What did I build now? updated Dec.1.2008

[Vancmann]

Ok, so that is the coolest setup I have seen in a while. You really have fun with this, don't ya chefkeith! I tried a similar setup with my river dam tank but without the misters and my ferns soon dried up. Your's is like a complete eco system or thats where its heading. Will you ever put loaches in there?

[chefkeith]

Vancmann- Thanks.
There are 6 Kuhli loaches in there now and I have a tiny clown loach that I'm thinking about putting in there also. I've had this tiny clown for about 2 years and it's still only about 1" long. He's probably stunted and at the bottom of the pecking order. If I put him in this tank I would think he bulk up quickly with all the snails and shrimp to eat. It would be lonely for him though, which is why I haven't done this yet. I'd have to atleast give him 1 playmate. The snails/shrimp won't be happy then.

[Vancmann]

Yea, they get lonely easily especally when they are that little. But a short vacation from the pecking chain might do some good. He might even lead a kuhli clan. I would vote you put the little guy in there but observe him carefully, If he is active and gains weight (size) all is well. If he act listless, slow, just sits around and gets skinnier, hopefully he is removed before then. Should be easy to remove him. Keep us posted.

[chefkeith]

4 days ago, I moved the 2 smallest clown loaches to the paludarium.

I think they are extremely unhappy about the move. They seem to be panicked and are constantly looking for a waterbridge so that they can rejoin their family.

The hundreds of MTS that were always visable in tank have completely disappeared also. They must feel threatened by the clown loaches, so they burrowed underneath the gravel.

I'm going to try to move the pair of clowns back over to the main tanks ASAP. I don't know how I'm going to catch them though. There are about 25 pieces of driftwood that they can hide under.

[shari2]

were I you, knowing that there is nothing in the tank that could harm them, and that clowns are creatures of habit and crowds, i might give them 5 days and see if they get over their fears.

I feel for you trying to move them out of there. That would be stressfull all the way around. It seems natural to me that they would panic at first. They are little, removed from their buds and known territory. But you know they're safe and given a few days, they may settle in nicely.

Just a thought.

[Vancmann]

I agree with Shari 100%

Regarding the move back if you decide to and I did think a little about it when I did my first post. Hopefully there are not too many nice caves in the driftwoods, you may want to set a trap. A piece of removable home such as a bamboo, PVC pipe, deep dark bottle (wide mouth!) or something that might make them feel safe inside can be placed in the tank then removed with them presumably inside.

[crazy loaches]

I'm going to try to move the pair of clowns back over to the main tanks ASAP. I don't know how I'm going to catch them though. There are about 25 pieces of driftwood that they can hide under.

I've never had to catch my loaches yet, but often times I see this posted in various forums: Bottle trap not sure how big the loaches are, if too big for a 2l bottle opening I suppose you could try a 3l.

[chefkeith]

I tried the bottle trap last night. It filled up with snails and shrimp, instead of loaches. I'll be very busy these next 6 days, so I won't have time for catching them. They'll stay put for another week atleast.

[crazy loaches]

I tried the bottle trap last night. It filled up with snails and shrimp, instead of loaches. I'll be very busy these next 6 days, so I won't have time for catching them. They'll stay put for another week atleast.

Yeah that would probably happen. But hey... wait a little longer, a bottle full of trapped snails and shrimp... how could a loach resist!

[chefkeith]

After about 1 month, the plants are looking better. The Ivy seems to be growing at a rate of about 6" per month length wise. The Heartleaf Philodendron's look like they are getting ready to take off.


The Heartleaf roots are growing like crazy. The roots have grown downwards submerged all the way down to the gravel, which is about 10" from the surface where they started. I can't get good pic's of them because they are behind all the driftwood.


And the highlight of this post is that the peace lily is starting to flower.

The flower is pressing up against the dome. To bad there isn't more room for it to blossom. I'm going to need to find a solution for this. My 1st guess is that I'll need to modify or build a new hood. I have plenty of free time this week for such a project. Off to the drawing board.


On the subject of the clown loaches. I haven't seen much of them for a few weeks. I saw one of them Today, but I haven't seen both of them at the same time since they were in panic mode. I'll let them sulk for awhile longer.

[shari2]

Ah, the jungle blooms.

Lovely.

[chefkeith]

I recently pulled all the driftwood out so that I could catch the clowns to put them back in the rivertank. The clowns didn't grow much, but they did grow a little. They probably weren't too happy about being in this tank for about 6 months. I only saw them a handful of times during their time spent in the paludarium. They are probably much happier now being back with the rest of the clowns.

Anyways, the emersed plants have grown since December. I removed the Peace Lily though because it didn't really fit with the tank. Here's a recent pic of the tank.




Another thing I changed is that I upgraded the white trash bag dome to real light diffusers. The diffusers work much better.

[Graeme Robson]

Superb!!

[Tinman]

I had another episode with my incoming water. This may be the way to go to address the city water. What do you think about In this first then timed into the main system? I lost 3 Hymenophsa and a Beauforti and a Botia berdmorei the other day after work ,It looked like someone sprayed Windex in ,I was mad .I sprayed in water conditioner and saved several others as they where gasping all osmotic.. I must temper the water before introduction into the ststem and am thinking of adding a 150 gallon like this and letting it set in there a week with a plant load and super low fish load ,then dumping that in my system weekly...What do you think after using this now?????????????

[chefkeith]

That sounds like a good idea.

I have a few hundred pounds of driftwood in this tank which I think helps soften the water. Only drawback is the driftwood produces a lot of silt, which is good for the plants if it stayed on the bottom, but it needs to be removed mechanically if it gets into the water column.

Right now the water leaves this paludarium through an overflow to another sump tank where it then gets mechanically filtered. The mechanical filters didn’t work well in the paludarium because the cherry shrimp would always get stuck in the filter pads that I’m using.

This 2nd sump collects loose silt on its bottom. Since the sump is bare bottom it’s easy to see and get the silt out with a wet/dry shop vac or python gravel vac.
Pic of silt gathering up in sump-


This is working nicely for me. There is far less work for me now. I've reduced my water changes from daily to about 2 -3 times per week also. The water bill was getting crazy from the daily mist/fog/drip water changes. The nitrates are a little higher now; up to about 20-30 ppm. The plants don't use much nitrates though probably because I don't use much lighting. I got to watch the electricity bill too.