Sonora Desert Fish Nook (mini fishroom)

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I'm enjoying the portability of the Hydor Koralia 240... and in the right place at the right angle the flow is agreeable to the fish and kicks up left over food and such... I'm turning it on once every 4 hours during the day (4 times, I give it a rest at night) for 15 minutes. I find as the food gets kicked up... sometimes the fish will go eat it... anyway, it gives an opportunity for it to make it's way to the overflow as it's suspended in the water column again.

Another topic.... Some of my stem plants aren't performing as well as they were before... I'm seeing some melting... So, I thought I'd try to better understand what's going on. I have RO water, so the KH/GH is almost nil... I have a huge double chamber sump with an inline UV filter, so the Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites are almost undetectable. With CO2 injection and RO Water... I'm now running a low pH. However, I don't know what my fertilization regimen is doing to the some of the values...

I also mysteriously had a Gold Ram, Emperor Tetra, Corydoras Julii and Serpae Tetra die within 3 days of one another (they were residents of 3 different tanks in my mini rack). No one died before, and no one has died since (a week).

Presently, I'm dosing Micronutrients (Iron, magnesium and such) at the rate of 10ml per week... and Macronutrients (phosphate, potassium and such) at the rate of 10ml every 3 days.
I went ahead and augmented my Test Kit and started taking some tests.

ChemistryTesting.jpg

Literally, everything looked great (I'm using those Fluval/Hagen Test Kits... honestly, I'm assuming they are good). In fact, I need to step up my Iron Dosing. I upped the Potassium Dosing a bit too.
I did this over the weekend and the plants look good.

I closely examined the Emperor Tetra (who looked sick the longest and was the last to perish in quarantine), and I think it was a case of Culmnaris based on what I observed in the progression. Yeah... That stinks. What is interesting is that every fish who died was the smallest of their kind... (so perhaps youngest / weakest). I didn't have the proper meds (Furan/kanamycin)... just old Erythromycin.

Anyway, the rest of the fish are looking good.. and of course the tank conditions are immaculate. I did decide to change the schedule for the UV Filter... It now runs almost constant.. with a brief break at 9am for 1/2 hour and 9pm for 1/2 hour. I also increased the flow of my sump pump and acheived a good balance so that I'm putting more flow through the sump pump... I was also able to add back the 2 x 2" of 45ppi Poret Foam to the Sump, for extra polishing. The Poret Foam is interesting.... The 10ppi and the 20ppi wring out almost completely clear... the 30ppi had some brown water from the 1st sheet.. but the backup sheet was still clear... So basically, the sump is very clean despite having been in operation since the end of Nov, Beginning of Dec.

The only thing that had changed in the system in the two weeks prior was the addition of Java Fern and Guppy Grass that I purchased from a fellow hobbyist. However, I did two consecutive Bleach/RO Water dips of the plants before introducing them to my system. Perhaps, something arrived on them.. It is the disadvantage of a connected system... You really have to be careful of what you introduce.

[Shan_Evolved]

Interesting. Sucks that a few fish died despite immaculate water. Keep up the good work though.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Interesting. Sucks that a few fish died despite immaculate water. Keep up the good work though.

It does. I have an ORP of about 385-395 in the Sump, but if I move it too one of the display tanks, I get 365-375 or so. So the sensors, the 'lab results', and appearance tell me that it's very clean water.

I have one Gold Ram that is clamping his fins.. He came from the same tank as the small Gold Ram and the Emperor Tetra that showed signs of Columnaris. So, I have him in quarantine and am treating for Columnaris too (kanamycin/fluran-2). He is eating well... I generally don't treat sick fish.... it's expensive and almost never saves them. Of course, I don't keep costly Discus, Plecos, and such. I bought the medicines just in case I was looking at a full-on pandemic in the Fish Nook. I'm not.... everyone is super happy, swimming and eating. Anyway, I'll see if I can treat this Gold Ram as it did spawn previously. In my whole fishkeeping existence, I have only once succeeded in curing a Ram of any type of sickness.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Back to Fish Nook improvements. I finally got around to completing the mounting apparatus to accomodate the sump float switches for level indications.

I've never worked with cutting/bending acrylic. I started out with Lexan.... but gave up on chipping and melting it constantly as I worked with circular saws (fine formica blade), skill saw, hole saw and hack saw.

The acrylic cut well with the circular saw and it's fine formica blade.. Just very minor edge chipping that I can certainly live with. Next was on to bending:

PrepareToHeatBendAcrylic.jpg

Success on the first 90 deg bend... marked everything out, accounting for the gain I would have on the bend (like conduit), heated it with a heat gun and turned it over the edge my stainless steel work table...
When I did the 2nd one, I was overconfident/impatient and broke it. However, it was salvageable. It broke such that if I found an alternative way to mount it to the tank.. I'd only need to add a 1/4" acrylic foot to be the proper height.

I got so busy with figuring that all out, that I didn't take any more photos of the mechanical steps. But here it is before the soldering of wire looms began:

PostDrillingSuperGlueTeflonScrews.jpg

You can see the Foot that I cut and superglued as a base. To mount to the rim of the aquarium, I took an acrylic clip, used for holding up glass lids, and connected it to the bent portion of the stand. I drilled tiny holes though both and joined them with teflon screws (not metal). I added a bit of material to the clamping portion of the acrylic clip so that it fits snuggly to the rim of the sump.

To mount the level switches, I drilled to columns of holes... 5/8", spaced 1" apart. That gives me fine adjustment in 1/2" increments from 3" all the way to 10". I settled on 3" for the Pump Disable, 3 1/2" for the Pump Enable (gives me a deadband to prevent contstant on/off cycles if there are issues).. 7 1/2" for Add Water.. and 8" for Good Water Level.

I realized, because of the level sensors I was using, that once I wired them together, it would hard to relocate the floats to different holes without redoing the wiring. Oh well.... I set everything in the sump and carefully reviewed before committing myself to soldering... (If I build another, I will use the float switches that screw in from the front side.)

Here's the completed unit.... 5 conductors.. 1 is a common and the other 4 are each of the switch inputs. this will all terminate to my Digital I/O Expansion board of my DIY Aquarium Controller. All wiring is carefully secured with heat shrink tubing so that I don't get any tangles or mess.

FullyAssembledFloatStand.jpg

Here it is installed in the Sump.. Yeah, definitely some reorganization around the sump is in order...

FullyInstalledFloatStandInSump.jpg

Nice to see accurate status of the sump level on the Water Flow/Level graphic of my DIY Aquarium Controller:

WaterLevelScreenwithSumpFloatStand.jpg

Now I need to finish up wiring those level sensors on the RO Storage Vessel... and of course install the Thermostatic Mixing Valve in the Water Bodega so that the RO Unit has temperate water. Once that is completed, I will automate the water changes on a schedule.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Worked tonight on wiring up the RO Storage Vessel Levels. I ran out of adhesive wire keeps... so I'll get those tomorrow and take a photo when it's a little neater... However, they all work! As you can see from the Graphic... It's not quite full... as I had just done an Auto-Top Off prior to capturing the screen.

Better Labels on the Sump Levels too.

(For the Levels... I'm considering having the labels show as Dull Grey when not on... and Blue (for water) when they are tripped... )

AllLevelsWorking.jpg

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Little adventure today. Crossed into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico (I live just 30 minutes from the border) to send a few packages down to friends and to buy the otherwise expensive medicine for my dog. About three years ago, she had canine valley fever which is a fungus that attacks lungs in humans and lungs and bone tissues in dogs. She will be on medicine for life as the fungus returns and eats at bones. I can buy about 6 months supply of her medicine there for about the price of 3 weeks worth here in the states. So, I cross the border, and walk 3 blocks and get a prescription from a Vet... then I walk back towards the border and buy the medicine at any pharmacy (there are many, many, many) there. Yes, we take xrays every 6 months to check on the status of the fungus and the improvement has been remarkable... it's gone and has been for a year and a half now...

Okay, back to a fish topic:

At this particular vet there is a small fish store nearby.... so today my wife and I paid a visit. It's a tiny store, with less than 20 tanks total. The water in Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora is liquid rock, so they stock allot of inexpensive fish that folks can keep without heating their water or managing the chemistry (guppies, mollies, gold fish). However, he likes Angelfish, Tetras and Corydoras and keeps them in a few tanks that he gives special attention to..

So, I picked up 6 Red Eye Tetras (Moenkhausia Sanctaefilomene) that looked very good. Of course, they have been placed in quarantine and not introduced immediately to the Fish Nook.

I keep 2 (two) Quarantine Tanks.. A hospital tank.... and a new introductions tank... The Red-Eyes will be kept in the new introductions tank for about 2 weeks (might grab a lemon tetra from my tanks to use as a hero fish after the 1st week).. after which, they will be introduced to the new 5th display tank of the Sonoran Desert Fish Nook.

So, these fish were 40 pesos a piece, so at an exhange rate of 20.59: 1, that's under $2 usd (tax included). Also picked up some food and an unidentified plant (soaked in a copper solution for 3 hours to kill possible snails and then rinsed and then also placed in the new introductions tank) and overall spent under $25.

Acuario Fish-Stop, owned by Felix Javier Gáamez Villanueva, in Colonia Centro, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.

RedEyeTetras.jpg

Came home... and starting working a little on the Equipment Panel in the Fish Nook...

Oh yeah, this morning, I tried a supervised, manual run of the automated water change. Learned a few things, so some timing/sequencing of tasks will be adjusted... Changed 24 gallons (the whole system is just at 98 gallons, so a 25% water change) in about 20 minutes total without getting my hands or the floor wet. Somewhere in the garden lay happy grapefruit and lemon trees. Obviously, this does not replace manual changes as the glass must be wiped, plants trimmed, and gravel vaccuumed a bit... The temperature dropped from 27degC to 24.degC rather quickly, but recovered to 27degC within two hours. None of the fish appeared bothered at all by the brief temperature swing. (Obviously, this will improve once the thermostatic mixing valve is installed in the RO Bodega to temper the water.) Saw a reduction in ORP from 385 to 350 and that has held all day. What's really awesome... is to see that the RO Unit has already reproduced that 24 gallons and there is a full vessel again (I mean I knew that... but it's neat to see it on my Aquarium Controller Graphic... LOL).

Having the wave pumps come on for 5 minutes prior to the water draining is good (the wave pumps come on for 15 minutes once every 6 hours (4x daily) to move things around a little) as it suspends detritus, uneaten food, etc into the water column, increasing the likelihood that it finds it's way down the drain.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Here's a photo of I took of the well hidden and small Hydor Koraila 240 Wave Pumps. There is 1 installed in each of the 20 gallon long display tanks. They come on for 15minute cycles every 6 hours (4X daily), plus the above mentioned 5 minutes prior to the Drain step of a Water Change Cycle.

HydorKoralia240Installed.jpg

Also, making improvements to the H2O Graphics of the DIY Aquarium Controller. I'm using a small 7" touch screen w/ a resolution of 800x480 on the controller itself, so I need to make the graphics a little small, while still being able to push buttons, move switches and sliders and so forth with my finger... Nice to have water changes at your finger tips.

AllLevelsWorking.jpg

Still lots of work to be done...

[Shan_Evolved]

I have one of the same pumps! They're great. I use on my heater to help distribute the hot water throughout the tank. Also personally I wouldn't be okay with a 3 degree difference in water temp for water changes over a long period of time.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I have one of the same pumps! They're great. I use on my heater to help distribute the hot water throughout the tank. Also personally I wouldn't be okay with a 3 degree difference in water temp for water changes over a long period of time.

Shan, it's not a bad pump. I've debated on whether or not to hook up the venturi part of it... Upon examination, It will restrict flow a little bit. (and of course there is always the noise).

I'm not afraid of the temperature drop, as it would only occur once a week (for the 33% water change it will receive each week).

I'm sticking to once a week water changes becuase of my dosing regimen... 1. Re-minerilization of my RO Water, 2. Micro-nutrient dosing.... Just easier to apply the right amount when doing a set amount of water changine each week. The 3. dosing.. Macro-nutrients will be applied daily. At the moment, this is a bit of a 'plants first' series of display tanks...

Many breeders of Corydoras will stimulate spawning by droping the temperature during a big water change... This mimics... low rivers suddenly swelling with fresh cool rain water... which is a trigger to many fish that fat times are ahead and it's time to do some family planning.... That said... it will be nicer when the water is tempered so that the change isnt' sooo big. Of course, I also need to add a heater to the RO Water Storage to maintain the temperature ... I'll want to tie that heater in with these float switches as I'm always paranoid of a heater in a plastic vessel malfunctioning, boiling off the water, melting through the vessel and causing a fire.

Anywhere, here is the installation of those float switches on the RO Storage heat shrink wrapped and neatened up a bit....

ROStorageFloatSwitchesWired.jpg

That bulk cables runs 25' back through the water bodega raceway to the fish nook to terminate the switches to my homemade aquarium controller.

LevelSwitchTerminationsSumpROStorage.jpg

Still need to tackle that Thermostatic Mixing Valve installation...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Sick Fish is Better

I may have succesfully cured my first Ram ever (seriously, I've never been very succesful once they fall ill).
This one had clamped fins and hung around the top, but was eating.

I had an Emperor Tetra die of what I believed to be Columnaris so I got a bit nervous. I saw another Emperor tetra behaving the same way. So it was put in isolation with the clamped fin Gold Ram in one of my Quarantine Tanks. The water conditions (chemistry, cleanliness and clarity) are very good if not absolutely perfect in the Fish Nook. Just don't want to loose other fish due to a contagion.

First I treated for Columnaris... Kana/Furon regimen... Then went to a more General med (contained Metro).... Ram is quite happy, no clamped fins... Emperor Tetra doesn't seem like he will make it. So who knows what these Emperor Tetras had ultimately. The four remaining Emperor Tetras appear fine in the Fish Nook, as do all of the other tank mates. Sometime around Wednesday, I will move the Gold Ram back to the Fish Nook to the tank with the Emperor Tetras and other Gold Rams. It has a very good appetite, color, breathing and is active. Anyway, this was a full two weeks of isolation.

Equipment Change

Tomorrow is a big day. I intend to remove both Sump Chambers so that I can double the number of water lines going between them. That will allow me to pump up the flow a little bit more and not worry so much about the 1st chamber backing up a little. So in preparation for that I made a comprimise on the Display Tanks of the Fish Nook. Although I am running plants, and therefore, injecting with CO2.. I decided to also run an airstone in each aquarium tomorrow. But I installed everything in such a way to be permanent. I'm thinking after the full use tomorrow, they won't run constantly, but will follow the Wave Pumps cycle of 15 minutes of play every 6 hours. Yeah, it will drive some CO2 out, but that's okay. I just like the idea of stirring things up a little several times a day.

Going forward, I won't be so concerned about the CO2 loss (and therfore increased CO2 use), but rather the noise.... Although a piston pump, that Active Aqua pump is louder than I would like. Ultimately, I'm going to locate the Air Pump outside on the other side of the wall from my Fish Nook. I'll keep the manifold in the Fish Nook just above the racks. I may elect to keep the airpump on full time at that point. I'm undecided. I'll just have to observe.

Regardless, for now every display tank has a 2" black airstone installed.

PS. Also going to install a quick drain on the 1st Chamber of the sump (1" valve) so that I can empty a good portion of water when changing out the filter media... Will make it so much easier with less mess.

New Fish

I've had some Diamond Tetras in quarantine (in my ohter quarantine tank) for about a week and they are steller. I put an otto in there with them. Everybody seemed good.. So they joined the fish nook today. Really livened up the display tank they were introduced too.... The preganant guppies even school with them.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I was never quite happy with the transfer of water from one Sump Section to the other Sump Section. 1 1" line felt insufficent and it always seemed like the Sump Section with the Filter Media would start to backup and sometimes the water level would get above the poret foam (which is useless as the water will flow over the top and overall filtration will suffer).

Decided over the weekend that I would take down the sump and drill the new holes to add a 2nd 1" line between the two. I also decided to install a drain in the 1st section so that I could take the water level down quickly when doing a media change.

Prep the 1st Section for the new Drain Hole... 1 3/4" for a 1" bulkhead.. I wish that I could have made it lower, but the drain line out to the fruit trees doesn't sit quite low enough. THat's okay, I can still quickly get rid of 8" of level out of both sump sections this way.

Putty Dam with water:

PuttyDamtoDrill-1-34InchHole.jpg

Angle the Drill to start the hole (Couldn't use a Jig becuase my clamps would reach this position.)

DrillingSumpDrainHole.jpg

Successful and clean.

DrillLargeDrainHoleSuccess.jpg

Then I focused on the 2nd set of Holes for the 2nd 1" line that will join the Sump Sections. Prep is identical and again couldn't use a Jig. Successful:

TwinHolesForSumpSectionJoin.jpg

Bulkhead sections are a bit different this time, as I couldn't source the same brand of barb fitting.

DoublingSumpSectionBandwidth.jpg

Overall looks good.

DualBulkHeadsForSumpSectionJoin.jpg

You can see the level of the two sections are now much closer. In fact, I can raise the level a bit in the 2nd sump section (not worried about loss of buffering capacity as I have a very good check valve and emergency overflow drain when pump stops). Of course, that means adjusting my hard soldered float swithces for the Auto-Top Off Function.... oh well... I'll do that laster..

SumpSectionsOperationalWithDualJoin.jpg

Switching over to fully submersible probes soon so that I can be a bit more flexible with sump levels... More on that later...

Note: The Airpump came in handy.... I had the silicon seal on the bulkhead for the Section1 Drain fail yesterday... (Told you I wasn't able to source the same barb fittings)... The newer barb fittings didn't have as tight a friction fit so I was more generous with silicon. Allowed a full 24 hours of cure, but still after about 2 hours of running, it was leaking steady... right during the SuperBowl. LOL. Solution was to take the sumps completely offline, drain them again, store the poret foam in five gallon buckets of the removed water with an airstone in them as well. Would make a repair when hardware stores were open in the morning. So, I ran all four display tanks on the Airstones.. Kept the wave pumps running too just to give circulation.. Didn't give any fish food in the evening. I found the 25Watt Hydro substrate heating cables in each aquarium was more than enough to maintain 27degC (81.5degF). This morning at 6am, I ran an Ammonia test and none detected.

So, At 7am, I went to the hardware store... Pieced together a solution to plug that 1 3/4" drain hole... and filled everything back up again. All good.
I did locate the correct barb fittings that I had previously this afternoon on line..... pre-installed in 1" bulkheads.. so I ordered 3. (I'll re-do those new ones that form the 2nd Sump Join as I'm nervous about them failing too in the future)...

No, I'm not keep on taking fotos of emergency repairs and mopping. (though I never saw more than a pint of water on the tile floor the whole time). But, hey, I'll post the ugly temporary repair to seal up the bulkhead (metric fittings, couldn't just use standard stuff... and 2 Aces, 1 TrueValue and 1 Tractor Supply Company had no bulkheads whatsoever.)..

EmergencyRepairtoDrainBulkhead.jpg

The Bulkhead is so specific with thread size and appears to have a few batch defects in it's slip portion.. The threads don't match up to anything... and the included friction fit elbow was super loose.... So I found a hose connector fitting that had a super tight fit inside the bulkhead slip fit..and I used PVC Cement to hold it (let it dry for 1/2 hour)... A standard adapter fit to that... and then a cap.... Very watertight and got the job done for about $6. No sillicone.... PVC Cement on SlipFit and Teflon Tape on Threaded portions... It will all work until I feel like taking it down again in a few weeks to replace the bulkheads with better ones with permanently welded slipfit barb fittings.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

With the drama of the two sump sections removed on Sunday/Monday, it was a great opportunity to relocate the discharge valve for the display tanks. It's a smallish 120v 1/2" Normally Closed Brass Solenoid Valve. It was inexpensive at $32 usd. It's controlled by a Relay attached to the RaspberryPi DIY Aquarium Controller.

I went back and forth on doing a 1/2" valve or 3/4" valve.. and just decided to keep it smaller and not worry that it would take just a bit longer to drain the water as part of the total water change cycle.

The new location is better as it simplied the plumbing a bit, especially as the 5th and 6th display tanks are prepared to be added to the Fish Nook.

DisplayTankWaterDischargeSolenoidValve.jpg

Still working on refining the software for the automatic water change cycle. Looking to do some visually in Node-RED to represent Off-Auto-On modes of the device. Very common command/states for devices in automation scenarios. Won't show any screen shots or video of the operation of it until I get it working just perfectly.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

So today... decided to tackle the installation of the thermostatic mixing valve off of the Hot Water Heater in the RO Storage Bodega, so that I would have permanent water supply and stop dragging a hose inside there...

Of course, you have to shut off the house water so that you can disconnect the lines to the Hot Water heater.... And this is what I found where my water meter / shut off valve are located:

HoneyBeeHiveAtWaterMeter.jpg

So, I called a beekeeper friend to remove it.. If he doesn't want it, we will wait a few days for them to move out on their own.

Thermostatic Mixing Valve install is put on hold for now...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Well, don't know if anyone still follows this, but keeping the blog gives me a nice time line to look back on...

Last night finished up the Thermostatic Mixing Valve and final plumbing up of the RO Water Storage in the Front Bodega. Shouldn't say final plumbing... It's plumbed up with what was available, but someday I'll revisit it. For now it's perfectly fine and operational.

ThermostaticMixingValveSet.jpg

Now I have all of the stuff back in there too.

ThermoStaticMixValveInstalledinROBodega.jpg

I did notice that the system produced water a bit faster now that the incoming temperature to the RO Unit is 27degC (about 81). I need to get a longer heater cord and add a little intelligence to cut the heat off when the level drops below 5 gallons (so I don't boil out the water should the heater stick). For now, I'm not running the heater... and I don't mind the purified water cooling down a little in the RO Vessel. Will still be warmer than it's been the last 3 months when straight cold water was going through the RO Unit.

More to do, but this is sufficent for now. No more garden hoses running out to the carport and onto the front patio to deliver raw water and take away waste water.... raw water comes from the mixing valve... waste water goes all the way to the Fish Nook Waste Drain that waters the Fruit Trees in the Back Patio (some 50+ feet away).

Did a little work on the DIY Automation Controller as well. Programmed in a Toggle switch for Off-Auto-On modes for devices like the Sump Pump... In Auto it will work off of the Float switches in the Sump and the other Modes (like Feed Mode) to decide whether to run or not. In Off, well it's off.. and ON, well it's ON. The LEDs are too small... the creator of these LED objects for NodeRED made an update.. and the new ones show too small and dull now... They were much better before! Always a risk in updating software.

Yeah, you can see that my Conductivity Probe is gone... and I doubt that my ORP is really that high. I was questioning the D.O. sensor, but honestly that reading looks about what you would expect when reading in the Sump... Either way... they are very old probes (more than 6, possibly 8 years old) and have been accidently dropped/fully submerged in the Sump.... I have fully submersible ones on the way!!

SonoranDesertFishNookDIYAquaContlr.jpg

Really getting to the point where I need to take advantage of all of the information I'm receiving to control the operation and safeguard equipment (heaters off when level drops in Sump... CO2 off if SumpPump isn't running)...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Normally, I view the status of my controller via my cell phone or my desktop PC. But of course my DIY Aquarium Controller has a 7" LCD TouchScreen (800x480" resolution) attached to it.. so I develop my user graphics with that size in mind. I messed around with the RaspberryPi4B (the single board microcontroller that is the foundation for my aquarium controller) so that it starts up my application in KIOSK mode and nothing else... It doesn't show any other parts of the desktop/operatingsystem/user interface... just my screens.

Here is what it looks like at startup... displaying the home page of my aquarium control application.

SonoranDesertFishNookDIYAquariumControllerHomePage.jpg

It's good... and there is still a little bit of real estate left on the home page... so I might move a few buttons over... Like 'Feed Mode' or maybe the Dosing Status (when I finish doing those)...