T Dawg

Unless you have the plywood and rubber handy the Dricore sub floor panels and shims are you cheaper option. Not to mention if there are any spills the Dricore will alow air for it to dry out. Just paint the top as they are plywood i believe. i live in a basement too but my only problem is the slope tilts the stands away from the wall. Shims are your best bet though if the floor is just unlevel one way. And i'd also like to know How the High Density Foam will help since i'm thinking of using it on some of my tanks and allready have it in use on my 80 gallon project.

Hope this helps

L

P.S. I'm pretty sure i saw the Drycore sub floor panels at Home Depot for 6-7 dollars each

Sounds about right. The top has an acrylic sealant so painting is optional. They claim to be rated for the weight even when shimmed, but I am waiting to hear back (was looking to use them in thtebasement, and figured why not add a few more) since thw website claimes they support 4,000 lbs but I was worried how shims would effect that number. My 90 is 18" x 48" so the should be hidden underneath or have a slight rear overhang.

A pair of the DriCore subfloor pannels and the related shim kit might be what you are looking for.

Ginger passed a few days ago, and shortly after we had a male endler die. So far the otos have not found the bogwood, but there is a cloud of little Endlers nipping at it.

One of the otos has a newly dammaged front fin.

The tetras have been hanging out deeper in the tank, more lower 5 inches.

Added a hunk of bogwood tonight after having soaked it for a few nights. Did a 50% water change and added a heater cover to the Fluval 300w. Tried a few new ideas for the fry filtration protection system but none worked and planned so after a quick rinse the sponge is back on the XP3 pickup and the XP2/Rena 200w heater are back in the retasked media bag.

Cleaned the hoses, recut, and rotated them between up/down and input/output for algae control. I had gotten most off by squeezing the tub with the filter on in areas with a buildup, but I missed a few spots for too long and it became too built up for the added water velocity created by the narowing of the pinching to work.

The filters have been noisier than ever and one is gushing air. Call to Rena, a lot of research, a trip to the LSF, and a few forum posts still have this as an in progress item for now. May just replace.

Well I used 2 caps of Prime with the water change this time and everyone behaved normal so I guess it has to be the chlorine. I have never had an issue with the smaller tank but I guess the increased amount of water must make a difference. I figured 20% of a 33 gallon would make the same difference as 20% of the 135 gallon. Guess I need to buy some more Prime.

Glad you were able to pin it down. Got to like happy fish.

It could be as simple as entry angle of the water creating less splashing in the big tank. Back before I figured out fish die anyway I did way too much testing with angle of hose, lid position, and amount of agitation for best dispersal of chlorine using only the agitation of the incoming water. I was amazed how small changes made a big difference.

Come to think of it I had a Rena do the same thing, but I took the valve body to Canadian Tire and got O-rings from the autoparts section. And yes it could draw air through the intake side as well.

I think the top having water but noleaking durringoperation became clear when I took thescrews out. When I use thequickdisconnect there is water betwen the valves aboveteh top of the filter that sort of squirts when unplug the tubes.I think this could be the source of the water in the top but I am not sure.

The pumpis now very noisy (louder than the airpump) so I may need to replace the impeller shaft and bearings, and at that price for not lasting a year I may just limp until boxing week or a US trip and replace it.

I took hoses off, recut the ends, re-re-rechecked the in-tank fittings, and examined all the rubber with no succes. I might try swapping the rubber between units again depending how I feel tommoerow...

Your water problem in the lid is due to the o-rings on your quick disconnect. I had the same problem, changed the rings and all was good.

http://rena-aquatics-outlet.planetrena.com...tlet-Parts.html

Scroll down to the quick disconnect o-rings description and it will explain it there.

I'll need to hit another LFS for parts, the one I went to did not have the parts I waslooking for.

There has been water in the lid from day one, but could that contribute to the current air issue?

I found that the o-ring that goes between the top and the canister on 1 of my XP3 filters was broken and it would suck in a little of air causing it to spit out air every so often. Also when you prime your filters you need to make sure there is no water in the discharge hose or it will not let out all of the air from the canister.

I see two o-rings you may be referring to. There is the outer continuous square gasket. It seems pliable and unbroken, as I do not have a spare I have not tried to remove or do to much with it, just a wipe. There is an inner circle that has a single gasket made from a price of rubber looped to meet up with itself in a circle but not contiguous. I removed this, rolled it in my fingers looking for hard spots or hard water build ups, then installed it inverted.

I did find the impeller shaft bearings seemed swollen and the shaft was no longer smooth.

Since when I take the lid off and turn the top upside down water does come out around the electrical plug I am guessing I shuold look for new seals for that area.

I took some pictures, butthe S.O. "put away" the card reader so I so not know where it is.

How can it be put away if it has never been put there before.

Are your baskets in right,... I didn't get mine in flat once and the filter was sucking air through the main seal, it was noisy and burping air every 10/20 seconds out of the spraybar, pulled the top off, realigned the baskets with a little shake and all was good after that.

The baskets do seem to be seating and fitting together well. The media trays are not overly full and they sit nice and flat.

Well there is the one type of though search that can make you feel awkward afterward....poor little guys/gals.

Glad to hear they all made it.

The shrimp start going crazy almost immediately after the water starts to go into the tank. They cruise around the tank out in the open for about an hour after the water starts getting put in the tank and then go back to their usual hidy holes. The corys they just seem to go completely still or at least most of them I have 8 and one seems to be completely unaffected and goes about his business as usual the others park themselves on the gravel or a plant and stay that way for at least an hour. Then gradually they just go about their usual routine.

With our corys , I find if the new water temp is a degree or two below the existing tank temp and I have the water well defused (Python flow restriction valve set to about ¾ to cause a broken fan spray) they will play in the new water. If the water is the same temp they tend to just sit still or hide during the fill then go back to normal soon after the fill stops. If the flow from the python is too smooth and the chlorine does not get agitated out the cories tend to sit until the chlorine dissipates and that can take an hour or so unless a dechlorinator is used.

*sigh* I get at least one person a week with this concern...

I would suspend anyone who asks from posting until they send you chocolate or fish.

How long after the change fo they calm down?

If after the fill stops they are back to normal they can be shy. The length of agitiation may point to something.

Both my Rena XP2 and XP3 have had about a 1” air gap at the top since they were new. They are now 8 months old. The tops are also full of water each time I go to clean the filters and need to be drained. Both seem to not be ideal, but normal for many users.

One has always been noticeably louder than the other, and based on reading this seams common given they have different impeller shaft types. Both have gotten louder over the past few months.

For the past few weeks or so the XP2 has been expelling air every 15-45 minutes but I cannot find the source. Last time this happened I had an air stone too close to the pickup. I guess this means one of the seals could be in need of replacement. If I read the troubleshooting document correctly it would be the main seal I am replacing, but it seems to be in good shape, matching the other unit. Any tips on finding out which seal needs replacing or should I just replace all of them?

Any comments, pointers, ortips on any of these other items?

Well since the time of this writing the female endler that gave birth to the 18 fry has passed. After the birth she looked really skinny but was eating and I figured she would eventually fatten up again. About a month afterward she was still pretty skinny but not really sickly looking or anything and one day I found her belly up. I am thinking she might have been an older gal. At least she left me with a good brood of 11 males and 7 females. I have since separated the sexes into 2 different tanks to make sure I am controlling the population and the males are all colored up and probably old enough to breed.

My second female just dropped a few weeks ago and 3 fry that are not yet sexable have survived that. I think she may have eaten a few of them as I saw her making chasing them, stop and makin chompin motions otherwise I wouldnt have noticed she was giving birth.

The plan to control the population longer term is to drop one lucky boy into the harem for a few weeks at a time and see what comes along in a months time. :P Its quite entertaining to watch him dance for the ladies.

Even adding the male once could get you thee batches, from each of the romanced. Them females is tricky folk, they can store enough,er, genetic stuff, for a few batches!

I haven't found them, but that may be because I have a Rena xp3 and it would be too much for young fry.

I had my weather loaches swim up the outflow into my old Aquaclear 110 though...

Most of mine with in the XP3, only a few in the XP2.

Hatching Baby Brine Shrimp

This is just a guideline and the way I do it so you might have a way that suits your needs better.

You will need:

Air pump

air tubing

2 liter pop bottle

air hose connector

some Styrofoam or some other way to fasten the bottle inside your tank

Brine Shrimp mix:

1 Liter of tap water

1/2 tsp of BBS eggs ( I use Ocean Nutritian)

1 tbs of rock salt

1/8 tsp of baking soada

1/8 tsp of epson salt

Here's a pick that shows you how I float the hatchery in my tank. I put Styrofoam around the top also to float the bottle

Directions:

To hatch eggs successfully place the recommended amount of sea salt to each liter of 80 degres (28 Celsius) tap water, add mixture of 1/2 tsp of eggs, 1/8 tsp of Epson salt, 1/8tsp baking soda, and 1 tbs of rock salt. Proper temperature control is the key so if your floating it in your tank your fine. Add the air line to the bottom of the hatching vessel. Make sure air keeps eggs in suspension for best results. Eggs will hatch into very tiny, nearly microscopic `Nauplii` (babies) in 18 to 30 hours. You can harvest by the removing the air tube and waiting five minutes for the BBS ( will be orange near bottom of cone) to come to the bottom of the bottle. Then siphon them with more air tubing into a brine shrimp net, rinse with fresh water if you like but I never, and feed to your fish. Some people just siphon the eggs right into the fry tank.

That seems like a good item to become a sticky in the diy section.

Don't worry, you'll have more endlers before you know it!!

If the Endlers are breeding order the bigger tank now....

I have not seen still born, but we do have occatioaly have a few fry that just go away now and then. If the fish are stresed tehy can keep them in and not drop.

Some of our Endler girls get huge! Then nomal looks so tiny afterwards. Once you have more females it is easy to see what is the "normal" width.

Just the other week I saw a pair in the filter and called the S.O. over to help with the cleaning. By the time we were done over 20 live ones were found and put back in the tank. One was way too big to have made it in at that size so he must have been there for a few weeks. One filter had most of them, oddly the one with the smaller grate.

We now have a lot of fish.

T DAWG ... did you cycle your tank with or with out fish?

how did it turn out?

p.s. reading instructions aren'tnecessary.

Without. Fish seem happy. First batch o fish had no loss. Very little death in general, unlike the small tank that started the hobby. A few lost on subsiquent adds (each time we add tetras we loose two) and a few missing corys. Have a journal setup but have not updated it in a while.

As long as you watch the expiry date on them they seem fine. We have both and alternate between them and get consistent readings with both.

:welcome: T.Dawg n.n ammonia has a higher concentation off NH3 than show brands! To achieve the high amount of NH3/4 is necessar so the N02 bacteria can colanize the media's. Which allows the N03'S to enter the pictuer (tank) ... much sooner than in natural (4 - 6 week time).

Water X/C's will now regulate the N03 content in a mature tank. :thumbs:

Sifting the info with the startup can be hard.

Ok I followed the post in DIY forum and right now (day 8) I am getting readings Ammonia 8.0 PPM Nitrite 5.0 PPM and Nitrate 4.0 PPM.

Now I realized I didn't do the recipe correct as on the first day I put in the amount of ammonia to get the tank to 5.0 PPM (60 ML) and then I added that amount (60 ML) of ammonia every day to the tank well after 5 days I realized that I was not doing it correct I was suppose to keep the tank at 5 ppm and only put in the amount of ammonia needed to keep it there...well I left the tank at 8 or greater (my test kit only goes to 8) for 4 days and now this is what I am getting for readings.

I am not seeing the ammonia go down yet...should I do a water change or let the tank keep going?

Thanks!

Rob.

A water change that keeps the filters and decorations wet will not cause issues or slow the cycle, and it will keep everything in the readable ranges for your testkits. To keep the math simple, I'd do a 50% change then test, test again and change the needed percent to get you back to 5PPM.

yeah I was at petsmart the other day and they had a couple of these, it had an air stone in it but not like his...there is no light in it.

You may have gone to petsmart in the wrong country, but they do let you order off of the US website and ship to Canada. The ones I saw in th US looked quite a bit differnt, but the store demo did not have that type of output. The US version has a light that changes through 7 colours. Here is the box pic Petsmart Box Pic

I forgot a post last week, but I did clean it.