Hey all,
First post (or first post in a long time) so mods please relocate thread if it's in the wrong place.
Long story short: I need advice on how to properly, easily, and efficiently siphon the gravel from a tank that is only about 6 or 7 inches deep--depending on current water level. I have a lot of problems with losing vacuum suction in the spots where the gravel is a few inches deep.
Long story long: I have a 60" long by 15" wide by 7" tall setup that comprises two storage totes connected by a glass fish bridge. Roughly 26 gallons when accounting for the small gap of wasted space between the totes. It houses a buttload of mutt guppy, mutt endler, and mutt guppy-endler hybrids that come from many different varieties of guppies and endlers; a juvenile blue gourami; and a juvenile red-eared slider turtle. This sits on a rolling shelf I bought from my local K-Mart during their going-out-of-business liquidation sale (advertised as a "european rolling rack" but I more prefer "floating kitchen peninsula," as it separates my 1BR apartment's living room from the dining area adjacent to the kitchen).
I'm going to expand it to the other side of the rack with 3 more glass fish bridges I'm in the process of making (so that the fish can swim in a rectangular/ovular circuit), and either double it to 54 1/2 gallons or get it to 81.81 gallons by adding storage totes that are twice as deep but with the same footprint, assuming continued success in researching how to properly brace storage totes to account for bowing (had mixed results in the past). I already have the totes to double the size of the set up (the exact same products as the others, since I bought them at the same time when I re-did the tank this spring). If I go that route, then I'd further expand the tank from that side of the rack to the far end of my large kitchen table (using a longer, different kind of bridge, perhaps flexible plastic in a drip-loop shape). The kitchen table module would then offer a much deeper section of the habitat, and would probably add about 35-40 gallons of space (and would be much easier to siphon), bringing me to about 89.5-94.5 gallons total.
I also neglected to mention that the back wall of the two totes I currently have set up has an egg-crate/light diffuser false wall about 2 inches from the actual back of the tank, which holds up a huge cave network of lava rock and clay pebbles running the entire length of the habitat. The fry seem to love the safety this area provides. Growing out of it I have 8 pothos plants that came from one pothos plant, and a bunch of lucky bamboo (the pothos roots also add to the protection for the fry). I'm thinking about growing some herbs out of there as well. The fluorescent UVB light for Tortuga, and his heat lamp, seem to help with plant growth but I've also got a smart LED bulb that I can set to any color. The fixtures for these 3 lights are all of the cheap, circular, metal clamp-on variety you can find at hardware stores. I've got some of the strings of tape LED lights too that I need to add on eventually so I can grow more aquaponic "amphibious" stuff.
First post (or first post in a long time) so mods please relocate thread if it's in the wrong place.
Long story short: I need advice on how to properly, easily, and efficiently siphon the gravel from a tank that is only about 6 or 7 inches deep--depending on current water level. I have a lot of problems with losing vacuum suction in the spots where the gravel is a few inches deep.
Long story long: I have a 60" long by 15" wide by 7" tall setup that comprises two storage totes connected by a glass fish bridge. Roughly 26 gallons when accounting for the small gap of wasted space between the totes. It houses a buttload of mutt guppy, mutt endler, and mutt guppy-endler hybrids that come from many different varieties of guppies and endlers; a juvenile blue gourami; and a juvenile red-eared slider turtle. This sits on a rolling shelf I bought from my local K-Mart during their going-out-of-business liquidation sale (advertised as a "european rolling rack" but I more prefer "floating kitchen peninsula," as it separates my 1BR apartment's living room from the dining area adjacent to the kitchen).
I'm going to expand it to the other side of the rack with 3 more glass fish bridges I'm in the process of making (so that the fish can swim in a rectangular/ovular circuit), and either double it to 54 1/2 gallons or get it to 81.81 gallons by adding storage totes that are twice as deep but with the same footprint, assuming continued success in researching how to properly brace storage totes to account for bowing (had mixed results in the past). I already have the totes to double the size of the set up (the exact same products as the others, since I bought them at the same time when I re-did the tank this spring). If I go that route, then I'd further expand the tank from that side of the rack to the far end of my large kitchen table (using a longer, different kind of bridge, perhaps flexible plastic in a drip-loop shape). The kitchen table module would then offer a much deeper section of the habitat, and would probably add about 35-40 gallons of space (and would be much easier to siphon), bringing me to about 89.5-94.5 gallons total.
I also neglected to mention that the back wall of the two totes I currently have set up has an egg-crate/light diffuser false wall about 2 inches from the actual back of the tank, which holds up a huge cave network of lava rock and clay pebbles running the entire length of the habitat. The fry seem to love the safety this area provides. Growing out of it I have 8 pothos plants that came from one pothos plant, and a bunch of lucky bamboo (the pothos roots also add to the protection for the fry). I'm thinking about growing some herbs out of there as well. The fluorescent UVB light for Tortuga, and his heat lamp, seem to help with plant growth but I've also got a smart LED bulb that I can set to any color. The fixtures for these 3 lights are all of the cheap, circular, metal clamp-on variety you can find at hardware stores. I've got some of the strings of tape LED lights too that I need to add on eventually so I can grow more aquaponic "amphibious" stuff.
