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Flat Earth society...

dcurzon

Member
Joined
4 Jul 2020
Messages
378
Location
Essex
Here at the flat earth society, we have members all around the globe.

And speaking of globes, for those non believers...

1606857714849.png

(stock image)

The infamous "fish killing" Biorb. Having saved one from a trip to the local tip, I've been toying with some ideas, such as "ok so what ever am I going to do with it?"
Theres been thoughts.
Theres been maths involving spheres.
Theres been LED light disassembly only to find it just needed the right remote.

My conclusion, I think this can be made to work as a planted tank and successfully sustain aquatic life other than a snail.

Ive drawn up a planting list. Not based on careful consideration of the conditions but on what I have already available and I don't want to spend any £'s.
  • Dwarf Sag
  • Crypto Crispulata
  • Ludwigia Red
  • Hydrocotyle Triparita
  • Hygrophilia Polysperma
  • Spiky Moss
  • Red Tiger Lotus

I am definitely going to be needing my hacksaw...
 
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This won't be of much help with your topic I'm afraid, but is polisperma a plant that can generally fit well in such small tanks? I'm asking because I'm also tempted to plant some in my 30cm cube yet I worry that it's leaf size and general width might look a bit disproportionate
 
This won't be of much help with your topic I'm afraid, but is polisperma a plant that can generally fit well in such small tanks? I'm asking because I'm also tempted to plant some in my 30cm cube yet I worry that it's leaf size and general width might look a bit disproportionate
In my 72 it was dwarved by my lobelia cardinalis. It can be cut back hard, and will be an almost background layer, so should be ok :)
 
I improvised an uplift filter (v1.0), as a proof of concept/test fit. It worked.
IMG_20201201_224822.jpg
IMG_20201201_124619.jpg
As I don't have hands of a similar size to a small child, I've freed up some space in there and more surface area for planting.
I won't bore you with the calculations for volumes of segments of a sphere, but effectively, I calculated that I would need 3 litres of substrate.

Of course I then realised it was far easier to empty it, and add a jug of water one at a time to see how much I needed. Which happened to also be 3 litres and far easier to work out :/

I have exactly 2 litres of tropica soil powder in a bag...

But I digress. The goal for this step was POC and that was achieved :)

Ps. Note the cocky confidence of even sticking a couple of stems in there
 
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that looks cool, I presume the velocity of the air bubbles pulls the water through and out the pipe to create a bit of flow?
 
that looks cool, I presume the velocity of the air bubbles pulls the water through and out the pipe to create a bit of flow?
That's exactly it.
I wasn't able to find a way to measure how much water was being pulled through though, but eyeballing it, I figured there was an amount that could move some water about

IMG_20201201_124634.jpg

But more is always better...
 
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That's exactly it.
I wasn't able to find a way to measure how much water was being pulled through though, but eyeballing it, I figured there was an amount that could move some water about

View attachment 157297

But more is always better...
could you have the water collect in a bottle from the outlet. however much you catch in 10sec multiply by 6 then again by 60 to get LPH?
 
could you have the water collect in a bottle from the outlet. however much you catch in 10sec multiply by 6 then again by 60 to get LPH?
Thats exactly what I did do with v2.0... but I'd already pulled v1.0 out. And i used a bag over the outlet to catch the water. It was just easier with a bag! I should have phrased that better - I wasn't able to find a way at that time to measure it....

Anyway, I just went and plumbed v1.0 back in albeit temporarily, for a fair comparison. Same usb air pump and piping.

v1.0 = 45lph
v2.0 = 108lph

Things to consider... This Biorb is 30litres. With my 3litres of substrate and a bit of an air gap at the top, I'm expecting no more than 26litres of water, so thats a 4x turnover.
The air pump being used is one of these USB Quiet Air Pump which gives absolutely no specs on power at all, but it is MUCH quieter than the Biorb air pump. It obviously isn't a very high powered pump nor adjustable. But it was cheap and quiet.
 
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Thats exactly what I did do with v2.0... but I'd already pulled v1.0 out. And used a bag over the outlet to catch the water. It was just easier with a bag! I should have phrased that better - I wasn't able to find a way at that time to measure it....

Anyway, I just went and plumbed v1.0 back in albeit temporarily, for a fair comparison.

v1.0 = 45lph
v2.0 = 108lph

Things to consider... This Biorb is 30litres. With my 3litres of substrate and a bit of an air gap at the top, I'm expecting no more than 26litres of water, so thats a 4x turnover.
The air pump being used is one of these USB Quiet Air Pump which gives absolutely no specs on power at all, but it is MUCH quieter than the Biorb air pump. It obviously isn't a very high powered pump nor adjustable. But it was cheap and quiet.

thats quite an improvement, was that just due to the pump change?

was just thinking, the longer the tube and the bigger the bubbles from the pump, that should also drag more water up. theres probably a difference to be had with the width of the tube as well.

if you hang the air pump from an elastic band, that will make it quieter, should have another noisy pump
 
IMG_20201204_190744.jpg IMG_20201204_190600.jpg
This is referred to as a "Czech" uplift, or jet uplift.
A series of small holes drilled into the uplift pipe which is sheathed and sealed by a larger pipe and the air pushed into that, so the air bubbles are pressurised.

I didn't have the tooling available to me to be able to build it though and it wasn't going to be very economic to buy the tools for a one off, so I got in touch with Envobee Shrimp through his web site. He makes them for HMF filters, so after a few exchanged messages he made one to suit, although there was always going to have to be some slight alterations made so it was intentionally oversized to accommodate.

It was sent to me at 35cm high and I trimmed roughly 2cm from the uplift.
There's one slight oversight that I need to modify, and that's the intake, I need to raise it so the bottom inlet holes are above substrate level. But that just needs a 20mm coupler and about 3" of 20mm pipe so that should be easy. This is it as supplied by Envobee. You can see I also cut down the inlet as the foam filters i got were 8cm.
received_2443613349280742.jpeg
As it is now, the extender and small bit of pipe should lift the bottom of the inlet up out of the substrate...
 
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Lol I admire your determination, but have you tried to see if you can operate a pair of scissors on there?
 
And that's the inlet extended to a height that will be above substrate
IMG_20201205_211306.jpg
Now remember, I calculated a volume of 3 litres for the substrate... And I have 2 litres of tropica soil.

That gives me a defecit :O

However, I also have a sack full of rounded gravel in black and white variety, so I can make the deficit up with that.
But I suspect what will happen is the small tropica soil will end up underneath the gravel rather than staying above? So I'll probably need to put the gravel into bags of some sort, then into the bottom, and the tropica on top.

Where can I buy tights from without looking like some kind of pervert??!!
 
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Where can I buy tights from without looking like some kind of pervert??!!
Go to your closest well stocked grocery store, preferably one you will have to visit again. Pick up a package of tights, and as you get to the register, tell the cashier:
"Oh these? Dont worry. They're for my fish!"

Alternatively I guess you could buy some off amazon or ebay? Id get some heavy duty looking ones, my limited experience with gravel and tights had the normal fine ones starting to unravel very easily.
 
as long as your not putting them on at the till, they will just assume your buying for some one else,

your you could freak out your female friends and do a social media post asking for any stockings/tights if they pick up a ladder and are throwing them out
 
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