Dave's multi-floor South American adventure

[Pharaoh]

OK, I messed up a bit. I was thinking about combining the returns as they go into the tank. The whole emergency thing didn't register. LOL

You could in fact T the two together and connect them to a 1.5" pipe for draining purposes. You would be OK for that. Just T the 1" pipes and have them merge into a 1.5". When draining, gravity and the biggest pipe matter. I t should make a difference if the water is just flowing out of the tank.

 

[DaveB]

I moved the middle plant and lights a bit... looks a bit better. Not anything like how I ultimately want it to look, but it'll be another 10 days before the local swap where I hope to get some excellent pieces of wood (and more fish).

On a much more cool note, my wife is over at her computer watching videos of House of Sam and whining about how she misses our datnoids. Time for a 4th tank!

 

[DaveB]

Took some photos and videos and posted them in CA/SA. Hard to believe there are fewer fish in both tanks now than I previously had in one of them. It's nice and peaceful though.

I can't wait to get them both fully running and properly aquascaped. I want to go with a dimmer/darker look downstairs, I think. Up here I want plants and nice wood arrangement and bright fish though. Aquascaping a 4x2 with a center overflow is a challenge though, especially with a bright blue background. The center overflow really messes me up. I'm kind of a rule of thirds guy. I'll have all kinds of nice DW at my disposal next sunday but I have no idea what types to plan for yet.

 

[DaveB]

Completely unrelated and mostly inspired by JCardona and Justin...

After dragging the one tank out of the hallway (it was on the right), the hall looks all boring and empty. With the wife being wistful about both puffers and kribensis, I was thinking that maybe a narrow little (20l perhaps, even as big as 55) planted tank would be a good fit. Perhaps even a rimless with a nice minimalist look and hanging or wall-mounted light. I could put it right under the center Yankee Stadium frame as the only element in the hall.

Only problem is that this being below grade and on tile, I worry about the humidity that'd cause. Perhaps it'd be negligible. Or perhaps the dehumidifier we run sometimes would basically drain half the tank per day. Not sure.

Oh, the other problem is that I'm not sure I have the time or inclination to trim plants every day. But boy do they look nice...

It'd also be cool to figure out a non-tacky way to ring the top of the hallway with the Yankee Stadium frieze, to keep with the theme... that's probably not possible, though...

 

[cypher1]

that nice make it look like its in the wall then it be hot

 

[DaveB]

Actually I thought of that, as I could do sort of a cabinet/bar/fridge/tank thing under the stairs. But that wouldn't work for resale. The best I could do would be to wall mount the lights.

 

[DaveB]

My cousin sold his place and is going to China for a while before they come back and rent for a bit before buying. So I'll actually be babysitting his 46 bowfront for a while. I am going to set it up in the spot in the hallway that I'd like to do plants with, and potentially even start growing the plants right in his... He just keeps a bunch of tetras, cories, and a few of my old rainbows, so it's good stock for plants. I might toss in a couple of kribs if I see a nice pair next week.

Also, I was thinking that I might want to try the herbie style overflow in the 120... Could the emergency drain be done with the narrower hole? I can't imagine that it couldn't... then I could re-route my returns up through the back and somehow plug the stupid center return hole.

I also need to decide what size pump I want for this... not really sure at all. Is the Mag Drive 9.5 enough or should I get the 12? Should I go with a different brand? Silence is a priority...

 

[DaveB]

Damn 30 minute editing limit... I started editing before :30....

I definitely want to try to get a nice background that I can make fit the 120. With or without that, though, I think I have an idea for aquascaping it that might work. It involves a tree-like structure of driftwood (which I'm sure will be impossible to find) and a lot of anubias on it, which basically creates a bit of shade for discus and also comes across the center and de-emphasizes the overflow and especially the center return. It'd basically be the shape of a lowercase 'r' - arising from the left side and sweeping up and across the middle. Rock pile at the base of that, swords and stuff in the opposite (lower right) corner, more rocks there, and plenty of swimming space across the front. I think I might be able to do that all low-tech with 120w of fluorescent light too.

Leaning very strongly towards San Merah discus - including this pair - maybe 6-7 of them and 4 Orangeheads (or all 6, we'll see). May not need tetras at all.

Of course, what I would REALLY like would be these fish (and that tank)... but I have no earthly idea what they even are. That tank immediately jumped up into my top five favorites ever when I saw it.

 

[DaveB]

Time to start doing instead of just talking. I'll be ordering my wild Discus soon and hopefully will have all the necessary aquascaping stuff for their tank this weekend. Time to decide on the pump and plumbing. I won't have any biomedia for the sump til 2 weeks from now (Bobby, we didn't make it for MNF this week, but the 15th is a go) but I at least want to plumb it and re-route the FX5 in the meantime.

I want to copy Egon's sump overflow design. It's simple and clever. The only thing I worry about is that if I'm on a drip, I'll need that to be overflowing at one level, getting rid of the water I replace... but if the power goes out and the pump stops and the sump takes on the excess from up above... it'd overflow out the drip's overflow... and then the power could come back on and I'd be screwed, right?

I also worry about how I can make the sump's returns be totally silent (ie, submerged) without opening myself up to siphoning issues. Though I suspect that maybe I can figure out a way to middle it so they're below the water line but above the line where things would drain in the event of power outage.

So I need to solve those two issues, plus decide how I want to set up the overflow (ie, if herbie works with a 1/2" backup pipe - I assume yes) and what pump I want.

I feel like I should ditch the two sumps that I have and build a bigger one. There's a lot of space under here. Then again, they have to be able to fit through the little door. Maybe I can plumb them together and have them share one pump?

Downstairs, I am going to pull the baseboard off, cut an outlet-level hole, and hope that that can serve as my discreet point of entry for the drain tubes. I might be screwed re: a nice fat emergency drain, though, because down at that level the cement block gets thicker and I think the studs are only 2x2 instead of 2x4. At the very bottom I can buy myself a bit of space behind the baseboard, which is 3/4" + 5/8" away from the stud (math says... 11/16"!) if I manage to do the MDF wainscoting I want in that room. But even that could maybe not be enough. I may have to devise some other way.

I'm also thinking that perhaps a closed loop of some sort to provide a bit of lower-tank circulation (again inspired by Egon) might be a good idea. I do have those two holes in the bottom in odd places... might be nice to push waste right to them and set up one filter as mech-only, easy in/out for cleaning.

I guess there's still a lot more planning to be done... I wish I had more experience with stuff so I could be confident in my ideas and just go do them and tell you all, rather than asking a billion questions.

 

[DaveB]

We set up my cousin's tank tonight. It looks nice enough in that spot. wish it had a canopy, though.

Definitely can't keep a tank with interesting fish there, because there's nowhere to sit or really even comfortably stand to watch them. But a densely planted tank with just a puffer or a pair of kribs or something could definitely work. This is 15" front to back and that's the absolute max. A 40l or 55 at 13" might be better.

Anyway, now I'm babysitting a tank of 3 giant danios, 4 rainbows, and a ton of little mollies and like 5-6 kinds of tetras and cories. This tank is like mine on speed... it's funny to watch them darting around nonstop and then looking back at my geos, aro, and uaru... just floating in space.

If I find cheap plants I told him I might change out his substrate and start planting the tank (beyond his few real ones in there). I'll tell you... I don't miss gravel. So much hidden grime in there. His nitrates were like 40 when I tested the bucket water when we arrived. Maybe skewed high from any poop in transit, but still... I'm really curious to see what it settles at after a week or so here, after a 90% water change. I'm betting it can't do better than 20.