Wow, there's a lot going on. I can't even imagine the planning that went into the plumbing alone, very impressive. I got a better look at the guppy breeder setups now. You mentioned you use frogbit and I see it, it never becomes a problem? As a floating plant I imagine it has to be great at filtering, but I always thought itd quickly overrun an aquarium. And What do you do with all those Potho clippings? Can I ask how long you run your lights on a daily basis? And what kind of lights are you using? Any particular lumens and kelvins? Have you ever tried an algae scrubber? I may have asked that last one before as it's often on my mind when thinking plant filtration. I hesitate to experiment with it because I have a feeling it may take more room than I'd care to dedicate to one and more maintenance as well.
My apologies for so many questions, I'm curious as I would like to experiment with some plant filtration. Thanks for the tag and the informative post.
I find a lot of satisfaction in planning and working out these things. It's half the hobby for me.
The frogbit is was started with 2 plants and spread around the room's 30 tanks. It is now finally at the point where I have started collecting from tanks and discarding. However, they do not over run my tanks much as I have really low NO2 and NO3 with all the filtration.
Pothos clipping go straight in the trash. In Taiwan pothos is so common you can almost not pay people to take it. Plus, in this climate it grows so fast if I needed a clippingI threw out, I wait a month and take a new one.
Lighting
All lights except Apisto cube are these shop lights. Lumens are not that important to me as I grow hardy, easy, plants and just need a light sources for periphyton to grow.
13000K, transparent cover, LED trip lights.
I use 3 sizes:
60cm (2') - 10W 1000 lumens I think
90cm (3') - 15W
120cm (4') - either 18W or 21W about 2000 lumens I think
I found a factory outlet where a (120cm) 4' light runs for a bout US$8.50 and the elec lines about US$4-5 a pop. So the hillstream loach rack lights for all 6 tanks cost about 54dollars and runs on a total of 93W for an average of about 6.6hrs/day.
I have tried by best to keep running cists to a minimum and currently spend aboutUS$25-30/month on power.
Each rack runs on a slightly different timer:
Guppy Breeder Rack
Each row of 6 tanks is lit by 2 x 13000K 90cm (3') shop lights with clear plastic cover
Lights come on twice a day, morning for a feed and night to work and enjoy.
06:55~ 07:40 then again at 16:50~ 21:25.
I know its random times but they have worked with my scheds so didn't bother to change them. This tank has less hours as it has higher feeding and less plants by a country mile.
Apisto Cube
10W, single source LED construction site light
Once a day 16:30~21:45
I do very little to this tank other than a weekly or bi-weekly 15% water change and feed quite heavily. So to reduce the algae growth but still have some, this photoperiod works for me. It is on during the time I am mostly in the fishroom and busy on tanks.
Guppy Tanks with Refugium, Continuous Breeder Tanks, Growout Tank, Paludarium and 4' High-Flow River Tank
These are on the same lights as guppy rack and all on the same timer.
Once a day
16:30~22:45
Hillstream Breeding Rack
Same lights
Once a day
16:00~23:45
Bear in mind almost all tanks are shallow and have low light aquatic and terrestrial plants.
I have considered algae scrubbers but think the constant need to clean will take the fun out of it. I have 6 filter socks. I change them as they need to be and wash them in the machine when all are dirty. However, the last one usually runs a month or two, overflowing, while I get my arse into gear and clean them all., The rest last a week at best. I think building it is easy enough. Making it easily accessible, straightforward to remove and replace, and have a place to do it is the issue.
Plus the plants essentially do the same work for a fraction of the effort or maintenance.
Build for lazy and any extra effort is a bonus for the tanks.
NO need to apologize. I am so busy at work and have so few people to talk seriously about fish to that I enjoy it when cats like you do.
