My tanks and their inhabitants

[GeToChKn]

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.

[ROZDAB]

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


Nice set up really digging it all

[Kunsthure]

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

-Lisa

[sso]

yeah, its really nice.

[GeToChKn]

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.

[BIG_Z]

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)

[diwu13]

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

[GeToChKn]

Originally Posted by diwu13

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.

[GeToChKn]

Originally Posted by BIG_Z

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.

[BIG_Z]

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

[Overgrowth]

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?

[GeToChKn]

Originally Posted by Overgrowth

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.

[Overgrowth]

Originally Posted by GeToChKn

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?

[sso]

thats a pretty much wow setup.

[diwu13]

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 :P