River tank underway

[Mad Duff]

I made a start today on the river tank by building the manifold system, the manifold is made using 20mm upvc piping and joints:



I havnt got round to drilling the uprights for the sponges yet, either that or I may try and use a couple of old eheim water intake strainers that I have lying around.

This is the aquarium that I am using:


Manifold in place:


Power head switched on:


Next job is to add gravel until it covers the manifold and wait for the pieces of bogwood to arrive that I have just ordered off Ebay and find plenty of pebbles and cobbles.

The power head is giving a good flow and adding plenty of oxygen to the water, I will be altering the outlet of the power head slightly to make sure no one tries to swim inside.

[Mark in Vancouver]

At last! Assimilation! Looks like a good set up, but what size powerhead are you using? I found that the Aquaclear filter canisters and sponge inserts fit perfectly over the intake tubes on my set up. These are designed for use with the powerheads, and the manifold just fits nicely in between.

[Graeme Robson]

Looking good!

[Jim Powers]

Welcome to the collective!
Now what will be going into this tank?

[Mad Duff]

At last! Assimilation! Looks like a good set up, but what size powerhead are you using? I found that the Aquaclear filter canisters and sponge inserts fit perfectly over the intake tubes on my set up. These are designed for use with the powerheads, and the manifold just fits nicely in between.

Thanks for the advice Mark, I cant remember the exact size of the powerhead but I think it was rated for a 20 - 25 gallon tank and this one is around 16 gallon, is it possible to have to much flow as far as hillies are concerned ?, it does have another outlet that has a flow restrictor on it so if I use that I can slow the flow a bit.

Welcome to the collective!
Now what will be going into this tank?

Thanks Jim, hopefully either a trio of Sewellia Lineolata or a trio of P. Cheni or both

Cheers Graeme

[Emma Turner]

Excellent, another candidate for some of my baby Sewellia lineolata! I've got quite a number growing on in the baby tank which will be ready in a few months time.

Emma

[Mark in Vancouver]

I would run the powerhead at maximum flow. It has been said recently by some wise person here that you can't create too much flow for hillstream loaches. I think I was running 2 302's on my river tank as well as a large 502 HOB filter, so there was really substantial flow happening. The brook loaches loved it, and the few hillstreams I kept mainly hung out in the outflow current. Just remember that you want the water to be moving as fast as you can get it to go.

Looking forward to more photos!

[Martin Thoene]

Another child (wipes tear from eye)

Did you fix the intake tubes into the manifold? If not, you might want to cross-drill them like in my photos:

http://www.loaches.com/articles/river-t ... old-design

It increases the intake area while reducing the concentration of all the suction in one area if you just haver an open-ended pipe like your photos.

Martin.

[Mad Duff]

Thanks Emma that would be great, I think that once this is up and running I may end up converting either a 32 gallon or a 44 gallon to a river tank as well, I think the bug has well and truly bitten

Thanks for the advice Mark, I have to admit when I first switched on the powerhead I got a shock at the amount of flow but after a couple of minutes I could almost imagine the Hillies swimming into it and really enjoying it. I also have a small internal power filter above and behind the powerhead that returns through a small spray bar that is about 1" above water level so there is a substantial flow in there

The intake tubes are not fixed Martin, I am going out today to get sponges and I may end up swapping the intakes for some external filter intake strainers if not I will have the fun job of drilling them

[Dave_2133]

Looking good so far mad Duff.

[Mad Duff]

Cheers Dave

I got some filter sponges today as well as a couple of bags River Stones, not bad for 99p each.


I was wondering this morning whether or not to change the centre cross pipe on the manifold to one that runs the full length of the manifold from between the intake pipes upto the powerhead, does anybody have any thoughts

[Graeme Robson]

Mark, I was thinking on that last night. Wondering if there's any advantage or need for it. Personally i would go for it and change it. With the full length pipe, you would receive better turn-a-around. The cross pipe may restrict a smother/faster turn over.

[Mad Duff]

Mark, I was thinking on that last night. Wondering if there's any advantage or need for it. Personally i would go for it and change it. With the full length pipe, you would receive better turn-a-around. The cross pipe may restrict a smother/faster turn over.

Cheers Graeme thats exactly what I was thinking, I was wondering if water traveling up either side would try and draw water from the other side through the centre pipe and slow the flow (if you can understand that ).

[Graeme Robson]

Understand i do

[Mad Duff]

I changed the layout of the pipe work yesterday and there does seem to be an increase in flow produced by the powerhead, so do think that the cross pipe was causing some sort of conflict with the flow.

This is what it looks like now:


I also had a run out to a small trout stream that I frequent in the summer and got some nice stones from the stream, all have algae on them and 3 even have some streamer weed on also attached to the rocks were some freshwater shrimp