New River Tank progress

[killforfood]

The LFS had their big sale last weekend so I picked up this 75 gallon tank for $89.
I’ve already built the manifold and am using the same pond pump prefilters as on the practice 55 gallon tank.


For filtration I’m using the large AquaClear 110 (formerly 500). I tried this pipe layout first but modified it to the less busy layout in the picture that follows.


I like this better as its not as much clutter on the back wall as the first design.



I still need to fiddle with the pipe lengths so that it lines up properly with the filter inlet and I also need to add a coupling for the filter inlet to connect to but other than that it’s done.




I’m having some trouble finding true T8 end caps for my DIY lighting. Most of what I see offered online are T12 end caps modified with rubber spacers to fit the smaller T8’s.
This defeats the advantage of the slimmer T8’s and limits my ability to make a tighter lighting package.
I may just have to bite the bullet and buy a ready made light assembly. They do have some very attractive looking 4 tube T5 lights but ouch, the cost!!

For now my new tank languishes on the living room floor and serves as a collection bin waiting for me to acquire the final pieces to the puzzle. The old computer desk in the background will serve as my poor mans tank stand but needs some reinforcing first.



My wife has agreed to let me set this up in the living room but I don’t think she’s going to like those “little gray fish that just sit on the bottom and do nothing”. My challenge will be to find some big showy dither fish that she will enjoy but that can tolerate the current of a river tank. She likes Angel fish but I think that’s a poor choice.

I’ll keep you posted,
Joel.

[Whitey_MacLeod]

Looking good
For dithers I'd suggest some medium sized barbs. Redline torpedo barbs would be my choice, but there's lots of others which should do well in a high-flow tank.

[killforfood]

Yah, I like the Redlines also but for some reason the the LFS's are charging $15 to $30 each. Whats up with that

[Mark in Vancouver]

Cool. I look forward to seeing it fill up...

[Graeme Robson]

Very nice!

Set it up and see what you have to offer for the potential fish.

[Jim Powers]

I think that once you get this up and running, those "little gray fish that just sit on the bottom and do nothing" will be running around all over the place.
In this kind of set up, hillstreams are very active and entertaining. Plus, if you can get sewellia lineolata, P. cheni, or any of the various gastromyzons, there will be more color than gray.
Keep the pics coming!!!

[Emma Turner]

kff has well and truly got the hillstream bug! Looking forward to seeing more pics once it is all up and running. I'd suggest some of the beautiful species of Danio such as D. sp. 'hikari' or D. choprai as dithers.

Emma

[Mark in Vancouver]

Has anyone set up a 75 gallon hillstream tank? I had my 65 set up nearly the same way as this, and the brook loaches loved it, but I had a very hard time keeping true hillstreams. They did far better in my 20g long tank.

I wonder if the depth of a tank like this is better suited to brook loaches...

Any thoughts?

[Mad Duff]

Has anyone set up a 75 gallon hillstream tank? I had my 65 set up nearly the same way as this, and the brook loaches loved it, but I had a very hard time keeping true hillstreams. They did far better in my 20g long tank.

I wonder if the depth of a tank like this is better suited to brook loaches...

Any thoughts?

I am wondering if one of the reasons I lost my cheni was the size of the tank, they were going great in the 21 gallon but just didnt seem to settle in the 45 gallon tank. The Sewellia's are fine as are the Gastro's and A. zolternans but the cheni just didnt seem to like it for what ever reason

I have had problems with some of my Barbs and Rasboras moving from 75 gallon tanks into the 250 gallon tank as well, they go in fine but within a couple of days they dont look happy and the stop eating but move them back to the smaller 75 gallon tank and they are fine

Nice looking Rivertank Joel, cant wait to see it up and running

[Emma Turner]

My hillstream loaches all seem to be thriving, but as yet, have seen no evidence of them continuing their regular spawning since they were moved from this aquarium of odd dimensions:

36" long x 15" wide x 26" high (230 litres/60.76 US gal)


To this:

47.2" long x 15.7" wide x 19.7" high (239 litres/63.14 US gal)




Emma

[killforfood]

Emma,
Those tanks both look great! I'm especially impressed with the amount of plant growth that you've achieved. Could you please share some of the details for achieving such lush growth? Do you add fertilizer, Co2, and what about lighting? I'm still up in the air on lights. Originally I intended to make my own light hood using four overdriven T8 fluorescents but I'm not happy with the choice of end caps that are available (their too big and bulky). I'm probably going to save up and pay the big bucks for a four tube T5 fixture with moon lights. The T5's are 54 watts each for a total of 216 watts. If that's a bit much, I have the option of putting the individual tubes on timers and only illuminate all four for a few hours of noonday sun.
Also I was quite pleased that you included driftwood in your decor. I wasn't sure if driftwood was appropriate for hillstreams but I'm happy to see that both of your tanks have big beautiful specimens (if Emma does it, its gospel). Now I can use some of the driftwood that I collected without the worry of somebody saying “Yah, it’s a nice tank but why did you put driftwood with Hillstreams? Because Emma did it, its gospel .
I can’t get too worried about tank size, it is what it is. I can only give them the best environment I’m capable of and hope they get jiggy with it. It’s always preached that bigger is better and would seem odd that a fish would prefer a smaller tank. It’s hard to know all the hows and whys of fish and probably for good reason, if we knew all their odd quirks, aquariums would be boring.
Thanks for sharing your tank photos with me. I needed the inspiration. Things are proceeding way to slowly lately and I needed the lift .
Thanks, Joel.

[Emma Turner]

Joel, thank you so much for the flattering comments, but I really am relatively new to the hillstream part of loach keeping. I've kept Botiid species for a long time, but it wasn't until early 2005 (if I remember correctly) that I set up my first hillstream tank in line with Martin's excellent manifold design. There are many people on this board who have far more experience than myself with river tanks and hillstream loaches.

I honestly don't do anything special for the plants. The lighting is 2 x 42" Hagen Powerglo bulbs which are on for 10 hours per day. I add no fertilisers and dose no CO2. The nutrient levels in the water are low too, I do plenty of small frequent water changes with RO which keeps nitrates below 10ppm and I add shed loads of Rowaphos phosphate absorbing media into the filter on a regular basis. I have found that the only plants I can actually grow in the substrate in this situation are the Cryptocoryne balansae (see pic below), the Anubias and Java moss were both originally tied onto the bogwood with cotton.

Below shows the tank when it was set up a couple of months ago, compared to how it looks now (2nd pic taken just a few mins ago). You can see how well the Cryptocorynes are doing and was actually a pleasant surprise when I compared how it looks right now with the pics from August:

3rd August


Today - 14th October


Emma

[killforfood]

Emma,
Thanks for the name of the beautiful crypts. I've often read that Anubias, Java fern and Java moss are good Hillstream plants but that Crypts are not a good choice. I saw those in your tank and said "man I have to ask her what those are". I'm guessing that the Cryptocoryne balansae are able to withstand the heavy currents because of their slender leaves. I have a dozen or so random crypt bulbs that I bought for cheap and may just throw them in there to see what comes up. I can always put them in a calmer better lit tank if they don't like it.
The 2 x 42" Hagen Powerglo bulbs only put out 80 total watts. I'm surprised that you're able to get such good growth with just over 1 watt per gallon. That tells me that two or three T5's would be plenty of light @ 54 watts each. Being as how we want to grow algae I may just stick with a four tube light fixture and tone it down to two or three tubes if things get out of hand.
Thanks again for the beautiful tank pictures. These are the things that inspirations are made of.
Joel.