Posts Tagged ‘fish’

Polar Bear Killer!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

207kW
20.7kW (realtime reading of electricity being consumed at 1.30am 27/10/07)

Maybe I need to change the subject title, doesn’t seem very nice, and what’s this go to do with the House Blog. You’ll probably hear this term more and more, as we all strive for a greener planet and reduce our carbon foot prints! Has the penny dropped yet!

To celebrate my big birthday coming up in November, I’ve purchased myself a present from Better Generation, it’s a Smart Electricity Meter called a Wattson by DIY Kyoto. I’ve already got a few power meters, that I purchased in October 2005, see my review here these record the power being used by an individual appliance, or if you use a four/six-way adaptor, you can measure combined power, I’ve been using these in my fish house for years. But want I wanted was a device that could measure total power consumed after the electricity meter before the consumer unit (fusebox), transmit it remotely to a display in the house, and finally output and record the information to a PC, so I can compare electricity consumption versus temperature in the fish house and outside during the winter and summer months. Also looking at the electricity used by our Economy 7 Storage and Immersion Heaters.

I pre-ordered this unit, at the beginning of October ’07, and it arrived yesterday it’s FANTASTIC!. I’m not going to write a review, because there our lots of fab reviews out there about the product, check Better Generation for one.

It’s a designer gadget with mood lighting that measures electicity consumed and outputs it to a PC.

Wattson01
The Wattson smart electricity meter showing 21,000 Watts (21kW) being used at 1.30am last night, when the storage heaters came on! Average consumption is about 3kW in the house.

Fish House Thermometer back!

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

It’s been a few months since, this was last on:-

Last Update 19:22 (GMT) on 23 Dec 2006, as the weather is getting colder, and I’m experiment with electricity, kWh, heating and my new Smart Power Meter, soon to be delivered, it was about time, I blew the dust off the Fish House Thermometer PC, and put back in the fish house, now where have I got space for a PC, I’ve filled all the spaces with fish tanks!

This is currently on test in my Office!

Full Moon!

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

You’d think it was a full moon, strange things are a foot in the fish house.

Did my Bleeding Heart Tetras eat all my Galaxy Rasboras? They’ve all disappeared!

Male Nicaragua Cichlid starts fighting with the Female, I’ve had to move her to a quarantine tank, for he injuries to heal, torn fins, and scales, and then she started beating up some Corydoras Sterbai, so she’s been moved to a lonley tank all on her own.

and finally, Male and Female Blue lobsters have been fighting.

Banish those old suckers to the bin!

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Old Suckers
Old suckers banished to the bin, now I’ve replaced them with MagClips

Magclip1
This shows a single MagClips holding an Eheim 2260 External inlet pipe which is 25mm in diameter. Considering the pressure and weight, and stress forces on the MagClips, you can see how powerful the magnets are in the MagClips.

Magclip2
exploded view of above, you can see the pipework – no camera tricks here! The MagClips is at the bottom of the inlet pipe near the inlet strainer.

Magclip3
Not an exciting photograph, but shows the MagClips in postion outside the tank. Here a single MagClips is used to hold an Eheim 2260 16mm spraybar in place. This has previosuly failed with suckers emptying 170l of water on the fish house floor!

Magclip4
I’ve replaced the standard Algarde suction clip, that always fail with a MagClips, to hold this BioFoam 200 Sponge Filter in place.

Do you have problems with your suckers?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

One annoyance of keeping tropical fish I have is suckers!

Failing suckers…..!

Let me introduce you to the MagClip. Ideal stocking filler for Christmas!

Do your suckers keep failing after a few weeks/months. If you use heaters, sponge filters, airline, external filters pipes, spray bars in your tanks you’ll know what I mean. In the fish house, I’m constantly replacing failed suckers on equipment, sometimes it can be dangerous, if a misplaced spraybar or external filter inlet pipe “jumps” out of the tank because the sucker has failed (oh, yes this has happened when my Eheim 2600 spray bay sucker failed, and sprayed water all over the fish house at 1,500lph!).

I’ve found the solution, it’s called a MagClip, a very clever simple device, which uses a magnet to secure the plastic clip, inside and outside the aquarium. The MagClip comes with 6 assorted sizes of nylon clips to hold all types of aquarium accessories like canister filter outlet tubes, aquarium heaters, filter intake tubes, filter spray bars, airline tubing etc. The clip is coated in plastic, remove the nylon clip suitable for your aquarium accessory, attached to the internal clip, it’s threaded, and just screws in, position inside the aquarium, and use the external clip outside the aquarium to maintain it’s position. Simply. No suction cup to fail! They can be moved around afterwards I’ve found to get into a better position. These last a lifetime, using the industrial magnets, I’m using one on a 10mm glass tank, and have others holding spray bars, and 25mm external filter inlets, and others on my Algarde Bio-Foams. I’ll get some pictures.

These cost me 7.00 GBP pounds each, a bargain I think, I’ll never have to replace my suction cups again.

I got them from http://www.magclip.co.uk

Pier Aquatics, Wigan

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

Pier Aquatics, Wigan

This has got to be the “Mecca” of all tropical fish shops in the North West, I was in the area (well within 10 miles) and had to pop in to checkout the collection of fish. If you are a Cichlid or Catfish fan like I am, you’ve just got to get your “bum” to Pier Aquatics in Wigan, and don’t forget your wallet!

Fantastic quality and collections of Cichlids and Catfish, a baby Tig for 250 pounds, and some fantastic Geophagus, lots of L numbers too many to mention, Stingrays If you’ve never been, why not try a holiday in Wigan for the weekend.

I love the place, and I’m sure I’ll be back for that baby Tig! Maybe an early birthday present, as it’s the big one!

Blue lobster, Cherax quadricarinatus

Monday, September 24th, 2007

Blue lobster, Cherax quadricarinatus or Red Claw Crayfish because the male has red patches on his claws, absent in the female.

My female Blue lobster has spawned – umm do lobsters spawn, well she is carrying eggs. Did I not mention I purchased a pair of Blue lobsters, Cherax quadricarinatus a few months ago! I thought it would be something different and unusual to try and breed in the fish house.

This is the only freshwater crayfish that you can legally keep if you live in the UK.

Under Wraps

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Under wraps soak testing in the garden are the final three fish tanks for the fish house, three 250l (approx) 48x18x18 inch 10mm glass fish tanks on a very heavy cast iron stand. These will be used to primarily grow on young fish in the fish house. I wanted to soak test the tanks were watertight before moving and filling in the fish house, but I must get on and move them in the fish house before the temperature drops below zero, and the frost comes. They are wrapped because I wanted to keep the worst of the weather off them before moving into the fish house.

48x18x18 Tanks
Three (3) 48x18x18 inch tanks, 10mm glass.

Nicaragua Cichlid aka Cichlasoma nicaraguensis

Friday, September 21st, 2007

I’ve kept these Cichlids twenty years ago, and I’ve been trying to find a pair since, these cichlids have spectacular colours, especially when breeding. I’ve not seen them in the shops, and in the late 80s, was lucky to have three females and one male – long since gone.

I was lucky to find, that a local cichlid breeder, was giving up a very young pair. I put them in a quarantine tank, with a pair of Geophagus proximus, I like to quarantine all new arrivals into the fish house, for four weeks before moving them into breeding tanks. I picked these up on the 9th September, and I noticed the Geos were being bashed to hell, only to notice in a plant pot, fry a few days off from free swimming.

The unusual thing about the Nicaragua Cichlid Cichlasoma nicaraguensis is that the eggs they lay, are not adhesive, and roll-around the floor. I assume so they can move them from nest to nest, unlike most cichlids, that use a surface to spawn on, and their eggs are adhesive.

Female NIC with fry 1
Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.

Female NIC with fry 2
Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.

Male NIC
Male Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.

Male and Female NIC with fry
Male and Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.

More Tanks = More Water Changes

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

More Tanks = More Water Changes and so I’ve been busy stocking the fish house with more exciting fish.

Upgrading a Juwel internal box filter from a 400lph to 1000lph power head – easy job – plug ‘n’ play.

But I still cannot fluidize my Lifegard FB900 with a Hagen 301 or Juwel 1000lph power head, it just will not pump enough water into the filter, and causes to much backflow.

Waiting for a response from Pentair Aquatics!