My new 1000 liters clown loaches tank (page 22)

[mikev]

Marcos, nice Kubs....2.5"-3", right? If possible, it would be nice to see the side views, especially the fellow on the right in the bag -- there is that question of multiple dots correlating with long face and/or sex.

Really? Tell me more about that, please...

On my "New Kubs" thread.

[bslindgren]

Beautiful. Photos like those really make you realize how striking clown loaches are when in a large school. Thanks!

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi,

I added another internal filter. There are 3 now. Not a river tank manifold but now much better water filtration and higher flow:



One of the new kubotai:


17 loaches on same shot:

[Rubix]

Hi,
17 loaches on same shot:

plus four non-loaches.... AWESOME picture

[mikev]

Yeap....real nice jungle....

[Marcos Mataratzis]

A few more shots taken today:

Rear view of internal filters:


One of the new kubotai:


3 of my latus Corydora and one helodes:


One of my phanton shrimp:



11 guys:


My 6" Labeo bicolor:


That´s it!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Great looking tank and collection, Marcos. Fish you can grow old with!

[Vancmann]

Marcos, very healthy and beautiful looking clown loaches there. I like the setup and the look of the tank. Re the compabality of Tiger and Clowns, I have had them together for many years (11 to 12 to be more precise) and the Tigers have never shown any agression towards the clowns, they actually got along well. It may or may not be the same in another tank. The fish I would most certainly keep an eye on would be that nice looking Modesta, especially if he is the only modesta.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Fish you can grow old with!

Maybe I will pass away before the Clowns. I´m not too young...

Re the compabality of Tiger and Clowns, I have had them together for many years (11 to 12 to be more precise) and the Tigers have never shown any agression towards the clowns

In fact, I don´t see any kind of agression between them. When the Tiger arrived I noticed they did not like much the Yoyos but since that they keep a safe distance from the Tigers, that share same caves with the Clowns.
The 6" modesta was one of the first loaches on this tank. She has her own cave on a special bogus wood where she stays in all day long. Sometimes I spend a couple days without seeing her. She uses to show up only in the morning to steal a BottomFish tablet from Corydoras and Clowns and hide again for next 2 days.
Never seen her attacking other fish but the Labeo bicolor when she got here. As you know, bicolor tend to be territorialist and sometimes bothering other fishes trying to teach them where they can swim. He tryied that with the modesta once for all...

[Marcos Mataratzis]

BTW,

I forgot to ask you guys how do you deal with nitrates. Just water changes?
My nitrates are blowing up here. It was 80 ppm last week. I tested it today, after a 30% water change (I do it twice a week) and it was 200 ppm! (zero nitrates on my tap water)

I used to use Azoo anti-nitrate resin in the past but since I started using SERA Siporax (says it can fix all nitrogen cycle bacteria 34 times better than regular ceramics and also the one anaerobic bacteria that converts nitrates to free nitrogen) I quit using it but nitrates rates still keeps growing up.

Am I overfeeding?

[Mark in Vancouver]

Stick to that rule of feeding only enough food that the tank will eat in 3 minutes. Remove excess food right away, or lower the amount you're putting in the tank. And water changes should be regular and consistent.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi Mark,

I already do all that you sugested.
I always provide quick consumption ammounts, vaccum surplus twice a week and do water changes as well. Amonia and nitrites are always zero of very close to it but nitrates never bellow 25 PPM since march. Always growing up and up.

[Tinman]

I would remove the gravel from below your new internals or raise them up and be very vigilant about clean gravel with all that activity ongoing.Sometimes abundunt waste is the culprit with this many occupants. With all this internal filtration I would up my cleaning schedule on each one as to remove the by products from the tank itself and look for improvement . More filtration in tank also means more collection of waste in the tank . I have this problem with my internals and am going to the Turbelle pump for flow and getting all that extra filtration out of my tank . My internals flow did not penetrate the full length of the tank so although they flow a lot they do not blast water end to end and I was having slower activity as the collected so much debris unless shut off for feeding which is its own problem....I think they call this old tank syndrome, I suffered it fast and slow through the years in many tanks. I lost all my gravel to make it go away in my case but we all have different situations........Yer collection is most excellent .

[Vancmann]

I already do all that you sugested.
I always provide quick consumption ammounts, vaccum surplus twice a week and do water changes as well. Amonia and nitrites are always zero of very close to it but nitrates never bellow 25 PPM since march. Always growing up and up.

If your ammonia and Nitrites are zero, your bio filter is working well. The high nitrates could be for several reasons, exess food, large amount of fish per space (large bio load), and sometimes dead plants and rotting bogwood. Large fish quantity=large nitrates amounts but your regular water changes should counteract most of it....Hmmmn.. I have read that if the gravel bed is deep enough to restrict oxygen from the lower parts, you can create anaerobic conditions which changes nitrates to i think nitrogen which bubbles out into the air. If you do deep hydro cleaning regularly however, you will disrupt this process.

Re: Modesta. Yea my modesta goes through seasons. there are times when they would come out and steal algae wafers from the other fish and then you dont see then again for a day or two, there are times i dont see them for weeks, then there are times when they get very active and stay out and molesta (possibly related to the name J/K) my tank. Luckily I have a big enough clown loach while she is afraid of the modesta, she keeps them in check by attacking the alpha then darting away before it retaliates. The clown is atleast twice as big. The Modesta is afraid of no fish in the tank when food is around but is carefull around the Largest clown loach (female) and the Male clown loach. The Male clown loach although a trifle bigger than the modesta(not very big in the tank) commands respect from all the other loaches. This does not apply however when it is feeding time and the largest female clown loach goes on a bully rampage.

[mikev]

Re: nitrates. Purigen. And extensive gravel sacks, one possible cause is rotting organics in the gravel (dead leaves, food fragments).