30 gal Kuhli Tank (round 2)

[Rychek]

After a few years break from fish keeping, my children have gotten me back into the habit... er, I mean hobby. We started with a 20 gal high tank that housed some neon tetras and a four kuhlis. After a few months of maturing, the tank has been upgraded to a 30 long and several more fish have been added. This tank is not an attempt at a biotope. It is a lower effort attempt so I can teach my children the basics of loach (and other fish) keeping.

The tank is currently filtered by a JBJ Reaction 4 canister filter, but it is prone to leaking (this filter is responsible for my hiatus from fish keeping), so it will be replaced with an Eheim 2213 as soon as the replacement pump clips arrive (later this week). There are four large, fake plants that give cover in most of the tank. I added them right before taking these pics and the Khulis really like them. They have been out a lot more since I added them.

The current loach population consists of the following
8x Pangio Kuhlis (4 large and 4 small)
2x Spotted Swellia

Other fish
Neon Tetras
Glo Tetras (the kids insisted)
BumbleBee Goby
Plecostomus (can't remember which types, but they aren't supposed to get more than 4" in length)
Ghost Shrimp (cleanup and potential snacks)

Here are a few pics I took yesterday

[Rychek]

I hit a snag tonight while getting the Eheim 2213 ready for use. The clip arrived and it installed without a hitch. However, it appears some munchkin or other has removed the O-rings from my Double Tap valves, so both filter hose lines leak (that is what I get for not protecting it better while it was in the garage I guess). I don't want to buy new Double Taps because they are ~$25 per line, which is nearly half the price of a new 2213 filter. Eheim's site doesn't list them in their parts directory either. I'll have to find a source locally, which shouldn't be hard, but with my luck lately it might take a while.

[Diana]

Take the parts to a local hardware store, or plumbing store.
O rings are the same, just make sure they fit. IF you can find the specs of the ones you are missing that will make it easier.

Be prepared to go to several places. The first place will have 10 drawers full of different sizes of O rings, and one empty drawer- where the size you need is usually stocked!

[Rychek]

Out of stock indeed! That tends to be the case for me when I need random or odd items. I think it is a .5" o-ring, but I can take the connector with me fairly easily. It is killing me that the filter is pretty much ready to go. I just need to add some media from the old filter. In the words of Iñigo Montoya, "I hate wait" (when it comes to hardware. I'm learning to be patient with the fishes).

[Rychek]

I got "lucky" today at the hardware store (sort of). I went to Home Depot (closest store of the appropriate type to my house) to get the O-rings I needed. I took the male end of the connector with me for sizing purposes. I found several that fit the groove in the connector, so I bought at box and went home. When I got there, I discovered the ring was too big to fit in the female end of the adapter, so back to HD I went with both halves of the connector. While I was standing in line to return the previous O-rings, I realized I didn't have my wallet (I had taken it out of my pocket when I got home and forgot to pick it back up when I left), so back home I went. I grabbed my wallet, returned to HD, returned the O-rings, found the appropriate sized O-rings (the last box of that size in fact), purchased them and returned home.

All it all it was a very frustrating start to the day. However, I now have a more trustworthy filter on the tank with newly cleaned filter media (as well as a fresh bacteria source) and no leaks. Now I just have to wait for a proper spray bar to arrive (should be here on or before Thursday) as the current return line fittings are for a much larger filter and reduce the flow to a ridiculous level.

[Rychek]

I ended up removing all of the silk plants from my tank today. The edges of the leaves were fraying and I kept finding clumps of enwoven threads floating around, so out they came. Three of the four largest kuhlis came out to see what all of the fuss was about so I enjoyed watching them checkout their new surroundings. It was very relaxing to sit there in front of my tank, watching the kuhlis with Loaches in hand (I was trying to brush up on my loachy knowledge). I was trying to determine if my three large kuhlis are actually pangio kuhli or if I have other species. Anyway you slice it, they have some near patterns on them.

[Rychek]

As can be seen from the post dates in this thread, I have been rather lax in posting updates. This is mostly due to another hiatus from fish keeping due to a vacation that ended in finding my loach tank dark green and all fish dead back in 2016 or 2017 (can't remember for sure now). The 30 long and all associated equipment went into storage and a bit of light went out of my life. However, that all changed yesterday.

After many conversations with my wife about how I would like to do a fish tank again "someday when the kids are older" and while discussing educational opportunities for our children, I half jokingly mentioned that learning how to setup and maintain a fish tank is a great exercise in applied chemistry. I have made this joke/point many times before, but my oldest is now 14 and she is very interested in having a fish tank to learn with. So out came the old 30 long, Eheim 2213 and assorted other accessories that have been in storage for the last several years.

My two youngest (ages 7 and 5) were also very excited and decided they needed to be involved in every step of the process. They helped me leak test the tank (twice), test filter pumps and powerheads as well as inventory the storage bins full of miscellaneous parts. We went to one of my favorite LFS today so the kids could get an idea of the types of fish that are available in our area. They wanted to buy everything in the store, but we didn't even have water in the tank yet, so the youngest was placated with a Betta while the others are being patient. I did get a few essentials like a water test kit and bacteria starter. I need to find someone local to get some bacteria from as well.

At this point I plan to have Khulis in the tank; unless I find some hillstreams locally in which case all of my plans will change.

[Rychek]

Way over due update time:

The 30 long is still alive and kicking. Still populated with Khulis. My youngest insisted on GloFish so we have 9 Glo-Danios (or whatever the official name is these days). I don't have any pics at the moment, but the tank is healthy.

I'm in the process of converting from the cheap blue gravel that came with my first tank kit back in 2007 to black sand. I have a lot of work ahead of me.