Loaches Online Forum

I'd be more worried about the ducks....

Ducks????
There's DUCKS??!!!?

...aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

U R Quackers!

Martin.

I'm done with the Island and have some pic's-






Here's the video (it's 14mb, so it might take awhile for it to load)-
Click here to watch a close-up of Loach-Island

The same video
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c49/c ... re1941.flv

Looking Great!! I was wondering what the behind looked like. Now i know with your video. Cool!

Looks great

I bet it will look brilliant once some algae starts to colonise on it.

It was worth all the work. It looks really great.

wow, that is going to be loach heaven. Man i can't wait to see it in the tank! Great job! They are never going to want to come out of loach paradise! lol...

i am wondering how you would clean it though? my loaches will tear up plants and make little beds out of the debris. I then have to dump out my entire loach structure and clean it bc there is so much debris in the water. Is it detachable in the back? you could probably run one of your jets into one hole and force debris out the other side.

the pvc piping is awesome i bet they are going to be the happiest loaches on earth!

Thanks all.

LoachOrgy wrote: i am wondering how you would clean it though?

The main pvc cave should be self cleaning. It is built on a very slight inclide (1/78 slope), so gravity should keep any debris from gathering. Also the way I have the filters/spraybars set-up, there should be some water circulation inside the cave and the cove. I can't wait to see how well this all works.

awesome you didn't miss one step....i have to say you put quite a bit of thought into it. i have something similar that looks like a tree stump like your design. it looks decent originally but once the algae sets in, it looks awesome! can't wait!!

The algae should have no problem growing on this thing, especially since the coloring I used is made from iron oxides. The tank will be low light also, so the algae growth shouldn't be out of control.

I have a small colony of bristlenose pleco's (adult's, juvi's, and fry) which might appreciate the extra algae. I will be adding some real driftwood pieces to this set-up for the pleco's to nibble and for extra shelter also.

The cove will be have alot of Java Moss in it for the Rainbowfish to lay their eggs. I'm expecting to get alot of new baby fish from this set-up.

I'm thinking the high water flow and high oxygen content from around the island will help with the breeding.

I'm finally back on the project. The weather here has been really nice lately, so I got the new tank built.



I'll be filling it with water maybe Tommorow or the next day to check it for leaks. If that goes well I'll put the island in it and see if it works.

I've been thinking about how I'm going to round the inside corners of the tank.
Plan A is that I take a 5 gallon bucket, cut off the ridges, and cut it into pie shaped quarters. Then put a pie quarter shaped piece in each corner, then cover the bottom part of the bucket with sand and rocks to keep it from moving. I wonder if that would work? I guess it's worth a try. It won't cost me anything. I have a more than a few spare buckets. Only problem I see with this is the asthetics. It might be very ugly, but I can't think of a better way to round the corner. The original plan was to use acrylic, but it would have to be permanently glued into place, and I don't want that.

Plan B would be to build a rounded corner out of foam/cement, but that would take a 4-6 weeks before it's tank ready. I want something now.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

How's about quartering a large diameter acrylic tube and just holding it in with a couple of small dabs of silicone? It could easily be removed later if you wanted to.

Martin.

I checked that out already Martin. That was my 1st idea also, but I squashed it because 12" clear acrylic pipe is about $70 - $130 per foot. With a Minimum order of 5 feet.

USPlastics

I'll still like the idea. I'll look for a cheaper source.

This is a cool project you have going. It will look awesome when it is done and your fish will love it I bet.

Geez, that is some expensive acrylic tubing.