Binning it for the summer!

platytudes said:
There's an article about "summer tubbin'" by Ted Coletti in the June issue of TFH. This is what he has to say:
"...I like to disinfect newly acquired plants in a 48 hour treatment of praziquantel water additive..."
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jetajockey said:
I've had alot of success with fendbendazole though.
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Since both fenbendazole and praziquantel are in dewormers for cats and dogs, is it ok to use dewormer for aquariums/pond tubs?

Also, Rach, how do you set up a tub? Pretty much the same way as with an aquarium? Do you include substrate in yours? How do you cycle the tubs? I've tried googling steps to setting up a pond tub, but so far have only found guidelines for garden tubs, sans fish.
 
No, I do it totally different and this year I did it different then I ever have before. In the past I jsut used sponge filters/powerheads. Since I was doing a low volume of fish (like 6-10 minnows) per 75g or so tub , I just added water, added fish, added plants and that was it. I do not use substrate, and I don't do water changes (unless we have a dry spell and the levels dip).

With this setup, I am not using any conventional filtration at all. I have teh top bin set up as a sort of veggie filter (as I add more and more plants). The water from teh top tub overflows into both bottom tubs. Each of the bottom tubs has a 285gph pump which returns the water to the top tub (they are also tied together with 1.5" bulkheads to help with leveling of hte water and also have overflows at teh top in case of rain storms). The provides more than adequate aeration and the turnover rate is pretty decent (570ghp for about 200g of water) so I don't really worry about the filtration aspect. We also get a fair amoutn of rain here from spring all the way through fall, so evaporation and "water changes" are done for me. Thi smay change with the addition of goldfish, but we will see.

This year, I won't have fish at all in teh top bin, only fast growing marginal, shallow, and floating plants. The bottom "left" bin will raise meteor minnows and the bottom right will have 5 juvenile goldfish (only a couple inches).

I do add large river rocks and chunks of bogwood to anchor plants too, but not substrate as its just plain messy and makes the bins heavy. If I end up really liking this setup, and decide to keep it, I may put some mineralized soil in it to play around with plants more.

As for the dewormer, its safe, I just don't know that its necessary. I am not a fan of prophylactic anything. I would ratehr let them sit in a bucket outside with daily water changes for a few weeks to get rid of pesties than use meds.
 
They are not shaded, but we have a TON of large trees and they are not really full sun either. I would say full sun to partial shading (maybe 3 hours a day is shaded). I encourage green water though as its excelletn food for fry and it also really enhances the colors of the fish. My fish never breed better than when in green water. This year I have planted some large semi-aquatic plants in the top most bin in order to provide a bit of shade. My tubs have never gotten excessively warm.
 
well you would just need to make sure you have plenty of aeration as dissolved oxygen diminshes in warmer temps. Most fish do ok as long as there is enough dissolved oxygen. That is why I did the overflows into the lower bins the way I do, it really creates quite a splash and adds a lot of air to the water.
 
I can take more pictures for you. Its nothing fancy. The total cost was like $150 (including purchasing the tubs off of craigslist a few summers ago). I got the hoses and fittings at Tractor supply, but Lowes or Home Depot has them as well. Then you just need pumps that are rated to pump vertically (they will say on teh package). I think the pumps I got were about $30 each and say they are for 200g each. If one of my pumps fails, the other can easily move enough water to keep things going as it is now. That is also why we tied the two lower bins together.
 
After looking at the pictures I can see the simplicity of it all, my main problem is that I am not in the least handy :) Did you (or Chris) have to drill the holes in the top two tanks or did you buy them that way? My sister is actually a higher up in the rubbermaid commercial company so I can probably get them cheaper through her than even Ebay ;)
 
We drilled the ones that are being used to drain into the two lower bins, as well as the ones that connect the two bins. The top one came drilled and both of the bottom tubs have bulked holes and fittings in addition to those that we added.
 
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