Posts Tagged ‘aquablog’
Saturday, September 17th, 2005
New Page 1
I
awoke this morning by a loud knocking at the front door, it was the post person
wanting me to sign for a small package. My Five Pack of Screwcumbers had
arrived. Here’s a picture of five new sealed twin packs of Screwcumbers
available from
Gary Evans at Opti-Fish. I’m sorry to flog these to death, but they are
a fantastic invention and worth every penny. Every Ancistrus, Pleco, Gibbiceps,
L number lover should have one. With NO Hikari imports expected into the UK for
many months until the situation is resolved with the EU, NO algae wafers these
are a lifesavers in feeding cucumbers and courgettes to my L Numbers, Gibbiceps,
and Ancistrus sp.
The yellow tug beneath the screwcumbers is filled with aquarium water soaking
the filter media I "found" the previous week..
Tags: Ancistrus, andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, bblog, blog, feeding, fish, images, l number, microsoft, plec, pleco, windows
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Anyone for cucumber?
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
The
Hailea ACO-208 arrived today by ANC Courier to my Office address. I purchased
this from
POND-SUPPLIES-UK,
Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. Excellent customer service. This compressor is
much smaller than I had imagined, although I had the technical specification, I
never thought to look at the measurements, I thought it maybe a similar size to
my Clearseal LP40, 40 litre per minute air pump. It’s certainly in a very small
package at 25 watts delivering 45 litre per minute.
Installation was trickier than expected because the air output nozzle is
suited for 8-10mm pipe, I need to connect this to, 19mm bore pipe, so I’ve used
different widths of Eheim tubing glued so I could connect it directly to the
pump, two jubilee clips should finally secure in place. Another feature of this
pump is the air inlet, which I’ve connected small Eheim tubing to, which I’ll
route to the outside of the garage to bring in cooler air, I may have to check
this, because this may decrease tank temperature, by bleeding cold air into the
fish tank. I need to spend some time, locating to air compressor in it’s
permanent position, and migrating the airline to the tanks.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, images, watts
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on New Air Compressor Arrives
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I purchased a 5mm HSS drill bit
I
purchased a 5mm HSS drill bit, and armed with my drill and new bit (I don’t know
why I bought another two drill bits, because shortly after looking for something
else in my toolbox, found a 5mm drill bit!) was ready to start drilling holes in
my air ring main to accommodate 6mm Algarde straight connectors, this was more
difficult a task, than I had thought, and it would probably been easier if I had
pre-drilled the holes, and inserted the connectors before installing the ring
main in the ceiling, with hindsight, I think 90 degree elbow would have been
better, because trying to pull the airline off a test connector it removed it
from the air ring main. I’ve got a few elbows, so I’ll just have to wait and
see, I’m not going to be removing airline much anyway.
Here is a picture outside the fish house on the opposite side of the jablite
partition, in the un-insulated part of the garage. You can clearly see the Eheim
tubing waiting to be connected to a air supply, I’ve not purchased yet.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fish house, house, images, microsoft, windows
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Air Ring Main Update
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.
Tags: Ancistrus, andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, bblog, blog, fish, images, web
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Fluidized Bed Filter finally installed.
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.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fish house, house, images, Tropical Fish
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Blushing Angelfish
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.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fishkeeping, garden, images
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on I want a refund!
Sunday, August 28th, 2005
I’ve collected some Adult Angel fish, Syndontis Angelicus, An Orange Gourami and a handful of Kribensis from a local breeder in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, they have decided to concentrate on Discus. All the fish are sexually mature and will help the gene pool here at Angelfish house. These fish have all gone into quarantine for four weeks, until, they are moved to other tanks. All quarantine tanks are now full in the fish house, so no more fish purchases for a month, and I wanted to purchase a trio of Ancistrus. I’ll have to find some room, anybody got any space in the cupboard. Here are the fish as promised:-
Black Male Angelfish
Female Koi Veiltail Angelfish
Koi Angelfish – sex unknown
Male Half Black Angelfish
Male Koi Angelfish
Male Koi Veiltail Angelfish
Male Silver Angelfish
Syndontis Angelicus – not an angel fish, but a cracking catfish!
Tags: Ancistrus, andysworld, angel fish, aquablog, bblog, blog, catfish, Discus, fish, fish house, house, images, Koi
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Additions to the Fish House
Saturday, August 27th, 2005
On a happier note, I’ve finally managed to purchase a powerhead Aquarium Systems Maxijet PH600 to drive my Lifegard FB300 Fluidized Bed Filters, the Hagen 201 powerheard I’ve had for about 100 years finally died, by welding the impellar housing into the body of the powerhead. Sand or Fluidized Bed Filters are extremely efficient high capacity filters, just make sure your oxygenate the tank well, as oyxgen in the water decreases! Ideal for overstocked tanks of fish, but this is not an axcuse for regular water changes and regular testing of water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. They are also fascinating to watch, remember those Sand Pictures in the 80s! TIP Before installing in the tank run for several days after filling to remove all the dust from the filter media, or you’ll end up with a very cloudy tank.
Lifegard FB300 Fluidized Bed Filter on test in the garden before installing into aquarium.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, bblog, blog, fish, garden, images
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Fluidized Bed Filters
Saturday, August 27th, 2005
In search of Hikari Algae Wafers I travelled to one of my favourite Tropical Fish Outlets in Bately near Leeds in West Yorkshire. I often visit Animal House every few months to purchase some dry goods and have a look at the Tropical Fish section. I’ve been purchasing dry goods from Animal House for 25 years and they always used to advertise in Practical Fish Keeping. Something was odd, I noticed that their website had a statement stating the following
The Animal House website is currently suspended as at 20th August 2005. Customers with outstanding orders will receive letters within the next few days.
I thought this was very strange and may they had technical difficulties with the website or had a securirty breach. I telephone on Friday 26 August 2005, the answering machine message stated they were stocking taking but the store was still open.
On arriving at the store today, it was clearly obvious by the lack of cars the store was closed. Animal House has CLOSED DOWN. The store always seemed very busy at weekends, especially Bank Holiday Weekends, I never understood why they stopped advertising in Practical Fishkeeping.
Many rumours are circulating as to why they have closed, we will probably never know. What’s happening my local Garden Centre has closed their Tropical Fish Section trading; Maybe eBay Traders are to blame with their low overheads operating from bedrooms and garages across the country. Why not visit a local tropical fish shop this Bank Holiday Weekend and put some of your hard earned coppers in their pockets, If we lose all the high street tropical fish outlets, will we have to result to purchasing Online! I hope not!
Goodbye Animal House and thanks for all the dry goods I’ve purchased from you in the last 25 years.
P.S. Where do I cash in my Privilege Gold card points?
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fish keeping, fishkeeping, garden, house, images, practical, practical fishkeeping, Tropical Fish, web
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on An era comes to and end! Goodbye Animal-House!
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