Designing the plant fact files

So at the moment I don't have much to film because the aquarium is in the garage waiting to be torn apart and cleaned then re-sealed. So I'm filling my free time by trying to put down on "paper" some of the knowledge that's sitting inside my head. Now I could just type some of this stuff up as a word document and for some things I've done that and I'm busy trying to make them pretty enough to be a quality pdf download but with the plant factfiles I wanted to make them super quick and easy to reference; almost like a recipe card.

So I came up with a template for them as an svg file an scaled them to A5 so when they're printed they'll make a nice little folder that can go with my Aquarium book.

So that's what I've been working on, well that and trying to build a facebook page, if you head over there you can see some of the factfiles that I've already made.

Until next time stay in touch

Dan

It's all gone a bit quiet

So you might be rightly asking, 'Dan, where the fuck have you gone?'Well let me tell you:
I moved house again, this time should be the last time for a long while. Without going in to too much detail I was hired to fix a lab that had a lot of problems, I did that and it was the worst year of my life. I got paid pretty well to do it and I did fix it but I couldn't stick it out. So now I have a new job, I'm a bit closer to my family and I'm living in a much cheaper part of the country so my house is now pretty big.

The downside is no garden and the weather is colder here so I won't be able to grow as much but I do have a big south facing balcony so we'll look at that in the summer.

So what does this mean for the blog and the YouTube channel? Well I have a garage so I can do more DIY stuff. I'll have a little bit more money so I can get more involved with my different hobbies.

Lets talk fish tanks. I had just finished my nano all in tank and was making my video to finish off that series and we moved and I had to leave the tank behind. So no tanks? Nope I just went out and bought a 48"x15"x18" that was part of a local shops stock tank. It needs cleaning up and I'll reseal it for good measure but it was only £40 delivered right to my door.

What am I going to do with this tank? I'm going to put it in my study and make a paludarium. More on that later.

For now, take care and stay in touch

How to make an aquarium - Part 5 Just add water

So through this series of posts with accompanying videos you should be able to see how I set up my aquarium from start to finish including the stand from just panes of glass, some acrylic sheet, wood and screws. In total to get this tank up and running (ignoring the CO2 system) it would easily cost less than £100.

At this point the tank is made and it's sitting on the stand. Our final considerations are the filter, which in this case is built in, and what the goals are for this tank.

The whole process of filtration and how my filter works is explained in a separate post with it's own accompanying video. What I wanted to cover here is a quick overview and a little bit more about the media I chose.

Mechanical filtration - sponges going from coarse, to medium to fine; by setting the sponges up like this debris is filtered out of the water more efficiently allowing water that is free from debris to enter the biological media. This will extend the life and improve the efficiency of the biological media as it will not become clogged.

Biological filtration - I chose BioHome media, it's unique structure, in my opinion, provides the best environment for effective breakdown of ammonia and control of nitrates by providing a suitable environment for nitrifying bacteria as well as de-nitrifying bacteria, this is covered much more detail in the video about filtration and how a filter works but if you would like a more scientific explanation then please get in touch at withdan@outlook.com and I will send you a fact sheet.

Chemical filtration - I should have run some carbon at the start of this tanks life it would have saved me some of the headaches I've been having with algae.

The filter is sorted the aquascaping is done lets just add water. Now the first problem I encountered was with the rocks I used. The last time these rocks were in an aquarium of mine they were sat by the window in full sunlight whilst I was in the process of breaking down all my aquariums. As you can imagine in a neglected tank there was a horrific amount of algae. Well seen as though I didn't boil these rocks or make any attempt to sterilise them I have the same horrific algae in this tank. I am working on removing it and I'm pretty confident I can get it under control but it's not what you want to be dealing with at the start of a new aquatic adventure.

 This will be the last post in the how to make an aquarium series but have a look at the stand alone Aquarium diary (tab at the top of the page) for updates on how this tank progresses.

How to make an aquarium - The peripherals

So the peripherals are all the things that fall by the way side against the big shots like lighting, plants, pumps and substrate. I'm talking about things like planting forceps, glassware, nets and fertilisers.

So where do you get these items? well most good aquatic shops will have everything on that list and if you can buy some of it in your local store then great that helps them out but some of it can be a bit expensive and so we must look to the internet.

Plant maintenance tools you can pick up on ebay, look for stainless steel. I got my stuff from a local aquatics shop, there's wasn't much difference in price; if you're looking for a nice gift for an aquascaper then there are some really nice sets out there that come in their own roll out bags.

 

The same can be said for glassware, I have no need for outlet pipes so the only glassware I have is my diffuser and drop checker, ebay can be a good place but with the diffuser it's worth spending a little more money (the bubbles tend to be much smaller).

As for nets, you're going to want to think carefully about what you want a net for, for example if you're keeping shrimp then a smaller net with a triangular frame is going to be able to get in those corners, a dark mesh is also going to help hide it from your livestock. If you're keeping very quick fish that are good swimmer then invest in 2 nets, 1 to heard the fish the other to catch them. With fish like puffers they're best not to be taken out of water so a small container should be used to catch them. Think about spines and barbs too you don't want to try and untangle an expensive L number from a poorly made net.

Finally the fertilisers; there are some great shops out there and some great products. First of all do you need fertilisers? Well having a pre made mix of micros isn't going to hurt but if you're running a high energy system then NPK dosing is a must and here you have 2 choices, dry salts or pre-made solutions. I opted for the complete nutrition pre-made bottle from TNC (thenutrientcompany.com) this provides me with NPK and micros all in one dose, I'm going to start with 1ml 3 times a week which is about 3/4 of the recommended dose for a tank my size. I've also gone with liquid carbon from them which I will dose 1ml 5 times a week (rest on saturday w/c on sunday). What I like about their products is firstly the price and secondly they list exactly what is in their mixes so no bullshit.

How to make an aquarium - Part 4 designing the layout

So I'm a little bit fed up of looking at a completely empty fish tank so this weekend I went out and got myself some substrate. I opted for Manado soil from JBL however I was wanting to get Flora-base by columbo  but nowhere near by stocks it and the shipping costs make it just too expensive for me. Manado soil is a clay based substrate free from N and P but has a nice grain size and a fairly good CEC. I will be buying a small amount of base layer substrate before I add this though.

I decided to open up my bag of lava rock that's been sat in my shed for over a year. Double bagged in thick heavy duty rubble sacks. To my surprise one of the rocks had some very healthy growth of java moss. For it's shear determination to stay alive this will be featuring in my finished setup. 

The toughest moss in town

So I got the rocks out and started messing about with them trying to find which pieces had the most character, which would make good base rocks and so on. I split them up in to sizes as well to make it easier to find the piece I wanted when I started trying to make a composition.

My review platform

I didn't want to mess about trying to put together a scape in my aquarium just now because I don't want to damage the glass and I figured this might take some time, putting stuff in and pulling it back out again; so I put this template together. If you look closely you will see a pencil line on the base, this is the outline for the tank.

Birds eye view

If you look down from the top here you can see I've done something very strange, the pile of rocks on the left come to almost exactly half way, this kind of goes against basic design concepts. If you look at the enclosed part of this rock pile though, where the planting will be you can see that comes to about 1/3 of the way across. The secondary pile of rocks on the right hand side also comes about 1/3 of the way from the edge.

I like lava rock it has so much character

When you look at the composition front on you can see (going from left to right) a steep rise that peaks about 1/3 of the way along followed by a gradual drop along the rock line to the other side of the tank. Now I know this composition looks like it's going to be one of those valleys with cosmetic sand running down the middle but I plan on using Alternanthera reineckii sp. mini to fill this valley creating a floor of red. On the left hand side I want to use Proserpinaca palustris. Bolbitis heteroclita will be attached to the rocks to fill in the gaps. On the right hand side I plan on using either Ammania sp. bonsai or Pogostamen helferi sp. wicked.

However even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, so who knows.

Stay in touch and watch out for my new video.

How to make an aquarium - Part 3 The lighting

I'm up to the point now where I can start buying some of the hardware for this tank. I already have the heaters and several pumps and I do have a fair amount of lighting however I thought I'd try out something that a lot of YouTubers seem to have used and that's a garden LED floodlight.

These are designed to be mounted outside on a wall and as such have about 6 inches of wire coming from the unit with no plug. I took this opportunity to attach an in-line switch as you can see and then added about 1 meter of wire and a 13amp 3 pin plug. A nice simple project and it kicks out a tonne of light. The beam angle is a little wide but I'm happy with how it looks. It's a 20watt LED with a colour temperature of 6700K. I don't plan on growing anything super difficult but this will cover me for pretty much anything I want to grow.

If you're on a budget this could be a good option for you. I'll give you a 6 month update once this has been running above the tank for a bit.

Keep checking back for more updates and stay in touch.

In the garden: An introduction

Hi folks, so I now have a decent sized garden and I decided to put a poly-tunnel in it so I can have a go at growing my own food.

Given that this is my first attempt at this kind of thing I don't have too many hopes for a plentiful bounty but we shall see come harvest time.

I understand that this post is fairly late on in to the growing season and you've missed all the prep that I've done. To summarise I bought some seeds online, so far I'm very happy with the supplier and I'll name them once I've done my first harvest. I bought some compost (4 60lt bags for £10) and some higher grade seed and cutting compost. Planted everything and watered it everyday.

A little bit about my setup:

Lettuce - Little gems growing in a plastic tub that I have sunken into a bench
Mixed salad - Scattered in a tray on the same bench as the lettuce
Tomatoes - different varieties started in seed trays 5 of each, then once the second leaves come through transferred the strongest 3 into buckets that are hanging on a rack
Cucumber and Cucamelon - started in seed trays and transferred to larger plant pots once the second leaves come through
Aubergines - Started in seed trays transferred to hanging buckets
Bell peppers - Started in seed trays transferred to hanging buckets
Habanero and Jalapeno peppers - Planted into ceramic pots from the start.
Peas - Planted outside into a long planter backed with trellis.
Herbs - Basil, Coriander, Marjoram, Lemon balm not having much luck with the lemon balm but the other three are doing okay, sown into small plastic plant pots from the start.

So that's pretty much the setup I'm going with for now, I'm struggling with some courgettes the older leaves are turning yellow, I'll stick it out and see how they do, I only want the courgettes for the flower because courgette flowers are pretty hard to find in the UK but they can be stuffed then dipped in tempura an fried which is what I plan to do with them.

Thanks for reading, any questions or comments please get in touch.

Back to fish tanks next time.

How to make an aquarium - Part 2 making the stand

Right so you've got your glass all cleaned up lets make something to put it on. The stands that you get in a lot of pet shops are foil board or fibre board and are pretty crappy and massively over priced for what they are.

Making a stand is a piece of piss and although I won't give you the exact plan or measurements I can explain what you're going to need to do.

Where does the support need to be?

So looking at this diagram the horizontal rectangle represents the top of your stand that your aquarium is going to sit on the vertical one represents the legs. If you place your aquarium on diagram A all of the stress is on the joint so the nails are screws are taking the full weight of your tank. If you place your aquarium on B the top is fully supported by the legs and that bad boy isn't going anywhere.

First top tip, provide a full support for your aquarium, what I mean by this is don't just build a frame for the tank to sit on

See how in A we only support the perimeter of the aquarium but in B we support the whole bottom of the tank, this probably isn't necessary but I like the added security that the bottom of my tank isn't going to bust out onto my electronics and gizmos under my tank. I always provide a styrene or foam-board layer between the aquarium and stand to correct any small unevenness that could put extra stress on the silicone joints.

What you should have now looks kind of like a table but those legs need bracing to give the stand some rigidity

By joining the legs up you make everything a little bit more stable. If you want to clad the stand then this will provide even more support, I recommend using screws for your connections and wherever possible use 2 per joint for example:

By using 2 screws or nails you stop the wood spinning around one point this again will add stability.

your new stand is only fit for purpose if you feel comfortable sitting on it, now I am a big dude and weigh a lot more than my nano tanks and my stands do not budge an inch. If it's rocking you're doing it wrong.

Tool list for this build:
- Jigsaw
- Selection of files
- Rotary tool with drill attachment and sanding attachment
- Screwdriver


To see my stand check out the video below.

The ultimate guide to CO2

So whilst I'm waiting to finish my aquarium build I've pulled out all my equipment; pumps heaters and the pressurised CO2 equipment.

I did a run down on what you need to get going with pressurised CO2 and I've got some handouts available that explain why CO2 is important (you can get these by emailing me at withdan@outlook.com).

Something I want to talk about here is how a drop checker works and why it's so important to have one.

If you don't know what a drop checker is then you didn't watch my video to the end...shame on you. It's a pretty dry video to be fair and was made to help a one or two people so audience retention is going to be pretty weak on it, you're forgiven. a drop checker is used to measure the amount of CO2 in your water column. It captures some of the CO2 that is given  off and the pH indicator in the drop checker will change colour accordingly.

If you don't have a drop checker fear not I have put together a chart so you can work out how much CO2 is in your water, you'll just need to know the pH and KH of your tank, these are common tests that are even available on strips so they're super cheap (the liquid ones are more accurate). If you want a copy of the chart just email me at withdan@outlook.com.

How to make an aquarium - Part 1 Preparing the glass

Now you could go out and buy a glass aquarium, there's nothing wrong with that; just like there's nothing wrong with paying someone to dig a pond for you, sure it makes you a bit less of man but you don't care right? WRONG! lets build this thing.

Joking aside building your own tank is going to give you so much more satisfaction plus you have total control over dimensions and in my case filtration.

The Plan

I am going to take apart an old dirty 10 gallon aquarium and convert it into an all in one high tech nano with a built in filtration section, that I intend to use to show you how the ecosystem in an aquarium is maintained also if I can throw together a dope aquascape then that's a bonus.

The Glass

As stupid as it sounds the cheapest place to buy your glass is probably by picking up a second hand aquarium, I'm re-using an old one of mine that is covered in hard water deposits and algae. I actually cut all my aquariums into individual panes of glass when I recently moved house. The livestock all went to new homes and all the equipment was dried out and stored.

Now that you've sourced your glass get to work in cleaning it up, here's a short clip of how I cleaned mine up with good old elbow grease (and a little vinegar)

 Once you've got it clean, and I mean clean you're ready to start siliconing this bad boy together...