So after man weeks/months of neglect I finally got the spraybar built for my tank.
LOTS of BBA on the wood and tufts on the grass plus some on the swords. I've removed a bunch and have hopefully fixed the needlewheel CO2 so it will no longer move out of the main pump inlet/flow. The Stauro and blyxa have all been autofragging due to CO2 issues no doubt and my extremely inconsistent dosing.
Additionally I've got an all out war in the tank going on between two pairs of angels. Of course they decided to nest all of 18" away from each other. Interactions with other angels consist mostly of preemptive strikes on distant targets across the tank while the discus are typically ignored unless they feel a show of force will intimidate the other angels. The corys are often targets of opportunity as they head for air but the armor seems to shrug off the attacks. Other tetras simply outrun them whenever they inadvertently stray into the no fly zones.
Despite some issues with egg fungus most of the wigglers survived to free swimming for a few days. I've drastically modified the flow in the tank with the lokline spraybar arrangement so this should be less of a problem and will hopefully properly distribute the CO2 now. I made no real provision for feeding the babies so they may have starved or simple predation may have done them in. I just don't have the space to deal with more tanks right now.
Thoughts:
Skimmer is absolutely essential for the way I end up running my tanks. However, the Herbie overflows are decidedly fiddly when using them in an over the tank siphon. It seems the siphon requires a certain distance of water levels between the box in the back, and the tank level itself to maintain speed. I can slow the flow out of the box down until the water level difference is only an inch or so. I then open the valve up and it never really recovers. OTOH, I can start the pump up with no restriction on the outflow from the outside box and it will keep up all day long, but that's a water difference of several inches.
I do not really have the size box in the back for a full Bean setup, but I may try cutting down the emergency standpipe a bit more and see if that helps any. This may end up as a Hofer pipe with a vent tube which will be submerged when the water rises too high so it will hopefully turn into a full siphon and give off that flushing noise. Any loud noises would give off an audible "clean the prefilter genius" indication. I still need to find a better prefilter to deal with the sludge of fine particulates that accumulate in the sump. I'm think a submerged filter sock may work in this application so there's no splashing/outgassing. This may need to be done in the sump, although with a deep enough prefilter box on the outside it may be possible to do there where it's more readily reachable.
I'm also thinking that the whole siphon over the top is really the main problem here. Without the siphon and the level issues it's really just down to standpipes and the water levels above them. Since it's clear that reefers can run ridiculous flow rates through their Herbie / Bean setups ( when not using an over the top siphon tube ) this seems to be the major flaw in using this setup with a non drilled tank. I may just need to have the back of the tank drilled near the top and then fit a decent sized overflow box around the hole. I would think these wouldn't even need to be particularly large holes as long as there's an external box outside the tank for the standpipes. This would hopefully reduce any weakness in the tank as a 1" hole is certainly less glass than the hole for a 1" bulkhead.
Anyway, back to work...
-
S
LOTS of BBA on the wood and tufts on the grass plus some on the swords. I've removed a bunch and have hopefully fixed the needlewheel CO2 so it will no longer move out of the main pump inlet/flow. The Stauro and blyxa have all been autofragging due to CO2 issues no doubt and my extremely inconsistent dosing.
Additionally I've got an all out war in the tank going on between two pairs of angels. Of course they decided to nest all of 18" away from each other. Interactions with other angels consist mostly of preemptive strikes on distant targets across the tank while the discus are typically ignored unless they feel a show of force will intimidate the other angels. The corys are often targets of opportunity as they head for air but the armor seems to shrug off the attacks. Other tetras simply outrun them whenever they inadvertently stray into the no fly zones.
Despite some issues with egg fungus most of the wigglers survived to free swimming for a few days. I've drastically modified the flow in the tank with the lokline spraybar arrangement so this should be less of a problem and will hopefully properly distribute the CO2 now. I made no real provision for feeding the babies so they may have starved or simple predation may have done them in. I just don't have the space to deal with more tanks right now.
Thoughts:
Skimmer is absolutely essential for the way I end up running my tanks. However, the Herbie overflows are decidedly fiddly when using them in an over the tank siphon. It seems the siphon requires a certain distance of water levels between the box in the back, and the tank level itself to maintain speed. I can slow the flow out of the box down until the water level difference is only an inch or so. I then open the valve up and it never really recovers. OTOH, I can start the pump up with no restriction on the outflow from the outside box and it will keep up all day long, but that's a water difference of several inches.
I do not really have the size box in the back for a full Bean setup, but I may try cutting down the emergency standpipe a bit more and see if that helps any. This may end up as a Hofer pipe with a vent tube which will be submerged when the water rises too high so it will hopefully turn into a full siphon and give off that flushing noise. Any loud noises would give off an audible "clean the prefilter genius" indication. I still need to find a better prefilter to deal with the sludge of fine particulates that accumulate in the sump. I'm think a submerged filter sock may work in this application so there's no splashing/outgassing. This may need to be done in the sump, although with a deep enough prefilter box on the outside it may be possible to do there where it's more readily reachable.
I'm also thinking that the whole siphon over the top is really the main problem here. Without the siphon and the level issues it's really just down to standpipes and the water levels above them. Since it's clear that reefers can run ridiculous flow rates through their Herbie / Bean setups ( when not using an over the top siphon tube ) this seems to be the major flaw in using this setup with a non drilled tank. I may just need to have the back of the tank drilled near the top and then fit a decent sized overflow box around the hole. I would think these wouldn't even need to be particularly large holes as long as there's an external box outside the tank for the standpipes. This would hopefully reduce any weakness in the tank as a 1" hole is certainly less glass than the hole for a 1" bulkhead.
Anyway, back to work...
-
S