Loach project.

[Tinman]

[Dutch]

The project has been put on hold. Yesterday during the filling of the tank the glass started to curve, not by much (a shift of 3mm in the middel), but I'm taking no chances. Next week the builder will come and check the tank. A bit of a set-back, but I'm sure that it will be fixed.

Anyway, before that all happened I had been playing around with a few new stones and some new wood.

[brett_fishman]

is there a brace on the tank? any tank longer than 4' should have a brace to stop bowing, unless its it super thick glass

hopfully it'll be an easy fix of simply siliconing a glass strip in the middle of the top

[Mark in Vancouver]

Looks stunning, Dutch. I can't wait to see it stocked. I bet you can't either!

[Dutch]

Thanks Mark! Yes, I hope we can sort out the problems soon enough. It just looks plain sad without even any water in it.

Brett, it does have a brace. That's what's so strange. The tank is only a fraction over 4' and has a 4" wide glass strip down the middle. It looks like the silicone was not yet fully dry, although it was dry enough to keep the curve in the glass even now that it's empty. They finished the tank five weeks early, so maybe they just rushed a bit too much.

[Dutch]

Okay, I admit it... I was probably a bit too paranoid about seeing a 100 gallon river flowing through my livingroom. The builder came and found it was one of the finishing strips that had probably shifted during the work I did (or I simply didn't notice it earlier). It made it look like the glass was curving, but measuring on the inside of the tank instead of the outside proved the tank itself was still perfect.

Lucky I have a good sense of humor or I wouldn't dare show my face in that shop again.

[Dutch]

Finally some water! (Yes, still dirty. But we're getting there.)

[Godfather]

Looks good! Nice piece of wood you have

Cool to see other Dutch ppl on this forum

[Dutch]

Thanks! The wood is actually several pieces placed to look like one piece.

Welcome here, by the way! Are you Dutch too? Where are you from?

[mickthefish]

hey Dutch i hope youve got the Anubias ready for them pieces of wood mate.
look foreward to seeing the tank once the waters cleared.

mick

[Dutch]

I haven't done a lot of thinking yet on what plants to get, Anubias is a good idea. I've also found someone who was able to identify the plants in the Siamensis.org pictures, Pogostemon helferi (Downoi). I'm thinking about those as well. Also possible is Microsorium and Vallisneria, but I'm not yet fully informed on the plant options.

I hope the water clears soon, I have no idea how long that takes. Seems to be clearing only very slowly.

[brett_fishman]

i had the same problem in my 70g, mostly cloudy from the gravel (said pre-washed, so i didnt rinse it) and it wouldnt become clear from using filter floss, so i tried putting a pouch of carbon in the filters, and it cleared up in a couple hours, then took it out when it was perfectly clear and it hasnt gone cloudy since

[Dutch]

Thanks for the advice. I've put some carbon in it, but it hasn't had much effect yet. I think that might be due to the filter. The bags don't fit in properly so much of the water can flow past them. I'll see what happens.

[Godfather]

Ah well, it will take some time maybe. At least it took some time in my tank. You have a nice aquarium! I like the built-in filter. It has quite a large surface in this way, hasn't it?

I'm from Eindhoven btw

[Dutch]

Thanks!
I think the carbon is working. It's still not very fast, but I can see it clear up already so it shouldn't be too long before it's clear.

The internal filter is a design I picked up at a Dutch Cichlid forum. Mine is 30 liters of total volume and 15 liters of filtermaterial. I think that's about double of most external filters. Plus my pump is a 1500 l/h, so it gives a nice flow and I can fit the heater in there as well. Keeps the tank nice and clean.

Hey that's nice, I was born in Veldhoven and lived there until about three years ago. (I moved to Nijmegen because of my studies.)

Got my first plants today. Pogostemon helferi (Downoi) and Microsorium on wood. I will probably get some Vallisneria next week and keep it at that for a while.