Aquarium thread

[deterioration 443]

You're electric bill is in the 3-400$ range every pay cycle isn't it? Great work!

[Drifter 851]

Actually it's not that bad. Modern aquarium equpiment has come a long way since the old days of power draining T12 lights and other high draw equipment. Now with the advances like T5 lights and energy efficent filters and heaters it's only a fraction of the power consumption they use to be. I average around $140-$160 per month for the electric bill.

[Drifter 851]

 Well been waiting for this post for a while now, the past week I have most the "in tank" work done now. All that is left is the plumbing work, building the spraybars for the filters, adding two more 48" lights and adding four acentic bulbs, adding a pair of inline 300w heaters, and thats about it.

Here's the "done" pics. since the last I have done....150lbs of white sand, worm wood, and manzetia branches. I also added some fake plants. I hate the plastic fake ones so I added silk ones which I bought from Micheals, then I cut them apart into smaller pieces, siliconed them together, added some dark green and brown fusion painted accents to add some lifelike look to them as well. Did much more, but I'll just post the pics and hope you enjoy the3 way it is. Hopefully in a few weeks the next time you see it there will be fish in it 8)

This has been 6-8 months of work, so hope you guys enjoy.  

The next post should have water and FISH

[crippled_viper 258]

Hey Drifter, I see you are really big into the fish and fishing style. I also noticed you had candles there, I sell something like candles but way safer. No fire, no burning of hot wax, lifetime warranty. But anyways in the catalog there are some fishing style warmers that would really suit your style, plus we have manly scents. If you have any questions or would like to check it out please let me know. Good work on your aquarium and office space.

[Madjonny 386]

Anyone know how to stop fish having babies?

Other than splitting them up...

My kribensis have layed their 4th load of eggs in the short time I have had them...

Set 1 are between 1-2 cm and finally getting colours, so I assume ready to be moved out soon.

Set 2 didn't produce any fry

Set 3 are still with the parents at all times only around 5-7mm at most

Set 4 eggs have just been spotted!

What can I do? I don't want to split them or get rid of them...

[Jason 1,245]

Anyone know how to stop fish having babies?

Other than splitting them up...

My kribensis have layed their 4th load of eggs in the short time I have had them...

Set 1 are between 1-2 cm and finally getting colours, so I assume ready to be moved out soon.

Set 2 didn't produce any fry

Set 3 are still with the parents at all times only around 5-7mm at most

Set 4 eggs have just been spotted!

What can I do? I don't want to split them or get rid of them...

I have the same issues with my cichlid tank. Other than getting rid of the females, not much can be done I don't think.

[Madjonny 386]

I have the same issues with my cichlid tank. Other than getting rid of the females, not much can be done I don't think.

I didn't think there was much I could do to he honest...

I guess I'll just have to keep taking them to the pet shop whenever they get big enough and give them away...

I'd rather that than get rid of either if them, they are beautiful fish...

[Drifter 851]

Just leave them in the tank and most likely if kribs are like all the other cichlids then the majority of the fry will become dinner for the parents. You may still get a few that hide well enough to grow out but then you can sell those to the local pet shops and not have to deal with raising a ton of fry.

[Drifter 851]

Well.....I'm back bitches

 

Anyway. Dave wanted me to update the office/aquarium thread, so here's the latest. The 265g tank will have water/fish in the next 2-3 weeks, but there was a nice addition to the room over Christmas. My sister and bro in law got me this for the office which goes right next to the 265g tank.

 

A 51" flat screen plasma TV

 

 

 

I do have some cool new fish, I'll post pics of them later.

[Madjonny 386]

That's a big un!

[Drifter 851]

here's a few pics from the FUN night tonight.....

Starting to fill the tank up.....
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Getting there (yippie!)...
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Aftermath and carnage...
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And here's what the complete disheartening feeling of watching almost exactly a year's worth of hard work, sweat and money literally go right down the drain looks like...



I had leak tested it a few months ago but for some reason right as it was 98% full tonight it started leaking from the lower RF corner

But hey on the good side, thing's couldn't possibly get any worse!

[Jason 1,245]

Man... That's shitty.

[Drifter 851]

Well I told myself I was not going to go back down and mess with it tonight, but my personality is the type that there's just no way I can rest or sleep knowing I have a problem like not knowing if I am gonna be able to save the background waiting for me in the morning. So I went back down and spent the last couple hours working on it till about 3am.

Needed to use something sharp and flexible to get behind the background without doing much damage to it so pretty much used these. Most the damage was to my hands, but that's okay as long as the background is safe lol



And after 2+hrs of lifting heavy rocks, scooping sand, cutting, prying, sawing and cutting my hands to pieces........BAZINGA!

Empty tank again. And all five pieces of the background are safe and undamaged in the other room now. There is obviously a TON of scraping silicone to be done now. And once all the silicone from the background is scraped off then I will have to remove all the silicone from the seals in the tank, then decide if I am going to tackle sealing it myself or hire someone. Even though it was two steps back earlier tonight, at least now it's a step forward with being able to save the background and get all the stuff out of the tank without damage.

Silicone scraping party at Steve's tomorrow your all invited ....it's BYORB (bring your own razor blade)

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,453]

Wow, Steve, that sucks man.  So was anything damaged from the water?  That's got to be very frustrating. 

[Drifter 851]

No water damage. It was contanted to just the office area and I have a 700gph pump that I put in the tank to get the water out so I was able to drain the tank in about 25 mins so since the water was just running down the stand and not an actualy glass blow out I was able to avoid a flood. Area rug got soaked but that will dry so no damage at all.

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,453]

That's good news.  I law the laptop sitting there and worried!    

[Drifter 851]

Well spent about 6+ hours scraping silicone today and about 1/3 the way there already. I wish I could do more tonight but my arms/shoulders are killing me right now. It's bad enough having to reach down into the tank scraping to begin with, but factor in that I have had a messed up rotator cuff in my shoulder for the past 5 yrs and that makes it really bad.

A good start at least though. Forward progress none the less.

[Drifter 851]

I've had this guy in quarantine for the past 6 weeks or so. He was originally going to go in the 7ft 265g but since that tank is delayed I hated to keep this big 6" guy in such a small holding tank for so long (10g) so I decided since he had been in quarantine for 6 weeks he was clean and illness free so it was time to give him a new home in my 55g all male peacock/hap show tank upstairs and just find another OB for the 265g once it is up and running.

[Drifter 851]

Just some more pics. First off one of my fish (Mbamba Bay female) spawned and had around 35 fry

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Then here are some of the fish I have in holding tanks waiting for the big office tank to finish being resealed and filled with water so they can go in there.

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[Drifter 851]

Did a little rearranging this evening and added a few fish to one of the 55g tanks upstairs in the computer room..

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[Jason 1,245]

Man I like the middle one!

What is he.

[Jason 1,245]

Also, do you mind if I post a pic or 2 of my tank on the "aquarium" thread for you or whoever to see?

[Drifter 851]

Thanks, that's a 10" male Venustus (I call him Big Vern lol)  He's actually going to be going into the 265g office tank soon as it's ready.

 

Sure man go right ahead and post some pics would love to see some of yours.

[Jason 1,245]

That's a good looking fish.

Max size?

[Drifter 851]

He could actually get up to 12". Most aquarium raised ones get between 8"-12" but since he will be in such a big tank when it's done, plus he eats very well, I expect him to probably grow another inch or two before he is as big as he will get.