Loach River Tank (Mostly) Complete!

[Icewall42]

Spent 6-7 hours breaking down and draining my 90 gallon, which was in a very bad way. Completely rebuilt it using Martin's manifold design, and voila: brookstream for the clowns! Well, I like to think that's what it is now. What do you think: anything I can do to improve this setup? The pumps are a little underpowered since I don't have hillstreams, so there's a calm spot right in front of the sponges, but that helps the fish that don't want the current.

[Diana]

Have a look at natural streams where the water is flowing pretty fast. The moving water will affect a lot of things.

1) Substrate: Fine material (sand, smallest gravel) gets washed away, leaving coarse gravel and larger pebbles. You could have planting soil under these materials, but it would not show. Plants will grow close to the banks of a stream, where there may be a bit gentler a back water. You can represent this by planting in the back 1/4 or so of the tank, or making a shelf sort of layout.

2) Plants: The fast water movement will destroy the softer plants, and plants that grow upward into the main water flow. Select small plants that stay tight to the rocks and substrate. Dwarf Anubias, smaller Crypts are good. Bolbitis grows best when it is in the strong water flow, so tuck some stems in and around rocks or attach it to a branch. Anything that whips back and forth is not so good.

3) Driftwood has been tumbling down the stream for a while so all of the little twigs have broken off, then it may get lodged between some larger rocks. Use a fairly thick branch without twigs, and set it up so it is anchored upstream, or even anchored at both ends, arching up into the flow, but parallel to the flow.

4) Stone that has been tumbled in the stream will be rounded, and fairly large. I use cobbles as large a 8" diameter in my largest tanks, and ranging down to about 3" for the main structure or layout. I use expanding foam filler to make a sort of retaining wall out of these, as if this is the edge of the stream. Then good plant substrate above, and mixed gravel below. Color is up to you, but I use a blend of soft tans and greys for both the cobbles and pebbles, making it look like they all came from the same source. I have also done a black/charcoal grey/white tank in the same theme. Larger stone will be upstream, and smaller stones will have fallen behind (downstream) of these large ones where the water cannot pick them back up. On the other hand, the swirling water downstream can clean out all the sand and fines.

You can try this in at home. Set up something like a child's wading pool and try different materials: sand, fine gravel, pebbles, cobbles and larger rock. Then add a pump or power head and see what happens to different arrangements. Move the pump around, almost like a gardener would use a leaf blower.

[Icewall42]

Good information to bear in mind--thank you! For now, I'll see if I can pull the taller plants to the back to mimic weedy shallows near the bank, and get more anubias to drop in the front. The wendtiis are old stock from the previous setup, and I don't have another larger freshwater tank for them so they will have to remain. I'll do what I can to find reasonable places for them. I might mix in some sand or finer gravel to the downstream end once things settle. And of course go on a rock hunt for some larger stream cobbles and stones. What would you recommend for driftwood? Right now I've been using regular bogwood. I could use a chunkier or rooty piece, though.... I'm not too worried about tannins since some yellow tint is normal for streams.

[Diana]

The species of wood is not important. The shape is the key. Think about a whole tree or just a branch that falls into a river. As the smaller twigs break off, all that is left is the thickest part. It might have a fork, if it grew strongly while it was alive, but often it is all broken apart, and what you are left with is just a stout trunk, or branch.
It might be irregular in shape, or straight. To me, the straight ones are not artistic enough to use in an aquarium. I prefer twisted, or arching pieces.
It sure could be a trunk-like mass, with perhaps a stout root still attached.

If some large bushes or trees grew on the bank of the stream, then the stream undercut the bank, exposing the roots, this would be another valid way of showing off some nice wood in the tank. The roots from such a tree might go in any direction, but they won't stick out into the water very far- they would have gotten broken off by stuff coming downstream.