Curare's 50G Long Billabong Journal.

[Curare]

Well, it's been a long time coming, but, the new tank has begun.

Some of you may have seen this tank in it's previous incarnation, which was a rainbow tank predominantly.



Anyway, it'll probably end up something similar, but for now It's been a trial to get this far with all of the other tanks, and various other hobbies going on.
The plan is to make it an Australian Biotype style with some artistic license where it suits, but hopefully keeping with australian native fish as much as I can. ...And yes Scolley, I did steal this idea from you

The tank is set up as follows.
48 x 14 x 18 tank

Fluval 304 filter running floss and foam only.
Inline C02 reactor, of virtue true,
DIY C02 4L (2x coke bottles on a gang)
160w T5 lamps (2 x aquastar 2 x tritons) with electronic ballasts.

Here the tank is in it's new home waiting to be attacked with gusto...



Now I wasn't really happy with the reflector setup in the hood so before everything happened I retrofitted a set of modified reflectors I picked up from a restaraunt refit happening in the city, I grabbed 3 reflector banks (for 4 tubes) so I have plenty spare for 'other jobs', probably more tanks!

Here's the hood before I added the reflectors.



And after, with the new polished reflectors, not bad for free!!!





you can also see the two silenX fans in the centre of the hood to keep the whole lot cool, they're both banked to blow into the hood, giving fresh air and keep themselves clean.

More to come, stay tuned.

[scolley]

Looks like you are off to a great start Curare! And I'm thrilled you are "going" native. It is a bit more of a challenge IMO - more restrictions - less options - so doing it right is a bit tougher. But I'm sure you will show up how it's done!

Good luck.

[Curare]

Thanks Scolley, It's suprising what is acutally available in terms of aquatic plants for my billabong.

Anyway, first thing to do is to get some substrate into that baby, The bottom layer is a mix of peat and laterite, ooh so good, and cheap as chips (dupla eat your heart out)



Such a fun job, I hate doing this...

It's pretty much a 50/50 substrate, using pool filter sand, I like the colour and the grain size is pretty much perfect IMO.

I then put in my HUGE peice of driftwood that I've been soaking since we got the house (in feb) and what better choice that a eucalypt

[Curare]

Well, it's been a week since water went into the tank, and even so, the water colour hasn't settled, considering the size of the driftwood feature that's in the tank it's hardly suprising.


In my research I've found that two native plants are already on my list of "must haves"

Suprisingly Glossostigma is actually a native plant! and for the first time ever in my life i found some! 4 dollars for a cd bag worth, painfully expensive but I figure I'll make my money back.

Also we have some really nice species of Ludwigia which I'll be planning to get when i find a source.


Unsuprisingly tho, my least favourite plant, Water sprite is also an australian native, so I'll keep some around just because I think I should, even tho it's a weed and a nitrate eater.


Anyway, I've rescaped the tank, and put the driftwood in a place which I feel balances the tank a little more than it was and it also looks much more natural.

you can see for yourself.



Also I plan on gettting some more acrylic to do some decent pipework as the PVC pipework in there is just to get water flowing for now.

I'm planning on getting a surface skimmer working in conjuction with my overflow pipe so hopefully some clear epoxy and a little time spent will reap rewards.

[Curare]

Just a quick update.

I've started a thread in the plants section to broaden my horizons on native aquatic plants that fit this biotope.

The unfortunate thing at this point, is that most are green

it could be a very, very green biotope

anyway, in the meantime I'd just like to say that I'm I in love with my diftwood.
So gnarly.

So, very gnarly.

[Gmoney]

Great looking tank!! Regarding the lack of non-green plants: that Rotala behind the driftwood should do very well in your set up and will provide a striking contrast to the other green plants. Is Rotala macrandra native to australia?
Anyway, great tank. Gnarly and billibong in the same thread....makes me want to go wax my board.

-Gary

[Curare]

Hehehe

Well here it is after about 3 or 4 weeks of growing in.



Everything is starting to look like a tank now, and before you say "WHOA, get your whitebalance right Curare!" that's the colour of the tank at the moment, that big old peice of driftwood, even after soaking it for nearly 6 months on and off, is still leaching a little, but I don't mind so much, the colour suits the biotope. And none of the plants seem to mind either.

Here's a shot of the new tankmates getting aquainted. They're M. Trifasciata, and M. Boesmani, In actual fact I shouldn't really have the bosemani in there as they're native to PNG and Irian Jaya but I love them, and they were super cheap $8 each!



I've got my man on a mission to find some Purple Spotted Gudgeons, and some native lillies, called Nardoo, which will then go into the tank.

Then I'll have to start thinning out that Cambomba, as it's not native, but a pest here in Aus.

[Curare]

That's amore....

I got bored tonight, and the GF had wandered off to bed. I had some things to do in the workshop, and a gleam in my eye.

I'd bought a packet of 2000mcd blue LED's a while back, mainly because I had a moonlight in this tank before, but over the course of 2 tanks being built, that gear was cannibalised and I wasn't really happy with theoriginal product anyway, the diffusion looked like aliens were landing in the tank, mainly from too strong a set of LEDS and not enough of them.

So I built another, it took me about an hour and this time it has LED's spaced about 4 inches apart across the whole hood.

It gives a much better appearance in my opinion, and what can I say, I luuurve moonlights.

[gbhil]

Originally Posted by Curare

....
I got bored tonight, and the GF had wandered off to bed. I had some things to do in the workshop, and a gleam in my eye....

You know you're an aqua-geek when you're bored, the signifigant other that you find oh-so-slinky and makes your blood boil has went to bed, and you go to the workshop to finish tank gadgets......

The moonlights do look great though!

[Curare]

gbhill, you don't know the half of it.

I have more hobbies that imelda marcos has shoes.

Our house is filled with them

Thankfully the one that I do find oh-so-slinky likes them too, and I tend to get a bit of a carte-blanche on them. Luckily she likes suprises when she wakes up, like glowing fish tanks...

[Betowess]

Wow, THAT tank is a beau. Love that Eucalyptus and its cave. Nightime I'd be singing Blue moon at the beach. Its funny, so many Asian tanks seem to use sand (not that down under is Asian, but closer than we are), and very few FW guys use sand over here. Guess its not that small of a planet with all the preferences various locales show. Loved the original tank too. Why did you break it down? Now I'm going to go check out your Phoenix next. BTW, what the heck is a billabong? I thought it might have something to do with... well, never mind.

[Curare]

You Don't know what a Billabong is?

It's pretty much an Aboriginal term for an oxbow lake in a river. these are very common in the top end, and seeing as it's meant to be that style, it's a billabong.

It's got very little to do with the other..


I broke the tank down when we went travelling overseas for what we thought at the time might be forever. Well the lure of the west coast is strong, good surf, great lifestyle, world class wine, and of course world class friends, got the better of us and we came home.


This will show you I'm not lying about billabongs!
http://burarra.questacon.edu.au/pages/billabong.html

[uncskainch]

Beautiful tank! I'm thinking of following Scolley's lead and doing a South American tank when I set up a big tank in my next house. (A couple of years off...) I think the challenge of sticking to plants, fish and inverts from one part of the world will be interesting.

[Curare]

It's also pretty hard in the fact that you may not be able to get hold of what you want.

And to be honest, as it stands at the moment a fair amount of artistic licence is being used, as hygrophilia doesn't grow in the top end, and the cabomba carolinea is actually a pest in australian habitats.

I'm still sourcing stuff, and while my LFS guy is probably one of the best, if not THE best in the state, he still hasn't heard of anyone doing this, (i.e.) an australian biotope) and is trying to help as much as he can.

[Curare]

Meet spot.

Spot is our new, rather grumpy looking tankmate for the rainbows.

He won't tell you but he's a purple spotted gudgeon. He's from and australian native too.

But if you look at him wrong, he'll more than likely throw a beer bottle at you