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Sunday visit to the local Garden Centre

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

I’m in need of some garden peat to acidify some of the aquariums in the fish house, but it seems that all gardeners, are bio-plant friendly, and most composts are peat-free and I cannot find a small bag of peat anywhere, so I visited our local Wyevale Garden centre today at York, which also has a recent addition of Maidenhead Aquatics. I could not find a small bag of peat, they only have 60l bags but did have a look around the tropical fish.

I’ve noticed that Maidenhead Aquatics, have switched all the substrate from gravel to sand in all the tanks. I was very surprised at the cost of fish, 15 GBP for three Poecilia Endlers, 5 GBP for one very small Ancistrus Sp. They had 15 small white, possibly platinum Angelfish with red eyes at 5 GBP each, or 2 for 10 GBP. I was very tempted to purchase the tank of 15, but I’ve currently got no where to put them as all quarantine tanks are full.

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Live Algae Magnets

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

I’ve been shuffling fish around the aquariums in the fish house today, I’ve moved most of the Zebra Danios back to my large holding tank of stock angels. I use zebra danios to cycle and mature the aquariums in the fish house, the only problem is, they are very difficult to catch, once their job is done, they usually share the tank with their permanent inhabitants, because I cannot catch them all. I’ve still got two to catch in a few tanks.

I’ve also moved a few ancistrus into tanks, that had bad algae, I forgot to take a pictures for a before and after shot, I’ve got one tank left with bad algae, I’ll make sure I included a picture here. They are great for eating algae, great little live algae magents, it saves me cleaning the tanks and purchasing Algae wafers.

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Out of the frying pan….

Saturday, September 10th, 2005

I don’t know what’s been happening today in the fish house, maybe it’s the weather. I found a another zebra danio, on the floor after it had decided to jump out of the tank.

And one of the Purple Spotted Gudegon had decided it didn’t like it’s quarantine tank, must have jumped out and decided to jump in with a Breeding Pair of Marble Angels, which promptly attacked and killed it!

I’m confused, as to how these fish escape, when I’ve tight fitting condensation trays on all the tanks!

I spoke to Pentair Aquatics, the manufacturers of the Lifegard range today, excellent customer service, gave me the required part numbers, and arranged for the UK Distributor to call me, and suggested retailers, where I can purchase my replacement water deflector, I didn’t know that Pentair is a very large commercial company that also specializes in water treatment products for domestic consumption and have deployed massive mobile treatment plants into New Orleans to pump/treat the water, after the Katrina Hurricane Disaster.

It is alleged, that the prime reason for the Import Ban on Hikari products into the EU, is because Hikari have to prove the source of the ingredients, the EU is concerned that products do not contain contaminated blood or meat products from infected animals. Until the Japanese company can provide adequate documentation, the products will not be allowed to enter the EU.

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Fluidized Bed Filter finally installed.

Thursday, September 8th, 2005

I’m finally happy with the flowrate in my test bucket, no media is at the bottom of the bucket, so it was time to install the filter in the aquarium. This is currently installed in a 170l aquarium.

Three Angelfish, Kribensis and Albino Ancistrus sp. can be seen in the picture. This filter is driven by a Maxijet PH600 powerhead, I cabled-tied some spare filter media onto the media adaptor supplied with the powerhead. I usually obtain my cable-ties and other electrical bits and pieces from the following website JLB Electronics, a small business located in the West Country of England, fantastic customer service, delivery and good quality products, the cable-ties are excellent. If they don’t list it on the web site, just ask them JLB Electronics. This stops any large dirt particles getting into the media. I’ve mislaid the water deflector which helps to aerate the water, I’ve emailed PentAir for a replacement, so to aerate the water, I’ve fitted a Eheim diffusor, this ads some back pressure, so the media is not fluidized completely at present, to add additional aeration to the aquarium, it is necessary and important to do this because bacteria in the fluidized bed filter can reduce the oxygen content in the water to dangerous levels.

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Blushing Angelfish

Thursday, September 8th, 2005

One of my Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda Adspersa, next to the legendary Screwcumber. These are made of high grade stainless steel and are idea for holding down cucumber, courgette or lettuce. I use them to feed all my vegetarian fish. Contact Gary Evans for details.

I’ll have to regularly check the gudgeon, as four seem to be fighting, in the quarantine tank.

This picture represents the fish house mission to bred good quality Angelfish. If you look carefully at the photograph, you will notice that some of the angelfish have red markings on the gill plates, these reddish markings are called a “blush”, and shows the red gills, because there is no pigment in the gill plate. These angelfish are sometimes referred to as “red angels” in the trade and local tropical fish shops, not to be confused with the real red angelfish!
These are fish that have been kept because of their unique qualities and traits.

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Contact the Author

Thursday, September 8th, 2005

I’ve setup a new catchall email address so you can contact me. aquablog@gmail.com

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I want a refund!

Wednesday, September 7th, 2005

I purchased a box of 250 airstones many years ago which I’m still using, and
I found a duff one, I never found an airstone to be duff before in all my 
years of fishkeeping, what is there to go wrong, airstones are not that
complicated are they? I thought my pump on my display tank had ceased 
working.

 I found some filter media on my travels, approx 150l of various types,
that I’ve decided to soak and clean in the garden before re-using in an Eheim
2260 external canister filter which is expensive to fill, because it has a large
filter chamber.

 Unfortunately, the poorly Purple Spotted Gudgeon has died. It’s always sad
to loose any fish, no matter how small or large, when you’ve   tried
very hard, and done all you can to try and save it.
 

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Air Ring Main is installed

Tuesday, September 6th, 2005

I’ve finally purchased the parts and installed the new Air ring main. Inspired by fellow Discus breeder mad4discus see website here.

I purchased three 2m lengths of 22mm overflow pipe, two 90 degree elbows, and one endstops. Not wanting to use any marley solvent in the fish house, I opted for the Speedfit system, this is manufactured by John Guest (who also make the RO fittings) quick and easy to install, max pressure is about 4 bar. The Speedfit system is more expensive than standard solvent based pipework, but this is easier to install in the fish house, and uses no solvent, it can also be easily disassembled and reused. I’ve cut a length of Eheim 19/27mm external filter tubing (I’ve got plenty in stock! don’t ask!), jubilee clipped this onto the 22mm overflow pipe, the other end will be jubilee clipped onto my Airpump. This will be relocated out of the fish house, in the non-insulated part of the garage, to pump in cooler air. I already had a suitable hole in the jablite wall to allow the pipework to be connected.

Work to complete, drill small pilot holes, install algarde elbows, lengths of air-line to tanks, connect airpump.

The final migration to the new air main, will be completed over the next weekend. I’ve set a GoLive date of 9/10 Sept 2005. This is so I can monitor any potential issues over the weekend, it’s very important to have air in your tanks!

Thanks Thanks to mad4discus for the inspiration.

Note to self Must purchase a backup blower!

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Angelfishcam is Fixed, Service Restored.

Tuesday, September 6th, 2005

Sorry for the inconvience the webcams in the fish house are now fixed and working again.

All webcams should update every 30 seconds, if you find the date and time stamp is not changing, please email me at andypandy00 at hotmail.com, and I’ll attend to it as soon as is humanly possible.

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A Day in The Life of a Fish House!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2005

I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad……

(Lennon/McCartney)

Do you have days, when you have a great day at work, and then it all comes crashing down around you head?

I arrived home this evening, checked the fish house, and found that the Bueno Aires Tetra was dead, also the fish house was very hot at 35 degrees C room temperature, I also noticed that the venturi aeration device on the hyflo internal filter had stopped working, couple with a tank medicated with with MelaFix, two quarantine tanks were depleted of oxygen, 20 Ancistrus sp. were diving to the top of the tank, I assume to take in oxygen. 50% partial water changes and brisk aeration using airstones, the fish seem to be okay. I’m not too sure if this accounted for the tetras death.

I currently have 120l of HMA filtered water aerated and heated at 28 degrees C for partial water changes, another 158l of HMA filtered water on standby at room temperature.It takes approx 75 minutes to fill the water vessels.

I’ve also found the missing Danios, I found one dry and crispy on the floor underneath the quarantine tank, and bones of the other stuck in the Juwel filter. One zebra danio has disappeared from the quarantine tank with the single Purple Spotted Gudgeon, I suspect the fish was hungry.

I’ve recently filled holes in the garage walls where the fish house lives with squeezable polyfilla, to maintain the warmth over the winter, the only problem is, during these warm September days the temperature increases, I’ve opened the internal fish door this evening to decrease the temperature during the day, until winter arrives.

Overall, a very eventful day.

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