Ryanoh's 40 Gallon with Pictures!

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#42
I bought it at Walmart probably a little less than a year ago, but I haven't seen them again since. They regularly stock the triceratops and crocodile skulls, but not usually the human ones. If I saw them again I'd probably buy another because it seems like a very useful prop just to have around...
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#47
Nope, I have a very basic system defusing into my filter intake. Only one 2 lt bottle for my 55. If it works I will be upgrading.
How're you diffusing it? I had it going into my filter at first, then into my powerhead when I upgraded filters and both seemed to work. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it when I put it back in the tank.

Also, does it make sense to have two check valves facing opposite ways? Once I had the liquid from one of my yeast bottles almost flow into the tank, and I've read that was bad because yeast will eat the beneficial bacteria in the tank.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#49
Shake it. If you still don't see bubbles, take the valve off, put your finger over the hose, shake it again, then when you take your finger off you should hear a noise like you unscrewed the cap of a soda. If you don't, something's wrong with your yeast reactor.
 

Aug 13, 2010
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Sicklerville, NJ
#50
Ry, you can not have the check valve in the opposite direction, the Co2 will not flow into the tank! Just make sure the water level in the reactor is not too high.

FWM, How long has the mixture been in the reactor? What recipe did you use? Did it ever work?
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#52
I used a cup of sugar and half a TBSP of yeast... I think. It worked for a while, I just haven't changed it in a long time. What's the deal with adding baking soda for pH? Should I be doing that?
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#53
Today I added my fish back in, as well as a few new plants.


This is one of three sprigs of anacharis that I have rubberbanded to rocks until their roots take hold.


Here's my banana plant with a cory munching on a pellet and one of my three platy fry zooming by in the distance.


And here's just a cool shot of my whiptail working on the algae on the back of my dinosaur skull. He's probably my favorite fish. He must have been hungry today because he usually spends most of his time buried in the sand with just his eyes poking out.

I'm going to wait a few more weeks then I plan on getting some tetras (maybe neon, maybe black, I'm not sure yet), then probably another month and I'll really start looking for rams. I'll be gone for most of December and really want to be here to monitor the rams when I first have them, so I may have to wait until mid January to get them.

I'm thinking about tossing my java moss ball since it's the only non-biotope thing I've got, and it kind of looks messy. What do you guys think?
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#56
@Bass -
Haha, I hadn't seen one since I was maybe 12 in one of the tanks we had growing up, and they had one at the store yesterday. I was pretty on the fence about it buy my girlfriend really thought it was cool.

@d'sDad- Thanks! I haven't been this happy with my setup since the first time I had fish live for more than a week. That's the only fry I was able to spot today, but there should be two more around the tank hiding somewhere.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#57


I had to add a bend to change the direction party of my powerhead was blowing at because it was blowing all the substrate out of one of my corners. I'm not too happy with the pvc being so tall, but that sword should conceal it pretty well eventually.

Got my light boxed up, going to send it off tomorrow. :)
It took two extra days because I had to make a franken-box that it would fit in.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#59
Yeah, one of those hoses is a CO2 hose that goes into the powerhead, then the output is hooked up to pvc pipe running under the sand that comes out all over the tank. I was having trouble heating half the tank, so I have the powerhead sucking in warm water and running it all over, now the tank stays at 78 no problem, and, in theory, the CO2 bubbles will dissolve before they make it out of the pipes.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#60
So now instead of rocketing water into the corner of my sand, the powerhead is now shooting it straight up and almost out of the tank. Why's it doing that? Should I make my jets bigger or something so more water can get out and less shoots out the back?