Search results

The tank doesn't sound overloaded but it is still very small. That will make it subject to wide swings in water quality. If you could test water parameters mid-day and mid-night for 10 days or so and track your results then you would get a good idea what was going on. I think you should resist...

Thanks much. What signs do I need to look for when purchasing such a fish? Some of the fish stores in my area are kind of shady, and my regular LFS doesn't carry them (it is a general pet shop). This purchase will not be for a month or so regardless. ~perle

Hi, I am sure this has been asked before, but I had thought cichlids require alkaline/basic water. However I have seen references to people keeping German Rams in ph below 7. I have an RO tank and I would like to eventually get one or two rams. My ph is stable around 6.4 and unlikely to change...

No setup is every really hands-free. :wink: ~perle

We discussed all of these issues above. Tom, just to be clear, the system really is a siphon. However, it acts as if it is an overflow, because it does not have to be siphoning all the time. This is made possible by the special shape of the outtake tube. However your explanation is quite...

Honestly it probably hardly matters, but I have one of those and like it to intake mainly from the bottom and only from the mid a single notch or so. This way the water circulates from the bottom up to the top and back down, the maximum amount (at least in my imagination). The fact that you can...

Hey all, I have an R/O system (20G, cycling about 30% per day) and plan to add Kent R/O Right, a hardness additive, to make up for the complete lack of minerals in the RO water. Does anyone have experience with this? Right now I am making several assumptions and they are probably wrong: 1...

Tom: the airhole is at the exit end of the tube, over the sink. The inlet is just an inlet. The point of the airhole is to end the siphon at a point high above the sink, while still being able to direct the output through a tube down to the drain itself--to eliminate mess, that is all. ~perle

Yeah I am quite satisified with it. Not all the things you mention are problems, either. For one, the RO system runs only on water-pressure. Electricity failures don't affect anything. And water pressure failures for an extended period of time are very, very unusual. I think I see how your...

No, that is unrelated. As long as the tip of the input tube is underwater the siphon will not break. In other news I am running the system 24/7 now with no problems. Still waiting for my R/O Right salts (should be any minute now!). According to my quick and dirty measurement attempt I am...

Cool! ~perle

How many fish total does that make for your 26G? I am starting a 20G (after a significant lapse from aquarium-keeping) and worry about being too aggressive. So I am probably being too passive. But still. ~perle

You are saying you used four dead shrimp? Very interesting if so. ~perle

That seems like a lot of fish to add at one time; how big is your tank? ~perle

I don't think decaying animals produce ammonia, which is what you need for cycling. What made you decide to use that? On the other hand I don't really know anything. ~perle

This is not true. The left loop of the "m" shape of the siphon is the key. It is the same principle that lets you temporarily pause the use of a gravel vac by raising the exit end just above the waterline of the tank, and then resume it when you lower it to your bucket again. hashbaz, would I...

Alright I had figured that the differential would be negligible but perhaps it is not. I will lower the output height and use post-its to track the rise and fall; perhaps it is working as intended. In regards to the next post, there is no siphon break because the amount of water below the tank...

The activated carbon prefilter completely dechlorinates it. I empirically tested this fact with a dip stick. Incoming tap reads at about 1.6 ppm chlorine, no chloramine, which matches the city's published results. Post-filter water has 0 ppm chlorine, no chloramine. ~perle

Ok, yeah I figured the input rate is so low and the turbulence of the tank is high enough that the temperature would stay even throughout--even though it could be significantly lower than room temperature. A high-powered heater should take care of that. I have a little valve/knob on the input...

For now I am planning to add R/O right every day. I will have to do some careful experiments and figure out how much is necessary (hopefully little). Everything works awesomely, and I probably don't even really need that new heater which is in the mail (although it gets hella cold in the...

Hi all, I have constructed a devilish mechanism to automatically filter/change the water in my new 20 gallon (little small but all I have room for right now) tank. Basically I am sick of having to deal with awful city water so I overengineered this device. So now I have a reverse osmosis...