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Calzone's new 120x60x45 optiwhite tank build

PLanted the remaining plants from TGM which arrived Friday as they got a delivery thursday. 1 pot rotala wallichi, 1 pot hygro araguia, and 4 pots of glosso. Glosso goes in somewhat easier than HC it has to be said. the Wallichi did look a bit forlorn but its that kind of plant - delicate. Splits into a good 5-6 groups each with 2-5 stems I would estimate, but i wasn't inclined to get too aggressive splitting it as I actually only want it in one small area. The Hygro araguia is a new one, which apparently can creep along the ground, so I've put it down by the sandy river. I expect it will therefore grow 2 feet tall in no time.

Adjusted the co2 diffuser to feed the filter inlet. No idea if am putting too much in - but its about 4-6 bubbles per second as a) still a lot wasting b) no fish yet. Have fitted drop checker now so we'll see.

Anyway, must be doing something right because pretty much the whole tank is now pearling gently. Awesome. Never seen it before as previous tank was low tech. Life in action, love it. Aesthetically of course it fills your tank up with thousands of bubbles, but at least you can tell what your circulation patterns are!!

One of the cheapo timers ain't timing. tedious. will replace with electronic one. must remember to turn off light....

Will transfer some fish tomorrow. Unless have overdone the CO2....

Piccies to follow.
 
your filter will be ok even with more co2. might be an idea to knock down the co2 whilst the fish get settled.
 
that's what I meant - might be a bit OTT for the fish.

For example, my drop checker is not colourless. Not blue, not green or yellow. what does this mean? I never noticed it going through any of the colours enroute..... it just might be vary pale blue and moving towards lime green. Course, there's so many colours in the tank hard to see really.
 
Calzone said:
Not blue, not green or yellow. what does this mean? I never noticed it going through any of the colours enroute..... it just might be vary pale blue and moving towards lime green. Course, there's so many colours in the tank hard to see really.
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Hi there,
DC should be an obvious blue colour when just filled, then when injecting should go to a dark green, to lime green, and on to yellow if theres too much c02.
A good way of checking the colour is to put a white piece of paper behind the dc (obviously not in the water) when checking it. This gives an accurate and consistent reference.
If its not obvious that its one of these colours, try replacing the solution it may have been contaminated with tank water or something else.
Hope this helps,
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Few pics. First off the HC, pearling...
img7250g.jpg


Drop checker turned colourless - dont know what that means, except perhaps maybe it got some tank water in it? Planted glosso underneath. With sharp eyes you can see teh R. Wallichito the immediate left of the wood.
img7245t.jpg


img7255o.jpg


The anubia - apologies for focus - auto focus on camera confused by the glass and hard to tell on the screen...
img7252k.jpg


The Hygro. Araguia. Again, apologies for the focus.
img7251p.jpg


Enjoy!
 
what is going on with your dc??? which solution are you using?
 
Its the pre-mixed stuff from aquaessentials. It turned back to blue overnight, but its a very pale blue. maybe they have overdiluted it, but it makes it very hard to tell the colours. I will try moving it to the back of the tank where the frosted background might help with the colour check. failing that, new solution.

It turned colourless in only an hour or so. But I had been running the CO2 for a day or two non stop since I dont yet have livestock in there. Circulation on the RHS is v slow, but the filter inlet is actually on the LHS rear, where its probably pulling in co2 rich water, my plan for getting the co2 over to the RHS. Given the plants were pearling I figure there's decent co2 over there. Which suggests maybe my bubble rate was high. So have turned it down now to about 2-3 bubbles per sec and we'll see. will put some fish in before the co2 comes on today, and their behaviour will help tweak the rate. Like plantbrain says, just watch the fish. if they're happy, no problem.
 
stuck my co2 diffuser under my new eheim filter intake. And for the first time i have a GREEN DROP CHECKER!
 
TRying that, but still most of the bubbles not getting sucked in. part of the problem is that the 2180 eheim has two inlets, so each doesn't suck that hard. am considering just shoving the co2 tube into the inlet and not using the diffuser. However, this will be a lot of big bubbles in the filter, so not sure that's such a good idea. If I could only somehow get more of the micro bubbles into the inlet it would be great. No pearling since I put the co2 onto a timer, and the drop checker hasn't quite gone colourless like last time. I could persuade myself if is heading towards green though.

Course, all of this should be moot once the reactor gets fixed.
 
ah. That explains the 3 tubes on the big eheims. i would say 99 percent of my bubbles get sucked into my filter. Loving the external eheim. Makes the jewel internal seem crude and intrusive.
 
Calzone said:
TRying that, but still most of the bubbles not getting sucked in. part of the problem is that the 2180 eheim has two inlets, so each doesn't suck that hard. am considering just shoving the co2 tube into the inlet and not using the diffuser. However, this will be a lot of big bubbles in the filter, so not sure that's such a good idea. If I could only somehow get more of the micro bubbles into the inlet it would be great. No pearling since I put the co2 onto a timer, and the drop checker hasn't quite gone colourless like last time. I could persuade myself if is heading towards green though.

Course, all of this should be moot once the reactor gets fixed.
Click to expand...

Someone correct me if im wrong here but i dont think having "big bubbles" going into the filter will affect anything. Also once the bubble is sucked into the inlet pipe & blown about in the flow it will be diffused into smaller bubbles anyway.
 
well, there's only one way to find out!! I just have this image of a big bubble staying intact until it gets tot he impeller. But you're right, even if it survives passage through the hose, it then has to pass through a prefilter foam, then 3 inches of ehfimech, then three inches of eheim media and siporax, and then three inches of matrix, before passing through a fine polishing wool, before it gets to the impeller. Most likely it will be in small bubbles by this point, unless its a very macho bubble. Not sure what the flow pattern into the impeller casing is, possibly there's some sort of venturi effect lowering pressure as the flow speeds up causing gas to come back out of solution or resulting in cavitation, but I think this is pointless worrying when compared to the obvious solution, of, you know, just trying it.

Probably find it works fine and sixty quid's worth of reactor is pointless.
 
It wont be in any bubbles by the time it reaches the impeller - it should of all dissolved into the water. Some will probably collect and the filter will cough it up once in a while.
 
A well designed reactor will give 100% dissolved gas without the burping that happens when you get a build up of undissolved gas inside your filter.
Personally I am not keen on any reactor that is not made of clear material, I like to see what is going on & adjust the flows to suit.
 
So really a filter is just a badly designed reactor without the ability to bleed undissolved gas or see what's going on? I do agree that being see through is a nice feature of the commercial reactors.

On this topic, and I know I've asked this before, but why do aquamedic design a reactor for huge tanks, a high flow rates, then out 16/12mm connectors on it? Is it something to do with increasing flow speed to stop gas escaping, or some sort of veNturi effect? Or just odd?
 
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