Above the Tavern with Parka!

[Parka]

Parka , Self Reporting with Gusto & Vigor and the three of us have Fantastic News concerning the Czech style airlift! My Inner Junkie is all excited too, he's smokin my shoe laces!

I tested the pvc version vs airstone in the Mighty Chicago and keep in mind, the same pump that I used is already running 13 large air stones, 8 in the Chicago and 5 in the Cleveland and the Czech version once again had more than twice the flow of the typical air stone uplift tube. The Czech style filled a liter of water in less than 4 seconds! It took almost 10 seconds for the air stone to fill the same container. The Czech style was so strong that it was lifting up and spitting out the pea gravel substrate, Holy Smokes!!!

And in more exciting news, in the meantime I was curious how well the 40 watt air pump would drive both tanks so I swapped out the 55 watt with the 40 watt and still got those great results. These Czech airlift tube are FOR REAL,

Before I had the 55 watt air pump, I was using the 40 watt on the Chicago and the 18 watt on the Cleveland. When I got the 55 watt I also bought a pair of 3/8" valve air splitters for the reason to run all three tanks with one air pump. And now it looks the 40 watt air pump will be up to the task. I have realized that using multiple air stones really does create a LOT of water movement, please don't underestimate how beneficial water movement is to the health of a tank!

On the left is the Czech style airlift tube, air stone on the right.




I'm using the air pump in the middle, when I have all three tanks set up, I may go with the larger 55 watt pump, TBD!





I did the test using the 40 watt air pump that is already driving 13 of these 2" ball air stones, the keep the surface roiling!




After the test was over I wedged the new high performance Czech style in the Cleveland with a sponge, just because. Good Evening!

 

[Parka]

Parka , Self Report on the Hard Working Akron!

I finally got after it today, I removed almost all the pea gravel today and it was not nearly as difficult as I had been thinking. It only took about two hours tops, including short breaks. Now, tomorrow I will remove the lava rocks and then it will be ready to move across the basement. With a pry bar I will lift the stand and tank together and place a bunch of dowel rods underneath and start pushing!

When I originally filled the gravel, I didn't sift or rinse it at all, I just dumped bags of Home Depot pea gravel straight from the bag. The bagged pea gravel has a bunch of sand and smaller pebbles in it and so when I used the same gravel in the Chicago and the Cleveland, I sifted out the sand and finer gravel and I plan to sift this gravel this time, before I use it again. I have some sifters that I made with different sized mesh and it doesn't take long at all to dry sift.

After it's sifted I will rinse the pea gravel but I won't be rinsing the lava rocks. They are still wet and bio loaded so I'm hoping the tank cycles real fast.

I plan on replacing all my water pumps and use air to run the under gravel filters in all three of my tanks. The Chicago will be last, it is using a 170 watt pump, the Cleveland WAS using a 120 watt pump and the pump in the Akron is 100 watts plus my outdoor pool pond is using a 100 watt water pump. My outdoor pool ponds will all be using air with the Czech style airlifts, I am really stoked about these airlifts!

So indoor tanks will be going from 390 watts of water pumps to 55 watts of one air pump, and the outdoor pool pond will go from 100 watts to 18 watts, and those water pumps were running 24/7, I better get busy!

It was SO much easier than I anticipated!



I like to Show Off! Looky here what I done did, All By My Lonesome, Clumsy & Crippled, I STILL Kick Azz! Good Evening!

 

[Sassafras]

Amazing! That kind of reduction in power consumption is very significant. If my math is correct, based on your comparison trial, at one liter each 4 seconds, that airlift would be moving 238 gph. Will you be able to run enough airlifts with the 55w air pump to match the flow you were getting from your conventional water pump?

As I was reading your tank moving strategy, all of a sudden I started hearing this music,

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them dogies movin'
Rawhide!

 

[Parka]

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them dogies movin'
Rawhide!

Performed and covered by The Lonesome Hobos! It's on the B side of their smash cross genre hit, 'If I Had Me a Hammer and a Ladder...

 

[Parka]

I have to leave real soon to the VA in Atlanta, in a few minutes, just routine stuff! On my return I Shall Self Report, Czech Style!

Good Morning!

 

[Parka]

I have to go back to the VA again, this morning, ah crap! I was hoping to get today's biznit covered yesterday but it was a, No Can Do!
Sung to the tune of, 'I Can't Go For That' by Hall & Oates...

And then when I get back I gotta go do my watering duties at the Community Garden, I'm part of the Community!
Sung to the tune of, 'If I Had Me a Hammer and a Ladder' by the Lonesome Hobos...

Good Morning!

 

[Parka]

This Is what My Inner Junkie THINKS he looks like while shopping:




And this is My Inner Junkie out Shop (lifting) for real:

 

[Parka]

Chat ya Later!

 

[Parka]

I have a whole lot to chat about, Parka , Self Report, Comprehensive Style!

1. About the Czech style air lifts. I made 4 different sizes from 1/2" ID to 1 1/8" ID and I only did three comparison tests vs air stones using the same air source and every time the Czech style about doubled the water flow compared to an air stone.

Even using a small air pump, only 1.5 watt, it worked very well on the 1/2 and 3/4 pipes. Eventually I will be going full tilt using this Czech style airlift in all my tanks and outdoor pool(s), very impressed!

2. The Hard Working Akron. Yeah sure, removing the gravel was easy compared to removing the lava rock. The day after I removed the gravel, I took only two handfuls of lava rock out and my will to work vanished! Even though the gravel is heavier than the lava rock, the gravel scooped up nice and the lava rock is very much more difficult to remove. Finally today I got a good start and I plan to get back after it in the morning. Here's a few pics to prove it! Just a slow unpleasant task.



3. The outdoor pool pond. I tested the water for nitrates only, ZERO! But back in Feb. we had a big warm up and for two mornings and one evening another Great Blue Heron was stopping by again. I chased it off and took about 1/3 of the water lettuce from the Chicago and put it in the pool and it seemed to be enough to make the Heron lose interest, pretty cool.

But then we had another hard cold spell, a couple nights went below 20 degrees F and several other were in the mid 20's and it wiped out the water lettuce. It was still there and floating and obscuring the view of the Heron, I think, but earlier this week I netted it all out and then through in another fresh batch of water lettuce, again borrowed from the Chicago tank. In those four weeks when I removed the first batch, it all grew back and pretty much had the whole of the Chicago covered again.

The bad news is that it appears two of my seven larger Koi are missing! Missing is Lake Erie and Decoy. I named Erie because he looked the most natural of all my Koi. He was silverish grey with just a small streak of orange on one side. And with a name like Decoy, I fully expected her to do a better job hiding from from the beak!

4. The Mighty Chicago. Every single time I test for nitrates they look to be around 5 or less than 10 ppm. My hunch is that the water lettuce is the reason why, it takes over the surface except where the 8 air stones push open the surface. And also there is NO algae in the Chicago and there hasn't been any for at least 9 months, maybe longer. Nitrates are the only thing I test for and even though they are not too high, I still like to to a water change 3 or 4 times a year on the Chicago. The Cleveland on the other hand, I just did a water change and cleaned the glass a week ago and already the glass is getting furry!

The substrate in the Chicago is a full 7" deep and I'm using a sprinkler hose to run the under gravel water flow and that hose, spread out as it is, it probably doesn't have the uniform distribution as the pipe system that was running in the Akron. So I'm VERY curious if there might be sections of substrate that anaerobic? My understanding is that anaerobic bacteria dispatch of the nitrates BACK to a smaller amount of nitrites which in turn get consumed by the aerobic bacteria.


5. I probably forgot a bunch of stuff but I will remember and Chat Ya Later, GOOD Evening!

 

[Parka]

This isn't worthy of Parka Self Report but because I am a Severe Braggart, I'm gonna show off what I did today!



I mentioned earlier that I dint bother to rinse the pea gravel at initial set up, well I also didn't bother to rinse the lava rock either and all that fine powder got mixed about with that mucky mulm and before I re use ANY of it, gravel and lava rock, I will be rinsing it with fish tank water!

Those pipes that I put together for the original UG filter worked great with the reverse flow system, what bothered me though, the water pump being used ran at 110 watts and so I will be using the old school plate style under gravel filter, air powered this time using those Czech style air lifts. I also plan to DIY a moving bed filter above the tank PLUS a DIY plastic window box mechanical style filter also above the tank INCLUDING a long narrow trough (a section of gutter!) for a hydroponics system for house plants with the goal of managing nitrates.

The Akron will once again become my Goldfish tank and I have had not such great results using live plants with Goldfish. This is gonna be fun! Anyway, I will still need to use a water pump to run all the overhead filters but it will be much smaller pump than what was being used.

Good Evening!