Loaches Online Forum

I have used T-5's on planted tanks before. For the depth of a 55gallon, you'd want at least two T-5's bulbs. Two 24" units each with 2 T-5's would be good. This also gives you the ability to mix blues and reds for a daylight color. Plus, with 24" units, you can try different tubes on different sides...

Praziquantel isn't very soluble in water, it's a real pain to get into solution. This probably explains some of the foam.

Neat, nice save.

I usually don't find them till they are more of dried decorative ornaments.

As a general FYI, A good water treatment carbon that is made to adsorb chloramines will get chlorine too. The coal based carbon for drinking water treatment is usually cheaper and better for this than cellulose based coal carbons. The cellulose stuff is what you see lots of in the hobby aquarium mar...

That is similar to the carbon filters I have used in the past.

UV light can be used, but it takes a pretty strong dose. Carbon filtration is usually a more cost effective solution for the small scale.

Do you have any filtration before the new tap water goes into the tank?

A good lignite catalytic carbon will remove chlorine and chloramines.

You aren't planning for your tank to be outside are you? Heating wise, it's just a matter of having more input than output to maintain your set point. Insulation helps slow the heat loss. As a quick comparison, take a standard 10 gallon versus a standard 55 gallon. The ten gallon tank has 112 square...

Thanks Marcos,

Again, very nice and tanks for the answers. Really nice job hiding the plumbing. Now that I know what to look for, I can see the overflow drain... Sneaky. Thanks for the info on the bottom supports.

I'm still impressed by the sump. I'd want to show that off.

Thank you for your ideas and input. Have you ever heard of using bubble wrap as an insulator? Thanks again. Yes, a heavy duty version is pretty common in the pool industry to float in a tank. With most bubble wraps, you get an R value of like 1.5 to maybe 2 at the best. Some of the styrofoam and ri...

If you are building this from scratch, you could easily add insulation to drastically cut back on heating needs. Once at temperature, you could probably get by with one 500 watt heater if you have it insulated well. Two on a controller would work well too. Plus, as the tank gets larger, you have les...

Very nice. I really like the dimensions for that tank. I take care of a display tank that is the same volume, but the dimensions make it really hard to work in/around the tank. You really have a gem in those dimensions. How is your sump plumbing set up? I don't see any overflows or returns in the ta...

Fran, For the question of actual power usage. What you really need is to measure the actual consumption of your tank in wattage. Then, also consider that the battery to inverter isn’t going to be 100% efficient, and battery capacity in Amps decreases over time. From there you can do the math and fin...

What does "pretty good but could be better" mean?

How are your nitrites and how much salt do you add to the tank?

I'm not sure what is what name wise in the UK, but can you get praziquantel or metronidazole?

as for chloramines is that the stuff they put in tap water thats ment to be good for teeth? or something cos yes they do do that here Negative. Many water treatment plants will use floride for the teeth. Chloramines are basically ammonia with chlorine in the place of hydrogen atoms (NH3 versus NH2C...