Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Timbobby

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Timbobby

New Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2022
Messages
14
Reaction score
12
Location
Tennessee
I just joined and am here to say hi and introduce myself. My name is Timbobby and I'm 42 years old and from Knoxville, TN. I have thought about getting an aquarium since I was 25. My girlfriend at the time and I had odd pets. Tarantulas, scorpions, iguanas, chameleons. I read through books I would get from a local used book store and read books on aquariums with the intent to start one. I have always loved fish. When I was a young kid in elementary school I had a tiny aquarium with neon tetras and silver dollars that we got from walmart. Those fish didn't last long though and like them, my aquarium days were flushed down the toilet. I always liked fish. And learned to fish as I got older. Now I am much older, the idea of starting an aquarium is still here, and I decided to give in. First I read a book titled The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums by David E. Boruchowitz. In this book was everything I needed to confidently begin my journey. I then found everything else I needed from a friend that is getting out of keeping saltwater fish and bought everything he hadn't already sold (he already sold a 300 gallon 7ft tall round tank that was bought from him by a local fish store). So, I get to start with a 90 gallon tank (48x18x25, with an aqueon overflow installed), stand, 48" T5HO lights, plenty of decorations, and a 30 gallon wet/dry sump. Cleaned everything, painted the stand, checked to see which direction the floor joists run (this is an old house and I want to be careful setting up an aquarium that could weigh more than 1,000 lbs. I don't want it falling through the floor), and put everything in its place. A few weeks later I went to the fish store that bought my friend's old tank, which is set up nicely on display, and bought 3 pearl gourami and a few plants (Amazon sword & Jungle val). The gourami did not like my pump at all. Way too much flow, they were struggling to stay in place. I went to home depot to get a valve to install in the hose that goes from the pump to the return bulkhead, so I could turn the flow down. Something I learned here is don't buy the cheap gate valves at home depot/lowes. They barely open, even at full open, and you will only be able to set the flow from barely to none. The big ones, that I guess are found online or maybe specialty hardware/plumbing stores, are the ones you want. I ended up plumbing everything (pics, once I learn how to limit the filesize) with ball valves (I don't recommend ball valves except to go from on to off, they really take alot of time if you're using them to tune everything in). There is more to my journey but I'm going to end this here for now. And learn how to edit pictures because most of mine say they are too big when I try to upload them. The only pic that I have small enough to upload is after first putting water in the tank. No plumbing, no fish.
 

Attachments

  • 20211209_134421.jpg
    20211209_134421.jpg
    217 KB · Views: 33
Last edited:
If anybody wants to see a video of the pearl gourami I got here's a link to a video I put on youtube to share with friends. The way they use their feelers freaked me out at first but now I think it's kinda cool.
 
Welcome.

I too have recently (relatively speaking) got into the hobby and have a second hand 125 G tank.

How do you like your sump, I've thought about getting one, partly because I'm an engineer and enjoy such things. I will probably wait till my next tank and have it drilled because I'm not keen on an HOB overflow.
 
Welcome.

I too have recently (relatively speaking) got into the hobby and have a second hand 125 G tank.

How do you like your sump, I've thought about getting one, partly because I'm an engineer and enjoy such things. I will probably wait till my next tank and have it drilled because I'm not keen on an HOB overflow.
I really, really like the sump. I have an engineering demon in me and this project put it in full force. It was actually fun to design the hard plumbing of it, instead of having flex hoses. It uses a 12x14 piece of physical filter that drips into a mass of bio ball suspended in air. I have read online that this is supposed to be an efficient way to grow beneficial bacteria. I have a heater installed in the drain side of the sump, so no heater in the tank. But it seems no matter how low I set the heater the tank water will not go below 80F. I guess it's because half of the pump flows back into the drain side of the sump and gets reheated. My heater was very close to what I had it set to before I did all the plumbing. Now I have the heater set to 67F and the tank remains at 80. I give up and leave it there. The return side from the pump I have teed off by pvc so I can control the amount of flow that goes into the tank. I can also shut off flow to the tank when I feed and do not have to turn my pump off, just shut off the valve going into the tank. I'll upload pictures if I can learn how to lower the filesize so I can upload them. It may just be easier to make a short video to youtube.
 
Welcome.

I too have recently (relatively speaking) got into the hobby and have a second hand 125 G tank.

How do you like your sump, I've thought about getting one, partly because I'm an engineer and enjoy such things. I will probably wait till my next tank and have it drilled because I'm not keen on an HOB overflow.
Here is a pic looking down into the overflow, I believe it's an aqueon overflow after looking at google.
20220110_212041.jpg


And here is the sump

20220110_211000.jpg
20220110_211539.jpg
20220110_211059.jpg
 
Nice pics, matched up with my minds eye that I had of your set-up.
Thanks, It was difficult for me to make the design simple. I have a gift for making things more complicated than they need be. I'm happy how it turned out and it works how I need it to. I wish I had learned about clear pvc primer before I started. The bright purple primer that I used is just to show home inspectors that plumbing for the house was glued together correctly.
 
Thanks, It was difficult for me to make the design simple. I have a gift for making things more complicated than they need be. I'm happy how it turned out and it works how I need it to. I wish I had learned about clear pvc primer before I started. The bright purple primer that I used is just to show home inspectors that plumbing for the house was glued together correctly.
lol - I was going to comment on the purple, but thought better of it.
All you are missing is flow rate sensors and a digital readout, connected to a WiFi server of course.
 
If you had to do it over, would you go with Gate Valves?
Definitely would have gone with gate valves for the drain pipe and the pipe that runs back into the sump (the lower pipe coming from the pump). It takes forever to match the flow rate with the drain rate using ball valves. I would leave a ball valve on the pipe going back into the tank though. I leave that one full open and will turn it full off when I'm feeding the fish.
 
Last edited:
Does the blue tray hold mech filtration, sponge(s)?
The blue tray hold mech filtration. Right now it is holding filter floss, but I'm thinking of switching to a sponge. I think a sponge may be easier to reuse over and over when it needs to be cleaned. There is plenty of room there so I may use both sponge and floss so I can have the floss to use if I want to start a new tank, it should have some beneficial bacteria on it. I don't know why I am thinking of starting a new tank when this one is barely 2 months old. Fishkeeping is a helluva drug.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top