Loaches Online Forum

Martin, I'm going to give your directions to my husband to see if he can do something like this. Then, I'll try to find non-toxic glue to decorate it with. That and a cocunut shell or two should give them plenty of space to hide. Then I can go out and get some companions for my two clowns and they'll all have a place to go.

Darn! I missed all the action! If it's not too late, I'd like to add something. When I first got coconut shells, I was so scared of what they might do that I boiled them until the water actually was clear. That took at least 20 boilings:roll: and I scraped off all the fibers on the outside. My PH is about 7.4 and my tap water is 7.0 (for real ) so acidity hasn't been a problem. There are a lot of sources for java moss on ebay and such, but they are usually WAY overpriced. (8$ for a cup) If you can get it from a fellow aquarist or even a fish store, it should be cheaper.

I sometimes see a couple little kuhli heads sticking up from the three holes you can punch out. They are very cute when they do that, but they look like they are playing Wack-A-Loach with some invisible giant when they pop up and down.

OOPS! Sorry Barb your last post duplicated itself, so I went to do my Moderator's tidy-up job and delete one of the posts, but they both dissapeared????

Anyhow, if you go to somewhere like Home Depot and look at their plumbing section, you'll find big-bore drainage type PVC fittings in black. They do various diameters. If you get the bends which have male/female ends, you can join two together into a U or an S of whatever missalignement you wish. You don't need to glue them together.

Here's Java Fern in my tank. It's the variety known as Microsoreum pterops "Windelov". Regular Microsoreum doesn't have the multi-branched tips to the leaves:



It's growing attached to driftwood. Here's the whole thread that pic came from:

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=4630&start=0

Martin.

Your tank is Gorgeous! I have blue gravel, castles and plastic plants. I did have some real plants, but they didn't look anything like yours. I have a long way to go!

Thank you very much for your help. We'll hit Home Depot today!

Martin, I notice that you have sand in your aquarium. How do you clean it? You can't vacuum that, can you?

My first attempt at aquarium pictures! As you can see, my tank is a work in progress. Those dots are really hard algae dots that I can't seem to get off the glass. But, the water is crystal clear. Unfortunately, the dots kind of obscure my pretty Clowns.

Lovely! You have cracked the basics, now you can decorate towards a natural looking tank.

Is that a glass or acrylic tank, Barb? If glass, you can get a special razor scraper to get that hard green algae off with ease.

Emma

It's glass. I'm headed to the pet store - I'll look for a razor scraper. I am just afraid I'll scratch the glass.

I use one of those aquaclear filter square sponges and rub them off. Doesn't take too much work, usually.

Barb wrote:Martin, I notice that you have sand in your aquarium. How do you clean it? You can't vacuum that, can you?

With sand, you don't vacuum it like you would gravel. Dirt doesn't tend to get in it, but sit on the surface. If you hover a syphon tube slightly above it the muck goes up the tube without sucking up sand.

The answer to your question is I don't clean it. My tank has two big Rena XP3 cannisters that each pump 350 GPH. They return water via two spraybars on the right end of the tank and intake at the other end. At the left rear, there's an Aquaclear 500 HOB that pumps 500GPH.
The tank has a River-Tank manifold with two smaller powerheads on it moving water right to left at around maybe 300 GPH. THEN on the right hand end there's a Seio 1500 GPH powerhead which blasts water down the length of the tank.

All this water movement (3000 GPH) means that any muck never settles. The filters pick it all up. I can whoosh up the sand by hand and there's no water discoloration.....no dirt.

Martin.