I love it! Thank you. Hope you are well Greg! I am going thru your channel for a 2nd and 3rd time. Love your tanks! Thank you for sharing! - Little Bobby
Thanks! I wanted to keep it to a half hour as I did a test with a best friend (not a fishkeeper) who lasted about 20 minutes before falling asleep. So at this point he is my bell weather. The next ones coming up - a 3 video set on breeding the Odessas, will be posted 24 hrs. apart in two weeks, and the 3 are just over 90 minutes combined.
Wholly crap that's a mess of water pipe. Glad to hear it all works smoothly though. You must be a plumber and electrician at heart as well as an awesome fish keeper. Really enjoyed the video, keep them coming. Cheerz!
Hey Greg. Thanks for posting. Eye-opening tour and a huge amount of work every day. That's what top quality fish production needs though. Well played sir!
I could look at your X. Montezumae all day long... well... probably all your fish for that matter. I remember seeing long sworded males when I was a kid ( a long time ago), and was so glad when I discovered your website a number of years ago. Wild type livebearers!! Looking forward to more videos from you - you have so much knowledge and expertise to share.
Yes. I have done both. With this system the tanks have a portability I take advantage of, and tanks never crack at any bulkhead fittings. Thanks for watching!
Greg, Thanks for telling me about your channel. Wow, tons of great info on this video alone. I also saw the video of your trumpet playing, really nice. Thanks again for all your advice on the Iridescent-sharks.
great video i also am building a automatic water change system this video is a great help (PS the Xiphophorus mayae that i bought from you are absolutely beautiful )
Thank you! Yeah, I could never do what this room does without the water changing system and what the room has become. Thanks for viewing! Greg Sage, selectaquatics.com
Wow That was very interesting and the fish room is beautiful you are a busy guy in there I love the swords and the albino real cool Thanks can't wait to watch all of your videos.
Greg, I've recently moved and am planning out a new (small!) fish room, so this is great info, very much appreciate you sharing all your experiences and practices. I certainly want to have automated water changing to keep the workload manageable, but seeing your forest of PVC was mind-blowing. Q1: If you had to do it all over again, would you consider micro-irrigation? The advantages I see IN THEORY are: * the emitters come out of the box calibrated for x-gals per hour, so it's easy to pre-determine how many units and/or hours you need for any target amount of water changes in a tank * therefore don't need so many ball values for "dialing in the correct flow" * it's all low-pressure, so don't need to glue together so much piping * lower flow rates in, lower flow rates out, so the drain pipes can be smaller too But as I say, that's in theory. I have not built/used a micro-irrigation-based system myself. Q2: Having so many HOT Magnums on top of 15% daily water changes and box filters seems to be a level beyond what most people with big fishrooms do. Is that primarily because of the plecos on a seriously industrial scale? Thanks again!
Oh man, that must be a pain in the rear to move an entire rack of tanks! I really like the double legged rack, smart idea. Can't wait to see more from you! ❤️
Great video and quite an extensive configuration. A couple of questions: Could you use Vaseline on the o-rings in the filters? Why use marbles and not gravel in the Box filters? The polyester is only used to mechanically filter and not house bacteria? I have used a combination of gravel and filter medium that seemed to work well. When the filter medium was dirty I would rinse the gravel as well. I see multiple filters in most of the tanks -- is that due to fish load in that specific tank? I have added an HOB or canister type filter like you do with your magnums for special situations. Do you put your magnums on every single tank in your fish room on a schedule? Thanks again for sharing your expertiese. I will have to think about my plumbing for my new setup.
Hi Greg - many thanks for the tour, really interesting to learn how things get done. I guess you must have missed it but Mike Vormwald asked the very question that occurred to me as I was watching this: Having watched many fish room tours on TH-cam and seen quite a few in person, pretty much everyone else requiring strict water isolation between tanks chooses sponge filtration. Your focus seems to be on using filters purely for mechanical, presumably allowing your substrate and other internal surfaces to hold sufficient denitrifying microorganisms to get the job done, with plants having an important role. I'm saying this because you're swapping out the filter floss and your filters are obviously drying out completely while they're waiting to be changed so no microorganisms are going to survive. I'd really appreciate and be fascinated to understand better why you take this approach as I'm damn sure you don't do anything with filtration without giving it a lot of thought and with excellent reasons. Many thanks.
Julian Morgan Hello, Julian - There are many reasons why I have chosen the filtration scheme I am currently using. Part of it is nearly 200 lbs of green beans being being fed monthly to many of the tanks. See the filtration section in Fishkeeping Tips at the Selectaquatics.com website, where I discuss this further. From much testing and years of working with them, I have decided not to use sponge filters here, with the exception of raising livebearer fry.
I would love to continue this discussion, please email me at selectaquatics@Gmail.com. I do not use any sponge filtration except with a couple sumps that I have built for a few of the Green Dragon breeding tanks that require another layer of filtration. But everything here is standard care for Riverine species, or those that require some water movement. The amount of biological filtration required by the tanks was carefully determined through testing various substrates and ways to set up box filtration, and I came to the same results that had already been established by the Xiphophorus stock center in Texas. There, 1/4 inch pea gravel is used over 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank bottom in a single layer, and that provides enough nitrifying bacteria to maintain healthy, consistent ammonia and nitrate levels, . As I mentioned, drop me an email, and I'd be happy to talk to you about it further! Greg Sage
Greg, That was very instructive. A Characodon question- Characodon "Los Pinos" would be a C. lateralis location, correct? They sure look like C. lateralis to me.and not C. audax. Thanks in advance.
Los Pinos is a lateralis location, but I do not have them here. The "Reds" were first thought to be lateralis Los Berros, but have since been identified as a developed form of the audax. About 4 years ago the audax and lateralis were found to be genetically identical, and the appearance is location variation.
Holey moley that's a lot of pipe! I hope HD gave you a builder discount! :D I'd like to try that on a much smaller scale and save my back. ;) So, Thanks for sharing....it's much appreciated!
Yeah, there is over 1000 feet of PVC down there! Doing it on a smaller scale, such as just for one tank, is covered in the most recent video posted this past Friday on Building Your Own Water Change System. Thank you!
Thanks for the behind the scenes look. With 15% daily water changes it would seem little need for the box filters? Instead of box filters with polyester fiber, why not sponge filters? ... I find that sponge is perhaps the best mechanical AND biological filter media.
With regards to building a water change system, and whether I would do things differently, please email me at selectaquatics@gmail.com and we can discuss it! Greg Sage
Jcal75 yes, some cities here are terrible with ammonia run off from Dr icing compounds in the winter and spring. Where I am - further north, my water is good. Greg Sage.
Water supply for some cities here can be tough due to use of ammonia based products used for snow removal, that then gets into the water supply. I am further north, due east of Boulder, and manage to avoid those issues.
I have always wondered how many systems you have going all at once. I know you've said that some of your tanks are on different setups. I kinda of understand. lol
Greg Sage? Can I share your channel and video s with my Dutch Shrimp and Fish Forum buddies? It s a hobby breeder and hobby keeper forum for shrimpkeeping and other aqyarium freshwater brackisch or saltwater animals..mostly Shrimps crayfish snails lobsters and small sized fish.A lot of hobby keepers get caught in the love for keeping aquariums and the animals in it and start breeding. i think it s a very sweet and open mind to share so detailled behind the scenes and how to breed the fishes you breed. Please keep up the good work and I hope people give you the credit you deserve and earned! Do you by any chance have any advice on breeding Amano shrimp? I ve sone it before years ago and now that I started my shrimp breeding tanks up again and am buying the shrimps I want to breed every time a tank is cycled till I ve got the onew I m wanting to keep and breed...I m now keeping neocardina davidii var. blue and started with a trio of Amano Shrimp I saw in my local LFS...I only was able to buy 3 but they ll get extra company when I find some more.I ve bred them with succes but only succeeded to get 7 baby Amano Shrimp to survive the larvea stage last time...If you ve got any experience with them...can I mail you about that?
Thank you for watching these videos, and you can certainly share the video with whomever you like! As to amano shrimp, I am aware of the graduated salinity requirements through various larval stages, but have never bred them myself. You should be able to find the day to day requirements during their growth stages on the internet - Good luck!
I love it! Thank you. Hope you are well Greg! I am going thru your channel for a 2nd and 3rd time. Love your tanks! Thank you for sharing! - Little Bobby
Thanks for the tour! Looks like a LOT of work!
Thanks Greg!! Looking forward to your videos!
Great video/info! Can't wait to see the next one.
Love your fish Greg would love to see some more videos
I love the detail you go into explaining the systems and processes of your fishroom. 28-min was too short! haha. Can't wait for the next one. :)
Thanks! I wanted to keep it to a half hour as I did a test with a best friend (not a fishkeeper) who lasted about 20 minutes before falling asleep. So at this point he is my bell weather. The next ones coming up - a 3 video set on breeding the Odessas, will be posted 24 hrs. apart in two weeks, and the 3 are just over 90 minutes combined.
Wholly crap that's a mess of water pipe. Glad to hear it all works smoothly though. You must be a plumber and electrician at heart as well as an awesome fish keeper. Really enjoyed the video, keep them coming.
Cheerz!
I love the detail you go into about your methods for the systems in your fish room Greg. Can't wait for the future series!
Hey Greg. Thanks for posting. Eye-opening tour and a huge amount of work every day. That's what top quality fish production needs though. Well played sir!
Thanks for showing me your plumbing. I have some new ideas now. 💡 I also just ordered your fish tank plant powder
plant powder ?
That's a beautiful long fin pleco in the intro screen. Loved the flowing fins. Green dragon albino pleco. I gotta remember to order some day
I could look at your X. Montezumae all day long... well... probably all your fish for that matter. I remember seeing long sworded males when I was a kid ( a long time ago), and was so glad when I discovered your website a number of years ago. Wild type livebearers!! Looking forward to more videos from you - you have so much knowledge and expertise to share.
Yes. I have done both. With this system the tanks have a portability I take advantage of, and tanks never crack at any bulkhead fittings. Thanks for watching!
More videos Greg! Don't worry about sound quality or audio or any of that. Show me more fish room!
wow very informative and inspirational you've set my gears back in motion as to setting up my drain system for my fish room
Amazing as always. You are a true asset to the aquarium world
Great video Greg. Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge. Looking forward to any future videos you make.
Greg, Thanks for telling me about your channel. Wow, tons of great info on this video alone. I also saw the video of your trumpet playing, really nice. Thanks again for all your advice on the Iridescent-sharks.
LectorRecords Thank you! Greg Sage
great video i also am building a automatic water change system this video is a great help (PS the Xiphophorus mayae that i bought from you are absolutely beautiful )
Greg thanks for the video! I like seeing the infrastructure behind the fish room.
Thank you! Yeah, I could never do what this room does without the water changing system and what the room has become. Thanks for viewing! Greg Sage, selectaquatics.com
Your fishroom is like a mad scientist lab!!!!
Yes, it looks absolutely monstrous!
And a monstrous noise!
This very nice man created an absolutely monstrous job for himself!
Great video! Loved seeing the water change system and the explanation. Looking forward to more. Thank you!
Wonderful tour! How about an update?
Great video looking forward to the next series!
Wow That was very interesting and the fish room is beautiful you are a busy guy in there I love the swords and the albino real cool Thanks can't wait to watch all of your videos.
Thank you! Greg Sage, selectaquatics.com
Greg, I've recently moved and am planning out a new (small!) fish room, so this is great info, very much appreciate you sharing all your experiences and practices. I certainly want to have automated water changing to keep the workload manageable, but seeing your forest of PVC was mind-blowing.
Q1: If you had to do it all over again, would you consider micro-irrigation? The advantages I see IN THEORY are:
* the emitters come out of the box calibrated for x-gals per hour, so it's easy to pre-determine how many units and/or hours you need for any target amount of water changes in a tank
* therefore don't need so many ball values for "dialing in the correct flow"
* it's all low-pressure, so don't need to glue together so much piping
* lower flow rates in, lower flow rates out, so the drain pipes can be smaller too
But as I say, that's in theory. I have not built/used a micro-irrigation-based system myself.
Q2: Having so many HOT Magnums on top of 15% daily water changes and box filters seems to be a level beyond what most people with big fishrooms do. Is that primarily because of the plecos on a seriously industrial scale?
Thanks again!
Oh man, that must be a pain in the rear to move an entire rack of tanks! I really like the double legged rack, smart idea. Can't wait to see more from you! ❤️
Great video Greg. Very interesting and informative. Definitely looking forward to the next video.
Great Video
Enjoyed the tour, thanks for sharing!
Great video love seeing other fish rooms and how everything runs
Great video Greg! Thanks so much for posting. I found it super interesting.
Great video and quite an extensive configuration. A couple of questions: Could you use Vaseline on the o-rings in the filters? Why use marbles and not gravel in the Box filters? The polyester is only used to mechanically filter and not house bacteria? I have used a combination of gravel and filter medium that seemed to work well. When the filter medium was dirty I would rinse the gravel as well. I see multiple filters in most of the tanks -- is that due to fish load in that specific tank? I have added an HOB or canister type filter like you do with your magnums for special situations. Do you put your magnums on every single tank in your fish room on a schedule? Thanks again for sharing your expertiese. I will have to think about my plumbing for my new setup.
Hi Greg - many thanks for the tour, really interesting to learn how things get done. I guess you must have missed it but Mike Vormwald asked the very question that occurred to me as I was watching this: Having watched many fish room tours on TH-cam and seen quite a few in person, pretty much everyone else requiring strict water isolation between tanks chooses sponge filtration.
Your focus seems to be on using filters purely for mechanical, presumably allowing your substrate and other internal surfaces to hold sufficient denitrifying microorganisms to get the job done, with plants having an important role. I'm saying this because you're swapping out the filter floss and your filters are obviously drying out completely while they're waiting to be changed so no microorganisms are going to survive.
I'd really appreciate and be fascinated to understand better why you take this approach as I'm damn sure you don't do anything with filtration without giving it a lot of thought and with excellent reasons. Many thanks.
Julian Morgan Hello, Julian - There are many reasons why I have chosen the filtration scheme I am currently using. Part of it is nearly 200 lbs of green beans being being fed monthly to many of the tanks. See the filtration section in Fishkeeping Tips at the Selectaquatics.com website, where I discuss this further. From much testing and years of working with them, I have decided not to use sponge filters here, with the exception of raising livebearer fry.
I would love to continue this discussion, please email me at selectaquatics@Gmail.com. I do not use any sponge filtration except with a couple sumps that I have built for a few of the Green Dragon breeding tanks that require another layer of filtration. But everything here is standard care for Riverine species, or those that require some water movement. The amount of biological filtration required by the tanks was carefully determined through testing various substrates and ways to set up box filtration, and I came to the same results that had already been established by the Xiphophorus stock center in Texas. There, 1/4 inch pea gravel is used over 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank bottom in a single layer, and that provides enough nitrifying bacteria to maintain healthy, consistent ammonia and nitrate levels, . As I mentioned, drop me an email, and I'd be happy to talk to you about it further! Greg Sage
Could the website be adjusted to where it has the scientific name and the common name of the fish/plants?
You are welcome- Thank you! Greg Sage
Amazing fish room Greg!
Good video.
I love this video I can't wait to see more from you
Greg an engineering feat for sure! Do you have an aversion to drilling tanks?
Greg, That was very instructive. A Characodon question- Characodon "Los Pinos" would be a C. lateralis location, correct? They sure look like C. lateralis to me.and not C. audax. Thanks in advance.
Los Pinos is a lateralis location, but I do not have them here. The "Reds" were first thought to be lateralis Los Berros, but have since been identified as a developed form of the audax. About 4 years ago the audax and lateralis were found to be genetically identical, and the appearance is location variation.
Thanks for the quick response. I picked the fish up from Eric Bodrock. He said he thought they may be a lateralis location, but was not sure.
Holey moley that's a lot of pipe! I hope HD gave you a builder discount! :D
I'd like to try that on a much smaller scale and save my back. ;)
So, Thanks for sharing....it's much appreciated!
Yeah, there is over 1000 feet of PVC down there! Doing it on a smaller scale, such as just for one tank, is covered in the most recent video posted this past Friday on Building Your Own Water Change System. Thank you!
Well, I'll certainly look for it as my 'hobby' (addiction)is growing. ;) Thanks!
Thanks for the behind the scenes look. With 15% daily water changes it would seem little need for the box filters? Instead of box filters with polyester fiber, why not sponge filters? ... I find that sponge is perhaps the best mechanical AND biological filter media.
Are the green beans unsalted or just regular canned green beans you find in the store?
Just the regular Green beans you find in the store.
Just the regular Green beans you find in the store.
With regards to building a water change system, and whether I would do things differently, please email me at selectaquatics@gmail.com and we can discuss it! Greg Sage
Thank you!
Hows your city water supply? Does it flucuate a lot? I have some friends that live in that area tell me the water supply can be horrible at times
Jcal75 yes, some cities here are terrible with ammonia run off from Dr icing compounds in the winter and spring. Where I am - further north, my water is good. Greg Sage.
Water supply for some cities here can be tough due to use of ammonia based products used for snow removal, that then gets into the water supply. I am further north, due east of Boulder, and manage to avoid those issues.
Greg Sage Okay I see. So your water source is above ground? Where as opposed to an underground water source in most cities
Please write me at selectaquatics@gmail.com and we can discuss this further. Yes, I believe Erie uses above ground reservoirs.
I have always wondered how many systems you have going all at once. I know you've said that some of your tanks are on different setups. I kinda of understand. lol
Greg, Greg here. Can you put a link to your preferred air box filter you use in your system? Thanks Sir!
Thank you for watching. I get my 4 inch box filters from Jehmco.com. Tell Joannie I said Hi!
Roger that sir, appreciate the response! Best wishes!
Thank you! However, you do not sound angry at all!
Just had some coffee. Give me a few minutes =) Again thanks so much.. Appreciate your knowledge.
I use the 4 inch round box filters available from Jehmco.com.
Greg Sage? Can I share your channel and video s with my Dutch Shrimp and Fish Forum buddies? It s a hobby breeder and hobby keeper forum for shrimpkeeping and other aqyarium freshwater brackisch or saltwater animals..mostly Shrimps crayfish snails lobsters and small sized fish.A lot of hobby keepers get caught in the love for keeping aquariums and the animals in it and start breeding. i think it s a very sweet and open mind to share so detailled behind the scenes and how to breed the fishes you breed.
Please keep up the good work and I hope people give you the credit you deserve and earned!
Do you by any chance have any advice on breeding Amano shrimp? I ve sone it before years ago and now that I started my shrimp breeding tanks up again and am buying the shrimps I want to breed every time a tank is cycled till I ve got the onew I m wanting to keep and breed...I m now keeping neocardina davidii var. blue and started with a trio of Amano Shrimp I saw in my local LFS...I only was able to buy 3 but they ll get extra company when I find some more.I ve bred them with succes but only succeeded to get 7 baby Amano Shrimp to survive the larvea stage last time...If you ve got any experience with them...can I mail you about that?
Thank you for watching these videos, and you can certainly share the video with whomever you like! As to amano shrimp, I am aware of the graduated salinity requirements through various larval stages, but have never bred them myself. You should be able to find the day to day requirements during their growth stages on the internet - Good luck!
what's your webpage
selectaquatics.com
Greg Sage thank you I saw some very interesting animals
Great video Greg and very informative. thanks for sharing with us. I'll show some FishFamLove and New Subscribe you 1,615
I am thinking about an update... Greg Sage