The first two in the Aquarium Set-Up series is now posted on http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com in the Aquarium FAQ area. The first two subjects include when to add live plants in a new installation and the impotance of the aquarium stand for the aquarim installation.

We just posted two video tips on the correct way to feed tropical fish. This has been posted on the Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks website. The site hosts both the video tip as well as the transcript of the tip as well.

Feeding Fish – Feeding Tip 1

How do I Feed Fish – Feeding Tip 2

I apologize for not keeping this blog as current as it really should be. It is not because I have abandoned the beginning aquarist, on the contrary, I have been busy building the content for my flagship website, http://www-freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com. I realize that most people believe that the WordPress blog is the way to go, and it is, if all that is being developed is a blog on a lot of topics that can stand on their own.

But for the past few months I have been developing a fully integrated massive website to deliver the aquatic information you need, all in one place, It is easily navigable by topic, nd you have the ability and hopefully yhe energy to giveme feedback in quite a nuberof places. We sure would like your input as to what is good and what needs to be fixed.

Take a look at it, I have just added three new pages of the response I gave to previously asked questions from people who had unique problems. I will continue to poll the questons asked from this blog, and promise to answer them when they arrive. But, I wanted everyone to know I also have a much better system over at the main website. It asks a bit more information on the tank you are worried about, and as such gives me a much better chance of giving the best possible answer the first time.

In addition, the first 11 video tips were posted a while ago. These FAQ syle videos that were developed on the various important aspects of water in the new aquarium and the changes that can occur over time as the aquarium matures. They are held on the Blueram86 Youtube channel as well as the part of the set-up series of videos found on the BlueRam Groups video channel:

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com,

Thiosis a dedicated video site for all aquarists and the place to view a categorized collection of aquarium related videos from all public sources in a single place. You don’t have to look all over the web or even search YouTube for your preffered topic in video, they are concentrated on the pages of the Tropical Fish Aquarium Videos site.

But we are far from through. True, there are eleven water tips there, now, but the series has been outlined to offer more than 80 short videos when the we are finally finished with the set as a complete project. We encourage you to join our Facebook Page or subscribe to the YouTube channel so you are the first to know when the next set of videos arrives. They are written and will be posted in the next coming days and weeks.

I have been working hard at getting the right graphics for the various sites I update for fish. The problem has always been that the ambient noise is always captured rather than being able to get a nice sound track. But, with my newest video camera I was able to find a program that replaces the audio track from a .mts file and exports the results as an .avi file.

From there is is a snap to get the format changes to a .flv file for uploading to the web, my original video site – http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com and even to YouTube as well.

Here it is for viewing directly from the video site:

Enjoy some video of the king of “freshwater fish” – Symphysodon sp the discus

I have been building a few sites recently, all have to do with my dearest passion, keeping fish alive. This blog is designed to provide a place to discuss the various changes I am making to those sites, as well as promote information to the new aquarist who needs help getting their new tank set up correctly and running without problems.

When I first decided to tackle this problem , a couple of years ago, I took a vacation and made a series of videos to show how I set up my small community tank. Unfortunately, until I found the system that is providing all the tools I need to get my main site up and running, SBI, I was unable to efficiently get those videos up and available for the people who need them.

Well, I am happy to say that I have been able to format them into flash (flv) and mount them on my video site:

TropicalFishAquariumVideos

The series includes 30 videos on the topics important to the new fish keeper interested in installing an aquarium system for the first time.  You can see these videos under the Aquarium Set Up category and in the group Beginner’s Tips.  Just the videos are there. But, if you want some written explanation of the steps that are needed, you can follow the written and embedded videos on my flagship site:

Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks

The process is broken into a series of steps and I have entered the appropriate videos where they are required in the actual step where it is most relevant.  For the serious hobbyist, this would be the best way to understand what is happening and what to expect as the tank matures.  This is by far the most complete site and offers a small listing of freshwater tropical fish species with photo and description.  The fish list wil be growing over time, and as the species are added, I will report them here.

For those of you who want to discuss your experiences with the fish you are keeping and breeding, there is a contact form attached to every fish species.  We welcome you comments and stories about the fish you have kept.  You can add up to four of your own pictures to the area, so everyone can benefit from our shared knowledge.

Besides these two sites, there is a third site that is designed to offer social support for aquarists of all levels.  <a href=”http://www.tropicalfishaquarist.net”>TropicaFishAquarist.ne</a>t offers the ability to form networks and communities of like minded enthusiasts.

Between the three approaches to your fish tending needs, we hope that we can help everyone understand their fish and their unique needs. If we do our job right, far fewer fish will die and the strength of the hobby will build to levels of success never before seen.

I have been very busy building a new aquarium information site, and the amount of information there is massive.  Over 100 pages of content, and I haven’t even begin to add the graphics to liven up the site.  For the past few days I have been updating and enlarging my glossary for the:
Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks Glossary Page

I know that sounds really dry and not exciting, but if you ever come across a term that you don’t know, or needs to find, try the glossary page, it should have what you need. If it doesn’t, you can always ask me to find it for you in the comments, or at the Facebook  Page for the Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-For-Novice-Aquarists page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?sk=app_112493455447504#!/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?sk=wall

Looking forward to hearing form you.
Steve Pond

I know, it has been a while since I posted anything to this blog.  It is not like I have been ignoring the aquarist’s interests, far from it.  I found a great  website development system that has had me working every day in generating brand new fresh content. I never have used other people’s words to start with, but so far I have over 100 pages of newly written content at the site:

http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com

It is directed to the beginning aquarist and has loads of information on the proper set-up and installation of the equipment.  These are headings such as Set up, Equipment, Care, Water, Tropical Fish, Problems, Glossary and Resources.   It is a big site, and wil get much bigger as time goes by.  I love working on it, it is clean and easy to manage.  The block by block construction is pure dynamite.   I can’t say enough about the system. Click the link and have a look for yourself.  Only wish that I had found this site with all its web building tools when I decided to offer my knowledge online.  I would never have wasted the two years and many thousands of dollars  looking for the right methodology to get my message across.

The other project I have been working on is:

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com

We all know that a picture is worth a 1000 words, so what is a video worth. I took some time and went through the videos on the web and organized the best into a coherent structure. Whether you want to look at some of the information on new styles of filtration, or just wonder what the actual habitat may be for some native South American Tetras, the whole range of aquarium interests is offered for free on the site.  It may sound like Youtube, and in a way it is, except the content is devoted exclusively to aquarium keepers. You can even mount your own videos up there as well to give us all a good look at what you are doing.

If you want, visit my Facebook fanpage and give me a like. This post should be automatically posted there and its is a good way to be notified when I add new content. The next planned set is a large bunch of FAQ style answers on all types of beginner aquarium topics

I know, it has been quite a while since last I wrote.In the meantime, I have written a long series of Aquarium tips for beginning aquarists who need some basic information on their new tanks. I am also going to do each as a video and put it up on the video site for aquarium videos as well.

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com

If you prefer to see these entries on your Facebook account, I have set the RSS feed to update my Page there for Tropical Fish Aquarist enthusiasts.

Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquariums for Novice Aquarists

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?v=app_112493455447504

Sure would like to have a lot more friends who enjoy the aquarium hobby. Take a look at the above Facebook page and the resources offered there. If you Like the pages, please give me your vote of confidence.

The Fluval-G 3 filter was installed on a Tropiquarium 88 that has been installed and operating for well over a year. It is holding a variety of Lake Malawi African Cichlids that have been in the tank since it was started in December of 2008.  The tank has dual filtration, an AquaClear Clip on filter with a Fluval 105 canister for filtration, a Fluval E 200 W and the double standard Linear Fluorescent lighting that is integrated into the Tropiquarium 88′s.

The plan was to move the Fluval 105 from the Tropiquarium to my medium sized Elite 60 community tank and use it to replace the Elite Hush 20 that came with the set-up when it was purchased.  This way, two important aquariums in the set will be updated simultaneously.  In the first part of this two part series, I talked about some of the benefits of the Fluval-G filters.  They are the reduced bypass of the water flow, the powerful chemical compartment that will accept almost any chemical media besides the Carbon, Phosphate, Nitrate and Tri-Ex media prepacked containers.    The most apparent advantage is the Hydrotech monitoring system that provides vital information about the  current state of both the aquarium and the filter.

The Fluval-G series can be installed quite rapidly, and it requires no tools to do it.  The filter comes with everything required for a standard freshwater tropical fish aquarium.  There are other cartridges use for saltwater, but the media that is supplied was just fine for the African Cichlid tank.    The polyester pleated mechanical first cartridge with the carbon chemical cartridge.  The biological filter media is provided in two sizes, this has been found to pack better in the trays for increased biological filter activity.

Fluval-G Package Contents

The first thing to do is open the cartridge cover to remove the two cartridges from their receptacle.

Fluval-G Remove Chemical Cartridge

Fluval-G Cartridge Particulate Support

Then I removed the motor head from the filter to reveal the plastic biological filter partition to allow access the biological filter baskets under the cartridges.

Fluval-G Biological Area with Baskets

The Chemical Cartridge needed to be removed from the assembly, the plastic packing material removed and the carbon rinsed of debris.  The Biological nodes also need to be rinsed of any shipping debris and half added to each basket, with a good mix of the large and small ones to make sure the system is efficient in offering places for beneficial bacterial to grow and thrive.

Fluval-G Biological Filter Media in Baskets

The filled baskets are put back into their filter area.

Fluval-G Baskets in Filter

Once the baskets have been replaced into the lower parts of the filter and the cartridge separator is replaced into the filter chamber, the silicone gasket needs to be put into place.  This is an important seal to ensure there are no leaks into the filter case.  It is very large and easy to place into the provided channel.

After the gasket is put into place., replace the motor cover and use the four Zama latches to secure it in place.  Then its time to replace the two cartridges. Insertion and removal is very easy, the cartridges can only be put into the sytem one way to prevent any problems, there is a notch at the top right of the Mechanical and top left of the Chemical cartridges, these notches face each other at the junction between the two units.

The cartridge is inserted into the cartridge holder and turned clockwise about an eight turn to lock it

in place.  The cartridge cover is put back in its down position and the unit is ready to be installed with the AquaStop and the hose system.

All hoses are held with a hose clamp that is twisted to hand tight, no hose clamp or tools required for the seal to be solid.  I inserted the hose into the input siphon and the output system – selecting the double diffuser rather than the spray bar systems, there is enough surface agitation with the AquaClear, so I opted to not to use the spray system and its possible added evaporation capacity.  The diffuser is surprisingly adjustable, so there still ius lots of current at the top to properly agitate the surface and exhaust carbon dioxide and adsorb oxygen at the interface.

Fluval-G Canister Lock

The AquaStop system on the filter is an effective way to allow disconnection of the hose system and maintain the filter from a distant location.  There are two levers on the filter that control the water, the silver lever controls water flow, it can adjust the water flow to a lesser amount for normal filter operation, but remember the filter will start alerting for low flow when the water processing is working at 30% or less.  I have always wanted to move as much water as the filter will pump, so this is never a consideration for me.

Once the silver flow control is in the full up or off position, the AquaStop lever parallel to the AquaStop must be lifted to release and seal it.  The attached hoses to the water delivery system need to be measured to the AquaStop in position on the filter to ensure the route is as straight as possible.  It is at this time that the final location of the filter is finalized, once the filter is in place, the hoses can be cut to proper length.  Extra length should be removed, kinks and dips are not the best installation.  Once all extra is cut, in my case, about a foot for each hose was removed, the system is pretty much ready to run.

Fluval-G Start Button

The filter is started by a few vigorous pumps on the push button on the top of the Mechanical cartridge.  The filter started right away and I plugged it in as the filter was filling. This is a trick I always use to start the 05 series of Fluval Canister systems to prevent any airlocks should the canister fill before the impeller is turning and forcing water from the system rather than allowing air to go backwards up the intake tube and airlock it.

Fluval-G Installed

Once the filter is plugged into to power, the electronics initialize, the only real decision needed is to define the language used in the screens, there are a number of choices, I only use English.  The system then will provide any alerts.  I found that the temperature of the tank was not as high as I had thought, and adjusted the heater slightly to maintain the temperature around 78 F.  It took a few hours to settle, but that alert soon stopped. The alert for conductivity was not so accommodating.  The recommended EC from the official Fluval Site is 200 – 500, the actual EC was over 1500, so I have a lot of work to get it in order…….

Fluval-G Alert - Conductivity

The new Fluval-G filter is making quite a hit with the advanced aquarist on a number of levels. The filter is one of the most technologically sophisticated filters I have ever seen (and I started looking and using filters when the inside air driven box filter was just about the only filter that was available!). With the steep pricepoint, well into a few hundred dollars, this is not the filter most beginners would even begin to consider, but intermediate and advanced aquarists who are looking for an edge in keeping their fish alive, and who want to have some casual recordkeeping done for them as time goes by will find this filter one of the most appealing.  I am including this topic in the Novice Aquarist because even though this filter is one of the most advanced systems presently available for the aquarist on a mass produced basis, many of the features would be expected to work their way into less expensive offerings in the future.

The Fluval-G filters come in two sizes, The smaller, the G3 is designed to filter aquariums up to 80 gallons (300 L) while the G6 is engineered to handle tanks as big as 160 U.S. Gallons (600 L). Other important specifications show that the G3 will process 185 U.S. Gallons (700 L) an hour. The G6 will run 265 U.S. Gallons (1000 L) every hour through its highly customizable media chamber.

But I am not here to simply provide all the information that can be found on the official Fluval-G website Fluval-G.com, I am here to report on the actual installation I did with a Fluval-G used to replace a Fluval 105 filter on my Tropiquarium 88 – about 30 gallons of water, so it si much smaller than the recommended maximum.

I am used to filters like the Fluval Canister systems, starting with the original Fluval series all the way to the most recent versions, the 05 series. These leading edge canister filters have slowly evolved over time to move from a unit where all the filtration media was contained exclusively in the media stack; cleaning and purifying the water as it is pulled from bottom to top to be pumped back to the aquarium. This “single media stack” configuration was used up to the Fluval 403 (and the smaller models). The following generations, Fluval 404 and 405 changed the canister flow to force water through a foam frame straining the water of particulate matter before the active media stack is encountered. This captures gross particulate matter before it can enter the actual media stack.

The Fluval-G takes this concept one step further, replacing the foam screen frames with a much tighter controlled and managed water flow through the mechanical filtration cartridge. This is a pleated pre-filter cartridge which is designed to trap and hold a greater amount of debris and particles than the tradition foam inserts previously used. Although I am sure the actual usable period of the cartridge will not be able to match the actual foam pads for lifespan. The trade off advantage is to ensure minimal bypass of any particulate material and very little debris passing through the screen to contaminate and prematurely fill the rest of the filtration stages.

Since I am using this filter for African Cichlids, I have no problem with using the supplied standard weave cartridge. For those considering the filter for their salt water installations, there is a 75 micron screen cartridge available for those applications. In particularly dirty aquariums these 75 µm cartridges can be used for polishing the water to remove as much waste as possible before it can be solubilised and pollute the general habitat.

That seems tp be the main thrust of the filter’s design, prevent the problems before they happen, whether by eliminating more waste or notifying the aquarist when conditions are changing.

The water delivered to the remaining stages of filtration is clean and particulate free, allowing even delicate resins that can be filled easily wityh waste to be used in the second stage, the chemical cartridge. Folloing along the strength of the Fluval canister lines, the chemical cartrige area can be filled with any media that is required to perform a specific task in the aquarium. The cartridge accepts bulk media, so the actual choice is up to the indivual application and requirements.

I am not keeping plants in my African tank, so I simply used the supplied cartridge which was filled with carbon granules. The carbon will help remove any dyes or discolorants, and “polish” the water to crystal clear. The choice of cartridge is not so clear for aquarists who are trying to grow plants. Carbon will adsorb many micro-nutrients that plants require. If you are keeping plants in the tank consider an alternative cartridge, possibly the phosphate remover to reduce the chances of an algae bloom, or a nitrate absorber to keep the level of nitrate from continuing to concentrate after the aquarium has matured.

The filter comes with everything needed to get it installed.  The filtermedia is supplied as well as all the equipment needed to get it up and running.  What is even nicer, there are no tools required to put the system together, the system is desonged for easy and rapid maintenance and to provide as much information about the aquarium as possible.