Loaches Online Forum

Unfortunately, that's not exactly the color of the stand. The photo shows a sort of cherry stain look. It's pine, but with a stain that's browner than pine usually would be unstained. We're thinking of painting the stand to match the walls, but we'll see.

Fish inventory now would go something like:
4 Kubotai Botias of varying size (we lost one in the tank disaster)
2 Rostratas (mistakes -- supposed to be kubotai). We have another rostrata waiting in the wings. Actually I haven't seen that fish for a while, an excellent hider
5 Rummy Nose Tetra nice tight schoolers, and water quality indicators
5 Cardinal Tetras (they really pop against the black background). A dozen more cardinals are in the Q tank now
6 Striata Botias
6 Diamond Tetras (also really pop against the black)
Something like 5 Sidthimunkis. 4 of the Sids were caught in the tank transfer to go into another Q tank to get treated and hopefully fattened. They are oh so skinny and just won't get good condition, those 4.
2 Burmese Orange Finned Danios (Danio Kyathit) -- These are very beautiful fish under the bright light and against the black. We have several more in a Q tank waiting to go in with them
9 Rasbora Hengeli -- these school very beautifully in the big space, and we have a few more in the new Q tank

We also have 2 Ottos in there, and a whole bunch more in a Q tank now.

We also have the two Triangularis (Batik) loaches to go in there after the Q Tank time.

> All that space

I'm afraid that even with the two Rena XP3s and 120 gallons we're in danger of overstocking it already, since the fish will grow!

The tank looks great!

Cloudhands- I hope that you are not too sore from your adventure under the house.

Right now I feel sore, but I think it's the clobbered feeling of staying up until 1:30 am. Before I bought some fish yesterday, I made sure that the horrible unstable Elite Mini heater we were going to use on that Q tank was stable over several hours. As soon as we put the fish in, it went crazy. So I spent a lot of time trying to get it to a steady temperature. By 1:30 I gave up and swapped it with a better heater, putting the funky heater in a perhaps less critical and fragile situation.

man, heaters can be a son of a gun... really the wild card sometimes since they are so vital to the tank and can just "go nuts" or not work ( I have heard of several people who had the heater just NOT shut off....yikes,... pets on the barbie) I use the stealth por shattterproof heaters so far, and they seem okay (Iwas reassured by the name, great marketing)

Your fish list sounds nice! I am much more of a chicken than you are in terms of moving forward with plans but you have attacked this project with great success!
I cannot wait to see pics of the tank as it progresses. IS there a "tank journal" mode on this forum that I am not aware of?
(It would be so cool to watch other peoples tanks as they grow, progress!!!)

I think this thread is our tank journal...

We were able to move filters with the fish, and moved a lot of the same drift wood and rocks just before the fish, so our cycling was shorter.... still fishless cycled while the plants were "quaranteening" in there.

But, like you, I am sleeping with one ear open for a big "splash"! Just saw a "water level alarm" for sale, ut it was for a sump, which we don't have....