# The Office (Tank)



## Yamaz (May 13, 2011)

very nice!


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

I like the setup!


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Yamaz said:


> very nice!





GMYukonon24s said:


> I like the setup!


Thanks!

I powered the Clippard mouse solenoid with a hefty 12V wall-wart plugged into the light timer and installed the solenoid in the CO2 line. It's working great and should really extend the life of the CO2 canisters.

Then I totally screwed everything up because I got impatient (a common failing for me). I rinsed the filter from my 40b into a bucket and poured that into this poor little 5 gallon tank trying to jump start the bacteria. It worked, the next morning the ammonia had started dropping and within another two days was down to zero. But I had almost half an inch of mulm covering everything. It looked horrible. I tried vacuuming it out without disturbing the Amazonia, but after sucking 2 tankfuls of water I had only cleaned about 1/10 of the tank.

Finally today I got around to doing a real clean up. I pulled the wood/riccia and stirred as much of the garbage up into the water column as I could and vacuumed about 6 tankfuls (vacuum then refill with the Python, rinse, repeat). I sprayed the riccia in the sink to rise the nasty stuff out, then replanted the collateral damage and put the wood back in. I also pulled out the creeping jenny, planted a bunch more blyxa, and relocated the staurogyne that was being shaded by the  for wayward anubias that my 40b has become. I kinda liked the hygro in the corner so it stays for now. The glosso and riccia seem to be doing well despite being coated with mulm for a couple of weeks. Guess I'll have to keep my eye on the ammonia again for a while in case I killed all my BB with those chlorine-filled water changes (I only put in Aquasafe when I was all done).

Oh, yeah. I also threw a DIY 20W led fixture on to supplement the 7W fixture that I bought to go with the tank. Boy does it light up the shadows! I'll have to see if that's too much. I may put it on a separate timer and only run it a couple hours a day. I had to take the image below with a 1/1600 shutter speed to keep from blowing out the bubbles on the riccia.


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## idleivey (Feb 12, 2009)

Looks awesome man, nice hardware as well. That is one tech'd out nano.


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## sapphoqueen (Feb 9, 2010)

all I can say: WOW!


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## CPDzeke (Jan 4, 2013)

Where did you get the varzea co2?


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Your tank's coming along nicely. Keep it up!


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks for the kinds words, all. I'm really happy with the tank so far. It seems like trying to keep a hi-tech nano is a razor-edge balance or else *BOOM* algae explosion, and I'm not real good at constant upkeep.

The good news is that I tested my ammonia this morning and it's still at zero. I can't imagine the Amazonia has stopped releasing it, so enough BB must have survived the deep cleanse to keep things under control. As soon as the plants take root well enough to survive a relocation, I can move it to work and see about getting some inhabitants.



CPDzeke said:


> Where did you get the varzea co2?


They had it at my LFS (Jo Jo Aquarium in Sacramento, CA). It seems like a nice bit of kit, but I'm still a bit leery because I can't find ANYTHING about it on the web. I can't find anyone that sells the kit or the refills (VZA-030) and the company doesn't seem to exist (Varzea Inc, Burlingame, CA). I see someone in a  YouTube video has one, but no mention of where he got his.

If worse comes to worse, it looks like it will take Fluval cartridges, but for the same price as 3 Fluval 88g cartridges, I got 3 Varzea 95g cartridges.


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

CPDzeke said:


> Where did you get the varzea co2?


I just visited Aqua Forest Aquarium in San Francisco and they had them there. I managed to pick up the two adapters needed to use it with a paintball cylinder.


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## tetra10 (Aug 5, 2012)

I have the same light on my 60-p, it gets a little warm but does the job


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## ses601 (Dec 28, 2012)

i love your setup!


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

tetra10 said:


> I have the same light on my 60-p, it gets a little warm but does the job


I was actually pretty disappointed with the amount of light it put out. It made the tank feel kinda dim, so I added a DIY LED light I built a while back for a terrarium, with 2x 10W modules:


Here it is with just the Archaea light:


And with both lights (same settings on the camera, nothing auto):


Are you getting decent growth with the Archaea light?


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## CivilPlanter (Jan 21, 2013)

That looks like a nice setup you got there! I've got a 2x10W DIY fixture as well for my build and its been getting slow HC growth on a test 2.5G tank I have. It will be nice to see how much it helps out your tank's growth rate.


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

CivilPlanter said:


> That looks like a nice setup you got there! I've got a 2x10W DIY fixture as well for my build and its been getting slow HC growth on a test 2.5G tank I have. It will be nice to see how much it helps out your tank's growth rate.



Thanks!

Unfortunately, I removed the 2x10W DIY fixture because I'm getting ready to move the tank to work and I've heard horror stories of the cheapo DealExtreme LED drivers bursting into flames  and I can't really take the chance of burning down my workplace.

I haven't been happy with the HOB filter either, so I purchased a Hydor Prime 10 from a local dealer through Amazon. Unfortunately, it looks like USPS has managed to deliver it to the wrong city :angryfire . I'll give it another couple of days before I start screaming.

If it doesn't show I am considering other filter options. I have another thread in the "Equipment" section questioning whether it's possible to put a G3 on a Mini-M. Dang, those things look awesome!


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Well, the Hydor showed up last night, so it looks like I probably won't spring for the G3 immediately. The flow from the Hydor seems to be OK, but I did have trouble getting the pump to start. The impeller kept sticking when I switched off the pump and I would have to shut everything down, open the canister, fiddle with the impeller, close everything up and try again. Sometimes 4-5 times. I don't know that I am going to trust this thing when I have fish and/or shrimp in the tank.

I spent last evening and this morning making inflow and outflow pipes. The lily pipe I have on there now is temporary. I didn't like the radius of the bend on this one, so I made another and packed the pipe with sand as I bent it, giving me much better bends at the cost of a bit of "orange peel" finish on the inside. I am happy however that I can get the little vortex from a DIY lily pipe:


I also bent some glass pipettes to use for my CO2 to keep the bend radius small without kinking the hose:


I have been waiting for the roots to settle in before I moved the tank to work. I think they're doing well:



Here's a shot of the tank with the new filter. 


And the obligatory FTS (I think I'm going to have to trade the diffuser out for a nice unobtrusive pollen glass or something):


I am extremely happy with how fast the glosso is filling in. The narrow leaf micro-sword looks like it's more algae than plant. The blyxa is very dark. Some of it was floating in my 40b right below the lights and it started turning red, but I thought that would go away...


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## Couesfanatic (Sep 28, 2009)

do you have a par meter? I cannot find the par values for that light anywhere.


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Couesfanatic said:


> do you have a par meter? I cannot find the par values for that light anywhere.


Nope, sorry. No PAR meter. If you do manage to find the info, I'd be interested to hear though.

Well, today was the day I moved it to work and added fauna. Here's a shot of the new lily pipe:


And a shot of the entire cubicle:



The cherry shrimp:


And the Badis:


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Video:
http://youtu.be/U15f52X8cGQ


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## GreenBliss (Mar 7, 2012)

Your tank is lovely. After seeing the video, I don't know how you can get your work done.


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## sugarbyte (Apr 3, 2011)

This looks amazing! What are those jars you have set up next to your tank?


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## hisxlency (Jan 26, 2013)

I googled Varzea and came up with zilch. Do you know who sells it online?

Nice tank btw, really pretty


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

sugarbyte said:


> This looks amazing! What are those jars you have set up next to your tank?


Thanks! Those are my terrarii (terraria, terrariums?)




hisxlency said:


> I googled Varzea and came up with zilch. Do you know who sells it online?
> 
> Nice tank btw, really pretty


Thanks! I haven't had any luck finding ANY information about it online. I got it from my LFS and I saw one in Aqua Forest Aquarium down in San Francisco, but that's it.


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Nice little tank! When I was first reading it I thought you had set it up at your office first and were doing all the cycling waterchanges misc there and was thinking to myself, where is he connecting the python at an office? lol :biggrin:

Now I see you started it at your home and then transferred it. Anyway where did you find the Hydor Prime? I looked and it appears they don't make them anymore. It looks like a nice littler filter, similar to a 2211.


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## Robotguy (Jan 24, 2010)

Green_Flash said:


> Nice little tank!
> 
> Anyway where did you find the Hydor Prime?


Thanks! I grabbed the last one from Neptune Aquarium through Amazon. Don't try too hard to find one though, it's OK at best. I'll probably upgrade it in the future.

My Scarlet Badis took a header onto my desk this weekend. I had named him Galileo because he was always staring out the top of the tank. Now that I know his true intentions I've posthumously renamed him Icarus.

I've got feelers out to find some more RCS now that it's a "single species" tank (ignoring the snails...)


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