jamesbarr

So, anyone else already counting the days? I am. Just curious if anyone would leak what they are planning on bringing to sell off?

Grunt work and german beer is a good pair :beer: and so are we. I'll let him know the idea wasn't mine. i suspect it will be a good thanksgiving event!

It's a pile of work on a weekend when our family is coming to visit though sounds like a good excuse to drink a couple warsteiners with your son and work on it together, thats assuming that he shares a common interest in such things

I'd do the latter plan. Just because I'd be too eager to see the whole thing come together :-D

wow, so ill ask the question that everyone wants to know. does it work?

will you be cycling this tank at Thanksgiving?

yes sir! I got frustrated with the plumbing issue and the lack of supplies available in town. So I called a guy who had a full set up and asked him to trade me for a couple hobs and a little cash to part with his canister filter. With the HOBs he can at least still call his set up a 'complete' and still charge his crazy kijiji price :P I got myself a Rena XP2 filter. Super easy set up and Im running it now. Im going to part the FX5 together for a complete set up. Ill either sell it, or save it for the inevitable change to a larger set up. Thats if I dont just say 'screw it' and get a sump for my next size up. I was hoping to get the FX5 running on my tank, since it would have done a super job. On another note, media is ridiculous in price. If I would have purchased all the Rena recommended media for that filter, I would have ended up spending close to 80 bucks. I wound up buying 1 pack of 20 ppm and 1 pack of 30 ppm foams that I can rinse and reuse. Then I bought AC HOB media bags for my carbon and bio pieces to replace the Rena bio stars that cost a little more than $1.30 per star. I paid 14 and change for 3 bags of each in the AC brand. Then of course I bought the Big Als brand filter floss for 10 bucks. All in all I spent 53 bucks on media to get this canister running. At least I can use Carbon that I can purchase here in Barrhead and have enough floss to last a really long time

alas, living in a small town has its perks. Plumbing supply stores isnt one of those perks lol. I thought any hardware store would carry this stuff, but it seems that I will have to drive to the city after all. Blast...

nice work!

thats bad @$$. excited to see what it will look like with a nice tank set up on there!

fisher I like your idea. One idea was to run a Y fitting and use 2 spray bars. would that reduce the psi of the discharged water by half? The reason for my thought is that with a Y it would create 3 joints for hose. With the T system there would be 6. With the increased number of joints comes the increased risk of leaks. The other question that i have been meaning to ask is what kind of glue would a person use to connect your pvc pipe? I imagine that you couldnt use the typical solvent glue plumbers use.In the system that jvision links too, buddy uses 2 90degree elbows to bring his intake and discharges over the rim of his tank. I am worried about the pressure hitting the 90degree elbows that hook over the lip of the tank. I realize that the friction fit is pretty tight but the constant pressure on the elbow could push them apart.

sweet. thanks for the info. some sites are saying that its harder on the pump to have the taps turned back too far, any experiences with this at all?

so i got this thing for cheap so i jumped at the idea. I have a 36gallon tank. am i going to kick my fishes butt with this filter? or will the taps control the flowrate enough?

another option is vinyl hose, but im worried about bending it over the top of my tank into the water. will it kink? is there too much pressure from it to use 2 1 inch 90degree fittings to get it over and to my spray bar (yet to be built)? it would be 2 90s to get it over the side of the tank and a 90 to get it hooked to my spray bar. There would also be 2 90s hooked to my intake, Maybe im over thinking this.

hey, so I go a fluval fx5 yesterday from another member. however Its one stock return line is too short to reach my tank top and the intake line is an aftermarket idea that i dont really know where to go with. I was looking to replacement for them online and started to wonder. In the basement of a house I have been working in, I saw a sump pump with the line still above the ground. seems to be the right size. Its been hose clamped to the pump, the same as the line on my filter. Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on using something like this to replace the lines instead of waiting for delivery to use this filter. My tank is under filtered right now and I would really like to get this going asap.

i find that frozen bloodworms add protein and color to cocktails :P looks awesome man!

thanks guys. looks pretty simple.

hello all I am thinking about building a sump for my freshwater tank. However I was curious if anybody has any experience with drilling tanks for bulkheads? I dont know if my tank is out of tempered glass. Its just a regular tank at 36 gallons. I assume that most tanks that would be tempered are larger volumes? Any tips would be nice. I would like to do this on my own rather than having to pay a glass guy.

how is it going with this?

Ive decided that small woodworking projects are going to be my new hobby. I have begun to make a hinged box for my chisels to stay in so they dont get dull in the jar they are currently sitting in. My lack of work space promted the beginning of build a small workbench to work on in my den/loft area of my townhouse. Im definitely considering this option. Just wondering where to put such a set up :eh:

so i have reduced my feeding (setting aside my love for feeding frenzies) and I have noticed a drastic reduction in my population of MTS in my tank. Now seems to be at a manageable and enjoyable level again. Thanks again for the insight. This is why I love this site.

sweet, thanks for the advice. I will be sure to reduce my food at feeding time. So what about the nutrients to my plants? do they eat only food, or do they eat detritus? I know that my plants are supposed to enjoy fish waste, does the snail pop reduce that effect?

wow. thats crazy. I dont know what those things are worth but free is way better than that. Make sure that you take lots of pictures as it progresses. I have never heard of doing this but would love to know how it works.

hey so i was just curious about peoples opinion about whether or not having too many mts could actually effect my plant growth? The reason I am wondering this is because of the amount of poo that the mts eat. I have so many that I can actually scoop with my little fish net after feeding time and fill the net. I have put some in my sons tank, but they have procreated like bunnies as well, so Im flushing a few periodically. My plants have been sort of stunted, tho the cycle has begun to break with the addition of a new trace fert. Any thoughts? Hard to believe that I got them all from 6 little guys that I got the lfs woman to scoop and throw in a bag for $1

hope this works well for you. I have the same issue as well. are you using a co2 system in this one or no?