New meeting location for the 2023/2024 Season will be at J.A. Dulude arena.  Meetings start at 7 pm.

Monthly Meeting & Demo by zenins – April 24th

Started by OVAS-News, April 01, 2017, 05:16:05 PM

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OVAS-News

Just a friendly reminder of the OVAS Giant Auction taking place on Sunday, April 9th 2017. All information can be found on the OVAS Giant Auction sub forum.

All though not happening for a couple months, let's not forget about the Fun Planted Fish Bowl Activity Contest that will take place during the May meeting.


OVAS is honoured to welcome back Zenin Skomorowski (zenins) from the Kitchener-Waterloo Aquarium Society (KWAS) for our next meeting on April 24th 2017 at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tom+Brown+Arena/@45.408107,-75.724983,768m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cce04474b273351:0x9d83f6d8bc08c723!8m2!3d45.4079329!4d-75.7230167?hl=en">Tom Brown Arena[/url] starting at 7:00 PM. Tom Brown Arena has plenty of free parking and is close to the OC Transpo transit routes.

Zenin gave us a presentation last March on loaches. He keeps approximately 12 species of loaches. His most favourite loaches are Clowns, Berdmorei and Dwarf Chain Loaches. In addition to loaches, he keeps a wide variety of fish such as cichlids from Africa and the Americas, along with rainbowfish, tetras, barbs, livebearers, plecos, cory catfish and loaches. Zenin brings a wealth of knowledge as he has been in the tropical fish keeping hobby on and off since he was 12 years old.  In 2002, he stepped up his involvement in the hobby by joining the KWAS.  Within two years, he went from one 15 gallon aquarium to eight aquariums, ranging from 50 gallons to 100 gallons.

On April 24th 2017, he will being giving a demonstration/presentation titled "Filters for your Aquarium - Maintenance and DIY". Aquarium filters are a vital component of any fish tank as they allow for cleaner, healthier water for your fish tank inhabitants. His talk will include the following:


       
  • Different types of filtration methods and their associated equipment
  • Comparison of various filter designs including pros and cons
  • DIY filters
  • Cautions and warnings for the various filtration methods

At the end of this meeting, audience members should gain a better understanding of aquarium filters and be able to decide which one would suit their fish tank needs when setting up a tank and making the appropriate purchasing decision.





Pictures from his demo at Chatham-Kent Aquarium Society





The OVAS Executive hope to see you on Monday, April 24th 2017 starting at 7:00 PM.
Don't forget that OVAS has a separate webpage as well.  http://ovas.ca/ovas/

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zenins

Looking forward to speaking at OVAS again :)

Please bring your questions and experiences with filters and filtration to share ;)

This is a fresh water filtration session since I have never kept marine salt water fish,
so I have no experience with sumps and skimmers  :-[
Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

OVAS-News

For those of you who are interested, the OVAS Executive is taking Zenin out for supper before the meeting on Monday, April 24th.  They will meet at The Prescott located at 379 Preston Street from 5:00 to 5:30 pm.  

The Prescott

Please RSVP to this thread if you are attending.
Don't forget that OVAS has a separate webpage as well.  http://ovas.ca/ovas/

Visit us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

OVAS on Instagram

Jody


rivermuse


limmer


ajm1961

SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR THE HOBBY!

zenins

Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

ksj

90g with 20g sump - Endlers, Kuhli loaches, Betta, Pearl gourami, Salt and pepper cories, Ottos, Assassin snails, Unlucky trumpet snails
~Kim

limmer

You are welcome to come to the meeting.
We usually let you come to one before we ask you to join.
You are also welcome to join us for supper if you want.

zenins

Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

ajm1961

It was good to see you again Zenin! See you again at CAOAC!  :)

Recap: It was a good presentation. Nice to see all those types of filters, as well as some ideas for DIYers. Some good questions and audience participation - a few good stories as well. About 25-30 people were on hand. Three door prizes were drawn - two Marineland HOB filters and one set of cleaning brushes.

Reminder to all: Just one more meeting and another season is done! Start thinking about elections: how can you help keep this club going into 2017-18? New blood is needed, some execs won't be around...

Cheers everyone!
SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR THE HOBBY!

zenins

Quote from: ajm1961 on April 25, 2017, 02:19:36 PM

Recap: Three door prizes were drawn - two Marineland HOB filters and one set of cleaning brushes.


I can not believe that you won the cleaning brushes that I donated ... seems to me that you won the bag of Loaches at my previous presentation as well ;)
Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

zenins

Just a reminder to those in attendance on Monday night, if you have any questions or comments on Filtration or the DIY, post them here or you can send me a PM ;)

Thanks for having me at your meeting, I always love coming to see my friends in Ottawa :)

Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

Anubias

Pretty useful talk. After having watched his presentation, yesterday I went out and bought the medium Filstar filter at Big Als. It's nicely designed. I'm wondering if feeding the CO2 into the intake might degrade the plastics or the impeller.

rivermuse

Dang I missed it! Glad that you enjoyed. Will there be a video of the presentation?

Nienna

Hey Zenis,

Thanks again for the talk - it really was very good!  Couple of questions:

-What was the name of the German DIY slab of filter foam approach?
-Is there a particular name or type (beyond open cell) of the high quality foam to look for at conventions?

Thanks,

Stephanie

Mike L

Wasn't at the presentation but sounds like matten filter. Used across one end of the tank.

ksj

Question -
I've got a pre-owned homemade sump pump filter. The pipe from the tank hangs over the container for the filter. I was wondering if the filter floss I bought for it can be hanging from the pipe, to catch the water before it falls into the filter system itself or if the floss should be in the water below so bacteria can better grow on it? I hope this makes sense.
90g with 20g sump - Endlers, Kuhli loaches, Betta, Pearl gourami, Salt and pepper cories, Ottos, Assassin snails, Unlucky trumpet snails
~Kim

Anubias

Quote from: ksj on May 02, 2017, 10:33:42 PM
Question -
I've got a pre-owned homemade sump pump filter. The pipe from the tank hangs over the container for the filter. I was wondering if the filter floss I bought for it can be hanging from the pipe, to catch the water before it falls into the filter system itself or if the floss should be in the water below so bacteria can better grow on it? I hope this makes sense.

My understanding is that the filter material just needs to be wet and open to oxygen.

zenins

Quote from: Anubias on April 30, 2017, 11:07:57 AM
Pretty useful talk. After having watched his presentation, yesterday I went out and bought the medium Filstar filter at Big Als. It's nicely designed. I'm wondering if feeding the CO2 into the intake might degrade the plastics or the impeller.

Years ago, when I had a proper planted tank, I generated my own CO2 (yeast, sugar, baking soda) The output was through a very fine air-stone ( I think it was ceramic ) that sat at the spraybar outlet. This way, the CO2 was dispersed into the water column without having to worry about affecting the plastic parts of the canister or the filter media ;)

Hope this helps :)

Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

zenins

Quote from: Nienna on May 02, 2017, 05:49:19 AM
Hey Zenin,

Thanks again for the talk - it really was very good!  Couple of questions:

-What was the name of the German DIY slab of filter foam approach?
-Is there a particular name or type (beyond open cell) of the high quality foam to look for at conventions?

Thanks,

Stephanie

The slab foam filter technique is called the Mattenfilter, or sometimes the Hamburg Filter.

The best slab filter foam is Poret
http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/swisstropicals-poret-foam/

It is pretty expensive, but I think it is worth it, because it lasts for ever,
it works very well and it is purposely manufactured for the aquarium hobby.
There are some lesser expensive alternatives, like pond filter foam.
It will work for a while, but it depends on being cleaned at least twice a year,
and usually has to be replaced after about 3 years, because it starts to break down.
I have purchased some cheap filter foam from China, very unpredictable quality,
some last a few years, others start to break down in less than a year :(

In Canada, you can get the Swisstropicals poret foam from AngelFins in Guelph.

Here is a matten filter kit with the jet lift tube:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28309_12&products_id=948&zenid=fb28e1d888837253f220ec5d471a1d9a

Here is a larger piece of foam only:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28309_12&products_id=1464

Here is the whole page on the website:
http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28309_12&pg=store

Not sure about shipping costs, but that is probably on the website some where :)

An alternative is to go to an aquarium convention where the foam is being sold or ask someone else going to pick some up for you ;)

There are lots of vendors on Amazon.ca selling various foam products, shipping might be free over a certain dollar amount of order ?
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D6292474011&field-keywords=foam+filters&rh=n%3A6292474011%2Ck%3Afoam+filters

Your local fish store can usually get some foam filter mats, ask them to order some if you do not see any on display, they might also have some "in the back" because it may take up a lot of space that they might want to have to display lots of other accessories and dry goods ;)

Hope this helps
Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

zenins

Quote from: ksj on May 02, 2017, 10:33:42 PM
Question -
I've got a pre-owned homemade sump pump filter. The pipe from the tank hangs over the container for the filter. I was wondering if the filter floss I bought for it can be hanging from the pipe, to catch the water before it falls into the filter system itself or if the floss should be in the water below so bacteria can better grow on it? I hope this makes sense.

If the floss is always exposed to the air, it grows a different bacterial culture than floss that is submerged all the time.
The good news is that both are beneficial bacteria :)

Mechanical filtration will happen in both cases, so beware that particles trapped in the floss will have to be rinsed/squeezed out once in a while to maintain a good flow of water.

I am not a sump expert, so try it and let us know how it goes ;)





Zenin

Cichlids: With great challenges come great rewards

Nienna

Thanks Zenin, that was exactly what I was looking for :)