River tank underway

[Mad Duff]

Managed to get a little more done today, the 3 pieces of bogwood I ordered arrived first thing so are now soaking so I thought I would get the outtake pipes drilled:




I have now put the gravel in and added the stones that I collected yesterday from the trout stream:


And a couple of close up shots of the stones with streamer weed attached to them:



I will be going out later this week and getting some plants so there isn't really anything left to do until the bogwood is ready to go in apart from the fact that I still need to sort something out about the powerhead outlet to make sure nothing tries to go against the flow into it

[Martin Thoene]

Is that Willow Moss on the stones Mark?

Tank is looking good

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

Superb!

Is it Stringy Moss (Leptodictyum riparium)?

[Mad Duff]

Thanks

I think the plants is Fontinalis antipyretica which if im correct is a type of willow moss.

[Martin Thoene]

Thought so. It used to grow in trout streams near where I lived in Norfolk. If you lifted a rock, freshwater shrimp zoomed off all over the place. If I had a tough day at work I would sometimes detour off my route home and stand on the wooden bridge watching the trout swimming against the current for a while. Very relaxing.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

I still need to sort something out about the powerhead outlet to make sure nothing tries to go against the flow into it

Mark,

If you've not found a solution already, and if your powerhead has similar fittings, you could always do what we did and 'attack' the flow-diverter/outflow fitting with a heat-gun!



Steve just took the outer most plastic tube fitting off and applied some heat to it from a heat-gun (used for stripping gloss paint off things) and when it was hot, gave the plastic a squeeze between thumb and forefinger to reduce the outlet size. Yes it probably cuts the flow down a bit, but the powerheads are still very effective and it worked a treat in keeping some of our more inquisitive fish out of there.

Emma

[mikev]

Mad Duff,

FWIW: I had this problem in the summer with at least four suicides via the powerhead intake. Per NancyD suggestion, I first used onion nets -- worked, but the holes in the net were too large and it was very messy. Then I picked up in a craft store a large roll of netting material with cells of about 1mm. Now, I simply cut small pieces, about 2cmX2cm and put them between the powerhead outtake and some attachment to it.

The sole problem is that this netting works as an extra filter, collecting dirt, and on some powerheads, after about a week, the net becomes dirty and flow drops, it will actually totally block the powerhead unless cleaned. Not a big issue, since replacing the small piece of net takes almost no time, and the $2 roll I have is likely to last for a few years. The only netting I do not have to replace weekly in the powerheads connected to Hagen's Quick Filter, which absorbs the dirt first.

hth.

[Mad Duff]

Apart from the powerhead outlet I think the tank is pretty much finished, although there is always room for tweaking

I got some Elodea pond weed the other day which I thought would look good along the back of the tank


And the willow moss is starting to grow so it seems to be happy in the tank


This morning I added the bogwood and some java fern, I also managed to attach some java fern to the bogwood in the crevices and cracks, and a few extra pebbles.


Now its the worst part, waiting until March for the fish

Any comments welcome

[Martin Thoene]

March is a long time. Are you going to put something else in there until then? Something to keep it cycled and help feed the plants? By March, they should have grown in a bit and be looking really nice.
Right now it looks great.

Martin.

[Mad Duff]

I am planning to either pick up 6 White Clouds to go in there until the Sewellia arrive or move the 6 Zebra Danios out of my other Loach tank, I will probably go with the Zebras because they are spawning at the moment so who knows may get some fry off them before they move back into the bigger Loach tank

[Graeme Robson]

Cracking little set-up, Mark! Blast the lights for a good 12 hours a day and just clean the front glass. Hopefully by March you will have plenty of green stuff around the back and side walls for them Hilly's to munch on.

[Mad Duff]

That was my plan Graeme, there is some algae appearing already and I have started adding some liquid fert so it should be Hillie Heavon by March

[Jim Powers]

Looks great! Its going to be a looooooooooong wait until March.

[Mad Duff]

Thanks Jim, the wait is definitely going to be the worst thing, I have got the chance of getting some Beaufortia kweichowensis through a friend who imports fish but I think because this is my first attempt at Hillies I will wait and get my Sewellia from Emma. I just know that if I get the Beaufortia kweichowensis there is a high probability of losing some of them, yes I could have them in a couple of weeks and they would be cheaper but I think the wait will be worth while in the long run

[LUVaLOACH]

I would run the powerhead at maximum flow. It has been said recently by some wise person here that you can't create too much flow for hillstream loaches. I think I was running 2 302's on my river tank as well as a large 502 HOB filter, so there was really substantial flow happening. The brook loaches loved it, and the few hillstreams I kept mainly hung out in the outflow current. Just remember that you want the water to be moving as fast as you can get it to go.

Looking forward to more photos!

Duff,

This is way over my head, but I am impressed and congrats and certainly in order!

Kris