Showing posts with label Matten filter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matten filter. Show all posts

Monday, 29 January 2018

Jan 2018 - Aquarium Roundup

Window Aquarium


22 litre Window aquarium with 8 White Cloud Mountain Minnow. My home made Matten filter is working well. The plants are dosed with EasyCarb and fertilizer although the growth not great - possibly due to gravel substrate.

Round Vase Aquarium


6.5 litre Vase aquarium. This tank has an air lift filter made from a drink bottle and plastic pipe. The media is Alfagrog. There is some clay granules plant media in the base and then this is covered with Alfagrog. Two baby WCMM live in the tank. No extra heating is installed the fish are happy at room temperature at the moment this is 18.3c. (It is useful to have cycled media available for new projects)

White Cloud Minnow Winter accommodation.



The minnow in this 27 litre cube aquarium were in the summer tub pond last year. I brought them into the house when the weather turned cooler in October. There are the original adults plus about 15 young fish. The Vase and Window aquarium contain another 10 young fish that were bred in the tub last summer. I will transfer them outside again when the weather warms up. Aquarium is at ambient room temperature of about 18c.

Plant grow-out Aquarium



I use this 27 litre aquarium as a stock tank for growing on plants to use in other tanks. There are some Red Cherry Shrimp in there, together with a Cappuccino Snail, Ramshorn and Malaysian trumpet snails and 2 amano shrimp. A small Chinese Hillstream Loach also wanders around the tank. The rear integrated filter and high plant growth seems to keep the water in good condition and the loach seems to be doing well in this tank.

Red Cherry Shrimp Aquarium



This is my 24 litre Red Cherry Shrimp Tank. I filter is with 2 Air Sponge filters. I had trouble with filament algae so I cleaned this out as much as possible and added extra plants to absorb nutrients. I have also increased the amount of water changes I do. The shrimp seem to be doing OK with some breeding.

Live bearer Aquarium.


This is my "Livebearer" aquarium It is 55 litres and contains Endler guppys and Red Wagtail Platys. In addition I have 4 Corydoras and a Siamese Algae eater in there. The substrate in Clay granules and the plants are fed and dosed with EasyCarb. It is filtered with a sponge airlift filter and internal power filter.

AquaNano 40 Aquarium.


My "AquaNano 40" - 55 litre aquarium has a heavy growth of Cryptocorne plants. It contains 8 home bred Kribensis together with 3 Ember tetra and 4 Red Cherry Barb. It is probably too heavily stocked but is has a large integrated filter at the rear with Sponge and BioHome media. I also do frequent 50% water changes.  So the water quality is very good and the fish are doing well. It has been set up for about 4 years now so I will refresh it this summer.





Monday, 23 October 2017

Window tank back in position with new filter.

My 24" * 8" * 8" aquarium is now back in its usual position on the windowsill.
I stripped it down and resealed it, then added an acrylic divider with a large hole in to create a "Matten" style filter unit. The acrylic divider was assembled with "Super glue" and fitted with aquarium quality silicon sealant.

A piece of medium density foam is placed behind the divider. The hole in the acrylic divider provides an effective area of 250 square centimetres.

In the recess created behind the filter I have installed a Dennerle Nano "ThermoCompact" 25W Heater and a small filter pump unit that has had its small filter box removed. The filter label indicates that it has a maximum flow rate of 300 litre per hour. The tank volume is 50 litres so the water is filtered 6 times per hour.

A  2" inch layer of medium/course gravel has been added to the tank. The filter has been "seeded" with Evolution Aqua Pure aquarium bacteria / enzyme balls.

The tank will now be operated for a few weeks to allow it to mature.

View of Aquarium on window sill.

Interior view of Filter.

Filter cavity showing pump and heater.