Theater Aquarium

[mulester7]

.....long one, I'll admit....if after the first sentence of the first paragraph you know you're not interested, go to another thread, please....

....Gentlemen, and I mean that, I have a 200 gallon aquarium that sits on a matching cabinet stand, and is a match to fine furniture....seven feet long....it sits against the left wall of my theater/room....it came with four 36-inch-filament flourescent strips....

....I filled the aquarium with HUGE chunks of what appears to be rocks, and are in actuality transparent colored glass....I have three, green, beautiful chunks rising out of the gravel as high as about 18 inches, with the tallest and heaviest of them weighing about 60 pounds....the three are under a green light strip filament, which was made green by taking the filament out back carrying a 98 cent can of oil spray-paint from Wal-Mart.....

.....I pinch one of the end prongs of the filament between my thumb and forefinger, and hold it up....after shaking the can of paint in every direction for about a minute, I hold the white tube filament up and spray a keep-moving stripe top to bottom....I rotate a little by the fingertips on the prong, and spray a moving-on stripe just left of stripe 1, joining stripe one....all the way around I rotate and stripe it solid....yes, prong-holding thumbnail, is now bright blue....gas and a rag....I set the wet filament leaning on something to dry, and go eat a hamburger....I return to the dried, blue, flourescent tube and put it back in the light strip....I turn it on....I turn it over projecting down into the tank and I'm home....

.....I have a gold/yellow filament over a sorta' round, see-through for sure with small bubbles shining inside, about 16 inches tall, light purple rock/glass, that is sitting on a mount-bass, (I can't help that spelling), that is beautiful limestone rock from the bank of the Arkansas River I drove about 8 miles to get....it has that limestone-bright-copper-hue, that lays on the very light brown bass color, (and there I go again)....now, associate the gold/yellow filament above, shining down and through, the 84 pound round, sorta' light purple, rock/glass with bubbles inside about the size of small English peas, sparkling....have any of you guys so far, who have experience with aquariums, thought he must have strong and thick bass-, (damn), -plates of the underground bacteria-bed, sitting on the bottom piece of glass, with NO gravel trapped, and allowing any weight above, to be distributed EVENLY, whew, almost theresitting SQUARE on the bottom piece of glass?....huh?....and a friend told me you can't use Civil War canon-balls no matter WHAT you do.....

.....I have four painted filaments....green, gold/yellow, medium blue, and red, which went to orange....I got one section running longways, times four, 2-and-2, from the end....that's four strips overhead that meet in the middle 2-and-2....but I definitely move the strips individually and angle two....guys who have a tank, and don't buy talls, please, I'm thinking of the fish, you might want to set the top/s of your tank, glass or plastic, in the garage, and hit yard sales for flourescent strips that will span your tank....you can paint a filament and with a little gas on a rag, remove ALL the dried paint on the filament and return to business as normal....try medium blue first, and the gas will probably be safe....

.....my four colored strips have been on for about a month non-stop....great night light....great sidewall to my home theater....florescent tube filaments run forever, sorta', and I still got the 5 cans....gold was accent-sprayed on a dark-yellow "base"....yeah, mind over matter....SOFT, BEAUTIFUL, Pastel-hue Colors from the left side, as I watch TV straight-ahead, and the two light sources are all that's on and it's GREAT!!!....and sure, I have a fifth strip containing a normal white tube, to angle across the red and blue to turn on the sun at high noon on that end....food for thought....

.....no need for responses....but, whatever....

.....any problems with your fresh or salt-water set-up's?....definitely respond, please....quit buying those little 6 dollar plastic bottles of PH raiser....put a heaping teaspoon of baking soda in a cup and fill the cup 3/4's with tap-water and stir to disolve....pour half in your tank....wait a few minutes for it to distribute via the pumps....take a PH reading....you will now stare at the small plastic bottle of PH raiser that costed six bucks....ain't gonna proof-read and see how many times I've said "I quit" or "I'm gone", haha....

.....guys, I said once I wasn't stewpid....we might have to hold the presses....I have seen my cat, Sylvester, act MUCH smarter than me since his birth....for real....but he done something the other day, that has me wondering....bear in mind, that my yellow canary, Peety, is sharp as they come....Buck, I took a snap with my camera-phone of the incident, and I'll let you call it.....

.....boys, plain and simple, I think I'm in trouble 'cause ole' Sylvester's a LOT, smarter than me, and I've seen it too many times.....

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mlester77@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=/e45a&.dnm=e0e4.jpg&.src=ph

 

[ducker]

.....any problems with your fresh or salt-water set-up's?....definitely respond, please....quit buying those little 6 dollar plastic bottles of PH raiser....put a heaping teaspoon of baking soda in a cup and fill the cup 3/4's with tap-water and stir to disolve.

Adding that chuck of limestone you you "fished" out of the Arkansas River will raise your pH enough so that you shouldn't need baking soda. Anyways, unless you're keeping Cichlids, or have incredibly soft water you really don't need to play the pH seesaw game.

What fish do you keep in your 200g? Is it fresh or SW? I don't believe you will have any major problem with the tank near a HT setup. Although some more sensitive fish might not like it. (like Discus)

Not really sure what this has to do with Loudspeakers though

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

Does the water come in contact with the paint that's inside those tubes? I would think that might possibly be toxic to the fish.

I'm also wondering just how "safe" Baking Soda is.

Not sure I'd want my aquarium in the same room as my home theater, though. I'm thinking the thumping from the subwoofer will stress them.

 

[ducker]

Baking Soda is quite safe if you use it properly. It will cause the pH of your tank to rise, as well as increase the alkalinity of your water. If you go to any Local Fish Store (LFS) and buy some pH UP in powered form, you're pretty much buying expensive baking soda.

Playing the pH game is just asking for difficulties. A steady pH is much more desirable to a pH that swings up and down frequently.

And yes, the spray paint bought is most likely toxic to fish. Unless it's Maratime paint, which is used for painting the outside of boats, then again that paint will be more expensive then a buck a can.

 

[annunaki]

Sorry I moved your thread Mulester7, but it really had nothing to do with loudspeakers and subwoofers. I figured it would best be here or in the DIY forum.

 

[mulester7]

.....Annunaki and others, I only know there could not be a better left wall for my theater, and I wanted to share the idea to paint white flourescent tubes to use at night mainly....and of course, the painted flourescent tubes never come any closer to the water than about four inches....large tanks have a brace piece of glass in the middle up high holding the front and back pieces of glass....this piece of glass is where the ends of the light strips rest....my setup is fresh water and has been for a long time....the expense of the salt fish isn't what keeps me away from a salt tank....it's the daily testing of the water with salt being more critical and less forgiving than fresh....and salt can go nutty quick....I haven't done salt in awhile, and have leaned toward fresh water fish that have nice colors....salt water yellow tang and blue angel colors aren't found among fresh water fish, but Cardinal Tetras, Paradise Gouramis, and orange striped Barbs and Loaches are....Dwarf and Giant Gouramis are very colorful also for fresh....very good on the limestone negating the need for PH raiser....much in the same way crushed coral is the bed you must have for salt water, which demands a higher PH than fresh....thanks for the comments, guys, and by all means this thread should have been moved from a speakers board....but I just wanted everyone reading the speakers board to give it a thought....shoot, I don't know them guys on the other boards here....

.....oh, I don't really have enough fish in the 200 at this time to need PH adjustment anyway....I have two silver dollars, four zebra danios, two paradise gouramis, and four ambino corey cats....am thinking about putting a couple of lemon Koi in the tank....I know, carp family, haha.....

 

[ducker]

the fish you list there should be fine at pretty much any pH between 6.2 - 7.5 so long as the pH itself isn't changing often.

Sounds like a nice size setup!!