Hello Everyone!

[badflash]

RO water would have no ammonia. It also has nothing else. You need to mineralize the water. I suspect your ammonia is a false reading.

I would get a 40# bag of crushed coral and add it to the fish tank. The water will go white for a couple of days then clear.

I would NOT use goldfish. They carry disease and you don't want that. If the perch are not too dear, go straight to them and add the aquarium mulm at the same time. Get the filter gook, not the water.

[JCO]

You post your location as USA...it would be of interest to all of us on the forum if we at least knew what state you live in.

[pniedzwiecki]

JCO,

I updated my profile to show that I am currently living in Michigan, about 2 hours north of Detroit. I actually lived in Jacksonville, FL for about fifteen years. I moved back to MI about 5 or 6 years ago from Jacksonville. I hope to get back there some day.

Thanks,

[pniedzwiecki]

badflash,

If you don't mind, could you elaborate on your crushed coral suggestion? I don’t doubt your experience but I think it is important for myself and others new to this stuff to have a good understanding of what we are adding to the system and why. You know what I mean?

Thanks,

[badflash]

Crushed coral is a standard gravel used in many aquariums and is safe for fish. It is composed of aragonite, which has the same chemical formula as calcium carbonate, but a different crystal structure. It dissolves more slowly so has a nice buffering effect on the water without going overboard.

[pniedzwiecki]

Finally made some progress.



The photo above was taken one day after I added 30 pounds (2 fifteen pound bags) of crushed coral. The water is still somewhat cloudy but I anticipate that it will clear in a few more days.

I couldn’t find any 40 pound bags at any local pet shops but they did carry smaller bags. The stores only carried one bag so I had to visit a couple of stores, which I have been doing a lot of anyway.

No change in the ph level after adding the crushed coral. It has been holding steady at around 7 (before and after adding the coral). I seem to recall a few aquarium owners reporting spikes in ph after adding crushed coral but I am definitely not seeing that.

The photos below show the grow bed with 100 - 3” diameter net pots filled with hydroton. I cut the foam into 2’ pieces so they would be easier to handle. On three of the foam pieces the pots are approximately 8” apart. On the foam piece along the wall I decided to put the pots closer together. I was thinking that since it is somewhat hard to reach this area, I will use it for kind of a nursery. I can also space the plants out and just leave a few of the pots empty, if I need the space for adult plants. I see now that I should not have put the grow bed up against the wall, as it is hard to reach some of the net pots. At least a couple of feet in between would have been nice. Oh well.





Yesterday I planted seeds in all of the net pots on one of the foam pieces (the one nearest in the photo above). All of the seeds from one variety (Black Seeded Simpson) have sprouted already (24 hours). However, none of the seeds from the blended salad mix seed pack have sprouted yet. I planted one seed of the Black Seeded Simpson in half of the net pots and two seeds from the salad mix into the other half of the pots.

I found a local source (maybe 1 hour round trip) for yellow perch. Right now they are 95 cents each for 4-6 inch feed trained fingerlings. They said they would sell me as many or as few as I wanted. As this is the first year they are stocking the perch, I may have to find another source in the future.

Hopefully by this weekend, at the latest, I will be able to get some fish. I was thinking I would start with 25. In the meantime, I need to figure out a good way to transport the fish, and then the best way to go about introducing the fish into the tank.

That’s all for now.

Thanks.

[davidstcldfl]

Hi pniedzwiecki .... ....looking good.

What's the wattage on your big light ?

[pniedzwiecki]

davidstcldfl,

Thanks for the comments.

I actually have two lights and they are both 1000w. I am a little concerned that with the high grow bed the lights may be radiating too much heat onto the foam.

With the fan on, the temperature under the light in front of the fan is pretty steady between 78-82 degrees (F). If I turn the fan off the temperature shoots up over 100 degrees (F). Of course the high temps are partly due to warmer summer air in the basement. In the winter I probably will not have anything to worry about.

I have a pretty powerful inline fan and plenty of ductwork that would most likely help cool the lights but I think I may just try to put up some shade cloth up for the short term. The proper long term solution would be to use the ducting and fan and expell the hot air from the lights directly outside.

I obviously under estimated the powerful lights. Mistakes are OK as long as we learn from them. Hopefully by the second or third batch of fish, I will have all the bugs worked out.

Thanks.

[pniedzwiecki]

Hello,

Just thought I would share some screen shots of the 3d grow bed model I drew up. The model was created in AutoCAD and then imported into the free version of Google Sketchup. There should be a way that I can share the sketchup file but at this point I do not know how. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of the file, just let me know and I will figure out the best way to go about sharing it.

Thanks,

[jackalope]

For transporting the fish, use heat packs taped onto the top of a large cooler for air, go to a sporting goods store and pick up a battery-operated 'bait pump' that fishermen use for live bait (cheap ones are about $15, and they go all the way up to about $60 around here) and put an airstone on the end of the tube. The airstone will help a lot, even though it is said by some that they do no good at all! If you don't have a cooler, just go to PetSmart, Petco or some other pet store, and ask them for a couple of their styrofoam-lined shipping boxes .... you'll have to have plastic bags to line the styrofoam liners, but heavy duty garbage bags will usually do if they are doubled or tripled.