I’ve moved five young Sturisoma Aureum catfish to the larger growing-on tank this evening, and provided the Zebra Danios don’t eat them, they should have a lot more space to grow.
Welcome to the FishHouse Blog!
Five young Sturisoma Aureum catfish
Saturday, December 17th, 2005Recycling Armitage Combined Heater Thermostats
Friday, December 16th, 2005I don’t use or trust combined heater/thermostats that use conventional bi-metallic strips. I believe that some modern combined heater /thermostats use electronic thermostats today, and do not rely on bi-metallic strips anymore, but the majority of the cheaper modern combined heater/thermostats still use the troublesome, unreliable bi-metallic strip, which have the habit of “sticking-on” and over-heating the aquarium with disastrous consequences.
I use either Eheim Thermofilters (I’ve had of these fail, and over-heat an aquarium!), Hydor External heaters or dedicated external thermostats connected to a heater to control the temperature in the aquariums in the fish house.
I found a box of Armitage Combined Heater/Thermostats in the attic from the 1980-1990s, I don’t think Armitages, Nottingham manufactuer any electrical hardware for the Aquatic industry today. I’ve spent some time removing all the bi-metallic strips, and hardwiring the heaters so they are permanently on, so they can be controlled by my dedicated external thermostats. I was going to throw this box of heaters on the local tip, so they now have a new life.
Frozen Food
Thursday, December 15th, 2005I’ve finally managed to track down a local supplier that can supply Frozen Ruto fish food by mail at a good price. So 6Kg of Frozen Bloodworm arrived on Thursday to my Office! With the help of a local Sandwich/Coffee Shop, I was able to store the frozen bloodworm in their empty freezer – thanks to Nikki.
So my freezer in the garage is well stocked for Christmas.
Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda Asdpersa Spawn
Thursday, December 15th, 2005I thought one of my cats had sneezed on the bottom display tank in the “sun room”, only to discover that the smaller Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda Asdpersa, have turned out to be a pair, and have spawned in the community tank. These two fish were moved into this tank in September, after purchasing at the beginning of the very same month. I originally purchased six fish, of which two died.
This pair are much smaller, than the two larger fish I have in the fish house. The two fish in the fish house have turned into 5 inch monsters. These fish have fanastic colouration when spawning.
I’ve also got two young pairs of Angelfish in the 6x2x2 aquarium in the fish house, spawning in opposite corners!
Singleton Zebra Danios
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005I’ve moved four rouge “singleton” Zebra Danios into Aquarium No.9 to cycle the tank. These zebra danios have been fish that I’ve never been able to catch in tanks that they have “cycled”. I always keep spare Zebra Danios, they are very hardy fish, and excellent for “cycling” new aquariums.
Because I’ve used “mature” water and a mature filter from another established tank (I always keep spare mature filters on standby) it’s probably not necessary to “cycle” the tank, as it’s mature. But I always like to setup new aquariums in this way. I can also keep a watch on the water quality over the next two weeks. I always test the water, and do not subject the fish to any stress.
Here are the results before transferring any fish into Aquarium No.9
Zero to Low Nirite (blue) and Zero to Low Ammommnia results.
Electrics labelled
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005I’m pulling the late shift at the office again, this week. So not got much time after work, so I’ve spent some time this evening doing the boring jobs, and labelling the electrics in the fish house, it needed doing. I’ve also finally completed all the electrics for Aquarium No.9. I’ve just found out that nPower are increasing their electricity and gas prices from the 1 January 2006, so I’m glad I switched!
I’ve been feeding an empty fish tank to help it mature. So I didn’t think a picture of an empty fish tank would be exciting enough to post in the blog.
Tomorrow evening time permitting, and poviding the water quality is okay, I’ll move some hardy Zebra Danios and Guppies into the tank to help cycle the it.
Aquarium No.9 Relocation Part II
Saturday, December 10th, 2005The aquarium has been curing for the last 48 hours after I had removed all the old silicone sealer, and re-sealed the aquarium with new. I moved the aquarium outside to test fill and leave for 12 hours to check for leaks.
Removing water with an Eheim 1260 pond pump after test filling.
Finally, moved the aquarium back to its new home, and filled with 50% aquarium water from partial water changes, and 50% HMA filtered water. The electrics are currently temporary, so I can get the Dennerle C400 internal filter, heaters, and lighting on-line to quickly mature the tank. I’m using a 40w Power-Glo tube to encourage algae growth, this tank is for young Sturisoma Aureum, using 40w Power-Glo tubes in the past has proved to be successful in encourage algae growth, these tubes are usually used in Marine aquaria. I also have plans to use an Eheim 2250 external canister filter.
Aquarium No.9 installed and “maturing”.
Hypostomus sp. L137
Friday, December 9th, 2005I purchased this pl*co from a local “pet shop” 12 months ago, it was sold as a Blue-Eyed pleco, it did have pale-blue eyes at the time of purchase.
It was very thin, when purchased with a hollow stomach, I think the “pet shop” was feeding it on flake, it could also have been starved for export to the UK, which is a common practice for exoporting fish.
It’s been feed Algae Wafers, Courgette, Cucumber, Spinach, Kale, Prawns and Bloodworm, it’s grown and put on weight, but it’s lost it’s pale-blue eyes.
Nobody told me there’d be days like these!
Thursday, December 8th, 2005Overcome by the smell of acetic acid (vinegar smell) after re-sealing Aquarium No.9, I’ve left the fish house early this evening. I’m surprised this fish tank held water, because after cleaning it out, the silicon sealer in the fish tank, just fell off – well this tank is 18 years old! – only new aquariums seals, are guaranteed for 1-2 years today.
L001/L022 feeding on courgette with the help a Screwcumber.
Albino Ancistrus sp. feeding on cucumber with the help of a Screwcumber.
It’s the Christmas Party tomorrow evening, so I don’t expect I’ll be adding a blog entry tomorrow!
There’s a little yellow idol to the north of Katmandu
Fish House Electricity Cost!!!
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005At the end of October, I posted an entry Do you suffer from high electricity bills?. I’ve been looking for a power meter to measure kWh for many months to establish Fish House Electricity costs, and I eventually managed to purchase one from JLB Electronics.
The results are now in for half of my fish house, the fish house is split between into two ring mains, so this is ring main one. (It also allows me to draw up to a maximum of 20A per ring main!). Ring main one supplies electricity for 9 aquariums.
Ring Main One Summary
- 120W of fluorescent lighting.
- 2.7kWh of aquarium heating.
Items connected to Ring Main One:-
- 3 x 40W Aquaglow fluorescent lights.
- 1 x 50W heater.
- 3 x 150W heaters.
- 2 x 300W heaters.
- 2 x 500W heaters.
- 1 x Hydor 300W external heater.
- 1 x Hydor internal combined Filter/300W heater.
- 1 x Eheim 2260 External Canister filter.
- 1 x Hagen Biolife 55 Internal Filter.
- 1 x Project PH600 Powerhead.
- 1 x Hagen 201 Powerhead.
- 1 x Personal Computer with 150W power supply.
The maximum wattage drawn by the electrical applications was 2.1kW on Friday 25 November at 4.03am.
In the last 32 days, the electricity consumed by ring main one is 605 kWh. A cost recorded by the power meter of 49 pounds. I’m charged 8.1p per kWh by nPower.
I’ll measure ring main two, and post the results on the blog, in a few weeks.
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