My new CRS breeding tank(which sort of saves electricity)

[tatguy]

Hi here to show my newly set-up CRS breeding tank. I also insulated it to prevent heat gain and thus saves money on my electricity bill.

Day 1-3.
EQUIPTMENT
*2 feet tank on 2feet WI rack
*2 feet 55 watt Aquazonic PL lamp
*Ehiem 2213 as filter, using rainbar facing water surface as output*Input is normal U-pipe with fine sponge covered inlet
*Chiller is hailea 130A
*Media includes 2 pieces of blue ehiem rough foam, ANS ceremic rings(crushed to smaller bits) and cheap fine cotton from Ocean free.
*Oyama black paper
*Foam boards
*Aircon pipe insulations
SUBSTRATE
*GEX red pack soil 1 pack 8kg
*1 bottle of mosura old sea mud
*A few sprinkles of ADA bacter ball crushed and Mosura bio plus
Water conditions after 3 days.
*NO2-0
*NH3/NH4-0
*Cl-0
*GH-In between 5-6
*pH-6.7
*Tempreature-Kept between 22.9~24 degrees C

Below are the pictures of the initial set up till today. Set-up started on 5/3/2011


Setup after 3 days. Xmas moss introduced on 3rd day, self planted in main aquarium before hand. Bag on left corner is active carbon to remove any toxins. The carbon has already been remove to allow some ammonia to exist so that beneficial bacteria can grow and spread faster
Attachment 22037
Day4:
water starts to become milky due to growth of bacteria.
Attachment 22038
Chiller is set to 23 degrees
Attachment 22039
Oyama paper is applied on fish tank sides and then foam boards stuck on the oyama paper.This is done so that the double sided tape used would not leave any residue on my tank glass in case i want to remove them in the future.Besides,black is a nice color for background
Attachment 22040
My pipes are also insulated with foam coverings you can buy from hardware stores. It is a little hard to slot in the rubber hose as the foam insulation is meant for metal and plastic pipes which are a lot smoother. I applied baby powder to ease the slotting. However it still is not easy, you still have to spend a long time slotting the pipes in if your pipes are above about 30cm long.
Attachment 22041
Insulating the tank and pipes improved the efficiency of my chiller chilling. From about 25minutes to roughly 10 minutes during the night and 15minutes during the day. The time the chiller needs to kick in also increased. About 1hour and 30minutes in the day and 2hours plus during the night. The timing also changes depending on surrounding temperature.

Also added about 10ml of Mosura Mineral plus to make my water GH 5~6

[tatguy]

Day 5, also know as today, did finale testing and water parameters seem to be the same. Also used some sakura shrimps to test water since yesterday night and they are still well and alive, and constantly eating. Shall post some pictures of the new CRS i got from a nice bro.

Not CRS but a picture of my Xmas moss i could not post on my previous post.
Attachment 22042
The CRSs i got from ROYLIM1982, color not out yet due to stress from transport all the way from sengkang to tiong baruh using public transport
Was still quite okay when bought
Attachment 22043
And after settling them down using my spoon to transfer my aquarium water in and out of the container, I released them after about 2 hours.
AND NOW look at my Xmas moss block again
Attachment 22044Attachment 22044
The Pregnant Mama shrimp that was also included.
Attachment 22045Attachment 22046

As for now only one haven fully show color yet. Guess its the slow one
The colors are improving by the minutes as i am typing this post and they are all exploring my tank right now. Shall update for any changes.

[alvinchan80]

Nice simple setup.. All the best to you in this ever poison..

Hope to see you with KK & WR soon.. Lol

[tatguy]

Thanks. KK & WR not so soon i guess. Maybe SSS after this batch of mine become like under water cockroaches.

[eviltrain]

If possible you change your pl lightset to led lightset. Less heat and save more eletricity. NA sells 2 feet led lightset at affordable price.

[tatguy]

Will consider LED when i have the chance
I got the PL lamp for free so thats why i am using it. If possible could you tell me the estimated price of the LED? PM me if it is against the rules to state prices

[vannel]

I would have thought insulating the tank would be alot more energy efficient than insulating the pipes actually. The tank gives you a much larger surface area for the transfer of heat from the surroundings. It's probably not gonna look very fantastic and won't win you any awards, but 3 pieces of foam (back, left, right) would probably help with saving costs.

[tatguy]

I would have thought insulating the tank would be alot more energy efficient than insulating the pipes actually. The tank gives you a much larger surface area for the transfer of heat from the surroundings. It's probably not gonna look very fantastic and won't win you any awards, but 3 pieces of foam (back, left, right) would probably help with saving costs.

Agreed on the pipes part. But another reason i insulated the pipes is because of all the condensation on the pipes. the water always drip behind my tank rack and it is pretty hard to wipe it dry.

I am considering weather i should also insulate my filter body as it has a pretty large surface area and is dark colored, which should also be one of the reasons for heat gain. Planning on using those foam sheets to simply wrap around it, or use curved pieces of styrofoam. And change to LED lamp if i got chance

[eviltrain]

I am considering weather i should also insulate my filter body as it has a pretty large surface area and is dark colored, which should also be one of the reasons for heat gain.

its better not to warp the canister because the BB growing in there needs warmer environments to make them more active ( breaking down ammonia ).

my 1/4 cents worth of thinking

[haywas_35]

Try using external temperature controller and see the different.

[tatguy]

its better not to warp the canister because the BB growing in there needs warmer environments to make them more active ( breaking down ammonia ).

my 1/4 cents worth of thinking

Does 1 or 2 degree really make such a big difference? The water coming from my tank into the filter should be at most 1or 2 degree colder or warmer isn't it?

Try using external temperature controller and see the different.

is an external tempreature controller expensive? i might get one if it is not too expensive as i am going to get an extra fan to fit into my chiller to minimise the cooling time even more

[haywas_35]

DIY cost less than $100, do a search here.............. your chiller must not be too close to the wall for air circulation.

[tatguy]

DIY cost less than $100, do a search here.............. your chiller must not be too close to the wall for air circulation.

ok. Yea i left my chiller air output about half a feet away from my wall

[SeahSengYong]

Nice set up.

[tatguy]

Nice set up.

thanks. any ideas or suggestions are welcomed. though i hope the price for implementing the ideas/suggestions would nt be too high

[ROYLIM1982]

Hi bro, I'm glad u like the shrimps. Anyway nice setup u have there

[tatguy]

Thanks. they just did the superman thing just now and i saw a female being ganged already. but the pregnant one just keeps hiding and only come out for food

[tatguy]

An update!
Decided to dig out some fire reds which were dumped in my main tank a year or 2 ago. These were the best i could get out of the hundreds of low quality ones though.

Shall try selective breeding them together with the crystals.
Attachment 22110Attachment 22111Attachment 22112
One of the only males i could find that is still decent on the marimo
Attachment 22113Attachment 22114

[SeahSengYong]

Hope you like your new shrimps.

[tatguy]

And here are the pictures of the CRSs. One of them even got berried yesterday but i couldn't find it until today. Pardon the low quality pictures, they were taken with a old camera which cannot really focus well.

One of the better males which regained the white.
Attachment 22116Attachment 22117Attachment 22118

And of course the berried female. Though it lost a little bit of color.
Attachment 22119Attachment 22120
And that is all for now.