Project: Fish n Chips

Waynerrr said:
I understand what you are saying but I have spoken to several people in this store. One guy did show some concerns about the size but didn't abject to keeping a small number of hardier fish, but would prefer I kept snails and shrimp etc. Three other guys (including the store owner) do not have any concerns and are also fish keepers themselves, not just regular sales staff. They have given me other sound advise, e.g. not keeping a Betta male with the guppies as he'll most likely kill them because of the flared tail fins.

The store in question is also one of the biggest in Europe, not a small pet shop. http://www.thegoldfishbowl.co.uk/index.php?pg=149


Stocking density calculator from Practical Fishkeeping website
We would recommend keeping up to 2"/5cm of small to medium-sized fish in your system. However, this requires care and thought for the type of fish being stocked.
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It's not just the size of the tank that concerns me. It's the enviroment. Everytime that pc is on the temperature in the tank will rise. When you turn the pc off the temp will gradually fall. There is no way to control the temperature or stop it reaching critical levels. I have three tanks myself, the smallest being 60Lt and the other two are 220 and 190Lts. On a hot summer day the temperature rises in even the two big tanks. Think what it's going to be like with a tank only holding 6Lt in a pc. If you were to post this on any of the fishkeeping forums people would be horrified. PFK itself launched a campaign a couple of years ago to stop the sale of 4-6Lt tanks as they are too small.
 
I'm not going to use the computer, I will continue to use my laptop. Also, I am returning the guppies tomorrow afternoon and getting some white clouds and shrimp.
 
I'm not sure the temperature rise or sudden changes will be as big a problem as you think pasty - it may have air at 30C or what-have-you one side, but it also has air at room temp (20c ish) the other side, the water will be well circulated, and Guppies can live between 18C and 28C. Water may be used in watercooling, but in watercooling copper is used to transfer the heat to it. Copper has a thermal conductivity 400x that of glass, and he's using 5mm thick glass - I expect any temperature changes will be small and slow.

The tank's still a bit small though...
 
Waynerrr said:
I'm not going to use the computer, I will continue to use my laptop. Also, I am returning the guppies tomorrow afternoon and getting some white clouds and shrimp.
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Watch out for the shrimp, they can be a bit nippy - I had one who had a nasty habit of sitting on bogwood and waiting for neons to swim past. He'd grab them with one pincer and nip their fins wih the other. :(
 
Monkey Puzzle said:
Watch out for the shrimp, they can be a bit nippy - I had one who had a nasty habit of sitting on bogwood and waiting for neons to swim past. He'd grab them with one pincer and nip their fins wih the other. :(
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Sounds cool - nature at work ;) They're only the little ones. I would love some of the bigger ones, dancing or cleaning shrimp for example but again the tank size is an issue. Apparently guppies don't notice when they're getting eaten... Careless.
 
Matutu said:
Tank cycling pffft complete myth......... never needed.

Congratz on the project mate, i would put some black/purple mollies in there though as they are so incredibally hardy that they could accept the temperature variations.
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nvm.
I should have gone to spec savers.:D
 
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arc@css said:
My apologies if I have read this incorrectly but you should always cycle a tank. If you don't it can be very cruel since high levels (or any level in fact) of nitrite (not necessarily nitrate) can and will damage / kill the fish.
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I'm fairly sure Matutu was taking the p... ;) But you're right, always needs doing. When I replace the fish this week I will be cycling the water again.

Ha, beat your edit :P
 
Waynerr actually i was not taking the p*** hehe, believe it or not tropical fish are a lot more hardy that people make them out to be.

For example Discus widely accepted as one of the most difficult fish to keep, I have been breeding them for over 8 years and have never once cycled a tank, I have never once treated there water with ANY additives and these fish thrive. The only time when you should ever consider water treatment is with a mineral additive cycle and should never go as far as reverse osmosis in a tropical tank setup, now Marine fish WHOLE different story .

Also you have to consider the amount of water you are dealing with here, we have all seen the Japanese fighting fish in their 1.5 cups of water in their 50x50x50mm containers at the fish shops. There temperature changes are extreme with that light 20mm from the surface of the cube lol, but as long as the temperature changes over a period of time and not for example tipping +/-10Degrees of hot/cold water there will be no problems with them.
 
Sash said:
I am learning so much about fish here.
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lol, welcome to the fish forums ;)

Here's the tank inside the modified chassis. This window was cut to allow the tank to be removed more easily for cleaning a restocking etc.

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You can see the motherboard with the low profile fan, barely sits any higher than the RAM. I can't recall the user's name who gave me a list of fans to check, I'll look them up and give kudos when I write up the report.
 
Thought I would just update this.

I decided to try and use the computer but found after a couple of hours the water temperature would creep up to 80c/30f (from about 75c/26f) - not outside the comfort range for a Betta (which I have in there now) but enough to cause concern. I have been experimenting with different fan arrangements but space (and airflow) is obviously limited. I have had great fun with this tank/case since building it but it will most likely become a display piece. I can power the fan off the spare 12v point on the CC inverter to give it the effect of working.

Anyway, I am going to build another one! I have recently been experimenting with 'nano' tanks. This is basically a well planted small tank with very small (nano) fish and invertebrates. A different system for lighting is required, however because I don't intend this to be a working computer I can get rid of the PSU and IDE drives (just leaving the fascias), leaving room for a proper lamp. Watch this space :)

Some final pics:

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Waynerrr said:
Thought I would just update this.

I decided to try and use the computer but found after a couple of hours the water temperature would creep up to 80c/30f (from about 75c/26f) - not outside the comfort range for a Betta (which I have in there now) but enough to cause concern. I have been experimenting with different fan arrangements but space (and airflow) is obviously limited. I have had great fun with this tank/case since building it but it will most likely become a display piece. I can power the fan off the spare 12v point on the CC inverter to give it the effect of working.

Anyway, I am going to build another one! I have recently been experimenting with 'nano' tanks. This is basically a well planted small tank with very small (nano) fish and invertebrates. A different system for lighting is required, however because I don't intend this to be a working computer I can get rid of the PSU and IDE drives (just leaving the fascias), leaving room for a proper lamp. Watch this space :)
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Told you there would be a heat problem and it was a bad idea.
 
I wouldn't have thought it would be outside the realm of possibility to keep temps below 28C as someone said above its not directly coming into contact with the chips and glass isn't copper. With the right airflow, both volume and direction through the case it should be possible... you might need a sheath or hood over the NB, CPU or GPU tho to achieve this.
 
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