andysworld!

The new aquarium, I’d installed in the fish house at the end of August, has become a large quaratine tank for the common pleco I’d rescued from the vets, it wasn’t eating, and had become very emaciated and weak, and the larger fish started to bully it.  So I removed it from the oddballs tank, and started trying different foods, it wouldn’t eat courgette or cucumber, after 72 hours it started feeding on Barlow Aquatics Trading Stinking Sinking Catfish and Cichlid pellets (I’ve no idea, where I got these from, must Google later!) and Hikari Algae Wafers. I’ve never been so excited to see pleco plop plops. This pleco has started to recover nicely.

I’ve also spent some time, re-integrating seven fish tanks, that I’d removed from the fish house. By rotating the fish tanks by 90 degrees, I’ve managed to fit them all in again, I just now need to find some space for the remaning two tanks. I’ve installed 1 x 18x18x18,  2 x 18x10x1, 2 x 24x15x12 and 2 x 24x12x12 inch tanks. All are filtered by air driven Algarde Bio-foam 200 sponge filters and for the first time, I’m also using Tetra sponge filters in three of the tanks, these don’t use airstones, like the Algarde Bio-foam 200 sponge filters, I’ve never used them before, but had them lying around in the fish house, unsed. Some fishkeepers I’ve spoken to, prefer them to the Algarde filters. All the tanks are currently fishless cycling.

new tanks No.1

new tanks No.2

new tanks No.3

I’ve also added an additional filter to the output of the Lifegard FB300 fluidized bed filter, I’ve diverted the output across a very old home-made trickle filter. This trickle filter was given to me by a friend (thanks Paul) over twenty years ago, it’s not been used for twenty years, I found it in the fish house, and thought time to re-use it. I’ve modified it a little but, by adding a spray-bar and filter floss to reduce the water flow. But the small glass tank has be made to measure to fit the bio-blocks inside. There are twenty square bio-blocks inside the tank. Paul tells me, he used to pay £2 a bio-block from Roman Tropicals, Roman Road, Bow, London and purchased one a week. It took him twenty weeks to obtain all the blocks. I remember seeing the full page adverts for Roman Tropicals in Practical Fishkeeping in the late 70s, early 80s. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to visit. I think it’s long gone.

Pictures of Paul’s HomeMade Trickle Filter

Paul's trickle filter No.1

Paul's trickle filter No.2

Paul's trickle filter No.3