PICS! aquabee's 8 gallon planted nano

[R_sustaita]

Thank you! I almost sold it in the first few months of having it because it got so frustrating, but I'm glad I held off! :)

Wasnt this thanknthe one you offered me?

[aquabee]

Wasnt this thanknthe one you offered me?

No way. The one I'm going to post for sale soon is the 3 gallon Marineland LED betta tank with the burnt orange and purple betta in it. That's the one I had sent you pics of.

[R_sustaita]

I want that betta i have never seen one with those colors, but i dont know if it will be a good fit to my tank.

[aquabee]

This morning around 4:45 as I was getting ready for work, I watched one of my ruby tetras just SAIL effortlessly out of the tiniest opening in the top of the tank and flop around in the kitchen sink. Ridiculous! Not even my shrimp or kuhli have tried to get out of there!

Was wondering if I could get your thoughts on something. My CO2 canister seems to be leaking somewhere because I barely have it going at one bubble per second and almost a quarter of the canister seems to empty itself within 8-9 hours. This has been going on for several days, even though I've had this canister since mid-December. And before I put on that new canister a month ago, I had come home one day to find a half-full canister completely empty. I submerged the entire system last night, including the regulator and bubble counter and all the tubing, and I don't see any leaks. Any idea of how to find out what the problem is?

[R_sustaita]

i would love to help but i know nothing about CO2, i know alot of co2 when it comes to paintball

[Totenkampf]

All u need to know about co2 in paintball is to ditch it and run high pressure n2 lol.

[R_sustaita]

Lol im ok with co2 it takes skills not pressure

[fishman1]

Try closing everything and then submerging the whole tank into a tub so it is completely submereged if that doesn't work maybe the diffuser's holes are too small and try to test it it would pump more co2 into an airstone. That's all I can think of.

[R_sustaita]

I can suggest to use a double oring on each hose or connection. Sometimes the orings get bitten when put into place so a double ring will get a tighter seal and leak proof.

[Totenkampf]

now to add something helpful and not paintball related. i dont know exactly what kind of setup you are using but if it is dumping then the leak is likely prior to the needle valve and after the cylinder. when dipping the assembly, make sure you have the regulator open some but have the needle valve closed and take care that you dont put too much pressure there if you have a bubble counter inline since that can pop. another option is to mix some liquid dsihwashing soap like palmolive in with some water and pour that over all the connections, bubbles will then form at the leak points. the smaller the bubble the smaller the leak. make sure that you dont squirt it through a squirt bottle since that will make bubbles from the squirting process. if still no leaks then your seals are probably tight and something internal to your regulator is failing. sometimes if an internal seal is failing there will come a point when the pressure in the CO2 bottle reaches a certain low point and there will not be enough pressure to hold the seal in place. the remaining CO2 will then 'burp' out past the weakened seal and out into the tank. some regualtors also have a relief vent whole that relieves pressure in the back side of the regulator when you are decreasing pressure so make sure to put some soap water on any small weep holes that you see around the knob area. you should also check the oring or seal between the cylinder and the CGA fitting. two orings will work in a pinch but that it not really safe. they do wear out so pull the old one, clean any debris from the two mating surfaces, and reinstall a good quality teflon seal. teflon wears less than rubber orings and are self lubricating. you should also inspect the mating surface on the CGA adapter, the part at the end looks like a smoothe metal half ball. this is a seal and if it is nicked you will have a leak path. i feel that it is likely your regulator though and many of the hobbyist level ones are not rebuildable.

[Totenkampf]

now for paintball related. all the skill in the world wont help when you if your co2 cylinder runs dry in a game or you get tossed cuz the cylinder warms up and you are shooting hot lol. i used to be able to shoot about two cases of paint through my bob long low pressure autococker on one fill

[R_sustaita]

I guess we shall see on a little match. I have a 20oz tank and would last me about a case but it would never get hot. It would get to cold when playing speedball.

[aquabee]

Sooooo... update time.

Due to a rookie mistake and a bottle of bad medicine, I pretty much lost about 20-something fish in my nano. Had to leave the lights off for about 2-3 weeks and salt heavily, which killed most of my plants. Good news though! My yellow shrimp and their shrimplets seem to have made it through, as have the assassins and nerites. I have about 5 CPDs and 3 chilis left too.

I've been toying around with the idea of starting up a dwarf/pea puffer tank but haven't been sold on it really. I'd like to keep my shrimp too. Any ideas of what I should do with this tank next? I have some sprigs of bronze crypts, wisteria, and anubias nanas petite left, and I've restarted the CO2 and ferts after doing a massive water change to remove salt and adding carbon to remove any traces of the bad meds. I'd like to not do chilis or CPDs since I've already done those and they're a little shy for my taste.

Thoughts?

[eklikewhoa]

Update that does not include pictures is just a waste of bandwidth.

[aquabee]

Update that does not include pictures is just a waste of bandwidth.

****. But you wanna see a pic of the remaining crappola? Fine. Hang on a sec and I'll put up a sad, sad picture.