[nchmi28]

Plants are in! Today I put in the branches, planted all of the plants, caped the dirt and filled the tank. the plants are Crypts that I think are Cryptocoryne wendtii and Cryptocoryne wendtii-red, ANUBIAS BARTERI-NANA, Creeping Jenny. some Amazon Swords; normal, red and dwarf, and some Red Ludwigia.

I'm digging the way the plants look tucked into the branches, I hope they will prosper and grow up out of the tank. I did buy an aditional, submersable light. I was originally getting to suplement the plants for growing. After getting some advice I'm not sure how much help it'll be to the plants, but it helps me see everything. The tank looks pretty cool with just the back light on.

 

[Okedokey]

Nice one mate!! You may want to add some root tabs?

 

[Raymond S.]

That back light will be usefull to the plants...but will cause a bit of GSA on theglass back there also. The Amazons get 22" tall and almost that big around. Rubins may be a good substitute. The two T8 bulbs will be enough light for the Anubias. The red and dwarf
swords likely will be a good size for the tank. I'd try Crypt Petchii(e-bay) as it only gets about 4" at most. You may be able to just cut parts off of the Wendtii but they get
fairly large around when mature. They send up new plants but right in the same cluster.
Not with runners. So it all looks like one big Crypt plant about 6" around and maybe
7" tall. Plenty of room on the bottom but the Petchii might do better on top of the wood.
You found a way to use the height well. No dead space up there in this tank.

 

[NotCousteau]

Nice tank!

I have kuhli loaches and highly recommend them. I like how unique looking they are. It really adds a different element to the tank. They do like to hide, but come out a lot as well. Mine have not attempted to jump. I think dwarf chain loaches would also be a great pick if you want to stick with an Asian bottom dweller.

As a side note, I keep legally collected or purchased native darters, and I love them as well. They quickly learn to eat pellets and flake, although I also feed mine frozen food very regularly. They'll swim up the water column to compete with other fish, and do just fine. My tank is shallow, though (33 long).

 

[rick dale]

tank

Nice tank. I like it.

 

[nchmi28]

Thanks for all of the kind words.

You may want to add some root tabs?

I picked up most of the plants unexpectedly when I happened upon a swap meet last week. I had to make makeshift temporary homes for them until the tank was ready, so the last week I've been scrambling to get to this point. Of course no store around me had root tabs at the time. I did check back yesterday and was able to pick them up $8 for 10 tabs! I'm going to have to shop around for better deals online in the future.

The Amazons get 22" tall and almost that big around.

I'm counting on the height, I would love for them to grow right through the top. I know may have a lot of pruning in my future to control the width. right now it's only about 6" tall. At the swap meet where I got 3/4 of all the plants, I told the the guy selling them about my tank and he said something like "I'll take good care of you. 1 large sword, 1 baby sword, 3 dwarf swords, 4 crypts and a bunch of red ludwigia. 30 dollars." I gladly accepted his offer. If I were to buy all of them retail it would have run me $50-100 very possibly more. The Id's of the plants are my best guess after looking at various pictures. Once they start to grow in more I may have some better clues.

I think dwarf chain loaches would also be a great pick if you want to stick with an Asian bottom dweller.

I had never seen dwarf loaches before, those are cool little fish! I read lots of cool info about them in this article http://www.aquariumlife.net/articles/tropical-fish/dwarf-loach/218.asp They might be hard to come by, but if I ever do I might need to snatch them up.

As a side note, I keep legally collected or purchased native darters, and I love them as well. They quickly learn to eat pellets and flake, although I also feed mine frozen food very regularly. They'll swim up the water column to compete with other fish, and do just fine. My tank is shallow, though (33 long).

I would love to have some of these fish and it's good to know they can learn to adapt their diet. If I were to get them I would probably have to order them online from a specialty native fish retailer and pay a fortune for them. I'm not in a place right now, financially or experience level, where I feel comfortable taking that risk. Hopefully down the road that will change then those little guys will be at the top of my list.

I have kuhli loaches and highly recommend them. I like how unique looking they are. It really adds a different element to the tank. They do like to hide, but come out a lot as well. Mine have not attempted to jump.

Since I can come by them cheaply and easily I might take the risk of loosing one if it jumps, they are pretty neat.
Thank you every one for the suggestions and advice.

 

[andrewss]

cool wood pieces, the tank looks really good! I love the biotope look

 

[PhysicsDude55]

I like the layout of the wood pieces! Looking forward to seeing the tank once the plants fill in!

 

[nchmi28]

Wrong Measurement and Filter Woes

First off apparently I was wrong about the volume of the tank. When I received the tank I was told it was 35 gallons, and never thought to question this. But now I have done the math 24"x 12"x 20"=24.9gUS. Glad I caught that one before I dramatically over stocked the thing!
Now onto the filter. I don't want to talk too much about my first attempt at building a filter for this thing. Lets just say that I greatly overestimated my plumbing abilities and ended with quite a bit of water drenching the carpet behind the tank. So now I've decided to simplify things. I nixed the planter box idea and instead just focused on getting water flowing into the other compartments in the top.
I took the lid to a hardware store and through trial and error discovered that a cap for a downspout fit the open compartment perfectly. So I drilled a hole through the caped end, fit a piece of dishwasher hose through it, then attached one end to a HOB pump and the other I capped with the small cage that also went to the HOB. I have a 1" grey PVC outlet at the side to direct the water into the lid compartments.

The rubber tubing behind it is just there to keep it away from the back of the tank, and serves no other purpose than a spacer. I'm a little nervous because the water crowns right at the top edge. Any small trickles that make it over the edge will just fall back into the tank, but more then that and I may be in for wet carpet again. I may go back to the hardware store and pick up something to try to make some sort of top to help contain water if the pump suddenly kicks up more water for some reason.
The tank has actually cycled in the past month with just the air stones going in there, and it shouldn't take long for the BB to move into the filter media I'm going to put into the lid compartments. Right now it has quite a few little critters inside with no fish in there to pick them off. Hopefully it'll be ready for fish soon.
I'm still not sure on the stocking list.

 

[burr740]

You can edit the title by switching to "threaded" under "display modes"

Very interesting hardscape!

 

[nchmi28]

You can edit the title by switching to "threaded" under "display modes"

Very interesting hardscape!

Thank you!

 

[nchmi28]

Stocking

So I think I've narrowed down my ideal stocking list to:
6 x Emerald Eye Rasbora (Rasbora dorsiocellata macrophthalma) or glowlight rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli)
4 x Sparkling Gourami (Trichopsis pumila) [1-2 male & 2-3 female]
5 x Dwarf Chain Loach (Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki)
3 x Oto (Otocinclus vittatus)
1 x Amano Shrimp (Cardina multidentata)
Aqadvisor.com puts this stocking option at 92% and gives a warning that the Sparkling Gouramis may become too aggressive towards the Rasboras, when they are breeding. I'm seeking advice on this in another thread, but if anyone has any experience with them please feel free to chime in here. The Sparkling Gouramis are the one I'm more fond of, and the Rasboras are more just to fill in the top layer of the tank. I am hoping to be able to find the Chain Loaches. I have become very interested in them since they were suggested by NotCousteau (thank you), but if I'm unable to track any of them down, for a reasonable price, then I may go with kuhli loaches. I've heard they can burrow into the sand, :icon_ques does any one know if they will they bring up the dirt from the bottom? As far as the Amano Shrimp, I know there is a good chance that it may decide to climb out the open top, but the one I have in my 10 gallon is no longer welcome in there. I think it has made a snack of one it's chary red tank mates.