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Fishnbe's Tank and Light ProjectTime


Fishnbe

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For the last couple of months I have been planning on converting an old 4ft tank I have in my shed, and turning it into a little divided shrimp setup to replace the several small tanks my 7Yo son and I have set up in his room. This project is to reduce running cost of 3X heaters, compact and T8 Fluros and to get an aquarium cupboard utilised to remove all the clutter. A big point for my Wife! And have a nice breeding setup to play around with.

 

Most of my purchases I am doing as cheap as possible.

 

I have also been organising some Cheap Chinese LEDs of Fleabay to convert an old 4ft arcadiaT5 light that has a busted ballast I have been hoarding (the wife calls it hoarding, I call it saving for when I will need it one day!!). And lo and behold the time has come to use the light I have been 'saving'.

 

I am following fishmossy's Led setup that was posted in the DIY section. A couple of changes I made were to put 8xWhite strips in and 1X Blue strip. I will use the blue as mainly a light at night.

 

For the Project I have purchased.

 

1X32mm glass whole saw

1X glass cutting pen

LED Hard light strips

Blue Led Light strip

Led switches and dimmer. (dimmer for the Blue strip)

I had the 3X glass divider pieces cut by someone I know for a 6 pack of Corona. I was quoted between $60and $120 for the 3 pieces from 1/2 a dozen Adelaide Glass places.

A couple of tubes of GE silicon

I have also purchased a Portable aquarium RO unit from FSA that is currently on its way.

 

Items I already have that I will be using are

1X 300w Jager Heater

1x fluval 405

tank and Cupboard

4ft light unit

an old 1ft tank with a crack I pulled apart to cut the feeding dividers we have seen done here by several members.

Large sponge filters for each tank section (These are all I have as current filtration for the shrimp at the moment).

1XSchego air pump.

Tools; drill, tape measure, square etc.

 

I am planning on Benibachi soil which i still need to get.

 

This will the the first time I have cut and drilled glass. I have built many tanks and aquaculture systems in my working life so hopefully when I get to putting water, then finally shrimp all will be well.

 

I have been working on the tank for the last few weekends and here are a few progress shots;

 

The bare tank after I have emptied it from a 1 week water holding test;

 

post-574-0-09107400-1408876234_thumb.jpg

 

 

This is the tank with the 3 dividers and the bottom of the dividers siliconed, with helpers 

 

post-574-0-10421800-1408876437_thumb.jpg

 

I have siliconed the front section and trying the LEDs. I only have 6strips on at the moment.

 

post-574-0-16163600-1408877136_thumb.jpg

 

with the blue strip only

 

post-574-0-17912000-1408877216_thumb.jpg

 

Here everything is siliconed

 

post-574-0-22810900-1408877521_thumb.jpg

 

And a close up of the feeders.

 

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This is currently where I am up to. Its been several months in the planning, and thrifty purchsing.

 

A few extra notes are, I will be finishing the silicone off nicely by cleaning off the chunky thick parts that can be seen on the tank  where dividers and feeding sections are.

 

This is done with a razor I need to wait a week for the silicon to fully cure before I do this.

 

I am waiting on 16mm intake mesh piece for the fluval and am considering my options on setting it up.

 

I will probably split the outlet into 4 separate outlets w/spraybars and 1 or 2 intakes, it will be a trial and error play around.

 

I have Put 2X32mm holes in each divider,

 

I will be putting mesh on them I think, but I am still considering my options.

 

 

 

Feel free to ask any questions or suggestions.

 

Thanks for reading everyone.

 

 

 

 

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Awesome work!! Looking great!

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Cheers guys, I just want to finish it up as I can see the end is near. Patience is required. lol

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Thanks for sharing... love these projects...looking really great :-) ....can tell you've done some quality research and good planning....looking fwd to updates.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I am following fishmossy's Led setup that was posted in the DIY section. A couple of changes I made were to put 8xWhite strips in and 1X Blue strip. I will use the blue as mainly a light at night.

I can't find this .... a link someone?

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I am following fishmossy's Led setup that was posted in the DIY section. A couple of changes I made were to put 8xWhite strips in and 1X Blue strip. I will use the blue as mainly a light at night.
I can't find this .... a link someone?

http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/index.php/topic/5890-retrofit-a-t5-light-with-leds/

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Cheers guys, a quick update, Just received 2X 16mm mesh intake screens for the fluval, I think I will play around with 2X intakes going to the 405. and 2 or 4 outlets from the filter. It will depend on how much flow they produce, I will mainly be trying to avoid a washing machine in each section so spay bars for each outlet. 

I have nearly finished cleaning up the silicon, so it is time to think about substrate....

 

And on shrimp news after several months of losing 1-2CRS and no babies, I have spent the last month to 6 weeks diligently water changing with Rainwater and salty shrimp, and micronecton,and the last 2 weeks using the new RO unit from FSA. I have added everything to help reduce deaths from cinnamon, IAL, blackwater Extract...... I have 10CRS Berried (I think that is all bar 5 of my female, as well a young one that dropped last week), 2 saddled Blue velvets, and 2 saddled yellow females(I bought 4 yellow juvies and it looks like it will be 2Xpairs). :jig:

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  • 2 months later...

Big Update Time,

 

So after months of planning and siliconing, and gathering funds, I have finally got the tank in my sons room, and filled it with soil and begin cycling  :jig:

 

I have gone with ADA Amazonia with a base of Elos (the Elos was very kindly given to me so I definitely didn't want to waste it), It was a toss up for main soil between ADA and Benibachi.

 

After hours of research on the net I decided to go with ADA, the 2 main reasons are;

 

1) Many breeders use and recommend this especially from countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan and the US and Canada.

 

2) I could get it delivered to my door for $45 per 9Lt bag. Which I think was the most cost effective way of getting high quality soil.

 

For the holes in the glass dividers I have covered with super fine mesh, also kindly donated, that I have attached with silicone. I was going to use foam but after reading many reports here about babies getting through and blocking easily the mesh was the best option I hope.

 

I have used iPhone 5s to take pics so apologise. I did discover that if you record a video you can take pictures that are much better quality .

 

Here is the first pic of the tank in my lads room.

 

post-574-0-98371300-1415613502_thumb.jpg

 

I gave it one more water test before soil went in.

 

Next is the tank with soil (excuse the mess around it.)

 

post-574-0-58828200-1415613701_thumb.jpg

 

Now it is time to fill!!

 

When I first saw the muck I was worried!

 

post-574-0-99261600-1415614156_thumb.jpg

 

Filled and murky

 

post-574-0-49813700-1415614503_thumb.jpg

 

Filled and murky with blue only LED (sons night light)

 

post-574-0-32556200-1415614548_thumb.jpg

 

So this was done on Wednesday night.

 

I left it alone for a few days with 2 cycled Sponge filters and 1 non cycled filter. By friday the Ammonia had risen to about 5ppm.

 

Saturday i Began working on converting my Fluval 405 into a 4 outlet system and a single intake.

 

This was not an easy task as the fluvial hosing is 16mm and 99% of irrigation parts are either 19mm or 13mm.

 

I decided to go with 13mm as I can easily put 13mm hose inside 16mm if I wish to enlarge the pipe again to attach the many spray bars and other outlet pieces I own (Years of fish keeping Junk I have collected).

 

I took a bit of consideration with this as it can put the filter impeller  under quite a bit of extra pressure when you reduce pipe diameter, But I figured it was easies to go back to the 16mm than down from 19-16 with the parts I could get. And I also think that with 4 separate outlets there is nowhere near as much pressure on the filter anyway.

 

Here is a pic of the filter contraption that was created.

 

post-574-0-18557400-1415615288_thumb.jpg

 

I have attached taps to each outlet for flow control and If I ever need to Isolate any sections. Which would be a nightmare as I would need to remove the mesh screen and add some sort of bulkhead/plug thing to the drilled holes.

 

I ran this all day and night on Saturday to ensure everything flows well and water levels stay fairly even between all partitioned sections and of course no leaks in any joins. Luckily it all went according to plan, even when I blocked up divider holes water flow went over the top of the dividers and didn't flood out of the tank. I was worried about this as It was a little higher than I had planned. 

 

Sunday I did a 100% W/C as the ammonia was between 5and 10 ppm. Adelaide water is also extremely high in PH, KH and GH so I also didn't want the soil working to hard in reducing these water Parameters, So I joined together about 10m of airline tubing and connected it to my RO and slowly refilled the tank, I began fill it at 7:30am and turned off the RO at 8pm, this filled about 3/4 of the tank, The rest I topped with Tap water. 

 

Today (Monday) the ammonia is about 2 ppm and a slight nitrite reading. I haven't taken Nitrate yet.

 

So Sunday evening I began moss tying. 

 

I have been growing a few types of moss wildly in the 3 tanks I have shrimp in at the moment. 

 

I plan on having 1type of moss per tank division.

 

I have Peacock, flame and a nice unknown (not Java) type that I picked up at a LFS, they had just got it in and they didn't remember what it was!! I will be trying to get an ID on it when I can get a decent shot of it.

 

As this is my sons tank, he really wanted me to use one of the 1/2 coconut shells I used to use for my L No's.

 

So I have tied flame moss to it as I think this will look quite cool on the shell.

 

I have tied the unknown to a piece of Pear wood I cut and have been drying since early last summer.

 

Peacock moss was tied to an old nice looking piece of driftwood I have had for 14years or so and also to another piece of pear branch.

 

There is also a tank with some ragged looking flame moss that has had no scource of direct light for some months  that has been in a breeder box.

 

Here is a shot 1 day after the major water change with the new moss creations.

 

post-574-0-14158900-1415616865_thumb.jpg

 

Peacock moss section with a tiny bit of Hygrophilia (I think, won on a FB guess the number comp)

 

post-574-0-40312900-1415617098_thumb.jpg

 

Unknown Moss, I also have the heater a 300w Jager and the filter inlet here. I have siliconed the mesh intake to the intake pie I have spares of both if this doesn't work.

 

 

post-574-0-44483500-1415617415_thumb.jpg

 

and a close uppost-574-0-27291100-1415617426_thumb.jpg

 

Now for the flaming coconut!!

 

I also have 2 very tiny portions of US fissidens at the front. These are trial pieces. And I don't want to remove to much from the shrimp tanks I have running yet.

 

post-574-0-74723900-1415617722_thumb.jpg

 

I know this is a long update but it was long overdue. Love to hear peoples thoughts on the setup so far and any questions. I will be updating more soon!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What a great write up and brilliant development! You must be really pleased with it!

 

The mosses look great, loving the coconut!!

 

A bit more cycling and things will settle down! Keep us updated!

 

Brilliant night light for your son!!

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