5Ft, low tech,planted - African Biotope Project

Ok...
So its been a hot minute (closer to 11 years) since I've done this. The world has changed, many things have changed, but the time has come to revisit this old fixation..

I have managed to source a banged up, used and abused tank, being sold by a dude in the middle of nowhere which suits my purposes perfectly. Its a little smaller than I have had in the past (1500X 640X640) so quite deep but not as long. The frame is welded steel with the glass panels individually integrated into said frame. The look is different, but I kinda like it (a lot of my home decor is black) and it means I can replace panels if needed, quite easily.

So the first mission was getting this thing, then getting the pre-existing steel roof (on hinges) ground off.
That done it was mission "get it home"

Once home, several hundred sandpaper pads later, the rust was gone, the top coat of black paint was gone, the surprise undercoat of green paint was gone and we had bare steel with which to work. I taped off the edges just to ensure the orbital sander didn't scuff the glass (which is in decent knick considering)

Below is one of the sellers old images, you can kinda see the massive, steel roof.


Below are some pics of the process I briefly described above:





also had a van Gogh-esque background to scrape off...





bare steel frame starting to peek through

 

Some more clean up shots... Once the old stuff was gone, I applied some healthy doses of rust converter (for obvious reasons) but also to provide a decent base coat. Also enlisted the help of a few young folk and one older one, to get the thing done.

Original Condition


Ground to steel base layer


application of rust converter





and finally, after a few coats of Straight to steel, Matt Black paint.



I may have omitted a few steps, but for ease of reading this makes more sense. So it obviously took several hours for each layer to dry etc.
I then cleaned (scrubbed) all the glass with vinegar and a bit of bicarb and a paint scraper, turned out pretty good. Then proceeded to vacuum out all the dirty water and leftover gravel and whatever other siff stuff had fallen in. Result wasn't too bad I dont think..

Then came leak test time..
I always put about 5cm of water in first then stop to check even depth. A spirit level is great on the frame but it doesn't always show the level on the base and you cant use them so well under water so I measure the depth with a ruler in all 4 corners and adjust the feet accordingly. Bear in mind this is in a temporary location on my deck, it'll be moved inside soon.
so far so good.....

 

Very unique tank. Love all the DIYing that went on there. Its turned out really great ! Following along

 

Thanks bud appreciate that.
Eventually I’ll be making a base to cover the more ornate steel work at the bottom. Definitely not to my taste

 

Nice Tank Greg. I have kept and repaired many steel framed tanks. At least nowadays there are better products. A tip; to place a timber block under each steel foot.

 

Thanks for the tip, yes I intend to do that once I finally get it inside. Either wood or some high density foam/rubber. The plastic mats will also stay.

I agree, there are better products, but I wanted to so this on a budget so the less spent the better. This was the best deal available locally.

 

There has been progress… pics to follow.

 

OK..

So, last Saturday was finally time to do the thing.
I've spent weeks collecting rocks (local Sandstone) gravel (local Umgeni sand) hardwood and driftwood to have enough to provide options for this local/West African river hybrid idea.
Ill spare you the details, but the basic idea is to recreate a section of slower moving water in an African stream.

The trick here is not over planning it. My initial plans were already completely out the window so I was winging it.

Putting the hardwood "tree" element together. This is kinda what I wanted, with plenty of wood extending out of the water (more plants of course)



Just as I was happy, I of course realized that I needed to lay the gravel and substrate first and of course I didn't glue the wood together so this puzzle would never be recreated.

I have a lot of river gravel from the old owner of the tank so decided to use that for the very base layer and to create some height and depth in the tank, a river bank if you like...


A lot of this happened, its not very interesting. But the gravel was capped with some sand, then aqua soli and then more sand.



I had ordered an entire shipment of Aquascaping glue and of course, it has not yet arrived. But I am a petulant and impatient child, so i went ahead with a hot glue gun

The main feature of the "river bank" was supposed to be the papyrus plant which i sourced locally, for the biome but also for some height on the left of the tank.
The local rocks were chucked in there and there to sure up the bank and secure the wood. We ended up cleaning the sand for hours with a hose and sieve. It was much rougher than I had initially expected... will have to work this out later on.

It was getting close to water time.



In an attempt to not break the bank, I went cheap and nasty with the plants.. this can be remedied over time, but initially we have some Echinodorus and Hygrophilia. There are a couple of nicer and more appropriate plants in the shape of some Bolbitis and Anubia from my Nano tank (which is now quite bare) but a lot more is needed.

So there is a bowl in there, perched on some filter material to ensure the water is entering gently and not disturbing the substrate too much.

The tank was filled and all was well until I lost concentration, turned around too fast and smashed the entire wooden hardscape................................... yes, I am that idiot. Everything fell apart.
Tank had to be drained completely.
Scape restarted from scratch.

I shot to the hardware and grabbed as much cheap superglue as i could and began to reconstruct the scape. I did this with the paper towel method and it worked an absolute treat, rock solid. Just dont breath in too deep when you do this unless you enjoy visiting parallel realities. Its strong stuff. Good fun.

So the general shape was lost but kinda recreated and then back to water.



like watching paint dry.
The sand held up for the most part, I was worried about the bank eroding but we have enough rock and gravel in there apparently.. Will have to watch this.


ANYWAY... tadaaaaaa

The first iteration of this tank is done. It'll be tweaked and improved imensely.
I had no clue what to do with the lighting (separate 20W LED flood lights 65k and 2200 Lumens each) so I grabbed my driftwood and made a lighting tree

Ridiculously over the top and possibly a little contrived, but it works. I can add more plants to it too which it has in its favor.

All the floating plants (Ceratophyylum) or Hornwort, came with the tank and will be a temporary fix while the tank cycles.




You may notice in the next shot that there is no filter.... Thats because the brand new canister i bought gave up on night one. I have subsequently sent it back for testing and possibly replacement. Thus began the next drama...

When I bought the tank I got 2 canisters with it (neither work) 2 submersible pond pumps (only one works and its a monster) and a power head internal filter. The internal seemed to work, this would be fine for a few days..
Enter the next day, power head packs up.
I have one working pump and its a pond pump with what i assume is a 15M head, its ridiculous. I had no choice so I strapped some filter material to the outlet to diffuse the flow, its still ripped out half the plants. By this point I had already put in about 30 shrimp (mostly caridina nilotica) and about 15 locally caught green swords of various sizes. These are invasive in our rivers and are bullet proof for a Fish In cycle.




Wild caught Green Swords



Night light, still needs to be properly set up, but you get the idea.



and after all this drama, I have a new internal filter to run until the canister comes back, it will also then be a reliable backup for the next disaster.

Tannins are starting to show and there is still a bit of murky water, that will be the case until we get the canister back...

And so it starts !

 

Absolutely love it!

Its not a real build thread unless there were multiple mishaps and do overs

I dig the locally collected Swords and shrimp. Spent a fair amount of time down in your green province but wouldn't have a clue where to start looking for guys like that.

No such natural luxuries up in GP that I'm aware of unfortunately. Our rivers are siff lol.

Really enjoyed reading the update, thanks for posting

 

Thanks bud, yeah we are fortunate.
The area I live in is full of conservancy areas and is generally quite naturally sound. Invasive plants and animals are a big issue, due to the climate.

I catch and have caught in the river in the local park. Guppies in there too.

I am hoping to get my hands on some endemic barbs (enteromius gurneyi) from a local breeder. They would be in this same
Local stream were it not for the swords, guppies, etc

 

Minor update.. bashed my clumsy self into the hard scape today and a large piece came off…
Had to drain, re secure and refill, it’s been an all day affair..

This thing is going to keep me busy..

Positive outcome is the water is looking much clearer.

 

Those would look beautiful in there! Hope you come right

 

Looks great...did you water change?

 

Yes, indeed.
With the hardscape issues I’ve had two almost complete refills and one of about 50%

Oddly, the water is slightly hard, I assume due to the river sand and sandstone rocks, also assuming once the plants grow in a bit and the wood does its thing, it’ll soften up a bit. Still totally within safe parameters for the fish I want but not optimum.

 

Took another trip to the local steam after being abroad for about 10 days.
Tank was a bit of a mess, sorted it with a decent water change.
Caught some more wild swords, guppies, crabs, nymphs and a host of invertebrates.

also one mystery fish. Appears to be a cichlid of some sort, I’m assuming tilapia, maybe someone can confirm ?
Shots aren’t great, but I guess if you know, you’ll know.

thanks

 

Ok, no takers for the cichlid.
Sadly it didn’t make it. My canister is leaking so I opened it and found the remains of mystery cichlid and about 20 shrimp. No clue how or why they ended up down there..

Aaanyway. I have added 4 Kribs, 8 endemic barbs (they’re not very exciting to look at but being endemic is pretty cool) and 3 synodontis eupterus (these are an awesome leopard print) but they’re super secretive.

removed the nasty floating plants as I now have some indigenous Lilly’s.
Added a few more Anubia and a little Java moss for texture.

Getting there… slowly

 

Cant beat Kribs in an African tank ! Those barbs are awesome too, hopefully you'll get some spawning action in the tank with that nice sized school you've got

 

Agreed, I may even just go ahead and get some Congos. Was planning to do things differently but there really isn’t a lot of variety round here..

 

Update, Kribensis are absolute predators
Didn’t realise this about them but they have been decimating my shrimp population, just caught them in the act this week but must have been going on for ages.
I didn’t realise they hunted..

good job I have loads of shrimp I guess.