Greetings from Norway

[Kairp]

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to stop by and introduce myself after registering here.

34 year old guy from norway here. Been in the aquarium hobby for 20 years or so now, mostly keeping cichlids from all over the world. Currently keeping malawi cichlids, but recently me and the mrs decided it's time to give cichlids a long break.

One thing i've never tried is setting up a proper asian biotope (as much as possible atleast), so we're converting the 190 us gallon living room tank to house asian fish. That means loaches , danios or barbs (or both), and... Well... I'm not sure yet.

Plan so far is:

190 us gallon tank.

Around ph 7, soft to medium water. Planning to go for 77-78 fahrenheit temp in the water.

Medium lighting, water turnover at about 10 times per hour with 2 large powerheads and
2 large external cannister filters.

Lots of rocks, mangrove roots, fine amazon sand and as much plants as i can manage to keep alive.

Was planning to start with 8-10 Botia kubotai and 20-30 danio choprae, but that's all i have planned so far.

Suggestions are always welcome

Anyways... Great to be here, and looking forward to using the site and you all as a
resource to keep my loaches as happy and healthy as possible.

-Kai

[atmichaels]

Welcome! I look forward to seeing pictures of your setup.

[Bas Pels]

Welcome,

With regard to an Asian biotope, you could restrict eventual plants to Asian ones. That would help

No Echionodorus, but Cryptocorynes, for instance

[Kairp]

Yeah will be aiming to keep plants from asia only. I've been thinking lots of different cryptocorynes, java fern, java moss, a couple other fern types i can't remember the name of, and perhaps even some hygrophilia or aponogeton types. Still have some plant research to do though.

As i already have the tank set up with fine sand, and i am not planning to take out the sand to add soil or fertilizer under the sand, and in addition not planning to have too much light, my options for plants may be a bit limited.

I will be adding fertilizer to the water with each water change. Probably iron supplement and some general plant fertilizer for aquarium plants.

[Bas Pels]

personally, I don't believe in liquid fertilizer. I use a good soil, and that is it.

The plants - mostly coming from a swamp - don't take up nutrients with their leaves, only real aquatic plants do that. THe only real aquatic plants on your list are Aponogetons, and I wonder whether they do it - after all they all come from rich soils.

Talking about Aponogeton - I did try finding plants from Asia, but I could only find A crispus and plants from Madegascar - which I did not seek Hope you got better luck

[Kairp]

Ah i see. Thanks for the insight.

Will have to do some reading to see if there is any need for liquid fertilizer at all. I was under the impression that all the plants in my list took atleast some nutrition from the water. Especially java fern and moss since they're not planted, but attached to rocks\wood.

[Bas Pels]

I overlooked these, but your fish will provide fertiliser too

As a matter of fact, I have a few very nice pieces of moss, in one tank 2/3 of the whole bottom is covered with it - 10 cm hiegh or more

without any fertiliser

[redshark1]

Hi Kairp and welcome aboard!

I am envious of your huge one and of the marvellous opportunity it presents.

I hope you end up with something very satisfying that you can be proud of.

In my opinion of course there is nothing you can do better than keep Clown Loaches in such an aquarium!

[Kairp]

Thanks redshark. I was considering clowns for a while, but me and the mrs decided we wanted something smaller in the tank, that we could provide much room for and as natural behaviour as possible, even when fully grown.

Regarding plants, it seems there is lots of aponogeton from asia. Most of all in southern india and sri-lanka, but after some thought i might skip the aponogeton due to light conditions. It seems they need much more lighting, and bottom soil for results.

I'm planning to stick to my current lights, which is 4x39w T5. It sums to about 0,25w per litre of water, which is good for crypts, fern, moss and such. Not so much for the rest.

I was writing a list yesterday of what fishes i was planning to put it, and what good candidates were, and funnily enough, the best candidates seem to be from the same country all of them, which is Myanmar (Burma).

So far i am thinking :

10 Botia Kubotai
30 Danio Choprae
5-6 Crossocheilus siamensis
10 Garra flavatra

And then the tank should be almost set. Perhaps some Acanthocobitis or some other relatively small and peaceful loach. The tank is supposed to be a loach tank though, so i have to be able to squeeze atleast something more in there.

[Kairp]

First picture of the tank. The humble beginnings.

The picture is showing the tank to be way too bright. In reality it's pretty dark... substrate as well.

At the moment containing 6 different types of cryptocorynes, some java moss and a couple of patches of freswater kelp. Now to let it all grow nice and dense, aswell as getting some large bushes of different fern types to attach to the roots.

Inhabitants are for now 4 Crossocheilus siamensis, 2 Sicyopterus Longifilis and a handful of Cherry barbs. Waiting for 10-15 more cherry barbs, and in a month or two , 10 or so of Botia Kubotai or Botia Striata.

[redshark1]

Wow, that rock overhang looks good! I hope it can't move LOL!

[Kairp]

Thanks.

It's actually hollow and fastened to the side with silicone. The entire stone module is filled with sand and oak leaves , so the fish can swim in and out of it as they wish. There's a similar stone module on the opposite side of the tank aswell, but a bit smaller. Also filled with sand and leaves.

The entire background wall is also open for the fishes to move back and forth. About 7-8 inches of space in the background aswell, with very very dim lighting, water surface covered with floating plants. The fishes can move freely in and out through two large holes on the bottom of the wall, on each end of the tank.

[redshark1]

That sounds very interesting. Lets hope it works out in practice! Could make for a wonderful aquarium to watch (hope you gotta lotta time on your hands or no TV!).