Loach Island 2.0 for the river tank

[chefkeith]

I tested the Drylok..
Test results-

Scratch test 1: passed (plastic blade)
Scratch test 2: passed (steel blade)
Scratch test 3: passed (plastic blade on wet surface)
Scratch test 4: failed (steel blade on wet surface)

Impact test 1: passed (rubber hammer)
Impact test 2: passed (steel hammer)

The Drylok passed impact tests with flying colors. I hit it a dozen times in the same spot continuously with a steel hammer and there was no chipping or cracking of any sort.

The scratch test also had good results. The surface resisted scratches from a plastic blade to the point where the plastic was actually wearing off of blade. The Drylok didn't resist the steel blade completely. When scratched dry it passed, but when the Drylok was scratched wet it failed. It didn't fail miserable though. I had to scratch it several times to get through the 2 layers of Drylok.

I'll do a water chemistry test next.

[chefkeith]

The Drylok passed the water chemistry test.

I set the drylok pvc cave in 1 gallon of 80F aerated water, with a pH 7.04 and TDS 54 and then waited 32 hours. The pH went down just slightly to 6.97, the TDS went up 72 ppm though, and the water was very sudsy. I must not of rinsed off the paint brush good enough. In between coats I cleaned the brush with dish soap and water. So the soap must of got mixed in with the Drylok. Lesson learned.

I changed the water and redid the test. The initial pH was 6.95 and TDS was 47 ppm. Waited 44 hours, finished with a pH of 7.08 and a TDS of 47 ppm. The water wasn't sudsy this time either.

The water I was using wasn't very pH stable. It was mostly RO water with a TDS of 5 ppm mixed with some tank water that has a 150 ppm TDS and a kH of 4. So I was quite impressed with how steady the pH stayed in both tests. As for the TDS increase in the 1st test, apparently whatever leached into the water only leached out during that 1st 32 hour test,

I'm giving Drylok the green light in this project. I'll probably draw out another blueprint, then starting building this tomorrow.

[chefkeith]

I started to mock up the Island yesterday. I'm building two 3 foot long islands that will butt together. I'm going to build just one a time.

The 1st thing I did was cut 2 pieces of 4" pvc pipe to a length of 3 feet long.


Then I cut one of pipes into half pipes with a jig saw and marked the holes I wanted for the caves.


Then I cut out the cave openings with the jig saw. This new island will have a cave openings on all 4 sides. The opening on the right will be where the 2 islands butt together, that's why I only cut out half of a hole.


Next I got out the Hardibacker Backerboard. This is 1/4" fiberglass reinforced cement board used for wet floor, wall, and counter top applications. It comes in 3' x 5' sheets.


I cut out a 10" x 36" piece that I'll use as the bottom of the island


Then I cut out a 15" x 36" and this will be the back wall of the island.


Then I set up the half pipes about where they'll be cemented into place later on.



A 10" x 36" piece of cement board will go on top of the cave. I'll cut some holes into this later so that there will be a few vertical cave outlets.


Now I'm back to the planning stage and trying to figure out how I'm going to incorporate driftwood into this. I think the driftwood will just be attached to the island with wooden dowels. They will be used just as decoration pieces and not have any structural significance. There will be more cement board used in the sides and in the front and I'll have to cut them so that they'll fit the contours of the driftwood. Hopefully it will look like tree roots sticking out of a river bank when it's constructed.




All in all, I think I got a good head start on this. I wasn't planning on starting this until after X-mas. I still have a lot to think about, like exactly how I'm going to make this a sturdy solid structure. I'm not sure that it will even have a plant box on top anymore.

[Sue Tegland]

ChiefKeith, I believe lysimachia will grow out and then down, if you are still looking for a plant that will trail....it seems to grow either in or out of water.
I can't speak to your wonderful-looking plans, as I've never undertaken such a project, but more power to you!

[chefkeith]

Thanks Sue. What species of Lysimachia?

I looked at Lysimachia Nummularia (Creeping Jenny) in my aquarium plants encyclopedia, but it says that they are cold water plants.
I need a plant for 80 - 84F water. Deciding on a plant or plants has been the most troublesome thing for me. I just can't make up my mind. I might even go with floating type plants that can just live on egg crate near the surface of the water, like riccia fluitans or java moss.
Another plant I was thinking about was Micranthemum Umbrosum because it can be used as an submerged, floating, or bog plant.

Now I'm thinking maybe there should be a few different areas for plants, so that I can keep bog plants, floating plants, and underwater plants. Now that's a real good idea.

Thankyou very much once again. You sure did help get the ball rolling on the plant ideas.

[mistergreen]

oh, just thought of something.
Try java moss, or any of the 'aquatic' mosses... They do very well in a bog situation as well. They don't have stem systems, so they'll actually go down into water.

And Riccia as well.
http://brianstropicals.com/building.html
this was posted in the fw forum.

[Keith Wolcott]

The island looks very nice. Your project is a very interesting.

[andyroo]

It also looks massive- remind me how big the tank is?
A

[chefkeith]

Thanks Mistergreen. I think I'll try both of them.
Thanks Keith.

andyroo- The tank is 8ft x 2ft x 16" high. This new island will actually be smaller than the current island that I built about 2 years ago.

Here's apic of the old one-

[Sue Tegland]

Keith--my experience with L. nummularia is that it does fine even up to 100 degrees. I've had it in all situations around outside, from full sun, where it blooms well, to shade, where it grows longer strands.

But I can't tell you from experience about how it would do in an aquarium at 80+ degrees. I'd think it would be fine at least for a while, and due to its propensity to put out roots, it should be fine for quite a while. I'm thinking of putting some in my tank (80 degrees) and seeing what happens. Will let you know, if my outdoor specimen hasn't frozen beyond all repair, and I get some going in the tank.....

But your other choices sound good too. You're right, a little of everything would be good fun--you can experiment as it may be an experiment anyway, with in/out of the water situations.[/i]

[chefkeith]

Sue- It sounds like a very durable plant. I'll definitely give Lysimachia Nummularia a try. It sounds like they'd do well in my paludarium also.

[Bully]

Limnobium laevigatum is probably my favourite floating plant, if you had an area of calm water it would grow fantastic. I have some in my Amazon tank and it's roots are about 60 cm's in length

If you follow the following link and use the navbar on the right you can find further info

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

If you type 'marsh' into the search box it will give a few suggestions for marsh plants too

[chefkeith]

Bully- thanks for the website link. Limnobium laevigatum sounds like the plant with long growing roots that I've been looking for.

[andyroo]

I too find Labatts Blue a valuable re-hydrator for DIY.
Light though? Common Keith. No wonder you're having to ask for creative input from us drunks on the forum.
:)
Re; the mosses and descending riparian plants, you are providing a whole new type of habitat- very natural, very commendable and i'm sure will be very much appreciated. Think of small inverts that you can introduce to enrich this area- little shrimp, clam-shrimp, snails, even daphnia and live-breeders. Frogs? Salamanders? The mind boggles.
Might also give you a change to play around with temperature and depth/flooding to see if you can get rainy-season breeder loaches into production. That would be very interesting.
A

[lf11casey]

Your project is coming along very nicely. I look forward to more updates.