Loaches Online Forum

It's still ugly, so I've been reluctant to post anything, but I'm excited about the progress, so here goes!

I'm working on a new tank to upgrade my six pangios (myers, kuhli, oblonga assortment). It's a 40 breeder. I'd posted a couple of times as I tried to figure out what to do for substrate, and ended up going with Diana's idea of a rock wall, with sand in front and eco-complete in back. The sand is a mixture of natural colored pool filter sand, and black estes sand that came with the used tank. The rock wall is flat river rock from a local landscape supply, and I used waterfall foam to fill in the cracks (that stuff is messy!)

Here's the substrate in place:



I ordered plants on line, and used some of what I already had. Narrow leaf java fern on the rocks, and then various crypts and lotus in the back. The plants are quite new, and I'm still not sure if I got sent the right ones! I think they're still in their emersed form, so we'll have to see what they actually grow into. I was trying to go for crypt wendtii. Whatever they are, I'm very anxious to get the CO2 system set up (hopefully tomorrow), and get lots of growth. It's all very sparse right now, but they're so expensive! I had to skimp so I could splurge on the CO2. Hopefully it'll pay off

The wood is manzanita, and I just added the piece on the right today. I'm not too happy with it yet, and it wont sink yet so there's a rock holding it down, which is making things look worse.



No fish in there yet - I want to have it very established before i start that. There are four cherry shrimp holding down the fort til then.

This has been a bigger project than i had envisioned at the beginning! One afternoon, I looked around the kitchen, and it struck me how far gone we really are! The number of random items that have gotten repurposed or taken over by aquarium-related activities is quite staggering. So of course, I took some pictures.

So just for fun, here's a tour of our kitchen. I swear this was not staged in any way









And that's just one day, one room! It's no wonder we don't have people over

Anyway, back to the tank - I'll hopefully have better pictures to post once I get the driftwood sorted and the plants grown in a bit. I'm always anxious that my new projects are going to fall apart

I really appreciate all the encouragement I've gotten here - whether it was to me directly, or in a million other posts. Thank you!

Very, very nice. I see a lot of hard work there. You did a really great job.

Rayburn

I love it! Great post as I am sure most of us have had days when our kitchen looked similar to that...I have tanks in every room of my house except the bathroom so my whole house is like that! LOL! Very brave of you to expose the fish keepers secret tools of the trade (toothbrushes, pots, good towels etc) LOL!

Tammy

Great post!!

Your tank is just lovely. I really like the rock wall, and I love the driftwood...that piece on the left, especially.
I loved the tour of your kitchen; I'd feel right at home there.

zmo, if you don't mind me giving a little criticism in your setup, the plants and wood look great in a natural way but the wall to me has been done like a man made structure, there's nothing random like you would see in nature.
otherwise i think your pangios are going to love it.

mick

looks very nice

Thanks, everyone!

mickthefish, I absolutely love criticism, and I think you're right in your assessment. I'm just not sure how to make it look more natural - any ideas? Honestly, I wasn't going for a biotope look with this one, because it didn't seem possible, and I wanted to try something different. So it's leaning more towards 'aquatic garden,' and I'm ok with that. As long it doesn't end up looking like a bad aquatic garden, and it still gives the kuhli's the things they need.

My hope is that the narrow leaf java fern will grow to cover the rocks entirely (I'm going to try to get some more of it to speed the process), and it'll look like a bank of foliage spilling onto a sandy area. Hopefully the plants grow better than I can explain it There was an amano-scape in one of last year's issues of The Aquatic Gardener that has the same concept, so I've seen how something similar can look... just not sure how this one will look!

seriously, if you have suggestions, I'm open. The rock wall is glued down, but I can add to it, or cover it quite easily.

The tank is looking really nice. The plant growth will hide the 'unnatural' shape of the rock wall, don't change it.
The manzanita is nice wood, lots of angles and branching. I see what you mean about the rock holding it down, sort of looks like the rare species 'Tree Climbing Rock'.
Your kitchen is a lot neater than mine!

Love the bottle of Prime at the ready, with the usual kitchen sink stuff.

Tank looks great! Keep us updated!


Kate

Excellent stuff, zmo63. How about adding a few more cobbles either side of the wall here and there, so it distracts the eye from the 'line' a little more. I do think it will be a lot less noticeable once the plants fill out though.

Diana wrote: Your kitchen is a lot neater than mine!

And mine, believe me!

Emma

I like that idea, Emma! It seems so obvious when you say it

As for the kitchen, give us time! We've only been at this a few years, and we have way fewer tanks than you two!

Thanks again everyone for your compliments. Even if it doesn't turn out quite like I envision, I've been learning a lot setting up this tank, and it's so much fun on top of it.

ZM063,
Absolutely love the tank. Wish I could find some wood like you have.
anybody in Scotland know a shop that sells it would much appreciate a nod.
Again super layout.

Brian ive been thinking mate,
we probably won't get that type of wood in the UK,
why not go to your local garden centre see if they have any of this plant with a decent amount of growth and buy it, once home kill it and strip all the growth of leaving the root system and part of the trunk.
i know it will take time but thats the only solution i can come up with.

i'm thinking of doing it and i think it would be cheaper than buying the wood from the shop.

mick

Manzanita is hard to find marketed for aquariums (at least around here - probably more common out west), but it's all over the place as parrot perches. Weird that it hasn't become more widespread. I did end up finding these pieces at a LFS, but http://manzanita.com/ is supposed to be good. Not sure if they ship internationally though.

Sorry America is hoarding its wood

Zmo, i love your tank and your kitchen. it looks abit like my kitchen at the moment, much to Tom's dismay. if he sees your photos, he will accuse LOLof encouraging me

are the parrot perches markes as being manzanita? i hadnt thought of looking in the other pet sections for fish wood. it does look so good