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The Fintro by Maidenhead Aquatics

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

The Fintro – Fish Acclimatisation Unit or Fish Introduction Unit call it what you like, I’ve been trying to make one of these for years, using plastic yoghurt cartons, plastic fruit boxes, the best method I found was to use Ferrero Rocher plastic boxes, with holes drilled in the bottom, the only problem, I could never get the water fill/flow rate correct, or the stability of the plastic box in the water.

Now these problems, have been solved with the The Fintro by Maidenhead Aquatics. I know this device has just been reviewed in the March 2007 Issue of PracticalFishkeeping Magazine, but I was keen to purchase a two units, and test it for myself. I purchase many fish for the fish house (too many sometimes!), and the older method of just floating the tropical fish in the bag from the tropical fish shop fvor 30 minutes has long been proved in-correct. I usually introduce fish into my quarantine tanks, by floating the bag to equalize temperatures, but I also remove water from the bag, and throw away, and slowly over a period of 30-45 minutes, replace the water in the bag with tank water. This lessens the stress on the fish, by gradually introducing the fish to your aquariums water chemistry, rather than causing toxic shock due to vast pH changes.

  • Float the Fintro in your aquarium.
  • Transfer the fish from bag to Fintro, making sure the fish are in the bottom chamber, and there is at least 1cm of water in the upper chamber. (make sure this is over the tank, because although there is a one-way valve,if you fill the Fintro, not over a tank, water will go on the floor!)
  • The Fintro has a valve which permits a very slow trickle of water to gradually fill it, giving time for your new fish to adjust to the aquarium water conditions.
  • After approximately 45 minutes the Fintro will be completely full and sink to the bottom of the tank, releasing the fish.

Fintro
The Fintro by Maidenhead Aquatics

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Python Syphon Drain Adaptor

Thursday, March 22nd, 2007

My fish house already has a 40mm/1.5 inch ABS waste pipe to drain so I can syphon water direct from tanks to a drain outside the fish house, without using buckets or a house pipe. After I purchased the Python Syphon which connects to a standard tap, there needs to be a drain immediately underneath the tap to catch the waste water, most people probably connect to a tap above a sink, or an outside tap. I could have connected it to an outside tap, but neither of my outside taps, have a drain underneath, and I would have to go in and out fo the fish house, to control draining and filling the tanks.

Here’s a simple solution. 5 inches of 30mm ABS waste pipe, 30mm-40mm reducer, 30-50mm reducer, 3 inches of 50mm ABS waste pipe, cut to shape.

Python Drain
Python Syphon drain adaptor

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The Python Syphon

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Let me introduce you to the The Python Syphon. It’s a clever device that connects to your household or outside tap, a 25 foot length of clear UV stabilized, non-porous tubing connects to a fast disconnection snap device, which connects to a conventional 10 inch gravel tubes. Extended length gravel tubes are available for deeper tanks. (I’ve also got a 30 inches one as well!), but the largest is a massive 72 inches, handy for those acryllic hexagonal tanks. There is also an on/off tap which allows you to stop syhphoning or filling up with water.

Python Syphon
This is the brains of the Python Syphon. This is connected to the tap, the tap is turned-on fully, and the Faucet Pump as it is called, has a oulet on the end which is pulled down into the “Drain” position, this has the effect of water passing through the device causing a venturi action.

Venturi Action – The vacuum created by manipulating the speed of a stream of water. The incoming water stream is restricted by a nozzle, while the speed of the outgoing water is decreased by the inverted funnel shape at the bottom of the venturi. The result is a vacuum in the middle, where the waste-water from the tank is sucked into the water stream.

This venturi action is a well known principle used in filters, to bleed air into tanks e.g. Eheim Diffusors use the same principle to suck air into tanks to aertate the returned water.

To fill a tank, the outlet nozzle is pushed up into the Fill postion, water is then diverted up the syphon tube into the tank.

The only issues, I’ve had is in my fish house, I have a internal water supply, but the drain I use for syphoning water away, uses conventional 40mm waste pipe, near each tank for ease. I didn’t want to connect to an external tape outside the fish house, because when working in the fish house, I don’t want to be opening and closing the door, and going in and out, to turn on and off the tape etc

I have finally “designed” and “implemented” “an adaptor” to allow me to use my Python Syphon with ease in the fish house.

If you are still filling and emptying tanks with buckets and a conventional syphon tubes, STOP and purchase The Python Syphon today. One of the Best Inventions Ever for the Aquatic Market.

The correct name is “Clean and Fill No Spill Aquarium Maintenance System” The original and patented

If you’ve got a few minutes, click the above links to view and read the Patents on the No Spill system and if you dig deep enough into the Patent Archives, you’ll quickly see, that Python, didn’t originally design this! A Patent was filed at the US Patents office in 1931 for a similiar device called the Filling and Draining device. Later syphons, were associated with aquariums in the 1950s.

Interesting stuff …

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Male Ancistrus

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Spending some more time in the fish house, and used my Python Syhphon successfully with the new “drain” to partial water change two 90l tanks, in less than 30 minutes. An excellent time saving device. I’m not using it to top up water, because the incoming water is too cold, and would chill the fish, so I use a much bucket of pre-heated water to top-up.

Now that my Ancistrus that I’ve breed are maturing, I’ve noticed that I have very few females, most of the young fish are males. I will be selecting a pair shortly and hoping to breed more of these.

As for Bettas Splendens, not heard anything about a replacement yet.

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A Bit of Car Loving!

Saturday, March 10th, 2007

Most of you probably know we drive a Peugeot Talbot 205 Rallye Sport Special.

Yes : We still have it!

We’ve had the Yellow Peril for many years, and despite 157,900 miles on the clock, it’s still going, unlike many other 205s which have since gone to the Great Scrapyard in the Sky.

This isn’t anything to do with the house, but what the heck, it’s my blog, and the site is about Andysworld.

The Solex carburetor has been playing up for many years due to possibly a worn throttle linkage or ice in the carburetor on cold mornings, in the winter it can sometimes be a pregnant dog, and in the summer also or it just needs a knew carb, or someone that understands them that can strip it down and clean it!

Today, I thought it was time to give the car some luvvving…So I’ve cleaned the leather seats ready for some leather nourishment cream, fixed a hole in the boot with Isopan P40/aluminium mesh and cleaned the carburetor with Redex.

Here is the video of The Redex Experiment hosted on You Tube.

After test driving the car, it certainly has more poke than before, and the throttle seems more responsive! We will see what those damp/cold mornings are like next week.

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Mission to Leeds

Friday, March 9th, 2007

I was hoping to go to Leeds this evening to collect a pair of Yellow Longfin Quad CrownTail Betta Splendens but I’ve just had a text message from the breeder that has informed me that the male has died! So it doesn’t look as if I’m going now!

The breeder came home to find his landlord had moved tables and shelves whilst fixing the central heating system. Having done this, it knocked all the cards away from inbetween the containers and left all the males able to see each other!

Male Yellow Crowntail
Male Yellow Longfin Quad CrownTail Betta Splendens, I was hoping to collect!

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Clifford’s Tower, York

Friday, March 9th, 2007

It’s almost Spring, the days are warmer (not today!) and the 5kg bag of daffodils we planted in November are almost in bloom. I’ll post a picture here, when they are, but in York the daffodils are in bloom, he’s a picture I took yesterday.

Cliffords Tower
Not a picture of our house, but Cliffords Tower in York.

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Moved Tank

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

Finally moved another 4 four foot tank into the fish house, this has been positioned below the leaking four foot tank, so rather than leaking into a cat litter tray, the tank above is leaking into the tank below. My plan is to move all the water/fish/filters in the tank below, so I can fix the tank above. Hopefully third time lucky and this tank will hold water and not leak.

On a fish mission to Leeds tomorrow evening, more on that later, and hopefully more pictures.

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Python Syphon

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

I’m still trying to fix this in the fish house, without getting more water on the floor.

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Harvey’s Pet Shop, 10 Dyer Lane, Beverley

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

Whilst in Beverley today, I popped into a local pet shop that I noticed for the first time, were selling tropical fish, there is only a small selection of “bread and butter” tropical fish upstairs, approx eight tanks, neons, guppies, cloan loach, fighters etc, tanks are very clean, and the fish are all very healthy – the owners are very friendly, and if you ask, can order you most fish. I purchased some Bleeding Heart Tetras, to add to a larger collection I have, at a very competetive price of 1.45GBP each.

There was also a tank of possibly desribed as Yellow haplochromis, very nice fish, and if it was still in the tank, when I returned later that day, would have purchased one – but it had sold earlier that day! Damn!

(the shop is oppposite the Auto/Motor shop where I purchased me leather cream/cleaner for my new leather seats!).

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