A River runs through it

MTS - a common disease amoung us... Years of withdrawel symptoms,many MTSanonymous meetings and hard resolve has gone out the window... Yup,I gave in and after a few months of planning,put up my new reophile system today.

Why a reophile system? Well,most of you know I'm a Gobie nut,especialy Stiphodon Gobies(@Vis...still got dibs? ..lol) and creating a home for them and other fast lfow species is just up my alley...

Here's the specs...tank comes from @TroyFish - bought it about a year ago for a hundred bucks....Its 75 x 30w x 36h(bout 75 liters after decor) - an odd size,but realy aestheticaly pleasing.Substrate is a mix of Durban beach sand,PFS and some river gravel from a friends farm - it looks REAL natural,just like a river bed... Dark granite rocks,rounded by river action and two funky driftwood pieces form the hardscape. Planted some spare Cryptocorynes in the foreground,will add some Java Fern and Anubias later... A "bamboo forest" will complete the hardscape in the left back corner when i can get some...

Building a wooden canopy for it tomorrow,into wich will be crammed 2 x 24w T5's(10 00k),an 15W and a 10W Daylight white(6500k)... You're gonna have an Algea explosion you say? Bring it ON - thats exactly what I want!With the hig flow comes al kinds of funkily coloured algea types,food for fishies... Filtration for now will be a air driven sponge filter - 3 reasons: got a mature one,extra oxygen and the little guys can feed on aufwuchs from it....Stuck in one corner is a 6000liter per hour vibration pump creating quite a strong current across the length of the tank,flowing across the rocks and wood... This will help to cover the rocks in a nice thick carpet of algea,food for the inhabitants....A 100W heater set on 22 degrees completes the hardware(for now...can see an extra vibration pump and a power filter in the future...lol)

Now I've waffled on about all the boring bits...lets get to the inhabitants(aka,the fun stuff)...
4 x Red tail Hillstream loaches(Aborichthys elongatus)
6 x Half banded loaches (Schistura savona)
10ish Hillstream loaches(Gastromyzon spcs)
and a certain Stiphodon Goby thats been traveling and is now looking for a new home...
Going to be great seeing the Hillstream loaches especialy,going about their natural behaviour,not sitting sulking in a corner like they do in most LPS's...
Much later looking at a small shoal of Semi barbs or Black Ruby Barbs,just to not make the tank look "empty"...lol
Quite a heavy stocking level yes,but remember that in such a high flow environment,every surface in the aquarium becomes colonized with bacteria - giving you a super sized filer capacity...

Excuse the pic,taken just after tank was set up and water still murky... Will put some up tomorrow after water has settled and canopy is finished...


Comments? Crits? Questions?

 

It looks good. Nice scape.

Keep us updated.

 

kewl setup
very interesting and different

 

Thanx guys - had lotsa fun planning and doing it...bit more work,then first fishies on Monday....Cant wait!!!

 

Tank looks great, it looks natural. If it were up to me Id put in a few Blockheads

 

@MItchell... Dude,now dont get me started - 1 new tank is more than enough(for now).... West/Central Africa has some of the coolest reophile cichlids...Synodontis brichardi would work well in a system like that as well,but loach antics has kept me fascinated for many an hour in the past...lol

 

Subscribed, looking forward to seeing this develop

 

I see, you are fighting against MTS and it is giving you a run for your money, haha. MTS is in my blood and it is contagious, say, doesnt your profile say something about a planted nano...

 

Thanx Jedi....will keep this one going for a looooong while... Mitchell,yes - it's a nano paludarium... Home to 4 White Clouds and 2 Hyseleotris guntherea Gobies... here's a link to that build...http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/s...ersion-1-testing-testing&highlight=paludarium

 

Nice azurekoi .. this might just look like a milkshake machine if the vibration pump drops off and point upwards.. hehe. Btw what background you planing on - may I suggest some coloured cellophane stuck on the outside? A blue or an yellow maybe?

Later Ferdie

 

@f-fish Nah ferdie - there I am old School...lol Backgrounds need to be black,or at worst,a dark blue - just gonna use some blacl artist's board... Doing this tank on a BUDGET! So far have only spent just under R600(Yup,for everything!...lol) on it and only looking at still buying a internal ower filter next month...(Fishie prices is another story though...lol)
Dont think the milkshake scenario is gonna happen - the pump is secured via magnets - one on inside and the other on the outside of the glass....

 

Dang - I hate watching paint dry...lol - made my canopy today,simple bit of carpentry... Nothing fancy,but only cost me R35 for the wood. Painted the inside white and a basecoat for the outside in black...still waiting for the paint to dry...grr. Tomorow 2nd coat and its ready to fit the lights...

Tanks cleared amazingly well - put in the heater and filter...and about 30 little Endlers.(Had to get them out of their tank..already working on it to become next BIG paludarium....Eish,MTS)... Had to put the vibration pump off - poor little dudes where surfing,literally... 6000l/hour sure is a strong flow... been looking at the rockwork and thinking I need a few more big granite rocks - not sure the current ones will provide enough habitat for all the Hillstream loaches I am planning for the tank... those will come in next weekend when I get some time to go look for some...

Some more pics - must still get background,so excuse the exposed wiring..lol

 

Test

 

@Slojo... Test what?

 

I love it Shawn, I'm a big loach fan (although Gastromyzon spcs is a bit weird looking). those red tails are beautiful though.
definitely looking forward to seeing how this one develops

 

I cant get into page two of this thread for some reason so not sure what have been said already.

Looks very nice Shawn with great potential.

I might have gone a little different with the filter and plumbing though:
http://wacowebdesigns.com/fish/75B-4.jpg

Then again it might work better in a 3ft tank.

I might also drain some water and get some river bank plants growing on top if you know what I mean.
and again you might already have plans like this in the future with the bamboo

Will be happy to let that goby have a go in there

Ok after this post I can see pics number two.

Will stack rocks a little higher at the back which you can later use as a pedestal for the river bank plants. Maybe also anther piece of that root that somewhat branches closer to the surface?

But general I like it a lot.

Regards
Gerhard

 

instead of http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?8256-A-River-runs-through-it..../page2
try
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?8256-A-River-runs-through-it/page2

 

@shihr - thanx,Tracyp also msgd me last night that she could not see page two...

@Vis - yup - saw that manifold style of filtration setup,but much prefer the BIG gentle push of a vibration pump... 1st checked the flow with 2 powerheads I had,did not like the thin "jets" they produce... Yup,more rocks,as stated,will be added - need much more Flat space for the Pseudogastromyzons...think with the current few,there will be some squabbles with such a biggish group as I want in there...
The tank is getting a canopy over,so emersed planting is not possible in it - my lust for emersed growth will have to be satisfied by my new BIG paludarium that is in its infant stages....lol

 

Looking very nice. Love to see some more pics as you progress.

OHH yea PS: Welcome back to the MTS club hehehe

 

That's because the Title of the thread has a "..." (Parenthesis in it... Zoom off to fix!)