My Aquarium

[monty]

We finally managed to get our big aquarium finished!

I'll post some general and technical info along with the pictures...

It's located in the pub of our resort.

Here you see how it looks like from inside the pub. Two big windows of 1.7m wide by 90 cm high.

A look behind the scenes.

In the top left corner you see all the lighting transformers above the electrical breaker box. On the right you see a small tank. This is an overflow tank, so we can continuously inject fresh water without the main tank overflowing. The reason we do this is to keep the nitrite and nitrate levels low, so the fish stays happy. We insert around 700 liters of fresh water a day.

The horizontal black tube under the overflow tank is a UV radiator. In there the water gets bombarded with UV-C light, which kills off algae, bacteria and pretty much all disease causing pollutants.

In the front there's the two sand filters. Basically the same principle as a swimmingpool filter. Takes out all floating matter so the water stays crystal clear.

This is the pump turning over all the water. Swimmingpool pump, strong and reliable, combined with high flowrate.

Because of all the fish living in there and all the plants we ideally need a turnover of between 1.5 and 2 times per hour. Meaning in our case we need to pump around between 5000 and 7000 liters of water per hour!

Hence the big pump!

This big flow has to be divided over the two filters we have, so here you can see the valves with the water meters between them. Using a watch and the water meters we can accurately set the water flow through each filter.

In the top left you see the air pump. Industrial model as used in aquarium shops. Silent, reliable and high airflow. This pump runs of a UPS (uninteruptable power supply). Where it would not be a big problem if the filter pump would stop during a power failure, the loss of the airpump would result in the fish starting to die in less then 30 minutes! The used UPS is modified so it can give back-up power for up to 8 hours.

The water meter you see below is where the fresh water we inject comes through. Again, watch and meter allows us to accurately set the amount we ill each day. Water again get's disinfected with a UV-C radiator...

Airconditioning. The lighting (about 1 KW of neonlight) generates so much heat it starts to warm up the water. These tropical fish are very sensitive to the water temperature, hence the aircon. We have ordered a specially designed device to be able to directly cool the water, which will be much more energy efficient!

60 fish eat a lot, so we built this little stair to have easy access for the feeding!

[sbk]

All I can say is "Wow"!

glad I am not the one who gets to clean the tank

[monty]

Because of the good filtration system the tank is almost maintenance free!

The only job needing done is vacuuming the stones on the bottom (much like you vacuum a swimming pool), which is a 10 minute job, done twice a week...

[Tywais]

Remarkable setup monty. Guess I won't let the wife see it and try to get me to replace our two small aquariums. We also have an outdoor concrete fish pond but something happened a few years ago with algae attacks and have not been able to get it back to it's prestine condition. Clean it out throughly, re-fill and within a month green again. Was thinking of building a UV-C system for it but didn't know where to get the tubes. Where did you get your UV-C setup?

I suspect water runoff from the yard is dumping nitrates into the pond so difficult to keep up. Originally had a heavy covering of lily pads and that worked very well until I removed them (they appeared to be dying). Later replaced with new ones but apparantely too late. Now the pond is empty and dried up due to cracks in the concrete. Apparantely built with no liner.

[bkkmadness]

Well done with the tank Monty.

Nice to see Discus being kept in a large group as they should be. No tetras or anything in there. Whats the fish list?

Is the freshwater you are pumping in low on nitrates? The UK tap water could have a nightmare nitrate level and we always used RO water for the discus. Though I guess the discus you bought have been kept and bred here so much they are probably a bit more nitrate tolerant.

Edited January 20, 2007 by bkkmadness

[monty]

The UV-C setup would have certainly cleared out the water.

I ordered ours in Bangkok, big importer for all stuff used in ponds/aquariums.

Transferred the money to their account and picked the package up 4 hours later at the busstation

The model I have (36 watt Phillips bulb) costs a little over 10,000 Baht, on par with what they cost in the West...

The nitrates you can get under control by putting bacteria in the pond. They breed them here in Thailand so not expensive...

Sure took us a lot of research before we kind of knew how to set it up. Not many big aquarium designers in Thailand...

[bkkmadness]

Remarkable setup monty. Guess I won't let the wife see it and try to get me to replace our two small aquariums. We also have an outdoor concrete fish pond but something happened a few years ago with algae attacks and have not been able to get it back to it's prestine condition. Clean it out throughly, re-fill and within a month green again. Was thinking of building a UV-C system for it but didn't know where to get the tubes. Where did you get your UV-C setup?

Putting in a lot of fast growing plants that will remove nitrates from your water far faster than the algae and when the balance is right the algae will be starved out. Don't ever totally empty and refill the pond, you ruin any balance you have in there and it's stressful for the fish. Besides you end up chucking a load more nitrate from the tap water in there anyway so you are just setting up it again perfectly for new algae blooms.

UV lighting can be very successful (only against 'green water' though) if you have the right size for the pond, but I would always go for the natural method first.

[bkkmadness]

Where it would not be a big problem if the filter pump would stop during a power failure, the loss of the airpump would result in the fish starting to die in less then 30 minutes!

If I remember right if the filter stops for more than 4 hours the bacteria in the biological part of it starts to die off which is bad news. The air pump is always good to have, but if the filter is set up so the returning water oxygenates the aquarium then you could switch that air pump off with no problem. I never use air pumps in any of my aquariums because I don't really like the air bubbles but always have one spare.

[Tywais]

If I remember right if the filter stops for more than 4 hours the bacteria in the biological part of it starts to die off which is bad news. The air pump is always good to have, but if the filter is set up so the returning water oxygenates the aquarium then you could switch that air pump off with no problem. I never use air pumps in any of my aquariums because I don't really like the air bubbles but always have one spare.

How do you oxygenate your water? Just spray (aspirate) the returning water into the tank. Was thinking of setting up a spray fountain in the outside pond (if I can get it fixed) to help oxygenate it.

[bkkmadness]

All you have to do to oxygenate the water is to create water movement, preferably at the surface of the tank. For the one tank I have now I just have a powerhead moving the water at the top of the tank and that's it. The return from your pump/filter should be more than enough as long to keep the water oxygenated without the air pump being necessary.

For a pond you can either set up a fountain, have the water returning pouring straight into the pond from a filter will be fine, or if the water is being pumped into the pond below the water surface add a venturi system to the outflow which'll give you the bubbles effect as well.

[monty]

The fresh water comes from a deep well, with absolutely no nitrates in it. PH is at a perfect 6.5 for the discuss.

The water flow through the filter can be stopped for 3 hours without much negative effect for the resident bacteria. Luckily the power cuts never last that long.

Only discuss in there, apart form a few Plecostomus to keep the windows clean (and a remarkable job they do )

[bkkmadness]

Thats perfect for the discus then, having access to nitrate free water with the PH already set is a great bonus.

You must be tempted to chuck in a big shoal of a couple of hundred tetras? You know it makes sense!

[Thug]

Monty very nice, where is your resort, Pattaya?

[monty]

Lake Mabprachan Resort...

Click on the banner on top of the Pattaya forum!

We're not in the city, but about 12 km's inland.

[Jet Gorgon]

Fantastic, Monty! Much applause!

[Jamie]

What is the temp of the water coming out of your deep well?

[Khutan]

Monty;

Just brilliant. Obviously there is a lot of thought gone into the design. Great result.

[Galong]

Holy Cow Monty! What a great concept... drink a beer and watch fish.

That must have been expensive to set up. Which fish species do you have in there? Can you give us a photo showing the fish closer up please?

Cheers

[bob4you]

I have been to the resort, it is high quality all around. We ate dinner on patio and did not go into bar area but will next time. If you are in Pattaya it is well worth a visit if you have transport to get there.

[monty]

[monty]

What is the temp of the water coming out of your deep well?

This is a bit of a problem!

The water from the deep well fills up a storage tank, from where it then gets pumped on the main piping system which runs under the roof.

Hence during the night the water is cool, but during the day it is warm.

The tank tends to get too warm, the discus prefer water of around 32 degrees, or a bit warmer for breeding. Anything over 34 and they get uncomfortable!

That's why we ordered a cooling system for the water.

There's also a heater inside if the water gets to cool in the cool season, but up till now it hasn't been needed yet...

[DragonQuest]

how much?

[monty]

Tank and installation around 300,000 Baht

Glass was expensive, it has to be 2cm thick toughened glass, special order in Bangkok glass factory, was already 100,000...

[Lite Beer]

I used to keep Discus in the UK, but nothing on that scale. Amazing. Lovely fish.

Have you bred many?

One of my reasons for posting was to keep this at the top of the pile as I think everyone should have a look.