Setting up a Pleco breeder, my style

[TwoTankAmin]

@MarcW

I use RO/DI water. I work at about a 50/50 mix with it and my tap. I would suggest that you might want to start with closer to that sort of mix before getting more drastic (80/20).

I also use a continuous three-way digital monitor on the tank. because I need to premix/pre=treat changing water, I have a Rubbermaid near the tank in which the new water is set up. This lets me move the probes from the tank to the Rubbemaid so I can be sure of the mix in it.

I do this not only for convenience, but as much because during the week between water changes the tank parameters change in an uneven fashion. I set up the new water parameters based on those in the tank at the time. I am always shooting to drop the pH back to about 6.0 or a tad less and to lower the TDS back down into the 50 ppm range. Sometime I need to use a bit more RO/DI and to add a bit of acid to hit the target parameters needed to return the tank to where I want it.

One more FYI. Despite what most of us have read to the contrary I have discovered that soft/acid water fish can withstand sharp drops in pH and TDS without issues. I have added muriatic acid directly to a tank and dropped its pH by 1 full point in under 5 minutes and the fish never reacted. I first saw this done when I was purchasing some of my Altums. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have continued to believe this was a very bad thing to do. This appears to work fine when the fish are from very acid, soft water habitats. However, I firmly believe that trying to do the reverse will not have similar results. It will likely result in serious issues even death.

[MarcW]

Thanks for the information.

I currently use 80% RO to 20% tap, this gives me a pH of around 6.5 to 7 and a tds of 90, although the tanks rarely get below a tds of 120ppm.

My tap water is very hard which is why I mentioned that I may try to increase the percentage of RO in that mix. I'm also thinking about collecting rain water as well, once the fish room is finished.

I will likely get myself one of those monitors soon, I have been looking at them for a while.

[pan]

Really helpfull conversation guys. Excuse me for interrupting.

Thanks for sharing Jobro! Could you tell me which powerhead is used for the filter right now?

[Jobro]

Really helpfull conversation guys. Excuse me for interrupting.

Thanks for sharing Jobro! Could you tell me which powerhead is used for the filter right now?

I am using two jetlifters. One on the right side, one on the left side. Like these: http://www.swisstropicals.com/filtratio ... fter-shop/

I build them myself, though.

[pan]

Thanks Jobro.
Nice!
The current you get from this system, is enough for your purpose?
I haven't seen this type in action, and i don't know its capacity/flow rate.

[MarcW]

Hi pan, I use those jet lifters from Swiss Tropicals, if you have a powerful air pump, they will push out a lot of water. Although if you are using a matten filter or sponge filter for biological filtration you don't want the flow through them to be too fast.

The way I have my matten filters setup there is still plenty of flow, I only have them setup on small 10G tanks at the moment though. If a lot of flow is your objective I would suggest getting a separate power head.

I'm sure there is a section of the website with figures, off the top of my head I believe they move 4 times water Vs the air you put in. E.g. 100lph of air will give you 400lph of water flow.

Here is the page with the numbers: http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/s ... ubelifter/

[Jobro]

As Marc said, it is plenty for my purpose. If I want strong current, I go with the same setup and add a propeller pump / wavemaker like the Tunze Turbelle Nanostream. They are very power-efficient for the water-flow they create.

[pan]

Thanks Mark, thanks Jobro, got it.

Cheers