Adventures in Fishkeeping or A Fish Tale

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Apr 2, 2002
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Poret is a superior "synthetic" material. So maybe it is more bleach hardy than the AC or ATI sponges. My normal practice is only to use airstones in H tank and not cycle media. However, the fish was still struggling and I needed to disperse all the filters into tanks. I needed that 40 gal. H tank for the summer project so needed to keep its filters usable. But I also needed to keep the patient safe until it passed or recovered. So I decided to use one of the two spare 4 inch cubes. They were intended to be ready in case i needed to press a 10 or 20 gal into service. I normally have a few small tanks available for emergencies.

If I have to use a filter in H applications I normally use and AC and then throw out the sponge when done. But a 4 inch cube delivered costs about 4 or 5 times an AC sponge. It is worth the difference, imo. When one bleaches the cheaper sponges it causes them to degrade faster than normally. The more bleach and/or the longer the dip, the worse the damage will be. True organic sponges should never be bleached. My hope is the Poret material can hand a bleaching.

I run a few of the H.O.T. Magnums with the micron cartridge and with sponged intakes. They are solely for mechanical filtration. The micron cartridge can be cleaned and reused by putting it into a 25% bleach solution over night. What you tget from that is a brown soupy liquid and, when rinsed, a clean cartridge. When it has been well rinsed and is 100% dry and chlorine free, it is ready to reuse.

I am about to head down to a local stone and gravel yard to get the final components I need for the summer tanks- rounded river rocks (I want flattish) looking for the reds and blues, and flagstone scraps. These are shards that break off and are pretty much like spate. roam the flagstone area searching the ground for larger thinner pieces.

I am hoping to break down the Budrovcan line 236 grow and breeder tanks today and pull fish. I need to grab pictures as well. I have a feeling I will only get to the grow tank. I still have yet to get pics of the new Altums. They are lovely, active and eating like pigs. The one remaining adult I had is also a lot happier to have the company even if it is a bunch of "noisy" kids.
 

jake72

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Why not email swisstropical and ask them if using bleach with poret spong will have any issues ?
 

dudley

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Feb 9, 2005
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How to disinfect the Poret is in the FAQ section FAQ

A quick copy and paste as follows:

Q: how do you disinfect/sterilize Poret® foam?


A: The best solution for disinfection of a fish tank and equipment is still 10% plain chlorine bleach (mix 1 part bleach plus 9 parts water). However, bleach will discolor and destroy the crosslinking in the Poret® foam, so any exposure longer than 10 min (soaking) is not recommended. What works well for disinfection of Poret® foam is simply letting it dry completely (cheap too!). While that does not kill absolutely everything, most fish pathogens will not survive drying.

If drying is not an option, use pool acid (sold as muriatic acid this is 20-30% HCl; hydrochloric acid). Dilute the acid with water to about 5%. Add the acid to the water, NOT the other way around, otherwise it can blow up into your face. So mix 1 part acid into ~5 parts water. You can leave the foam in there for hours. It will also destroy algae and most microorganisms. Note that all these disinfection methods do not distinguish good from bad but simply kill microorganisms and algae non-selectively.
 
Apr 2, 2002
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Ty D dudley

I read that stuff so long ago I had forgotten it. Firtynately after I had dumped in the bleach today I was killing some rime and I checked in here and spotted your reply. I pulled the Poret cube and rinsed it well.

I poured about 2 gals of bleach into the tank having removed water to make room. After 15 minutes I poured in a 16 oz bottle of Amquel. I then pumped out the water and removed the fake plants, rock, large cave, wood and heater. I then pumped in clean water rinsing the sides. I then removed this water using a second small pumps that takes the water out about as low as one can pump.

To remove the sand I put in more clean water and siphoned out the sand. It will be dried out over the summer and then can be reused. I also made a stop at the stone and gravel yard and picked a bunch of river rounds and flagstone scraps for the tanks. I need to clean them tonight.

If all goes well tomorrow, I should get that 40b set bak up with filters. And then I will start pull and photograph fish and get them into the tanks. That terrace will basically be a store- with the Delta variant going wild I need to do any pick up sales out there not inside the house.

And all of this work is because of my buying a proven breeding group of zebra plecos in 2006. This was a major turning point in the course of my fish keeping journey. Back then I hoped I would be lucky enough to get fry and that I could keep them alive if I did. Of course I had to keep the adult fish alive as well or i would be killing a lot of hard earned money.
 
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fishorama

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Well, I believe you have muriatic acid TTA...that seems like your best bet...& maybe drying it out too. Oh, I see you bleached already (darn my slow typing, LOL).

I have a block of fine "poret-type foam" that was given to me. If I had to guess I'd say 30 ppi(?) if that the smallest pore size. What grade/size do you use in diffent applicaions? I'm mostly thinking prefilter or in filter media, not a mattenfilter...probably too fine for a canister layer unless very thin, but maybe in an HOB? Please enlighten me :)
 
Apr 2, 2002
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I do have muriatic. We have one jug for the pool and one jug for fish tank use.Basically most bacteria do not like acid water. What Dr. T suggests will make very acid water:

Since its pH is less than 1.0 (<1.0 pH), muriatic acid is over a million times more acidic than neutral water (7.0 pH). This is one of the reasons why diluting acid is so important. Straight muriatic acid is so aggressive it can easily burn through flesh, metal and concrete. Plastic and glass can contain it, however.
What I had forgotten is I used several scrap pieces of Poret inside the AC 300. The heavily chorinated water with the 16 ounces of Amquel added di run through the filter and then I unlugged it still full of that water. That water sat in the filter for a long time before I found ut and rinsed it all. Neither the cube filter nor the scraps looked discolored. I have the cubefilter in the bathroon and it is still black almost 8 hours later.

I use 10 ppi foam for prefilters or tank dividers only. I mostly use the 20 ppi because it is the best compromise between bio and not clogging too quickly. I use the 10 ppi for fry or shrimp. I have a total of 35 cube filters: 3 at 3x3, 2 at 4x4 and 1 at 5x5 are 30 ppi, the remaining 9 at 5x5 and 20 at 4x4 are all 20 ppi. All of my Mattenfilters and one canister filled with only Poret are all 20 ppi. I also use 20 ppi for tank dividers. As the sponges in my AquaCklear hang-ons go wonky, I replace them with 20 ppi foam.

I rinse ATI sponges weekly, I rinse the cubefilters every 3 - 4 weeks. I only rinse out the Mattens about 4 years, but I do spend about 45 seconds weekly doing a quick siphoning of the front side. I spend 1/3 less time siphoning out the silt behind the foam. The canister also took almost 4 years before it needed to be cleaned. The secret to excellent filtration is that massive quality foam with a flow rate not exceedingly high is the best media set-up for most aquariums.

It is the best comprehensive media solution there is I have found in terms of promoting some degree of denitrification without requiring a separate unit. It is also great at mechanical filtration because most of the solid waste in a tank is organic and can be handled, to a decent extent, biologically.

I will confess that my original reason for starting to use the Poret was because it reduced the amount of work needed to keep tanks clean and running smoothly. I got old and do not have a fish room or any form of central anything. The best I have managed to do is run three groupings of tanks using a central air pump (1 pump per group).

I have spent a ton of time researching the bacteria and the nitrigen cycle. I have read a lot on filtration principles and how things work in nature. I have discussed these things with several PhD. level experts. This is why I now use so much Poret. I also know the best form of filtration is a planted substrate. However, some tanks cannot have this. The next best option then becomes massive amount of rigid, porosity controlled foam with a variety of pore size options.

I have a canister on the shelf and an unrealized but purchased sump system. Both of these were designed to use Poret. The 3 basket canister was to have the first basket in the flow filled with 10 ppi and the next 2 with 20 ppi. The sump was to have 4 sheets of Poret spaced about 2 inches appart in flow order 10->20->20->30 ppi.
 
Apr 2, 2002
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ARGHHH-

I pulled apart the Budrovcan 236 grow tank. I had three males caved and at least two are actively spawning as far as i can tell. I pulled them to the hang on traps what circulated tank water. There are 4 to 5 fry (1/2 inch) in with each one.

There are 23 fish all in the range of 2.25 to almost 3 inches (including the 3 caved males). the problem is trying to figure out the sex of the other 20 fish. One thing I have learned about the 236 is that they will begin spawning fairly soon compared to zebras 173s and most other plecos I have kept. the 236 will start to spawn in under 2 years and at under 3 inches TL. They will ultimately grow to 4.5 -5 inches.

The problem is that the fry prove at least two fish of the 23 are spawning. It is more likely that 3 to 5 fish are involved. And that is where the ARGHHH comes in. I need to sex the 20 fish in order to make a reasonable determination which are likely two females spawning or spawnable. I need to create a proven group and then at least two more mixed sex groups that should spawn in the not too distant future.

I did my best to sort them by sex. I have to confess I am awful at sexing my fish for the most part. I can do it better from behavior than appearance. My solution has always been to work with groups. By starting with at least 7 fish and as many as 15, I am almost always certain to get at least one of each sex. I am also better at sexing them when they are mature.

I must have spent two hours trying to sort them by sex. I would expect to get close to an even split of the sexes over time with multiple spawns. However, I got 9 fm, and 14 m assuming I got them right which I doubt. I put them into two buckets and shot a bunch of pics from above. I will post them on Planetctfish.

I divided their tank and put the males on one side and the females on the other, the fry and the three caved males are in their own hang-on traps.

I did not get to the breeding tank which has a bunch of recent fry plus an assortment of offspring of varying sizes. So not one terrace tank had any fish in it yet. Hopefully tomorrow this changes.
 

fishorama

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Thanks TTA. I think at 1 time I had a fine sponge as the top layer in a canister & maybe &/or a batting layer that came with them. I don't believe I'm using either in my only can I'm using these days but I'm not opening it just to see, lol. My ATI prefilters are dying (stretched out I think) & I can't find them any more...

When you say chunks of Poret do you mean small pieces as just a loose layer & not a continuous sheet or block? Is bypass an issue?

Sorry to derail your thread.. I'm getting ready to clean 1 of my ACs. I probably will not play with the foam slab today, too close to dinner & I don't know exactly where it is :oops:

Oh, I see you were posting again...

Gee, we should all have your trouble sexing young rare plecos that breed small, lol. Man, it's almost August...summer's running out in NY...only mid 90s here.

Will you please link me to your pics when you've posted them on PC or at least say when you do? & I'm still waiting for young new altum pics too...nag, nag

Well, now I've lost my filter cleaning motivation, maybe with some husband DJ help...Kinks & Grace Slick...so far...good thing dinner is easy!
 
Apr 2, 2002
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F fishorama
Here you go https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50190#p330816

I have little time as you noted. I cannot wait for a lot of replies on PC. I will probably have to alter my plans. If you read the thread on PC you will see what i am thinking.

When it comes to entertainment during tank work, fortunately, I am a Yankee fan and can listen to games on the radio in some places with tanks and on TV in others. Unfortunately, I am a Yankee fan and the games this year have been pure torture. Even worse, I am a Washington Football team fan as well- sigh.

What I need are two fish assistants, a basement fishroom (we have no basement) and about 10 more tanks- I have nightmares about this.

After having nothing to do with Aquabid for a very long time I just emailed them. I forgot my password and have changed my email provider twice since I was last on the site. In the past I only bought via AB, now I have to sell. I need to figure out shipping since I used to use the USPS and that has basically become a death sentnece for fish shipped under the DeJoy run postal system.
 
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