My objectives with this 4x2x2 tank are to build a representation of a woody snag
in a river pool or billabong.
Plants, fish and invertebrates will be native species indigenous to Victoria.
Therefore cool water (no heater) - but in my office that means aquarium water is
around 18C in winter and can hit 32C+ in summer! (not very cold!). I'm aiming
for low-tech on this one so no chiller.
Fish will be small only.
Equipment
Tank: 4x2x2 Aquar-World USA - Beautiful tanks made better than anything made
locally for a similar price. Polished and bevelled edges, black silicon with
clear silicon on bracing. No plastic "beads" over the corners - just polished
goodness. From Boronia Aquarium. ( I saw a 6 footer in March and had to wait
until June for the 4 footers to arrive!).
Filtration: 2x Eheim 2213 = 880l/h @ only 16W power draw. Aiming for many plants
and low stocking density.
Lighting: 2 fittings - each with 2 x HO T5s = 4x54W = 216W total. El-cheapo from
ebay fitted with stock 10000K. I might change one tube to a 6700K Hagan Life-Glo
or similar just to mix it up and tone down the very slight blueness of the
10000K
Heating: none.
CO2: none (will add later only if needed).
Substrate: DIY Laterite, Zeolite, Vermiculite and gravel with finer gravel cap.
Lots of natural rock, pebbles and sand used. Much wood!
Plants and Livestock: yes.
The Stabinet
Is it a stand or is it a cabinet - you decide!
I wanted a base that allows for a 2nd tank underneath, and/or a small cluster of
breeding/quarrantine tanks. I started with an open stand design and then decided
it looked a lot better with sides filled in like a cabinet with no doors. The
stabinet was born.
Frame is 90x35 structural pine, screwed and glued. Load is distributed evenly
across the floor. 19mm MDF sheet is used under the tank and for the floor.
I wanted to keep the front open to fit another tank underneath so I didnt want a
middle "leg" on the front side. This means supporting over 1/2 tonne of tank
unsuported without flexing over a 4ft span. I could have used a couple of 140x45
or larger timber beams but a large width beam would restrict the amount of
working height available underneath. So I broke with tradition and mixed wood
with steel. I used a 70x35 galvanised steel "pergola tube" (1.6mm wall
thickness) - only $22 at Bunnings. Tested for flex by standing on it in-store
and comparing with timber beams.
At this point I decided it would look far better with sides. As the top was
already at the tank dimensions (+5mm all around) I didnt want to add sides onto
the outside of the frame making the stand wider. So I used 12mm MDF as "infill
panels" cut exactly to size and glued in with construction adhesive.
Sealed and painted with a couple of coats of "charcoal essence" oil-based enamel
(rolled on) and white epoxy (sticks to metal).
The left panel is removable. Its held in place by magnetic latches allowing me
side access to the under-tank area as I might have another tank at the front
obstructing access to the canister filter. The right side was glued in before I
thought of the magnetic latches!
Polystyrene mat has black gaffa tape around it.
Isn't she beautiful! (Guinness lovers will need to look very hard in order to
see the tank).
Power underneath mounted high so water cant run down the cables into the power
sockets. Timer board and normal board. You can see packers underneath because I
made the stand to sit flat on the floor but the floor slopes significantly away
from the wall. The packers are over the top of the floor joists, under the cross
members of the cabinets base and out of view under the front corners.
Brown floaters in my spa!! Some serious chunks of wood collected from a dry lake
bed in Victoria - Thankyou Mr Drought. They've been submerged for many years in
the lake yet still leech tannins! I later discovered that collecting fire wood
from the lake bed is illegal and although technically this isn't fire-wood I
wont say which lake.
OK - lets get a hardscape in there.
Tip for all you Vermiculite users. As you will be well aware - squeezing and
smashing vermiculite up into a wet gold-dust paste using your hands is a time
consuming process.
I can tell you for a fact that a hand-held electric egg beater does a terrible
job. After 10 minuties on high power it still looks like the chunks you started
with - only the larger chunks get broken up.
But a Bamix style "wand" does it magnificently in minutes!! (don't tell my
wife!)
So here's the messy blend.
3 parts 6mm gravel
3 parts 3-5mm Zeolite
1 part Vermiculite (Bamix smashed)
3 parts "laterite" - aka very red local dirt (collected from rural Victoria
while on holiday)
Zeolite works similarly to vermiculite
without the mess! It looks like sharp edged red gravel - it has a high CEC and
holds cation nutrients and trace elements in the sediments where they can be
taken up by plant roots. I used it because sharp gravel is good for preventing
compaction which is good for root growth and because I read a lot of information
on zeolite and its main mineral clinoptilolite and it just seemed like a good
thing to try. I wasnt going to add vermiculite at all but since I had the bag
and was happy with results I'd had before I threw some in just in case the
zeolite didn't want to play.
The gold vermiculite paste toned down the red colour of the "brew" - the soil is
more red.
I placed the laterite "brew" only under the areas where I'll be planting. I've
seen many river pools in Victoria and you just dont get carpeting plants in the
bottom - hence the bare front area.
VOILA!
The internal filter is just temporary as the canisters havn't been installed yet
(they are seeding on another tank!) - and I didnt have a
chux SkullJug
but that is a yellow kitchen cleaning cloth wrapped around the filter core and
it worked a beauty!! - thanks!
Just added the water today and I'm still pondering over the plants, fish and
inverts.
I have some more work to do with the pebbles but I'm pretty happy with it
Thanks everyone for the valuable advice.
@SOLOMON - thanks for that link - I placed an order
@Caleb - definitely! I'm going to trial using a small container either sitting
on the tank crossbar or suspended at the back at waterlevel in which to plant
"something small" that spreads/floats a little. I have some small pieces of a
native moss (semi aquatic) that are currently floating around on corks as I
havnt filled the tank to its final level yet (easier to plant). I'll tie a
fragment at the waterline on one of the logs and see if it grows.
@holotype and Dave - yes. I agree with fewer species of plants - thanks for the
nudge in that direction. Dave - my copy of "Waterplants of NSW" has been getting
a flogging
I placed an order for Ranunculus inundatus, Ludwigia peploides, Potomogeton
australis and Potamogeton crispus.
Test Plantings
(will be removed as they don't look so hot)
Potamogeton ochreatus
Now I've actually raided my neighbours "swimming pool" and have a "test
planting" of a patch of Potamogeton ochreatus. This inground pool is completely
carpeted with P. ochreatus, has about 50cm of water and in summer has a
wonderful stand of rushes in the shallow end!
I can't say I like the look of this *BUT* it is likely that new growth within
the aquarium will be a lot greener and a lot stronger than the scrappy plants I
managed to pull from the neighbours pool so there is potential and I'm not in a
rush so out of sheer curiosity I want to see what develops. Both P. ochreatus
and P. crispus grow from a thin stem-like stolon that grows along the bottom
throwing a vertical shoot every inch or so. In the pool next door only last 1 or
2 shoots were intact - the older shoots were mostly rotting off. Even then it
was almost impossible to retrieve the growing tips with a complete stem attached
without the thin fragile stems breaking and this is why my test clump looks
poorly. Each stem was planted as a separate fragment.
I imagine that *if* the stolons take root and begin to grow then the best thing
for this clump would be to mow it back to just above ground level and let the
new growth replace it - then it might look half way decent. I'm curious enough
that I'll try this even if I move it all to another tank. I might replace it
with P. crispus which has more "substance" to it.
Now for the stranger one...
Isolepis fluitans (floating club-rush)
(Scirpus fluitans in your list above Dave.)
I collected these plants from the Murrindindi River near Toolangi. They grow in
the current of shallow riffles and look nice trailing in the current.
I dont think it looks very good in a tank however! ... although there is
something strangely attractive about it when the filter current makes it wave
about. I think I'll just pull this one out when the other plants arrive.
In any case... the two thin stemed plants next to each other doesn't look that
great!
Its all a learning curve.
Ludwigia spp.
The other plant you see is Ludwigia palustris I believe - I thought it may have
been the Ludwigia peploides that I wanted for this tank. L. palustris has leaves
opposite each other on the stem (as this one has) where in L. peploides they are
alternate... So this plant gets pulled out . I'm a little concerned that I cant
find information on the submerged growth of L. peploides and it may be that its
called "floating primrose" for a good reason - perhaps there isn't much in the
way of submerged growth!! I'll find out soon enough.
Potamogeton tricarinatus
While I'm brain dumping - lets talk Potamogeton tricarinatus (potential feature
plant for the right side of the tank).
It turns out that what I know as P. tricarinatus is a complex that is now
recognised as
three different species
by the Botanic Gardens here in Melbourne. The plant that I have seen in my
travels and am looking for for this tank is Potamogeton sulcatus which looks
like this. Based on leaf shape and general appearance (poor taxonomy I know) this is
quite distict from the comparatively long leaved
Finke R. P. tricarinatus
that Dave cultures at Aquagreen.
I couldn't find any P. sulcatus (or the right type of P. tricarinatus!) for sale
online but I did find P. australiensis. This is the "thin leaved" potamogeton
which has a similar growth patten but has transparent leaves.
Compare the two
- scroll down - very small pics unfortunately. Its a more beautiful plant IMHO
that is found in Victoria and I have seen it on my travels but it is a lot less
common. I ordered a plant and it might become the feature on the right side of
the tank. It will let a *lot* more light through than the thick leathery leaves
of P. sulcatus/tricarinatus and this might be a good thing for the aquarium.
Lastly... just because it looks funny to me...
Over filtration for a 70l?
The two 2213's will go onto this journal's 400l tank. They are currently hooked
together and one pump is running drawing water through both of them to seed them
with bacteria.
The two 2217's are similarly chained together seeding for my 6x2 that is still
waiting on the cabinet and will be the subject of another journal.
I'm still waiting on the mailman for some plants.
I have put some work into installing the canister filters now.
I dont like a lot of hardware in the tank and the normal green eheim spraybar
and intake are too distracting IMHO.
So I used black poly threaded sprinkler fittings from the irrigation shop to
construct a single common 20mm ID inlet that feeds two eheim 2213 canisters. One
of my canisters is over 10 years old and the eheim double-tap fittings had gone
brittle and broken. So I devised my own arrangement and shared the two taps I
had left from the newer filter.
These are the outlet "wands" where filtered water returns to each corner of the
tank. The long straight piece hangs down between the wall and the tank. Its all
15mm black poly. Threaded outside the tank (lots of teflon tape!) and barbed
inside using 19mm dripper hose so I can easily adjust the depth of the outlet by
cutting the short inside section to length.
This is the common inlet - 20mm ID (3/4") with a standard 3/4 pump foot valve at
the inlet which I've covered in nylon flywire as the holes were a little large.
The flywwire is clamped on using cable ties.
Under the tank the common inlet branches to each canister. I can turn off the
red tap and the smaller green in-line tap on each filter an unscrew the inlet
hose to disconnect each filter. I kept the outlets of each filter independent
rather than use a single common outlet to ensure each filter didnt have to work
against pressure generated by the other.
This next shot is from the side of my stand with the side panel removed (the
side panel is held on by magnetic catches - one is in the photo). I'm really
glad I made the sides removable as it really helps access a LOT! I have enough
room in front of the canisters to fit another couple of breeding/hospital
tanks.
The 20mm pipe is all threaded sprinkler riser pipes that come in many different
lengths. I found I needed to be very generous with the teflon tape to ensure it
was all leak proof.
I went with two smaller canisters as the flow per watt electricity was the most
efficient this way and it provides for some redundancy. 880l/h combined isn't a
whole lot for this 400l tank but it will have to do for now. Upgrading later is
easy.
Fish
I've decided that my longer term goal of getting schools of pygmy perch and
Galaxias olidus from south of the Great Dividing Range are best put on hold
while the weather is so damn cold and streams running hard with all the recent
rains. Stocking these fish species really depends on my time and access to
collecting from the wild and is something I may persue in spring/summer.
For now - I've shifted my focus on fish species to streams flowing north of the
dividing range - still SE Victoria but now in the Murray-Darling Basin. To be
brutaly honest these are fish I could purchase , however they better reflect
the species of fish you'd find in the lowland river aquatic plant assemblage
that I'm establishing in this tank.
From a couple of LFS last week I was able to purchase some Western Carp Gudgeons
(Hypseleotris klunzingeri) and some Murray River Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia
fluviatilis). Currently I have 5 of each in the tank - I have another 8 Murray
River Rainbowfish in a pond outside and in a month or so after the tank has
settled in I might bring those 8 inside (or simply purchase some more!).
Western Carp Gudgeon Male with female swimming away
Western Carp Gudgeon Male
Western Carp Gudgeon Female
The males and females really look and behave like two different species. I know
the Carp Gudgeons are sexually dimorphic but its interesting (to me) that the
behaviour of the sexes differs so much. Females tend to hover around the bottom
and "perch" on their fins in true gudgeon style on the bottom a lot more than
the male who spends a considerable amount of time mid-water cruising around the
plants and logs. I gave the LFS a hard time asking them to confirm for me that
the 1 male and 4 females I bought were indeed the same species... but in all the
books we could only confirm the identity of the male and have to rely on the
fact that they were purchased from a wholesaler (who in turn got them direct
from a breeder) as the same species. There are lots of pictures of the males
around on the internet and in text books because the males have more vivid
colouration on the fins (e.g. google images. I haven't been able to find *any* pictures of the females though what texts I
have examined do suggest there really isnt any other species they could be so
I'm assuming the LFS was correct and I do have 1 male and 4 females.
The juvenile Murray R. rainbows have some subtle but nice colouration
already.
Plants
I got my delivery of plants from
http://www.watergardenparadise.com.au. I was a bit dissapointed with the quality of a couple of the plants - but
this might reflect the fact that its winter and not the growing season and also
that the potamogetons really are a pain to get good growing fragments from as I
discovered when I got pieces of P. ochreatus from the neighbour's swimming
pool!! I bought both P. crispus and P. australiensis. For both of these the
plants came with only 2 or 3 small pieces that included the basal rhizome with
some roots. There were another 3-5 pieces that were cut leaves without the basal
stem. All of it was a little soft with bent stems but I know how damn hard it is
to get a good fragment to plant so while I dont blame watergardenparadise at all
I guess I was still a little dissapointed. The plants arrived very well packed
in a shoebox with each plant individually bagged.
I got some Potamogeton australiensis and it is the plant that I really want to
take off and dominate this side of the tank as it has summer leaves that float
on the surface which are pretty spectacular. Directly behind this in the photo
is the P. ochreatus I pulled from the neighbours pool (shown in better detail in
a previous post in this thread) and I'm very happy to report there are some new
shoots growing up from the gravel! The shorter stems to the left under the
hanging flowerpot (I'll get to that!) is the P. crispus. Essentially I have the
three Potomagetons planted together for now to see which one takes off and
thrives in the tank after which I'll remove the others and just let the one
species form a dominant stand.
The hanging flowerpot contans some very daggy stems of Marsilea drummondii with
only a couple of leaves. This is just suspended over the edge of the tank so the
plant is only 60cm or so under the surface to get it growing. The hanging pot
idea was more of an experiment for me...but right now the pot is far too visible
and detracts from the tank. This plant might just end up in the pond outside
I also got a Ranunculus inundatus that was in very good condition - lots of
roots and has already started to shoot new growth up since this photo was
taken.
I'm avoiding a whole-tank shot at the moment as the left side of the tank has
bunches of cuttings floating around waiting for my 6ft tank to get underway -
I've simply run out of space to put plants so I'm stockpiling cuttings in this
tank at the lower temperature for a week until my 6ft cabinet gets here!
Here is a shot from two weeks ago with a couple of the Murray R. rainbows
swiming past the snag. I've increased the water level since this was taken.
From the earlier whole-tank shots I put in a lot of work on the heterogeneity of
the pebbles and sand to get a more natural look with patches of coarser
sediments and a finer grain in the valley of the snags. If you compare to the
pics on the first page you'll see I ripped out all the gravel in front of the
snag and replaced with a finer mix - that was messy indeed and necessitated a
refill as I hit a couple of pockets of the clay layer underneath!
Excuse the container on the left containing Ludwigia repense and Sunset
Hygrophilla that is obscuring my Val. forest- I've run out of space and these
are here to keep alive until my 6 ft tank is ready.
Brown diatoms started blooming just after that photo above was taken. I needed
to take some action fast - I cut the light down to 9 hours and wanted to add
shrimp (Paratya australiensis) or snails. I went on several collecting trips to
local wetlands and using a hand net and baited trap I got a big fat NOTHING.
The tank was getting too scungy without a clean up crew - so... I bought 30
"glass shrimp" online from livefish.com.au.
This photo is the day after I added them and you can see the good work they've
been doing.
I may have inadvertently polluted my SE Australia rule. I'm fairly sure these
shrimp are Caridina sp. rather than Paratya because I can't see exopods on the
legs. Now some Caridina are found this far south - e.g. Caridina indistincta but
I just dont know which species these are yet. I need to sacrifice one and key it
out. Its possible these are a mix of a couple of different species. Most are
clear but a couple are opaque and one is a lovely blue. I'll "swap" over to
Paratya in summer when there are more around if these prove to be a northern
species - right now I need them to do their good work!
I took this side shot below today after replanting the Vallisneria americana
forest. I had originally planted V. nana as it was all the various LFSs had and
I wanted nana for my 6ft tank. I finally sourced the right cultivar of V.
americana from Tony Gelf. Some of the
Val sold as "Jungle Val" or "Giant Val" at a few Melbourne LFS appears to be a
massive cultivar with leaf straps over 25mm wide that look like they were grown
in 2m of water and then cut off at 50cm looking like celery. Too big! Tony had
the local "wild" variety.
Thats Ranunculus inundatus on the right (the pot of Hygro is temporary) trying
its best to sustain emersed growth while immersed.
The other side of the tank is the "I can grow Potamogeton" side
Here is a side-shot. On the right - Potamogeton ochreatus that I pulled from the
neighbours feral swiming pool - heaps of new growth coming from the gravel so
soon I'll be able to trim out the untidy mess that I planted originally. On the
left - the floating club-rush Isolepis fluitans also sending out new shoots from
the base.
The Isolepis is really interesting. You can see in the photo above all the fine
fluffy watercolumn roots matted with brown diatoms. After planting I let the
nutrients bottom-out and in response this plant threw out heaps of roots. Notice
there are none on the new growth I started dosing ferts. if you look at the
top photo of this post you can see all the new growth at the top end of this
plant. Again - soon I'll kull out some of the older growth.
Potamogeton crispus - to the left - also threw out buckets of untidy water
column roots when the ferts bottomed out. Directly behind the watchful eye of Mr
fluviatilis is P. australiensis with the broad lime coloured leaves which is
just getting going. The P. ochreatus is going gang-busters behind that - new
shoots on the right.
Lastly - a corner shot taken tonight. Shows how the current blows the Isolepis
to the front and you can clearly see all the new clean growth on top. The
rainbows love to hang out in the shade.
I'm now on the lookout for some local native snails - but thats a tough order to
fill.
In a couple of weeks I'll get rid of that pot of Hygro and pull out the Ludwigia
(for the 6ft tank) and tweak those Potamogetons a bit.
I'm blundering with the fertiliser regime at the moment. As this is cold water
(well 19C actually) and no CO2 I'm pretty much making it up as I go along. I'm
trying to keep the nutrients as low as possible until the tank gets past the
diatom bloom.... but not so low that the plants spit out roots everywhere.
All are Murray R. Rainbows. Two of the fish have been living in the tank. The
three white fish just came out of my pond outside (after a 24h warmup from 9C
and drip acclimatisation in a bucket). I added 6 fish from the pond in total so
now the school has 11.
Its going to be interesting to see how the new ones colour up in the tank.
Spot the two "tribes".
Edit - the two lots did come from different sources at different times
Ask and you shall recieve Cloudy...
I was planning an update prior to AGA closing.. but each day the hair algae
seems to get worse not better!!
In my first post for this journal I showed how I built the stand in a way that
gave me a usable tank space underneath.
Here is what I am currently doing under my tank.
The three small aquaria are quarantine/hospital tank, breeder#1 and
breeder#2.
Currently breeder#2 has about 50 whitecloud fry. My 9yr old daugther begged me
to breed them after I explained why the female was so fat. She's shown a lot of
interest
The two plastic containers are blackworm cultures using good Aussie blackworms
that survive and reproduce at room temperature. I feed them pumpkin, zuchini,
fish food, squeezing of filter sponges.... they love it.
Back to the plants and the tank.....
The big changes are:
(1) the giant Val forest has filled out - exploded really.
(2) the Isolepis fluitans (floating club-rush) has died right back. It showed
explosive growth when I first put it in the tank but it has been getting thinner
and less vigorous. I pruned out the older growth but it just hasn't responded.
Doesn't really matter as the various Potamogetons have more than compensated
with lots of growth.
(3) I removed the pots of non-native plants that have now gone into my 6ft 'Dreamtime' tank so now the tank looks a lot better... though I am battling hair algae at
the moment. "No trace for YOU!!"
Here is a shot from above. The left hand filter return blows the val gently
across the back of the tank. I trim the leaves off once they hit the far wall.
If I dont trim them the leaves wrap around the front of the tank and its just
too much !!!!
Below is a really cool shot of two of the different types of Potamogeton leaves.
The plants are growing huge and now lay all over the right side of the tank.
I've trimmed them back a bit now but the leaves are beautiful.
The broader transparent leaf with a net of veins is Potamogeton australiensis.
Its fabulous and more beautiful in the "flesh" as my camera is crap. The blunt
ended smooth narrow leaves are Potamogeton ochreatus.
A couple of you might remember the cold M. fluvitalis that came out of my pond
in winter and were almost white/albino looking when I added them to the tank
(see pictures a post or two back). These have coloured right up. Here is the
biggest male in his finery. My school of 11 has ended up male heavy - 7 males
and 4 females. They were just too young to be sure when purchasing at the LFS. I
thought I had too many females at the time!
And a Western Carp Gudgeon surveying the staghorn and hair algae.
Staghorn and hair algae on my Ranunculus inundatus... waaaaaa
Some rocks and bits of log have a fair bit of staghorn - but I sick the kitchen
scourer onto them. I dont have any CO2 on this tank and I've now cut out the
trace for a while to see if that helps. Fert dosing is only minor...just enough
to prevent the plants throwing out masses of roots into the water column
(currently 1 ppm NO3, 0.1pmm PO4 per week but delivered daily as smaller
doses)... I havn't dosed with Excel as for a 400l tank it seems like an
expensive proposition. I do spot-kill the few red algae patches that appear on
the wood with Hydrogen Peroxide dosed via a syringe. Works well.
Thanks to Cloudy, Swoon and AquaMX for photos and inspiration and the rest of
you for encouragement!
Update!
I came home today to a most pleasant surprise in the mail.
I have kept the tank running and its gone a little wild!
Most of the plant mass on the right is Potamogeton australiensis
As you can see Java Moss has decided to spontaneously colonise the wood. I never
put any in this tank but a few fragments came in on some plants and appear to
have reproduced sexually!
The Java Moss is pretty - but not part of the Australian Snag biotope! so as
much as it pains me to do so I will be taking the wood out and scrubbing it at
some point... I do have some native moss to replace it! (below).
This moss in the front and back-left is a native moss that I collected from the
Murrindindi R near Melbourne.
...And now for some fish!
Below: Western Carp Gudgeons (Hypseleotris klunzingeri).
Male has the big forehead!
Below: My male River Murray rainbowfish have grown - but diverged in their
appearance. These came from various LFS and may have weird heritages. I'm
interested in sourcing some "quality" stock. If anyone knows of a source for
good M. fluviatilis let me know!
This fish below looks like a weird hybrid to me....
This guy above looks "right".
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