Alamodem

WOW!

Currently I set up 2 45 gallon tanks one of which has a myriad of tropicals my wife picked out. The second 45 gal is a corner tank with 6 angels in it and 6 of these other tropicals Both these tanks have 2 plecos and a dragon fish as well. The 90 im setting up will be Affrican cichlids (predomanently Mbuna & Bristlenose albino plecos, The 90 is my break in for learning how to run a system with a sump. (wish the submersable pump just gave up the ghost) Hoping to find a used one on here, or find a good deal in the city when im there friday. Going to paruse the aquarium photo section this weekend and toy around with pics at that time.

Currently keeping my sanity. Hehe.. maybe pix this weekend.

Excellent. Thank you.. yep this site is quite excellent.

When we are children we know we know better then mom and dad. When we are young adults we think we know better then mom and dad. in middle years we know enough to show mom and dad a thing or two. when we are getting older,, we KNOW more then mom and dad.. what a viscous circle. Who is MFK?? And why do they have fish???

Thanks for the info. I've spent the last while thinking about using broken up tile for a tank scape.. gonna dot it now.

Ok got the info you told me about the sump.. I have most of it set up. I have a corner of the tank is an encloser that overflows into it. I have the first shelf with Some course mesh I got from the local pet store, Below where I would prefer bio balls I have bought sponges rinced them out and cut them in cubes and they are below the filter acting as a wet/dry filter. The first part of the sump I have nothing but the water coming in. I have egg crate where I can put a protection grid at the bottom of each section of the sump. I have Kaldnes coming from Vancouver later this week. The kaldnes will go into the big chamger with the pump.. Still leaves me with 3 sections of the sump empty. haha will fivure out Im thinking biomedia such as those porcelian peices of tube, what ever they are called. and maybe those little brown balls I found in the ehiem filter I was given.. ive tried several materials for socks on the input side of the sump with no avail. Tried several types of batting sewen into a sock. The sock so far just forces off or gets destroyed. I checked the local fish store and they dont even know what a sump is... Hmmm..

Patrick Actually, let the boards dry first and plane them afterwards. Boards will still warp while drying, When you buy boards say 2x4s lay them flat and if you purchase alot, stack them with a little lath (small strips of wood) every few layers, In mills they put lath in between every single layer before they go into the dryers. As for running through a jointer, You treat every board as an individual, Knots, heartwood as opposed to sap wood, pith, they all have a determining factor on how each board dries. Even the growth rings from one tree to another tree will be different so the boards will not often dry exactly the same. As for a jointer, Take a look at some of the contractor thickness planers, or even the shop ones if you can afford them. your better off with one of those if you want boards a specific dimension you can run the boards through a thickness planer even on edge, A cabinet maker I know has 3 thickness planers and a jointer, the jointer always has a layer of dust on it. I purchased a Rigid Thickness planer and its a joy to work with. The dewalt is one that is highly recommended as well but is more expensive.

Ahh.. wow. You peps are excelent. Thank you.. All clear on most of it. Last clarification ... only reason I would need a light would be if I had plants in the sump I am guessing. Not sure how to introduce plants. But think all the filteribg will bw good. Oh yes, in one compartment I am planning on reserving for bags of charcoal, amo chips and such.

Hello and thanks for the reply to my topic. Ive read alot and watched entirely to many You tubes on Kaldnes. haha Kaldness is a very porous an neutral buoyant medium that us used to grow/spawn good bacteria in sumps. All the You tubes I've seen has the Kaldnes in the last section of the sump. The idea is that there is so much surface area that the good bacteria spawns on the inside surface and as it grows (like a tree) the older layers get pushed to the outside surface and eventually sluff off as harmless waste. I've seen whole sumps just filled with Kaldnes. Others I've seen the first section with a sock on the down spout.(which i think is overboard for the first part.. I was thinking in that corner part of my 80 gallon tank (its boxed in so no one can see as the water goes through a baffle from the rest of the tank. there are 2 shelves in it where I was thinking bio balls to act as a wet/dry section of the tank. Would sponges be best say in the first section of the sump? There are 4 sections with the last being the biggest, where I would put the kaldnes. maybe the water heater. Does one also put the air stone there instead of the tank? I was planning on doing both. Also with the kaldnes I am not totally sure but I believe it was advisable to have a light source to enhance the growth of the good bacteria on the product. What are your thoughts on undergravel filters? Dang back in the day they kept my tanks so stable it was amazing actually. but they were home made back then too. hehe Thanks again.

I was given an 80 gallon tank the other day with a sump / refugium in the cabinet below. Nearly everything is ready to set it up but im not shure what to put in the sump. Ive been reading about Kaldnes and have a very nice fellow in Vancouver that is going to be sending some out to me. From what Ive read, Kaldnes is nearly all I would ever need. Is there anyone out there with more experience on the topic? Ive got one of those closed up corner units in the main tank with the holes drilled through the bottom of the tank. There are some glass shelves in that peice and am wondering if Bio Balls would be good to put into there as well? Any more hints and tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you kindly David

I picked up a glass tank the other day, the sides and front are one sheet of glass bent on the front corners and such. The hole sized on the bottom corner were 2 inches and one and a quarter inches, No one I taked to could find a proper fit and a guy at Al's said it was probably a tank that was brought over from over seas. Anyways, I finally found a place called Aqua Giant in edmonton. They had the exact fittings I needed and they were cheap. They were around seven bucks a peice. They were slow in shipping them but was happy with the final product.

Hello and thank you for having such a well set up forum. As a rule I don't usually present in a forum due to un necessary complexity. Its very refreshing to be where people seem very helpfull, the topics are setup logically, and the information is plentyfull. I've just got into the hobby once again after nearlly 30 year dry spell. I'm out there asking about under gravel filters and every one is looking back at me as though I'm a touch TOUCHED. Wow. Fish keeping has come a long way.