a layer of film on the surface at the moment. I think the trick to reduce the film (besides skimming) is to increase the surface agitation by means of a air pump or placing your outlet near the surface. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

[iewnuj]

Its so ugly that I think its an insult for a thread like this to live under the "Aquascaping" section, I should had done this thread in the Beginner's Section.

Oh man, now that I have re-read my post I now know for sure that I'm marked for life in AquaticQuotient. It has passed the time for me to edit my post, what I meant was the other way round - Its an insult to the aquascaping section, not to my thread.

[Thirteen]

I guess it wouldnt harm closing one eye on grammar mistakes

Cheers!

[iewnuj]

Day 18

Finally, my order for the LEDs (to replace the ones that I had accidentally destroyed) came on Day 17 and I can continue working on my light fixture for Pris. Here is a brief run-through of the total process.


Falling in my parts.


Attaching the heatsinks to the aluminium plate


I used thermal pads to paste the LEDs on instead of screws - I have no confidence in using a drilling machine.


Finally, it works and I nearly lost my eyesight as a result.


After my budget cut (my bank account <$200 and lost of my part time job), aesthetics was thrown aside as I have no more financial capacity to DIY a acrylic stand my for LED fixture. Instead, I used my current Hopar T5 light stand to hold my LEDs. As the aluminium plate is flexing due to the load, I hanged some fishing weights at the ends to counter the flexing.



No DIY acrylic stand, hence no splash guard. So I sprayed a few layers of plastic sealant over the exposed joints, hopefully it can help in preventing oxidation.


Final test


FTS - I have added a new plant at the left hand side, washed my filter and leveled the substrate. Can anyone ID the newly added flora for me?

Comparison between 6 x 3W LEDs and 2 x 24W T5HO


AAR of my DIY LED lights
1. Never bite off more than what you can chew - Should had done more budget analysis before embarking on this project, LEDs are definitely not suitable for a budget conscious student. I personally feel that my LEDs are a walking time bomb due my following concerns:

a) Heating issues, my LEDs are passive-cooled. After running for a few hours, the aluminum plate is hot to touch (at the middle section) but I can still leave my fingers there for at least a few minutes, so its hot but not scorching hot. Thinking of getting a clip on fan to blow at the middle section.

b) Instability - Supported by the stands at the end only. Furthermore, the slight flexing of the aluminium may cause stress to the thermal pads

c) NO HOOD - its @#$%#$% glaring if I were to look directly at the lights

d) Oxidation - I don't experience any water splash as my rain bar is way below the water surface, but who knows when oxidation may occur on the solder joints

2. LEDs are environmental friendly

3. Shimmering effect is nice.

4. Pearling is more obvious. Less than 3 hours after my LEDs were turned on, pearling can be easily seen.

[Wolfgangs246]

Wow that looks like a nice DIY job there. Would it be possible to dismantle your existing T5 housing to create a housing for your new LEDs? Or maybe you can consider using glue to secure the length of the LED housing to some wooden planks? That would at least give your lighting some security against collapsing in the middle.

[PaperCut]

It is always so interesting to read through your journal, so much of "innovative storylines"

Nice DIY on the LED. Dismantle your T5 set and modified its housing for your LEDs?