What to do with these

[bigcatsrus]

Hi all

Today my partner and I received 10 tanks and several pumps, filters and undergravel filters, light units for free.

I would like to know how to use the following, pics









These more so as never used them before


Sounds silly to ask but have to so I know what to do with them.

Thanks in advance

[bristlenosekid]

the first 3 picture are air pumps possible used to power the under gravel filter in the forth picture with air tubing.

[bigcatsrus]

Ok, would they connect to the under gravel filters that we have by using those tubing that you see in the last pic. The lady did say that it works together.

This is the stand that thetanks came with


Would it work downwards

[MatsP]

An under-gravel filter consists of three main components [there may be a few other bits involved too, e.g. covers for spare airlift tube connections]:
1. A base-plate.
This is the "main filter" component.
2. Airlift-tube.
A plastic tube, which drags water out of the baseplate. Usuually around 1" in diameter.
3. An airline with an airstone.
This is what "powers" the filter. When the bubbles from the air-stone lift up the airlift tube, the water gets dragged along too, and the water coming out of the top of the tube drags water from below the base-plate.

So, to make your undergravel filters work, you need an air-pump, an airline and an airstone. Run the airline into the airlift tube.

I'm not a great fan of under-gravel filters. They work fine for many things, but do not work well with fine substrate such as sand.

--
Mats

[Jools]

Don't forget you need at least 6cm of gravel on top of the filter plate...

Jools

[godfreyhales]

6cm of gravel ! im hopeing your advice is based on practical shop working experience(and a good shop at that) lol

[Jools]

6cm of gravel ! im hopeing your advice is based on practical shop working experience(and a good shop at that) lol

It's all in the quality of the gravel! Seriously though, 6cm if it's big rounded pea gravel and less if it's more compact but the depth also depends, in my view, on if you want to grow certain plants. Mind you, I used to run undergravel filters with powerheads and not air. Nice clearseal rack though.

Jools
PS You wouldn't believe the things I learned working in a fish shop!

[bigcatsrus]

Thanks for all the help guys.

We've got a powerhead, small internal filter, 6 air stones and all the piping for the undergravel filters.

I assume having looked at it all properly, in the past the tanks have been used with 6 of them have undergravel filters with airstones and one with the internal filter and powerhead.

We only intend to have minimal stock, so will this filteration system work or do we need to think about other filtering systems?

[MatsP]

The less stock you have, the less important it is what your filtration is.

Undergravel filters are quite good from a filter efficiency standpoint - you get a lot of filter media if nothing else. As long as the substrate isn't too fine.

They do not work well with fish that dig a lot (and you should have a relatively equal thickness of the gravel).

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

It's been mentioned on another forum that a Lustar sponge would be better, do you thinkthats the case or do we stick with the UGF's?

[MatsP]

It's been mentioned on another forum that a Lustar sponge would be better, do you thinkthats the case or do we stick with the UGF's?

Depends on so many things. What species of fish are you planning to keep? What substrate? Plants or not? Do you have a budget?

Read about the good/bad sides of different filters here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... Filtration

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

Sorry for the long delay, get quite busy with decorating.

Not sure on what fish to keep (any ideas?) but all tank will have a pleco on some sort. What plecos can we keep in the top 3 and then the rest? We may put a plant in each of the tanks and we'll be using gravel.

[MatsP]

For plecos you want some water movement, so using a internal (or external) canister filter will have it's benefits.

As to what you can keep, it's hard to say, since we do not know the size of the tanks. I'm guessing that the whole rack is 48 x 12 base-area, and about 15" tall, so you the top tanks are 16 x 12 base area - which means that they are probably best used as grow-out tanks for fry, rather than as breeding tanks.

A 24 x 12 like the lower two sets would be fine for keeping small plecos up to about 4-5" (100-125mm) SL. Which a whole heap of the fancy ones, e.g. nearly all Hypancistrus, Peckoltia, Ancistrus and Dekeyseria, and the small Panaque species, along with several more. The Cat-eLog has 200 species of fish in the range 75-125mm SL (3"-5").

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

The other half put this up on another forum

"The rack we have has room for 3 x 48" x 12" x 12" tanks.

The top one is split in 3 and the others in to 2. Unfortunately one of the ones split in 2 has a bad crack in it but we were also given 3 x 2 foot tanks so I'm keeping the deepest one to use as a sump as and when we can afford the 1000 litre tank for the cats and we have replaced the cracked tank with the other 2.

This basically leaves us with 4 x 24" x 12" x 12" tanks = 56 litres each and 3 x 16" x 12" x 12" tanks = 37 litres each."

We have had a look at all the plecos in the Cat-elog and came up with these;

L204, L010a, L200, L329, L382, L387, L411 for the 2 foot tanks.

With what you are saying about the small tanks, none of these would work; L046, L260, L340, L832, L387.

These would all depend on if we can get them and if you say that this can't work. Any thoughts?

[MatsP]

L200 (

Hemiancistrus subviridis

) will definitely be a bit too big. If you can find

Baryancistrus demantoides

, they are a bit smaller, but probably on the larger side still.

L010a would be perfect - they are quite skinny, so don't add much bio-load.

L204, L329 sounds OK too, but at least L204, the males can be quite aggressive.

H. zebra (L046) and L260 are both quite small, but a 37 liter tank is on the small side for even these ones at adult size. I'd say 56 liter is barely big enough to keep a trio of these. All of the fish you are listing are fairly expensive and not exactly the MOST tolerant to dirty water/poor water conditions. And it goes bad pretty quickly if you have a small volume.

Sorry if I'm not telling you what you want to hear...

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

Mats we weren't planning on getting all the fish listed, it was just a list of possbiilities. We don't intend to keep more than 2 or 3 fish per tank and we also apperciate at full size, the 37 litre tanks maybe too small. We were also planning on running each tank as a single species to try and avoid aggression problems.

As to not wanting to hear, this is exactly what we need to know before setting out on this project. The first 5 tanks are being set up today, so they will need to be cycle before we can get any fish, this is why we are doing the research now.

Thanks for the help

[bigcatsrus]

We now have all the tanks set up and running, so its now just sitting and waiting for them to cycle before we can get any fish.

How difficult would it be to get any of those fish that you have said would be ok??

[MatsP]

That would obviously depend a little bit on several factors:
1. How much you are wiling to pay.
2. How far you are willing to travel.
3. How long you are willing to wait.

I know L010a and L411 is available in Maidenhead Aquatics Farnham.
L204 shouldn't be hard to find.
L260 has been hard to find lately - it is export restricted from Brazil.
L340 or some similar Hypancistrus shouldn't be VERY hard to find - it may turn out that what is labeled as L340 is actually another of the similar looking species from the roughly the same area.
I don't think I've ever seen L329 or L382 - at least not labeled as such.
I think L387 isn't very hard to find, but labelling MAY not be accurate.

L046 (particularly smaller specimens) can be found on various places like Aquatics Classified. They are not that easy to find in shops, and the shops that DO carry them tend to charge both arms and one leg... But also beware of scamsters that sell over the internet. As they are pricey, there are dishonest people who make use of people's greed - if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. I'd only buy from private sellers if you can see the fish.

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

Traveling, we're willing to go about and hour and a half distance, Price, if it is reasonable then we'll go for it. Waiting isn't an issue (tanks need cycling) so we are willing to wait.

What websites would you recommend to having a look at, other than the shop thats been mentioned?

[MatsP]

My first step when it comes to getting fish I want is to ask the LFS to see if their wholesalers lists what I want.

If that fails, I will usually travel around shops until I find what I'm looking for - which may take a while...

Web-sites:
http://www.TropicalFishfinder.com is a starting point. http://http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk another one.

Beside that:
Finding shops that have large stocks - not sure how far from you these are, but:
Maidenhead Aquatics Oxford (Wheately)
Maidenhead Aquatics St. Albans
Wildwoods (Enfield)

Pier Aquatics in Wigan is way more than 1.5 hours from you [at least using land-based legal transport!], but if you even have the chance, well worth a visit.

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

I'll have a look at those places websites and check with our local LFS's and see what they say.

The shop in Enfield is the closest. If it comes to the point when we have to travel further, then thats what we wil have to do.

Lets see how it goes.

[MatsP]

It's about half an hours drive from St. Albans to Enfield, so if you do one, then the other should be acievable at the same time. MA St. Albans is a VERY large shop, with LOTS of fish and also a good selection of dry goods [e.g. various hose/pipe connectors, filter media, etc, etc].

Richard B is the man when it comes to which shop is good for what!

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

ok cool.

We have a few weeks to wait. I have just found a place in enfield call Wildwoods? Is this the place or is it another shop? Found it by using troicalfishfinder.com.

[MatsP]

Yes, Wildwoods in Enfield is the place. They aren't the cheapest, but often have fish that can not be found anywhere else in the country.

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

They sure are expensive. One of the plecos we made a list for for the other tanks is there £60!! Blue phantom (common name), the one tat has blue tips on the fins.

We'll probably take a trip there in a few weeks to see what they have. The first plec we hope to get is the zebra as one of my fish needs to be taken out of my tank and wil go with the zebra.

[MatsP]

Depending on size the price may not be that bad, the local MA branch wants £70 for their large ones. But if you want a breeding group of them, I'd suggest a trip to Pier Aquatics in Wigan - I paid £26 each for my trio of "mid-range" ones. A smaller size was listed at £20, and definetely big males were £40. With the difference in price, you can probably pay for the trip there and back.

And I can certainly say that the quality of fish [from what I have seen so far] in Wildwoods is very good.

--
Mats

[bigcatsrus]

We were think of a juvie really but just have to see what ones they have when we get to go there. Don't really know how many we want to get, again depends on price.