Recreating natural habitat - River Tank variation

[Rusty]

Hi all, obviously i'm new here.

About a month ago I had a brainwave, I thought up a way to create a uni-directional flow within a tank to replicate natural habitats.
Well it was shortly after then that I found the river tank design on here, and realised i'd been beaten by a small amount of 12-13 years. But the design is practically identical. So I must be on the right track. Anyway, enough waffling.

I'm building a river tank to simulate the natural habitat of Apistogramma Cacatouides, for those not in the know they come from small streams in the amazon basin and surrounding areas.

These are small slow moving streams with hardly any plants and a lot of bogwood and mud.

Here's my ideas.

48" long, 12" wide, so the size of a small section of stream.

The occupants will be 2 males, 5 females to begin with, then let them breed from there (hopefully)

Tank Filtration

_________________________________
|||===========================|||
|[ }>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>O |
|||===========================|||
|[ }>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>O |
|||===========================|||

2x 480l/ph powerhead (with venturi) on the left, running through 18mm pipe with 2 drilled pipes at the end, covered with fry safe foam as water inlets.

This should give a 1-directional flow within the tank like a stream.

I'm looking at using APS's powerheads; http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/480L-H-SP400-Powe ... 2613wt_905

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Substrate

These fish are used to having muddy bottomed streams in the wild, but i'm unsure about using mud in the home aquarium, i'm worried about the water being too murky. So I might try and find a nice dark sand. It needs to be deep enough to cover the 18mm pipes. So we're looking at an inch of sand.

I will then provide a good cover of leaf litter across the bottom of the tank. (if it won't all go to one end, I hope not)

Tank Decor

Plenty of bogwood, a friend says he may be able to get me a whole oak branch that's fallen off his nearby tree. Pressure wash it down and leave it to dry out.

I'm thinking of running a line of grass/rush like plants along the back of the tank like it's the waters edge. I don't want many plants in the main area of the tank as in their natural environment is mainly just wood and open water. I will be adding some java moss though.

I'll add some ceramic caves around the tank in random directions and places, and hide them underneath the bogwood. These will provide spawning points.

Tank Mates

I'm unsure about tank mates, they live with panda corydoras in the wild, but pandas are known egg eaters. Other options are cardinal tetras. But i'm unsure if I want to risk potential fin nippers in a tank with these fish.

So unless anyone has other ideas, It'll either be no tank mates, or maybe panda cory.

I have some dwarf flag cichlids, they seem to get along well with the apisto's, possible tank mates?

Food

I need infusoria to feed any fry, so java moss is a good option. It creates infusoria and won't dominate the tank. I think i'll add some near the areas of spawning.
I'm then looking at raising a daphnia culture, and feeding these fish live food. It will replicate the wild form of life, and if I use a smaller daphnia, then it'll also be fine as a progressive step up from infusoria for the fry.

I'll also add in some frozen bloodworm as a weekly treat, and look into maybe starting a culture of it. Bt the idea of raising mosquito's doesn't really tempt me.

The Fish

Well I currently have 2 (maybe 3) males, Sidley the Triple "Sunset" Cacatouides. And Gordon the Orange Flash Cacatouides.




I currently have 2 (ish) females, unsure of the colour morph on them though. I'm looking at getting either wild females, or F1 females to strengthen the breed, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when a wild female breeds with Sidley.

Selling any possible fry

Well the fry will be left with the parents to be raised naturally, and at a decent size i'll be putting them up for sale. I won't be able to guarantee any colour choices, as it could be anything, the fry will simply be sold as what they are, a stunning breed.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So, do you think that 2x 480lph powerheads will be too strong for a relatively slow moving stream??

Give me your thoughts and input guys and gals, I need all the help I can get.

[starsplitter7]

Absolutely gorgeous fish. Show us the entire tank too. Looks really good. Thanks for posting.

[Martin Thoene]

The River-Tank manifold design has been used successfully in the breeding of several non-loach fish species. Basically any rheophilic fish should feel more at home with a one-way current. For Dwarf Cichlids I would keep the powerheads quite small as too much flow might be hard on the fry when they're tiny.


When I designed it I was only thinking of high flow situations for Hillstream Loaches, but it's highly adaptaple for many species that appreciate varying currents.

Martin.

[Rusty]

Do you think 2x 480lph powerheads would be too powerful?

[Diana]

Tank volume: 48" x 12" x?? Might be about 45-55 (American) gallons. = 170-200 liters.
Power heads 480lph x 2 = 960 lph
So... between 4-5x the tank volume per hour.
Less, if you attach the venturis. This is unneeded, and seriously interferes with the power head efficiency.

This is way UNDER powered.

Try it, see how the fish behave, but I would make sure to under stock the tank.

Do you have an additional filter that can also be plumbed to add to the water flow?

I run my river tank at 20X (20 tank volumes per hour)
I set up most of my tanks (community tanks, planted) at 10x. As the filters get plugged up the flow slows, but I do clean them before they slow down to 5x.

[Rusty]

Tank volume: 48" x 12" x?? Might be about 45-55 (American) gallons. = 170-200 liters.
Power heads 480lph x 2 = 960 lph
So... between 4-5x the tank volume per hour.
Less, if you attach the venturis. This is unneeded, and seriously interferes with the power head efficiency.

This is way UNDER powered.

Try it, see how the fish behave, but I would make sure to under stock the tank.

Do you have an additional filter that can also be plumbed to add to the water flow?

I run my river tank at 20X (20 tank volumes per hour)
I set up most of my tanks (community tanks, planted) at 10x. As the filters get plugged up the flow slows, but I do clean them before they slow down to 5x.

Well i'm looking to create a very gentle current. Do you think i'll need larger powerheads? As for the stocking, the tank will carry at most 10 adult fish no larger than 9cm, and hopefully some fry, it will be severely understocked.

[Kush]

You could always use some HOB filter's instead of th powerheads.

[Rusty]

You could always use some HOB filter's instead of th powerheads.

That's a rather clever idea.

And then take the inlet sponge off, and connect the piping to that. Very clever indeed, i'll look into that.

[Rusty]

Hmm, I could fit a 600l/ph HOB filter to the edge of the aquarium, whilst giving far less l/ph, the water would run through 2 stages of filtration, giving me 2 colonies of bacteria.

= slower current, more even current of water, double filtration, less things to hide inside the tank. I'm liking it.

I shall contact some manufacturers to see if they think the motors are up to the job.

[Rusty]

Requesting thread lock/deletion.

[Martin Thoene]

Requesting thread lock/deletion.

Threads will only be deleted/locked if they contravene the Forum rules. This thread does not meet those criteria and other members may gain further knowledge by its continuance.

Martin.

[Diana]

I have a tank set up that way.
A power head connected to PVC pipe, sponge over the inlet at the south end of the tank, power head at the north end.
A HOB filter is set near the north end, but on the back of the tank (west). The intake of the filter is connected to PVC pipe that also goes to the south end of the tank.

There is some crossing of the water flow here, so it is not a true river tank, perhaps more like a river flowing from the north to the south with a stream that enters it from the west!

Anyway, the filter is an Aquaclear 110, and the powerhead is an Aquaclear 110.
The tank is 4' long, about 50 gallons. Total water movement, simply by adding up the manufacturer's claims for the equipment is about 1500 gph. Now, we all know the claims are out of line with the actual results, and crossing currants messes up the numbers, too, so I would easily think there is perhaps 1000 gph, or less as the sponge intakes fill. Still, that is not too far off 20x.
Fish are the more torpedo shaped, high-water movement fish.

[piggy4]

Hi Rusty , please be careful not to antagonise either Emma or Graeme , they like to run this site very stricktly and won't tolerate backchat

[Kush]

Hi Rusty , please be careful not to antagonise either Emma or Graeme , they like to run this site very stricktly and won't tolerate backchat

Really!!? What does this have to do with recreating a natural habitat or a river tank variation? Please, take your politics else where or use the PM button.

Rusty, this post and the one I quoted are good examples of what Mr. Thoene is taking about.

[piggy4]

Hi Kush , I take it you've just picked up on this thread