# My tanks and their inhabitants



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

*Tiger/yellow tank: 20gal, 2xHOB filters, sponge filter, moss, stargrass, riccia, hornwort. Approx 45 Tigers, 15 Yellows and a bunch of babies around somewhere. pH around 7 with mix of tap water and peat filtered water, Tahitian moon sand*




















*Fire Red Tank: 10gal, AC 20 HOB, sponge filter, moss, stargrass, hornwort. Approx 60 shrimp as I heavily culled lots of the not so red ones and gave about 80 lower grades to my roomie. pH around 7 with mix of tap water and peat filtered water, cheap black gravel*




























*Selective Breeding Tank: 10gal (of my 4 connected tanks) AC 20, Fluval 2 Plus internal filter that feeds the other 3 tanks. Moss, stargrass, hornwort. pH around 6.4 with peat filtered tap water. cheap black gravel*










The two shrimp in there for breeding.



















*Golden/Snow Tank: 10gal (of my 4 connected tanks). AC 20, Startgrass, moss, hornwort. Approx 10 shrimp. pH around 6.4 with peat filtered tap water. cheap black gravel*











The goldens were shy but here's a few shots of the ones in the tank now.



















*A/S Grade CRS Tank: 10gal (of my connected 4 tanks) AC30, Stargrass, moss, hornwort. Approx 80 shrimp. pH around 6.4 with peat filtered tap water. ada amazonia*



















*SS/Selective Breeding: (7.5gal of my connected 4 tanks), AC 20, sponge filter. Moss, stargrass, hornwort. 1 male, 2 berried females, approx 30 babies. pH around 6.4 with peat filtered tap water. netlea soil*



















The male stud.









One of the two females in there.









*PFR Female/Naturally occurring male rili breeding test. 2.5 gal. Sponge filter, moss, hornwort. Approx 40 shrimp. pH around 7 with peat filtered tap water and tap. cheap black gravel*



















*20gal SS/SSS (Hopefully soon to be Taiwan Bee Tank). Eheim Pro 2 2026, sponge filter, stargrass, moss, hornwort. Approx 50+ SS/SSS juvi's. pH around 5.6 with RO water and netlea soil.*





































*Breederbox fed from my spraybar, sponge filter, moss. No one in there right now.*











*FTS Shots. The top 3x10gal and the 7.5gal are all connected together to give 37.5gal volume of water and allow me to keep grades separate. Excuse the mess around it. And 1 lone empty tank sitting there for something???? Cardinals maybe in my future.*


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## ROZDAB (Oct 3, 2011)

I would never get any work done with my computer right there lol 


Nice set up really digging it all


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## Kunsthure (Aug 2, 2010)

Wow! I wish I could have a setup like that. 

-Lisa


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## sso (Jun 2, 2012)

yeah, its really nice.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

thanks. I've built it over the last year with mostly all free or cheap stuff from Kijiji. The only tank I bought was one of the 20gal's from a local fish auction, $12 for the tank, hood, filter, and the 7.5gal cube. The rest were all free. Bought a shop light, all the HOB filters came in a box of Aquaclears for $20, all the moss, start grass, hornwort started with a few pieces and have been spread to all the tanks.


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## BIG_Z (Dec 7, 2011)

This may sound like a stupid question (it probably is). The PVC pipes, maintain water level in all the tanks correct? Does the HOB filter on the far right have any filtration effect on the tank all the way to the left? I assume the sponges are more than enough anyway..but if you wanted to try something like that without the sponges would it work. (assuming 2x per week water changes from the filter tank, thus pulling the less filtered water to that tank and then when new water is added leveling things back out)


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. geto, you removed the internal filter that would distribute water throughout the tanks?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm.. geto, you removed the internal filter that would distribute water throughout the tanks?


Nope, it's a fluval plus 2 in the first tank full full of purigen. Can't see it now really. Use some 5/8" tubing and made a spray bar from it so it brings water to all the tanks.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

BIG_Z said:


> This may sound like a stupid question (it probably is). The PVC pipes, maintain water level in all the tanks correct? Does the HOB filter on the far right have any filtration effect on the tank all the way to the left? I assume the sponges are more than enough anyway..but if you wanted to try something like that without the sponges would it work. (assuming 2x per week water changes from the filter tank, thus pulling the less filtered water to that tank and then when new water is added leveling things back out)


Yes, the PVC helps keep the water levels the same when you suck the air out of them. To some extent, each filter affects the water in all the tanks. Each tank has a HOB filter on it. There is a internal filter in Tank 1 that distributes water to Tanks 2,3,4. This forces Tank 1's water level to drop as the internal filter pumps water out of the tank. This forces water from Tank 2 into Tank 1 to keep the levels the same, then from 3 to 2, 4 to 3, then from 1 to 2,3,4 and the whole cycles keeps going so all the water is same and being moved around from the tanks. Because the spraybar from the internal filter isn't distributing the EXACT amount of water to Tanks 2,3,4, their levels will be a bit different and might have to pull water from 3 to 4 to keep tank 4 level if it's getting less water, etc, so basically each filter will end up filtering the total water volume in some way.


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## BIG_Z (Dec 7, 2011)

ahh, ok guess that I missed that there was something in tank one pushing water into 2,3,4. Makes a lot more sense now. Now that I see how it works I like the setup a lot


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

Weren't you the guy who made that DIY peat filter from the neck of a water bottle and a bag of peat? Doesn't the peat lose its ability to soften the water?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Overgrowth said:


> Weren't you the guy who made that DIY peat filter from the neck of a water bottle and a bag of peat? Doesn't the peat lose its ability to soften the water?


If you run peat in a filter, it would loose it's ability over time. I filter the water beforehand and what it comes out as in the end is what it stays out, +/- a 0.? pH point or so as the water off gases and settles.


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> If you run peat in a filter, it would loose it's ability over time. I filter the water beforehand and what it comes out as in the end is what it stays out, +/- a 0.? pH point or so as the water off gases and settles.


That's pretty ingenious. How much peat do you think I need to get a 6.4-6.8 pH from a 7.4 pH?


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## sso (Jun 2, 2012)

thats a pretty much wow setup.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I gotta ask how much work you do at your computer there lol. With only two tanks near my desk I still look around a lot more and watch the activity a lot haha. It's definitely relaxing but with so many tanks I'd be so distracted


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> I gotta ask how much work you do at your computer there lol. With only two tanks near my desk I still look around a lot more and watch the activity a lot haha. It's definitely relaxing but with so many tanks I'd be so distracted


I (try) to play a few games, read some forums, do some work from it. After a while, there is only so much you can look at in the tanks. The babies aren't any bigger than they were when I looked an hour ago, the female holding dark egg's isn't anymore near hatching than she was an hour ago when I looked. Water doesn't need to be topped off anymore than it did an hour ago, thinks like that. lol. Sometimes though, starring long enough you do see something new or neat you didn't notice like this one I saw last night. Snow white baby with a bit of blue on its head. Now if the blue stays or not, who knows, but looks neat right now and it's probably 2 months old and I haven't noticed it till now.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

mumble mumble _blue bolt_ mumble mumble


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Soothing Shrimp said:


> mumble mumble _blue bolt_ mumble mumble


Don't have any TB's. I think that is offspring from a snow white x CBS, and the CBS does show a faint hint of blue's around the edges of the black. Only a tiny bit, like a few blue dots. I'll be isolating this one anyways if it keeps up the blue on it and cross it with another snow white or golden and see what happens. That CBS is in a tank alone with a female CRS and I'm going to add a female golden in there as well to see what comes of crossing him with golden and a CRS.


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## trueblu8 (Mar 3, 2012)

That's one of the sickest shrimp rooms ever my friend.

And congrats on the blue bolt.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Nice bro! Been waiting for you to make a thread with all your tanks 
They look great, along with your shrimpy! ^^


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## WestHaven (Jun 30, 2012)

Can we see your turtle and frog tanks?


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## mommabear1007 (Nov 8, 2011)

yes please show turtle tank!


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

WestHaven said:


> Can we see your turtle and frog tanks?


This is why I was looking thru the topic lol


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I'll get some pics up this weekend.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

Hey, Jay, how is that blue bolt-like baby?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

randyl said:


> Hey, Jay, how is that blue bolt-like baby?


Went white. lol. It didn't stay blue. Was neat looking while it was a baby anyways.


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> Went white. lol. It didn't stay blue. Was neat looking while it was a baby anyways.


So it was a golden/snow white?


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## planted240 (Apr 19, 2007)

Great stuff I really like it, you have definitely given me some good insight.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Yup. It just looked bluish as a baby but grew up solid white. Nice snow white none the less.




Overgrowth said:


> So it was a golden/snow white?



I am going to swap out the 7.5gal cube this weekend for a 10gal. It just ticks me off, I have 3 10gals that are ~12.75" and one that is 12.4" inch. Smaller rim, so its not the same size. I also have more netlea soil to add to the 4th one for more buffering and another small internal filter I am going to fill with purigen and put in the 4th tank and have it pump back to the others, so tank 1 will pump water through a purigen filled filter to tanks 2,3,4 and tank 4 will pump water through a purigen filled filter to tanks 3,2,1 plus each tank has a Aquaclear 20 on it, so lots of filtration and will give 40gals total volume with golden/snow in 1 tank, A/S grade in another, SS+ in another and either SSS or if I get a few TB's eventually, they can end up in the 4th or I'll use the 4th for just selective breeding a few of my nicest ones. We'll see how it goes.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

How are the connected tanks doing? Water circulating well? No shrimp illegally crossing the border?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> How are the connected tanks doing? Water circulating well? No shrimp illegally crossing the border?


No shrimp crossing, params the same across all the tanks. Might redo them this weekend into 3x20gals or something instead, have some thinking and rearranging to do. lol.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Oh really? Wow! Take pictures cause that's gonna be a big change! Need like better flow regulation and what not.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Oh really? Wow! Take pictures cause that's gonna be a big change! Need like better flow regulation and what not.


I'll take pics, I got lots of thinking to do on how I want to rearrange my entire space.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Are you still planning on keeping a bunch of tanks above your desk? Since the 20L's won't fit there it seems.


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## II Knucklez II (Oct 31, 2011)

y cant i see the pics after the first two pics?

really want to see your set up!!!


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

II Knucklez II said:


> y cant i see the pics after the first two pics?
> 
> really want to see your set up!!!


Works fine for me...?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Are you still planning on keeping a bunch of tanks above your desk? Since the 20L's won't fit there it seems.


No, the desk is gone and I'm using a different desk and made 2 new stands for the tanks. So far setup 2x20gal's connected together for 40gal total volume. When it's setup fully, I'll get some more pics but the stands will hold

2x20gal
1x20gal
3x10gal
3x10gal

I still have to figure out who's going where and what not and finish setting up but getting there as money permits. I have the tanks but need substrate, more RO water, etc, etc.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Where will you be putting the shrimp during the transition? Any shots of the racks you made?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Where will you be putting the shrimp during the transition? Any shots of the racks you made?


There's enough tanks to shift them around and when I first built the stands and moved some of the tanks there, I just drained them down 80% of the water, lifted the tank, put it in the new spot, dumped the water back in. 

I'll get some pics up in a few days, just need to move some stuff around and move the stands to a new spot (which means draining again, lol). There isn't enough room where they are and I realized later I put the stands in front of the power and air pumps, etc without much room to get to them. Spent 45mins fishing out an airline tube yesterday because it fell. Going to move them by the end of the week and should have most, if not all the tanks setup.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Here's a few pics, still more tanks to setup and such.

2x20gal's with half a old UGF plate in the back, sponge filter, HOB filter. Netlea soil pilled to 3-4 inches in the back over the UGF. One has my nice solid white SS CRS that I'm trying to get some nice red and white legs going on. The other has just random culls, so CBS, CRS, golden.

2x10gals on the bottom with PFR in one and yellow and tiger in the second.

2x10gal with golden in one and the second one empty.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Are those regular 20G? Not 20L's right? Also.. is that stand bowing a little? As for the cooling on the 2x 10G on the bottom, that's just a PC fan laid over a mesh thing? Do you ever need to control the speed or is it fine on it's own?

I like the look. All in one place, easy to examine at once. Though... gonna be trouble if something happens in the 20G's, can't really see into the back of those


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

No, it's not bowing. They're pretty solid stands. Yup, just 20g regulars. XBox 360 fans on a timer that keeps it pretty cool and stable. 

Ya, placement isn't the best but I'm moving them in a few weeks, just moving other stuff around.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Product swag shot and bottom level lighting installed for 3 more 10gals.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Side view of how thick my Netlea is over my UGF plate.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> Product swag shot and bottom level lighting installed for 3 more 10gals.


Wow lotta products. Did you move this whole stand over? Wasn't it next to your 20L stand before? Or you have two that are very similar :O


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Wow lotta products. Did you move this whole stand over? Wasn't it next to your 20L stand before? Or you have two that are very similar :O


It was next to the other one, but I had to move some stuff and that rack ended up on its own, which is fine because I have room to get to stuff with the 20g's and around this one. After setting everything last time, I realized I couldn't get to the power or airpumps without a lot of work. lol. This works a lot better. I drained the tanks down 75%, put them on the floor, moved the stand, filled back up with the same water so they didn't get a big shift and a bit of fresh RO for top off, plugged the filters back in, moved the lights and done. 3 more 10gals are going on that stand and the stand with the 2x20g's connected together is getting another 20gal underneath it, so each stand will have 60g.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Wow nice :O! Hope your setup works out well and you produce a lot of shrimp babies


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

So the 3x10g's wouldn't fit under the 3x10gals, so I just put a 20gal to move my PFR's from my 10gal to there. They are breeding nicely and want to give them a bigger tank. I had 1 more UGF plate, but didn't have the connections for it properly to power it air driven, so I hooked it up via the HOB filter instead. It's working good, the tank has cleared in like 10 mins and the floss in the HOB is filthy already. Half the tank is covered by the UGF and the rest is just a bit of gravel. It's just a mix of inert black gravels I had around, I think some eco-complete is in there as well, I dunno anymore. It's black anyways. lol. Still have to add a sponge filter to the tank and another HOB on the other side.

HOB pipes sucking up from the UGF.










Shot of the tank on the shelf. Also made a flip up lid so the lights are covered and not blinding, but I can flip up the front cover to get at the tank.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Weird.. aren't the dimensions the same? So it should've fit :O!

What kinda HOB is that? What size tank is it rated for. I'm surprised it has enough suction to draw from the UGF. When I extended the intake tube on a AC20 to ~2ft, it lost TONS of suction. Like, looking at the waterfall you could easily tell it was smaller than my other AC20's with short intakes.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Weird.. aren't the dimensions the same? So it should've fit :O!
> 
> What kinda HOB is that? What size tank is it rated for. I'm surprised it has enough suction to draw from the UGF. When I extended the intake tube on a AC20 to ~2ft, it lost TONS of suction. Like, looking at the waterfall you could easily tell it was smaller than my other AC20's with short intakes.


It an AC20 and it's working great. Tank is crystal clear this morning and you can tell from the 1 pic, the waterfall is shooting out a good few inches with a powerful stream. I put the PVC over intake snugly to a 90 degree in which fluval flextubing fits in perfect snugly, put the fluval tubing into the UGF tubing with a colar from an ATI sponge filter riser that grips the fluval tubing snugy and everything works nice and snugly. lol.


The 3x10's only fit because I extended the top to go over the back, so that's why they won't fit, not deep enough. It's fine, the 20gal fits nicely in there. I'm going to put another HOB filter on it today and a sponge filter and let it sit for a while and good to go for my growing PFR's in their 10gal.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

THat's just an AC20? Wow. I guess my problem was I made the tubing thinner, whereas you used larger diameter tubing.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Here's a bit better of a pic of the UGF connection. Working good. I mostly used the connections cause it's what I had. It's a AC 20 to PVC to Fluval Tubing to a API Sponge filter riser to the UGF plate, which I got for free, so it was done as a zero cost system but I like it now that it's done. lol.


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## matti2uude (Mar 4, 2009)

I like the new set up.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

matti2uude said:


> I like the new set up.


Thanks Matt. This is the second rack that's on the other side of the room.










8 tanks total, 3x20gal, 5x10gal, one of them hopefully home to some TB's sooner or later. lol.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Ugh yea that's so cool how the UGF works well. I wish I set up a UGF on the 20L I just set up and hooked it up to the AC20's I'm using. Poop.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Ugh yea that's so cool how the UGF works well. I wish I set up a UGF on the 20L I just set up and hooked it up to the AC20's I'm using. Poop.


Ya, if this works out, I'm thinking of switching the two air driven ones to this method as well. Nothing is glued together, so I can take the filter out if I need but in reality, if I need to clean out the media, I can just pull out the basket of the AC and leave it running, clean the media and put it back in with disturbing anything.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Redid some of my tanks, downsized to make things more manageable.

*20G SS/SSS CRS Tank. Sponge filter + HOB + HOB powered UGF on 50% of the tank, Netlea soil.*










20G A-SS CRS/CBS/Golden/Snow Tank. Sponge filter + HOB + HOB powered UGF on 50% of the tank, Netlea soil.










*20G Fire Red Tank. Sponge filter + HOB + HOB powered UGF on 50% of the tank, inert soil.*










*7.5G planted tank. Oto's, least killifish, cherry culls, few yellow shrimp. HOB filter, Netlea soil*










*20G Planted Platy Tank, Giant HOB filter, flourite gravel mixed with black sand*










10G something tank. Some inert gravel, some netlea, it got mixed by accident, so I'm waiting to see where the pH settles and see if's suitable for a neo or card species. lol. HOB filter, sponge filter, snails.












Sorry for the blurry photos, crappy cellphone photos. I will borrow the good camera and get some better shots soon.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. so you broke down the connected tanks ?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm.. so you broke down the connected tanks ?


Yup. Getting to the point of wanting to be able to look at my tanks and not have them all sideways and actually see my shrimp. Plus I got huge nitrates that wouldn't go away, the whole system was just a mess. lol. Going back to basic, ditched the peat water, just RO water, single tanks, moss. It's what I had before and was selling a hundred CRS a month, now I'm down to like 30 or so shrimp and have to rebuild back up my stock now almost from scratch, instead of sticking with what was working, I decided to mess around. lol.


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## jeander (Sep 9, 2012)

I have been following this thread and was really considering a linked system with multiple tanks so I am glad I saw now you have gone away from them. I think I will stick with single independent tanks but it was awesome seeing you try something new.

Thanks for always sharing and please keep updating. I am learning alot 

jeander


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

jeander said:


> I have been following this thread and was really considering a linked system with multiple tanks so I am glad I saw now you have gone away from them. I think I will stick with single independent tanks but it was awesome seeing you try something new.
> 
> Thanks for always sharing and please keep updating. I am learning alot
> 
> jeander


It may work, as others have used it, and maybe in 6 more months I could have it all working well, but I regret every messing with anything. lol. My tanks were thriving with shrimp and I'm just getting back to that and lost 2 whole types of shrimp in the process. Whatever works, don't screw with it. lol.


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

Nice setup! I just ordered 12 yellows for my 12g community tank.. but now your making me want another species or a shrimp only tank!


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

Nice room. I could waste a lot of time in there.

I think in another thread you had mentioned that you run 2 x13 w spiral fluorescent tubes on your 10 gallon tanks. I'd like your opinion as to whether this amount of light would work for a low tech set up (no CO2, no WC, perhaps weekly ferts). I see you are growing stargrass so that leads me to believe that your light may be leading towards medium, rather than low. But I could be wrong.

Regards.


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