Posts Tagged ‘aquablog’
Friday, October 7th, 2005
After some careful consideration, considering the advantages and disadvantages, I have decided to re-locate the air-inlet to my compressor back into the fish house in the garage, at ceiling height. I’ve drilled a small hole in my jablite partition and inserted the eheim tubing which connects to the air-inlet of my Hailea Air Compressor.
Advantages of Internal Air
- Internal air tends to be of a constant
temperature.
- Internal air tends to be of a constant
humidity.
- Internal air will be free of pollutants.
Disadvantages of External Air
- Cold external air will cool the body of the compressor,
possibly causing some condensation and water damage to the surrounding area.
- It will cool the aquariums.
- Air could be contaminated.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, bblog, blog, fish, fish house, house
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Hot or Cold?
Thursday, October 6th, 2005
An aquarist in Germany recommended that I try
Sera Catfish Chips for Ancistrus and Pleco Catfish if I’m finding it difficult in obtaining Hikari
Algae Wafers, he has had great success with this product in Germany. Many high
quality aquarium products come from Germany, Eheim,
Tetra and
Dennerle are just a few manufacturers,
so I’ll definitely experiment with this product.
Sera retailers in the UK are not common, but I know a place on my doorstep that
stocks Sera products. Petland, York is a
Sera retailer.
I purchased some Sera Catfish Chips for Ancistrus and Pleco Catfish, the
ingredients are very interesting because the usual marine algae and spirulina
are present, but willow wood and bark and alder wood are also ingredients. This
product will certainly help if you have no bogwood present in your aquariums for
the catfish to graze on. Many years ago, when I first saw a "pleco" in aquaria,
it was given willow wood and bark to graze on, this was before the days of any
"Algae Wafers", it was said, that chemicals in the willow made the catfish
sleepy, like an anaesthetic if they ate too much, so it was only fed in small
quantities. This is the first fish food product I’ve seen using "wood" as an
ingredient.
I offer my fish a varied diet to stop them getting hooked on one type of
food, I vary the food each day, here’s a list of the products I use:-
- Tetra Prima.
- Tetra Tips Freeze Dried Tablets.
- Tetra Fresh Delica Daphinia, Bloodworm, Brine Shrimp.
- Tetra Holiday and Weekend Food Sticks.
- Tetra Min Flake Food.
- JMC Catfish Pellets.
- Barlow’s Aquatics Sinking, Stinking Catfish Pellets.
- Nutrafin Max Complete Flake Food.
- Aquarian Tropical Flake Food.
- Phoenix Tropical Flake.
- Today’s Freeze Dried Tubifex Worms.
- ZM 000, 100, 200, 300, 400, Small, Medium and Large Granular Advanced Fish
Diets.
- Ruto Frozen foods, Spinach, Tubifex and Bloodworm.
- Frozen prawns.
- Courgettes, Cucumber, peas and lettuce.
- Live Food when available.
- and Sera Catfish Chips for Ancistrus and Pleco
Catfish.
When I first started "fishkeeping", many years ago, when my Dad won a
goldfish at the Fun Fair, we came home with a glass goldfish bowl, and a
cardboard tube of ant eggs to feed the goldfish.
Tropical Fish Food Technology has greatly improved! If it had not improved, I
don’t think I would have been as successful in breeding and caring for the
tropical fish in the many years I’ve kept them. For many years I was hooked on
Aquarian Tropical Flake, not personally, but variety is the spice of life!
Go on, change your food today!
Tags: Ancistrus, andysworld, aquablog, aquaria, aquarist, aquarium, blog, breeding, catfish, fish, fishkeeping, images, marine, plec, pleco, Tropical Fish
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on What’s for supper?
Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
Another emergency again this evening, and it would happen when I’m pulling the late shifts in the office.
Arrived home at 7.15pm to find one of my display tanks in the house very cloudy, checked the Eheim 2015 External Canister filter, and again it had stopped working, I’ve previously reported this failure a few weeks ago.
I checked the water quality, and the ammonia was higher than usual, this could be the filter has stopped working, or the addition of the vallis which has been slowly rotting.
I completed a 50% partial water change, with water at the correct temperarture and pH.
I’ve also brought in a “daddy” of a filter an Eheim 2317 external canister filter, this is a mature filter, that is used in the fish house, as a standby filter for emergency use.
I must now investigate why the 2015 is failing.
This picture shows an Eheim Classic 2015, 2313 and 2317, along with Hy-Flo Model C, UV Filter and Dennerle Profi 2000 System.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fish house, house
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Time flys by when your the driver of a train…..
Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
This is a picture of the fish house, I took some months ago, I’ve had to mangle many photos together because I couldn’t fit it in the frame, but you’ll get the general idea, of what it looks like, and what keeps me busy.
I’ve just added some new blog code, and wanted to test it here! I’ve hopefully fixed the bugs now. Where do I get the time!
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, fish house, house
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Fish House
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
I’ve added a Search Archives Button, so you can now search the archives easier, the Search Tool is in the Right Hand Margin. It looks like this:-
The format is a bit off, but I’m not a graphic designer.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, images
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Search Archives Button
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
This is one of my special Koi Angelfish I’ve breed.
Sorry for RSS users, I’m modifying the blog code, to add new features. So you may get this entry a few times, depending on how often you download the RSS feed.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, fish, Koi, RSS
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Young Koi Angelfish
Sunday, October 2nd, 2005
These
are the four pieces of bogwood I purchased, currently soaking in a vat of water
before adding them to aquariums in the fish house, the brown stain in the water
is caused by the tanin in the bogwood leaching into the water. Boiling and
soaking for long periods can reduce the tanin leaching into the water, the use
of carbon in a filter will remove the tanin from the water but can also remove
other nutrients required for plant growth, regular partial water changes will
also dilute the effect. I quite like the colour, and it appears more natural
for the fish that I keep. It also helps to acidify the water in the
aquarium. You usually have to pay for chemicals to do this e.g.
Tetra Blackwater
Extract. (the observant amongst you will notice this vat was last filled
with a potassium permanganate solution, this has been siphoned off into 20l
bottles, so I can dispose of, at a rate of 500ml (half a litre) a day!)
I’ve planted out my display tank this evening using Aquatic Potting Kits,
I’ve inspected the Totra Vallis, I received from Java-Plants and they are of
very poor quality unlike the Amazon Swords I received, I’ve emailed Java-Plants
for comments. All 25 plants look like they need a priest, very brown, I don’t
think they’ll recover.
On the subject of emailing suppliers, I’ve also emailed Pond-Supplies UK,
because I’ve noticed stress fractures/cracks on my new Air compressor, and
that’s not been in service very long. Air is leaking in via these cracks, and
not via the air-inlet.
On a happier note, my "aquarium sealant fix" seems to have fixed my other
Hi-Blow type air pump.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, blog, fish, fish house, house, images, plants
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Soaking Bogwood
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
I’ve
spent some time in the fish house this evening tidying up lose ends, probably
because it’s the warmest room in the house. I’ve installed, well actually I
dropped the bogwood into my angelfish rearing tank, which houses two unknown "plecos",
this evening there was evidence that the "plecos" had been grazing on the
bogwood because of the "bogwood pooh" left on the tank bottom, I would use the
scientific name bogwood faeces, but I think "bogwood pooh" sounds better, but I
think you’ll understand. It’s not uncommon for "plecos" and other relatives to
eat bogwood, The reason that plecos and other similar fish rasp bogwood is that
they need a substance called Lignin which is contained in the wood . It is
believed it helps them to digest their food. All the veggie catfish have finally
finished off the Tetra Plecomin, so they are back on Hikari. I
‘m sorry I
couldn’t catch a picture of the plecos on the bogwood, there were two fast and
cunning for me.
Fish House pump covered in aquarium sealant, trying to seal the crack and
stop venting air, I don’t know if this will work, if not I might try super-glue,
but aquarium sealant, usually does well under high pressure.
I’ve also moved one large male Koi Veiltail Angelfish out of the quarantine
tank, this was the fish that was not deporting too well, a few weeks ago,
shortly after purchase. I think this fish, may be being bullied by the other
mature males. I’ve found a
Royal Pleco/Parnaque
L190 Panaque nigrolineatus, this could me mine, I’ll have to wait
and see.
Had a re-think, about connecting the air-inlet of the air compressor to the
outside, more later.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, blog, catfish, fish, fish house, house, images, Koi, php, planetcatfish, plec, pleco
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on I can do anything with aquarium sealant
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
The
spare parts for my Lifegard FB300 Fluidized Bed Filter arrived today from the
AquariumSuperstore, I
ordered two replacement water deflectors a few weeks ago because I’ve recently
misplaced the originals in the fish house. The thread of the water deflector is
wrapped with 5 turns of PTFE "plumbers" tape, to stop any leaks. I thought this
was going to be a quick easy job, but trying to unscrew the existing pipe elbow
was difficult because it is made of plastic and the adjustable spanner kept
slipping, I eventually had to remove it from the tank temporarily to unscrew the
existing pipe elbow. TIP Use the correct fitting spanner and not an
adjustable!
The new water deflector is now installed, and the water flow adjusted correctly,
there is no back pressure on the existing power head, and the media fluidizes
very easily, I may have to check after 24 hours, otherwise I may have a tank
full of sand! In the corner of the picture is the inlet pipe to the Eheim 2260
external bucket filter and the top of an Algarde Bio-Foam 200 Sponge filter is
just visible above the surface of the water. This fix tank is probably "over
filtered" if that’s possible, but it helps to keep mature filters on standby as
anything can happen and it usually does.
The Lifegard Fluidized Bed Filter biological maturation takes considerably
longer. In most cases, the maturation period should take no longer than 40 days
during this period the nitrifying bacteria will attach themselves to the media
within the filter. I’ve got another filter to setup in the same way, when this
filter has matured.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, blog, fish, fish house, house, images
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Water Deflector for LifeGard FB300 installed
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
Up
again early this is morning to collect a parcel from the local Sorting Office,
it turned out to be a small piece of Mopani or Bogwood, I’d purchased. The
Sorting Office, also had my remaining order from
Java-Plants, 25 Vallis Torta, which
were placed in a water vat at 28 degree C, until I had chance this evening to
disinfect in my vat of potassium permanganate solution. (yes still having
planting issues in the display tank!).
This is an ideal piece of bogwood for my angelfish to spawn on, and also for
my "plecos" to graze on. When I’ve soaked it and disinfected it, I’ll place it
in my tank, and post a picture here in the blog.
I’ve also have a small community of Endler
Poecilia Livebearers, these seem to be very
popular on eBay at present, and are selling for very high prices, I was recently
given some male Endlers because my females seem to be rather thin. These fish
have finished their quarantine period, and after studying them closely, I don’t
believe they are True Endlers, possibly Guppy hybrids, so I have not mixed them
with my true Endler community, just to be safe, Male Guppies will hybridise with
the females very easily.
I have also moved all the male True Endlers, and separated them from the
females because the females were being harassed too much, and I noticed three
young fry in amongst the java fern which has grown out of control in my display
tank, so I dumped some in the Endlers’ aquarium in the fish house. I’m a little
confused, because every time I examine pictures on the internet of Endlers’ they
all look slightly different, so I still don’t know what True Endlers’ look like!
The nice man "Mark" at
AquariumSuperstore telephone today and left a message to let me know, I
should get my water deflectors tomorrow by post.
Tags: andysworld, aquablog, aquarium, blog, fish, fish house, house, images, internet, plants, plec, pleco
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Mopani or Bogwood?
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