# River Flows - 5ft Bookshelf Tank



## Williak (Jun 26, 2012)

Can't wait to see more pics, looks awesome!


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

Looking great so far, I've always wanted to setup a long tank and have a river theme. Good work


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## Functional (Jan 19, 2018)

I love the look of that tank. Excited to see how she comes out.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks guys, still working out the filter setup and how to run pipes etc, bit of a pain as I am not using a cabinet and cant run the pipe under the tank, has to go around the back, but I also have the power back there so I want to make sure everything is safe and easy enough to clean the pipes when I want to. Have ordered some parts and hopefully pay around with the hardscape this weekend, perhaps it will be wet in a few weeks time


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## Functional (Jan 19, 2018)

Have you considered bending your own polycarbonate pipes? Its actually not that hard and you can get them clear. Should easily be able to make a custom bend to go up the side of the table, run parallel to the table then up and into your tank. Slide some tubing over the end and hose clamp it and you are good to go. I believe they sell caps for the tubes also you can use on the return side and just pop it off and slide the slinky brush down your tube.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Functional said:


> Have you considered bending your own polycarbonate pipes? Its actually not that hard and you can get them clear. Should easily be able to make a custom bend to go up the side of the table, run parallel to the table then up and into your tank. Slide some tubing over the end and hose clamp it and you are good to go. I believe they sell caps for the tubes also you can use on the return side and just pop it off and slide the slinky brush down your tube.


Could be an option down the road, I am looking into just using reticulation pipe or the ribbed fluval hose and its easy to bend and run where I need it to run.

I have never seen anyone use polycarbonate pipes, do you have any links?


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## oscarlloydjohn (Dec 3, 2017)

Love this form factor [emoji4] I wanted to try an ADA 120-F (if I could afford it lol) but they aren't made anymore unfortunately!


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## Functional (Jan 19, 2018)

I cant find the link I had found but they were bending it for use in custom automotive stuff. If I come across it again I'll post it up.

Basically:

-Get clear polycarb tube with known dimensions
-Get thick walled rubber hose whos OD just slides into the polycarb tube
-Use heat strip gun to heat the tube (move along tube, do not keep in one spot)
-Heating to the correct heat is practice, you want it soft but just soft enough to bend, too cold and the polycarb will turn white, too hot and you will get bubbles.
-Once desired form is had remove heat and hold until it hardens (few seconds)
-pull rubber tube out

This basically gives you smooth bends with no kinks. You can do the same by capping and packing the tube with sand but it gives iffy finishes on the inside once removed. Would work good on black or colored pipe though.


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## k2focus (Mar 9, 2018)

i subscribed to this thread to see some pictures - SO POST SOME MORE!!!


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## underH20garden (Dec 19, 2017)

I love it!! fallowing for sure.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Got the plumbing sorted, had to cut the Stainless pipes to size to fit the shallow tank. No leaks! Hard to say how much flow / how directional the flow is, I dropped a few grains of food in and they didnt exactly go flying down the other end, sort of tumbled around, im sure hardscape will change the flow in the tank. 

I think the ground / stand is not level, there is about 1cm drop in water from left to right, is there anyways to fix this? Add shims or something under the tank stand on the right side?

Here is a photo after i filled to test for leaks etc.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Yeah, you'll definitely want to shim it. Add as many small shims as you can around under the stand to make sure weight is well distributed.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

vanish said:


> Yeah, you'll definitely want to shim it. Add as many small shims as you can around under the stand to make sure weight is well distributed.


Actually think its the wave maker and filter pulling down the water at that end, will do some testing today.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Ok so the stand / floor is not level, havent figured out if its the stand or just floor sloping. There is about a 1cm water level difference right to left with filter/wave maker turned off. Will have a think about what I can do, none of the tanks in my house are level so this isnt anything new  

Took is a iphone video before I drained the tank.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Started playing around with rocks, still need to get 2 more medium rocks, one for after the 3rd largest and 1 to go on the right side with the group of small rocks, also changed the inlet / outlet around so flow will be from left to right


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## Koenig44 (Aug 19, 2016)

Any reason why you're not running a heater?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Koenig44 said:


> Any reason why you're not running a heater?


Only going to keep sub-tropical fish that prefer cooler waters, will actually probably have problems keeping the water cool enough.


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## ecoaqaurist (Mar 8, 2018)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> ... Hard to say how much flow / how directional the flow is, I dropped a few grains of food in and they didnt exactly go flying down the other end, sort of tumbled around, im sure hardscape will change the flow in the tank. ...


That flow you are looking for has everything to do with your water pump's GPH. If you are looking for a high flow rate you will need to up the GPH of your pump. As a consequence you may need to increase the size of your overflow pipe to accommodate this. Also, A horizontal spray bar does wonders to spread out that flow over the whole river/stream area.


Cheers,
Wes


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

ecoaqaurist said:


> That flow you are looking for has everything to do with your water pump's GPH. If you are looking for a high flow rate you will need to up the GPH of your pump. As a consequence you may need to increase the size of your overflow pipe to accommodate this. Also, A horizontal spray bar does wonders to spread out that flow over the whole river/stream area.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Wes


Cheers I may upgrade the filter one day, at the moment I cant afford to, original plan was to run a fluval fx4 or 6 but didnt have the money for them, the filter I am using is "factory rated" for 1360lph, I know this is usually tested empty and with minimal head height, I probably have about 50 - 60 ltrs of water so with the factory rating thats about 20 - 25x turn over, with the wave maker (may run 2 wave makers) the flow isnt bad, hopefully with the way the large stones are positioned flow around them will be amplified. My goal is to get some hillstream loaches would love to seem the clinging to rocks around the high flow area.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Planted (just some val/trident fern and anubias/buce) and filled the tank today, flow is not as good as I had hoped, I think the pipe from the filter to outlet is to long and really killing the flow from the filter. I think I will save for a bigger filter / fluval fx5 or 6. I seeded the filter with a sponge from another tank so hopefully the tank cycles quickly and I can see how fish deal with the current filter and wave maker setup.

The Jebao wave maker is rather noisey and really kicked up the sand when positioned low so I had to raise it right under the outlet pipe, added a bunch more la plata big near the wave maker to stop it lifting the sand.

I didnt wash the sand and its very cloudy not so noticeable front on so took a photo anyways, you cant see half way down the tank from the side. Will try take some better photos when it clears up. I kind of liked the layout better before planting, hopefully it grows on me.


IMG_1407 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

I think it looks very nice!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added some wood, unsure if it will stay, would like to find another bit that I can stick behind the biggest stone to make it look like the wood flows the length of the rock formation.


IMG_1413w by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Ekliptix (Jan 17, 2018)

Love it. what a cool tank shape.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Over the weekend I added 10 regular white cloud mountain minnows (the smaller fish), and 8 Vietnamese WCMM's one of the Vietnamese WCMM's jumped last night (leaving 7), they where so skittish, the most skittish fish I had kept (tho only in the tank for 1 day) since adding the other fish they seem much more confident, less hiding when I walk in the room and are actually out of the plants swimming around, tho a few still dont want to leave the planted area.

Tho adding fish uncovered a issue with running wavemakers on a shallow (20cm) tank, they basically become a death trap for anything that gets near them, sucking them in and not leaving any still water for the fish to escape, I have removed the wavemakers and the fish seem very happy now.

For now I am going to hook up my second filter, that will be 2 x 1360 lph filters and I can ether have one empty or spread the media across both to try increase flow in the filter. Just waiting for a second set of SS pipes to arrive.

With the SS pipes so low in the aquarium I am not getting much surface movement, so not suitable for loaches etc that need high oxygen levels, I may try DIY a spray bar from the SS bend and angle it upwards, should create some surface movement.

Plants are melting, I almost forgot what melt was like  hopefully they dont completely melt I used most of my anubias from my 60p in this scape :~( Will add some Darwin Algae Eating shrimp (an Australian native) next week, gonna need a clean up crew with the melting.

Here is the 22mm photo, I cant actually get centre of the tank with this lens, need to take the photo from the doorway. Other photos had been with my 10-18mm lens, this 22mm lens takes a better photo but hard to frame this long tank in the small room.

IMG_1422 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Quick week 1 video i shot tonight.


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Wow, love your scape. Very cool simple design. Should make for a very easy and fish based tank. Love the super long/ shallow look 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Wow, love your scape. Very cool simple design. Should make for a very easy and fish based tank. Love the super long/ shallow look


Cheers, yes interesting shaped tank but hard to photograph and video! I do want to try make this one more about the fish, with plans to keep hillstream loaches, tho still a while away from creating a environment they will be comfortable in.


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## squishface (Mar 19, 2018)

You know this already, but what a great design! I know you're still working out the kinks, but the long rimless tank and rock arrangement are just gorgeous. Some of the larger rocks look purple, which adds even more dimension! Well done & good luck!


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

Love it!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Few macro photos from this evening, one fish has a wound on its side (first photo) what are the chances it recovers? The fish swims fine an is eating. 

Most photos are of the Tanichthys micagemmae, there colour isnt great, perhaps not from the best stock, I think the more vibrant fish are the males, perhaps they will colour up a bit more with time, they seem to be close to fully grown (20-30mm), they probably prefer dark substrate. To me the Tanichthys albonubes are more interesting fish.

Fish with wound


IMG_1444 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Female Tanichthys micagemmae


IMG_1489 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_1485 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Male Tanichthys micagemmae


IMG_1474 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_1441 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_1467 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_1530 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## SocalAquatics (Jan 15, 2018)

Very cool tank. I'm really diggin it. Definitely something that should be displayed in a living room.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Quick iphone video below, I dropped a wafer pellet just at the end of the "high flow" section of the tank, interesting to watch the minnows nip at the wafer, it eventually blows down the tank but gives you a good idea of the current / flow, fairly strong across the front glass, and water is generally moving left to right but they have lots of places to chill out of the main current. They generally dont swim right up to the outlets but often surf around this mid point.


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## Fishingdood (Feb 9, 2005)

I love this tank. I tried looking up this exact tank, but could not find it.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

I added a aerator / venturi nozzle to the smaller outlet (12/16mm) its really jetting water now, I will be changing the 12/16 pipes to 16/22 when they arrive but will keep the aerator on one outlet, here is a photo mid water change, makes me want to keep the water level low, should be set to get some hillstream loaches when the rocks develop some algae, probably need to increase the light level, running at 20% at the moment for 7 hours, tho one hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down.








Fishingdood said:


> I love this tank. I tried looking up this exact tank, but could not find it.


The brand is fire aqua, 1500mm x 210 x 250 (usual width and height of a bookshelf aquarium but longer) The store I got it from could of had them custom made for the store I am unsure, cant say I have seen tanks this size as standard


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Snapped a photo tonight and took a shaky iphone video, still no hillstream loaches, hopefully next weekend, rocks are starting to get some algae so probably a good time to add them. Moved the Vietnamese Minnows to my outdoor tank, so now just 10 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, I will add another 10 soon. The fish are doing well and seem to like the higher flow, tho do generally hang out down the right side of the tank.

Got around to fitting the 16/22mm SS pipes along the front of the tank and it has kicked up the flow again, its really obvious how much the 12/16 SS pipes restricted the flow.

I also have some Helanthium tenellum "Micro" and Helanthium bolivianum, not 100% sure where to plant them, I think i will stick the Helanthium bolivianum behind the 3rd largest rock and remove some anubias, the tenellum "Micro" I may just dot around the left side under the filter outlets, I dont have much of both so will need to do some propagating I think.


IMG_1877 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)




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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

I am really enjoying your tank and updates. It is definitely a unique setup and I can only imagine how great it looks in person after watching the video.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

sdwindansea said:


> I am really enjoying your tank and updates. It is definitely a unique setup and I can only imagine how great it looks in person after watching the video.


Thanks for the kind words, yes this tank is really fun to sit and watch! Hope to add hill stream loaches soon.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

IMG_2006 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_2003 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1998 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_2009 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_2008 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1985 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1980 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1978 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1973 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1965 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1960 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1915 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1912 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1906 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1905 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1904 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1902 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1901 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1897 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1898 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1951 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1947 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1942 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1952 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1940 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1935 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1929 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1927 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1926 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1925 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_1918 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Day 2 of the Loaches


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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

Fantastic pictures and looking great.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

White cloud minnows are so awesome.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Few photos, one at eye level and one from lower down, kind of cool to lay on the floor and watch the water ripple across the surface.


IMG_2051 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2045 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Starting to get some nice algae... never thought I would call algae nice, tho would be great if I could grow green / brown soft algae without BBA... starting to see tiny tuffs of BBA on the rocks closest to the window in my study. Loaches seem to be enjoying the algae tho. 

Some photos below, most of the loaches didnt want to be on camera tonight, I think my camera / flash brings out more yellow than there is in the loaches, the yellow is not so noticeable by eye, they look more dark grey/brown to my eye, could be the flash stressing them bring out some yellow perhaps, they dont like being photographed and hide when I am pointing the camera right at the glass. It is fascinating how quickly they change colour tho, I managed to take a photo (first photo below... not the best photo) of two loaches fighting over a rock, these two guys went really dark / black with the banded stripes, and as soon as the fight is over go back the lighter browny grey. I saw my first blue loach today, it was fighting with a small Sewellia who didnt change colour as far as I could tell. I think they go more blue when really angry!


IMG_2067 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2078 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2076 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2077 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2073 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2064 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2079 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2072 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

Tank looks really nice. Very simple and soothing. The pictures are great quality. What camera and lens did you use?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Chizpa305 said:


> Tank looks really nice. Very simple and soothing. The pictures are great quality. What camera and lens did you use?


Thanks Canon 7d with 100mm macro lens (for fish photos) or 22mm lens for tank photos


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Few more photos tonight, the loaches are probably sick of me trying to take photos of them!


IMG_2095 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2107 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2098 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2104 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2096 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2100 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2105 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

The color comes out really nice on those loaches! The tank is looking great, must be so enjoyable to watch every day!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Cleaned the filters today, what a pain, a job I never enjoy, tho the filters where pretty clean, no brown sludge like in my tanks with soil, also did light gravel / sand vac and big WC, put a jet nozzle on the other outlet, I think the loaches like the extra flow. I was actually injecting co2 I thought with the huge surface movement it wouldn't effect the loaches and from what I could tell it wasn't, the drop checker was pretty much dark dark green bordering on blue most of the time. but today decided to remove the co2 / inline atomizer one less thing to worry about.

Here is a video I shot after the tank maintenance.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

I got some repashy soilent green delivered today, tried to dip smooth river stones in the hot liquid... didnt stick, poured the hot liquid mix over smooth river stones again didnt stick, finally tired pouring over lava rock and it did stick.

I put the lava rock with the soilent green green in the tank about 5 hours ago, its holding pretty well on the rough lava rock and the loaches are showing interest in it, not exactly flocking to the rock but they are interested in it and I have seen some grazing on the rock / gel mix.

Managed to capture a quick video of a few some gastro's getting into the gel. Will take the rock out when lights go out, hopefully they develop a taste for the gel, i need to get some smaller lava rocks as it doesn't seem they will eat this much food in the 6 hours the light is on.


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## finfan (Jun 16, 2008)

one of the coolest tanks I have seen, really enjoying your tank and the fish


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took some photos this evening, love looking at the loaches close up, they have such personality. 


IMG_2245 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2235 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2266 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2242 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2239 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2236 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2234 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2233 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2268 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2267 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2264 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2262 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2259 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2258 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2257 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2255 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2251 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## billb (May 29, 2009)

Your loaches look fantastic. Great pictures. Have they established a pecking order? Do the Sewelia push the Gastromyzon around?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Cheers, to a degree they have a pecking order, its seems the small Sewellia is the most pushy, and likes to chase away any other loach that gets close, sometimes even challenges the biggest loach (some kind of Gastro) to a nose to nose pushing match, that is until the big Sewellia shows itself, all the loaches seem to give the big Sewellia the right of way, tho the big Sewellia (I only have 2) stays hidden away most of the time, generally comes out only when the lights dim down late in the light cycle. Most of the other loaches dont seem to have a problem with each other, I think I have 3 or 4 different species and I am on the lookout to add 2 more Sewellia when my local store gets some more stock in, tho this could take months.


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## Format32 (May 27, 2018)

Really impressed with this idea. I have a UNS 60S that I was planning something along these lines. Obviously not as long of a tank. I had envisioned the Vals taking over the length and wanted to setup two pumps to give a bit of a wave making motion to the Vals. I am going to start a tank journal when I do. 

Thanks for the inspiration!


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## freshwater1 (Nov 24, 2016)

Very nice tank, and very cool as well. A river tank is on my bucket list for sure. Panda Garra might enjoy this tank.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Starting to get some nice green algae growth, here are some updated FTS, the loaches where sleeping / hiding, seem to only come out at the end of the light cycle / late at night, I have changed my light to stay on at 1% for two hours at the end of the cycle, gives me a good chance to watch the loaches scoot about.

Pretty sure dosing silica has helped with green algae growth. Still got dots of BBA around the place but I feel with the green algae growth its slowly smothering out some of the BBA. 


IMG_2272 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2278 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2276 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2274 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Daniel.E. (Jul 10, 2018)

Just read over your thread here and wanted to tell you that I love your set-up. It's beautiful!

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk


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## billb (May 29, 2009)

Congrats on the agae growth! (not being sarcastic) I am sure the loaches appreciate it. The tank does look beautiful. The Vals look very cool running across the tank in the current.


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## ROYWS3 (Feb 1, 2014)

everyone is raving about your loaches and yes, they are cool but I just wanted to say that you WCMM's are beautiful. I've always loved them - one of the first schooing fish I ever kept. They are incredibly underrated in my opinion - your's look great - esp. those flashy males


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## fiji (Jul 12, 2018)

Such an awesome set up man!!!!


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## LB79 (Nov 18, 2011)

This tank, if you haven't 'named', or 'titled' it, should be called 'Epiphany'.


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## ese8413 (Mar 9, 2018)

Nice, love the long shallow tanks


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

billb said:


> Your loaches look fantastic. Great pictures. Have they established a pecking order? Do the Sewelia push the Gastromyzon around?


Cheers! yes the sewellia seem like the dominate fish, surprisingly the biggest sewellia is fairly shy, hides away until the light becomes very dim and doesn't bother anyone, the small sewellia is protective of the area in front of the biggest rock, hardly moves away from this area and will generally challenge any loach that comes near. I only have 2 sewellia and 8 Gastromyzon / Pseudogastromyzon, I would like to add 2 more sewellia when I can find some, the store I purchased from only had 2 sewellia left and havent had a restock yet.



Daniel.E. said:


> Just read over your thread here and wanted to tell you that I love your set-up. It's beautiful!


Thanks! 



billb said:


> Congrats on the agae growth! (not being sarcastic) I am sure the loaches appreciate it. The tank does look beautiful. The Vals look very cool running across the tank in the current.


Cheers I am happy the algae is now growing well, interestingly the Vals are suffering and melting away, I will leave them be, if they dont bounce back I may replace with some long branches of driftwood that flow in a similar way the vals currently do.



ROYWS3 said:


> everyone is raving about your loaches and yes, they are cool but I just wanted to say that you WCMM's are beautiful. I've always loved them - one of the first schooing fish I ever kept. They are incredibly underrated in my opinion - your's look great - esp. those flashy males


Cheeers! yes I love WCMM's, great fish that isnt shy and they do school well.



fiji said:


> Such an awesome set up man!!!!


Thanks!



LB79 said:


> This tank, if you haven't 'named', or 'titled' it, should be called 'Epiphany'.


Seems like a fitting name!



ese8413 said:


> Nice, love the long shallow tanks


Same so easy to maintain, you dont even have to get your hands wet if you have long tweezers / pincers


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Quick video from today while doing a water change


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Shot a nice long (10 minutes) video tonight, the loaches where out and about. Some of the focus isnt great as it was towards the end of my light cycle and had to use a low f-stop to expose the video


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Took a few photos of the more illusive loaches with the lights out but flash on the camera, worked pretty well surprisingly. The big sewellia only comes out when the light is below 5%, interestingly the small sewellia is out and about pretty much all day.


IMG_2318 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2311 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2307 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2332 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_2331 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## swarley (Apr 12, 2018)

My goodness. I love your loaches. They look like living jewels.


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## Koenig44 (Aug 19, 2016)

What kind of fish is in IMG_2332?

Also, can you post some pics of your support system underneath, and what filtration are you using?

Subscribed.


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## vvDO (Oct 18, 2010)

Koenig44 said:


> What kind of fish is in IMG_2332?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Vietnamese White Cloud Mountain minnows


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Koenig44 said:


> What kind of fish is in IMG_2332?
> 
> Also, can you post some pics of your support system underneath, and what filtration are you using?
> 
> Subscribed.


Hi yes the fish is a White Cloud Mountain Minnow, not sure the exact variety just the standard cheap ones i think.

I am using two x 1400 LPH canister filters, as I am not using a traditional cabinet (I am using a bookshelf) the filters dont fit below the tank, they sit next to the tank on the right side, there is a short 300mm or so return tube to the filters, then I run 2mtr flexible outlet tubes behind the bookshelf up to the outlets back into the tank.

The filters are eheim pro Chinese copies, called Astro filters, they seems good, nice and simple, have been using a smaller astro filter on my 12g for a few years now with no problems










You can just see one of the filters in this photo below on the right hand side on the floor

IMG_2278 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Got a new camera lens today, probably not so useful for taking photos of fish / tanks.... 8mm fisheye! 


IMG_2460 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

Still looks like a fun lens! I'm putting together some camera gear and am curious what you are using, both for fts and macro shots.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Vinster8108 said:


> Still looks like a fun lens! I'm putting together some camera gear and am curious what you are using, both for fts and macro shots.


Yah very fun lens, just took some city scape shots this evening, was great!

I am using a Canon 7d Body (mk1 would like to upgrade to a 6d next year) for FTS I use Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens for Macro I use Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens, with macro I have found I need to use a speedlight flash attached to the top of the camera (I forget what model, the cheap canon model)


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Very cool tank. I love the rounded rocks. I echo the others- your hillstream loaches are so cool, and I have never seen WCMM look so flashy. Great photography skills. I once had a butterfly hillstream loach I bought on a whim- poor choice as my tank didn't have enough current and although it looked healthy only lasted a few months on me. I felt terribly guilty about it. Yours look fantastic and how fun to see them scooting about on the rocks.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

JJ09 said:


> Very cool tank. I love the rounded rocks. I echo the others- your hillstream loaches are so cool, and I have never seen WCMM look so flashy. Great photography skills. I once had a butterfly hillstream loach I bought on a whim- poor choice as my tank didn't have enough current and although it looked healthy only lasted a few months on me. I felt terribly guilty about it. Yours look fantastic and how fun to see them scooting about on the rocks.


Thanks  Not all the WCMM are colourful, I think the females are fairly dull but generally I only photograph the flashy males  
It is fun to watch the hillstream loaches on the rocks, I couldn't imaging them in a tank without lots of rocks (preferably smooth) they basically always cling to a rock, rarely resting on the sand or small gravel to rummage for food.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

Been watching your thread for a while now. Very nicely done. Yours and some other long/low stream-type tanks have cost me money. A rimless 30L arrives tomorrow that I'll be setting up in a similar way. Thinking a local biotype tank with collected hardscape from nearby creeks and some pretty native dace minnows that I now keep in a stream that runs into my pond and some other local species. We'll see where it ends up. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Got another new lens this week, thought I would test it out with a photo of this tank, have to say I am not that impressed with the sharpness of the lens, its a Samyang 14mm f2.8, I purchased because I want to try my hand at some astrophotography, mainly just want a photo of the milky way... apparently the samyang lenses are not focus collaborated from the factory, so I will go at it with a tiny screwdriver and see if I can improve the focus / sharpness. The 8mm Samyang I got last week also isnt the best with focusing, they are both fully manual and cheap, i guess you get what you pay for, the Canon 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens I usual use for FTS is way way way (way) sharper and retails for half the price of the samyang lenses...

Anyways this isnt a photography forum but I know some of you have an interest in photography... here is the photo of the tank.


IMG_2916-Edit.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Some updates regarding the tank. I lost my first loach last week, the smallest sewellia, which was really sad, it was my favourite loach and the most active of them all. It I found the dead loach maybe 5 or so hours after i hit some BBA with H2o2, I use the strong 50% stuff, I think perhaps the loach got hit with some of the h2o2 directly, it was a fresh bottle and i guess too strong, thats the only thing I can think off, all the other fish where fine. Poor sewellia 

As you can see I have let the frogbit go a bit crazy, it grows super fast in this tank, it kind of ugly and shadows half the tank but the white cloud minnows seem to like the cover, I think they have coloured up more with the extra cover, snails have also gone crazy in this tank, probably from over feeding but I can live with that.

I cant find any more sewellia loaches anywhere in Perth, so I think I may add a few more Pseudo gastro's which are easier to find in Perth / Australia.


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## Thelongsnail (Dec 2, 2015)

Just want to say that I absolutely adore this and your other bookshelf tank. Both threads are certainly going to be bad for my bank account.


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## ahud (Mar 6, 2010)

I really enjoyed reading through this thread. Great job! I love what people are accomplishing with rimless tanks and sleek equipment choices.


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## mooonmagic (Aug 28, 2016)

I absolutely love the rocks in this tank. This thread has been delightful to read. Sorry to hear about your loach.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Thelongsnail said:


> Just want to say that I absolutely adore this and your other bookshelf tank. Both threads are certainly going to be bad for my bank account.





ahud said:


> I really enjoyed reading through this thread. Great job! I love what people are accomplishing with rimless tanks and sleek equipment choices.





mooonmagic said:


> I absolutely love the rocks in this tank. This thread has been delightful to read. Sorry to hear about your loach.


Thanks for the nice feedback guys!


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## lab_fly (May 6, 2018)

Honestly, I don't mind the frogbit light cover. It makes it looks like legitimate clouds covering part of the landscape since it is localized to a single part of the tank. I kind of like it.


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## TheDukeAnumber1 (Sep 13, 2018)

I agree, since the cover is grouped at the end of the tank it adds a pretty cool look over the small rock group.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

lab_fly said:


> Honestly, I don't mind the frogbit light cover. It makes it looks like legitimate clouds covering part of the landscape since it is localized to a single part of the tank. I kind of like it.





TheDukeAnumber1 said:


> I agree, since the cover is grouped at the end of the tank it adds a pretty cool look over the small rock group.


Thank guys, have had a few ppl comment that they like the frogbit just down one end and I see where you guys are coming from adds a nicer natural feel, I actually have frogbit in all my tanks, its a useful plant!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Frogbit is taking over, this photo was shot with the MML LED Tube at 2%, I ramp the light down to 2 and then 1% for the last few hours, this is the most interesting time to watch the tank. The photo looks much lighter than it really is.


IMG_2942.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

Nice plant surface covering. It might be a bit too dark for the bottom plants though. But looks interesting.


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## ahud (Mar 6, 2010)

I love this tank so much.


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## lab_fly (May 6, 2018)

> Frogbit is taking over


Wow! That is some serious growth since last time. I really preferred it when it was more localized to the end, but it might be unmaintainable with this rate of growth.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

lab_fly said:


> Wow! That is some serious growth since last time. I really preferred it when it was more localized to the end, but it might be unmaintainable with this rate of growth.


Yah its growing faster in this non co2 tank than any other tank I have it in, I think its the cooler water it likes, will clear half out this weekend.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added 4 more loaches, where just labeled "Borneo Suckers" not to sure what they are, Pseudo gastro's I am pretty sure, will try some macro shots during the week. 

Here is a FTS, the new loaches seem to have interested the existing loaches, much more activity today.


IMG_3000-Edit.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Some photos of the new loaches, not the best photos taken in the day light with a flash, the new loaches hang out in the open all day, as opposed to the original loaches hide during the day and come out at night...

I can see one is missing a chunk near its head, poor guy, the young guy trying to catch the loaches in the store had some issues, was trying to use his fingers to get it off the glass, I told him to use a credit card and gave him one of my cards and he was able to slide the loach of the glass, I am guessing the damage happened when the guy was trying to pick the loach of the glass with his fingers, do you guys think it will recover? You can see the damage in the first loach photo.


EDIT removed broke link images - sorry!


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## roturier (Sep 25, 2018)

I'm so jealous. I've got a hundred gallon 'bathtub' I always wanted to cut down somehow to this size and shape. Was this a home made tank, specially ordered or can you actually purchase such a thing off the shelf where you are?


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

roturier said:


> I'm so jealous. I've got a hundred gallon 'bathtub' I always wanted to cut down somehow to this size and shape. Was this a home made tank, specially ordered or can you actually purchase such a thing off the shelf where you are?


Cheers, I brought this tank off the shelve, its fire-aqua brand, I think the store I purchased it from had them specially made in a small run, not a size I have seen around.


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## lab_fly (May 6, 2018)

That is a really nice shrimp! How many are in there? 

Also, it looks like I'll always check in on this tank. Great updates!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

lab_fly said:


> That is a really nice shrimp! How many are in there?
> 
> Also, it looks like I'll always check in on this tank. Great updates!


Cheers, not sure how many of those particular shrimp, not many i would guess, they cant not develop in fresh water (even tho the shrimp in the photo is berried with small eggs), they are a native Australian shrimp, good for controlling soft algae, but not bba  they are called either Darwin Algae Shrimp or North Queensland Algae Shrimp depending on where they are collected. The tank has heaps of common red cherry shrimp, I would say between 50 - 100, along with 100s of pest snails which got out of control.


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## jprime84 (Oct 23, 2009)

Great tank concept. Ever since spending time in the cold clear creeks and rivers in the Appalachian mountains surrounding my inlaws' home I have thought about building a river tank. I always thought it would be difficult to build sufficient gph flow to simulate the river environment.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

jprime84 said:


> Great tank concept. Ever since spending time in the cold clear creeks and rivers in the Appalachian mountains surrounding my inlaws' home I have thought about building a river tank. I always thought it would be difficult to build sufficient gph flow to simulate the river environment.


Thanks, yes I would say near impossible to simulate the real flow of a river, i read somewhere they measure the flow of a river in mtrs per second or something... look at Oliver knott's "go to flow" style tanks they move much more water uni-directional, but the cost of one of the pumps would have been 2x the cost of my whole setup including all the fish, hardscape / everything!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

I added 3 assassin snails to try control the snails in this tank, when I first put them in I watched them eat / kill a few snails but since they just seem to have buried themselves... 3 snails v's 100s of pond snails... Im probably going to need more...

Also I noticed a bunch of snails on something the other day, a dead loach, I am pretty sure it was the loach that had the injury pictured earlier... poor guy. Thats 2 loaches I have lost in the past month or so, hopefully no more.

Here are the snaps from the original EOS M, with the 22mm f2 lens. 
IMG_3749.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3755.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3760.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3748.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3754.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3753.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

IMG_3758.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_3746.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


IMG_3743.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Mike! (Mar 26, 2018)

doylecolmdoyle said:


>


Beautiful, as always! Is that flower coming from the frogbit?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Lovely photos. I especially like the overhead one. Do your loaches tend to each claim a rock?


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## Sarpijk (Aug 17, 2015)

I keep reading that loaches need highly oxygenated water which means at least some surface movement. Do you follow this principle and if yes how do you grow frogbit so successfully? Love your tank btw!


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Mike! said:


> Beautiful, as always! Is that flower coming from the frogbit?


Thanks, the flower is coming from the Cyperus helferi which is mixed in with the Val, similar looking to Val but doesnt get as long and puts out flowers under high light.



JJ09 said:


> Lovely photos. I especially like the overhead one. Do your loaches tend to each claim a rock?


Kind of, the bigger ones seem to try control a area around some certain rocks, some just seem to go where every they want.



Sarpijk said:


> I keep reading that loaches need highly oxygenated water which means at least some surface movement. Do you follow this principle and if yes how do you grow frogbit so successfully? Love your tank btw!


Yes, they need high levels of o2, being such a shallow tank o2 is always going to be high, also I have a lot of surface movement, if you look back in the journal I have posted some video that I think show surface movement, the movement around the big rocks is very turbulent and creates a lot of surface movement, the far end, where the frogbit grows has little surface movement. Also I have venturi nozzles on the outlets which create micro o2 bubbles.

Coming into summer here in Western Australia which will be the true test as Hillstream Loaches prefer cooler waters and it gets very hot where I live.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

How'd you convince your hillstreams to move to the hardscape? Haven't had mine long but they seem to spend +90% of the time stuck to the glass. Whatever makes them happy I guess but not really what I was going for when I set up a nice rocky river-type tank for them. ; )


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Added two single fans to either end of the tank as the weather is heating up in Perth, hopefully they help.

Cleared out most of the frogbit, amazing how much brighter the tank looks, gotta try keep on top of clearing it out. The flowers from the Cyperus helferi now pretty much stretch the length of the tank. 

Updated photo below. I noticed lots of dead flickr links in some posts, I tried to apply a watermark to my lightroom library and re-publish the photos, which in-turn broke all the links, crap thing is I then decided I didnt want a watermark and re-published again, lesson is if you have flickr images published on forums etc dont re-publish the images as the links with break.

IMG_3693.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Bump:


Mike A. said:


> How'd you convince your hillstreams to move to the hardscape? Haven't had mine long but they seem to spend +90% of the time stuck to the glass. Whatever makes them happy I guess but not really what I was going for when I set up a nice rocky river-type tank for them. ; )


No tricks, some times they are on the glass but 90% of the time on the rock or hiding away at the back of the tank behind the rocks / plants.

I guess if rocks are new without no real algae growth they may prefer the glass if it has a nice algae / biofilm build up.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> No tricks, some times they are on the glass but 90% of the time on the rock or hiding away at the back of the tank behind the rocks / plants.
> 
> I guess if rocks are new without no real algae growth they may prefer the glass if it has a nice algae / biofilm build up.


Thanks. Rocks are much older than the tank in this case and well covered. Moved them over from an outdoor stream/pond that I have. One of mine hangs out a lot there now but the others still seem to prefer the glass. Maybe they're just more used to that coming from the store here. Probably not much else to feed on. I supposed that I could scrape the glass to help force them off but they're still relatively new so I'll leave them be for a while. Mine aren't shy at least. Out and relatively active most of the time.


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## Marc Davis (Aug 2, 2018)

Really love the simplicity of your tank Doyle


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Marc Davis said:


> Really love the simplicity of your tank Doyle


Thanks mate, quickly learnt unless you have a lot of time best to keep aquascapes simple and low maintenance!


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## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

I've read through maybe half of this thread, but haven't found any reference to mating behavior. Have you seen any? Among the loaches I mean.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Blacktetra said:


> I've read through maybe half of this thread, but haven't found any reference to mating behavior. Have you seen any? Among the loaches I mean.


No havent noticed any mating behaviour and havent seen any baby loaches etc


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## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

Thanks for the quick reply. The tanks are beautiful. They really give me pause for thought when it comes to how I've imagined scaping. Simplicity combined with good design can be just as, if not more impressive, than good design hidden behind excessive complexity with plants, hardscape or substrate colors.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Tried to capture a timelapse of the last hour or so of my light cycle, didnt really turn out how I wanted... probably better of just capturing a few hours when the light is more powered... will give the timelapse another go soon. 









Blacktetra said:


> Thanks for the quick reply. The tanks are beautiful. They really give me pause for thought when it comes to how I've imagined scaping. Simplicity combined with good design can be just as, if not more impressive, than good design hidden behind excessive complexity with plants, hardscape or substrate colors.


Thanks for the kind words, I agree with what you have wrote, to me good design is simple, strong and clean... my profession is a graphic designer and these rules apply there too (unless a client demands something awful!)


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Here is a short video I shot this afternoon, the fish and loaches are gathering around an algae wafer, this kind of wafer seem to be the loaches favourite food (Tropical 3-Algae)


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Recorded this 4K time lapse today, works much better than recording the fading light... It is about 1 hour compressed down to 40 seconds, watch in 4k on youtube for extra detail.






One of the loaches just gets onto the glass at the end of the video, would be cool to see what they do when on the glass... but the SD card could only hold about 1000 photos... I plan to try take a longer time lapse some day soon, need to figure out best way to managed file size, perhaps I could tether the camera to my laptop or something, also need to keep the camera powered, at the moment just runs from the battery and wouldn't last any longer than 1000 photos either way.

Also i should have put some food in the tank to louer the loaches out a bit more, you get the odd glimpse of them.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

The time lapse I shot yesterday was in a weird white balance so today i shot a new sequence of images, I think it looks better, much more natural to how the tank actually looks, again in 4k if you want wnat to see the details / algae  I like that you can see tiny shrimp or maybe snails crawling on the big rock also this one captures a bit more loach activity


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Quick snap with a new lens (purchased for astrophotography 12mm f2 Samyang) love that I can fit the whole tank in very easily with this wide angle lens, and going down to f2 is great for hand held low light, such as the photo below, the light would be ramping down to about 5% or less this time of the evening but still managed to get a hand held photo... 










Check out the green algae on the sand, green algae has gone crazy, the glass is covered, tho hard to tell in the photo, seems the loaches do a good job munching it down but never fully remove, if you look closely you can see the pattern they leave in the algae, kind of like qtr moon shapes, will have to see if I can get a macro shot of it.


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## tredford (Jun 29, 2018)

Looks awesome, thanks for the update! Need some more pics of the loaches.  A pic of their bite marks in the algae would be cool, too.


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## Fisherking (Feb 27, 2012)

I really like this tank, and check the thread often; thanks for the pictures and specs.

So, at this point, you're *not* running CO2, correct? I'm setting up a shorter 36 inch long, 12" x 12", 22 gallon tank and will do a similar planting but don't want to run CO2 if I can help it.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Quick update, tank is chugging along, with minimal maintenance, green algae is going hard, I havent bother cleaning the black glass for ages... as you can see, I occasionally clean the front glass but that is a bit green in this photo, the fish seem to like it, tho all the loaches where hiding when I took this photo. 

Also I shut down all my tanks apart from this tank and my 12g bookshelf blackwater.












Fisherking said:


> I really like this tank, and check the thread often; thanks for the pictures and specs.
> 
> So, at this point, you're *not* running CO2, correct? I'm setting up a shorter 36 inch long, 12" x 12", 22 gallon tank and will do a similar planting but don't want to run CO2 if I can help it.


Correct, no co2, I ran co2 at first when I didnt have the hillstream loaches, but you cant keep them with co2 injection so I removed the co2, as expect the plants grew way better with co2, perhaps 2 - 3x as fast and much more lush and green and the val grew really long really fast, when I removed the co2 the Val melted back, but over time it has bounced back.


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## doylecolmdoyle (Sep 22, 2015)

Kind of cleaned the glass the other week, couldn't be bothered removing pipes to do the side glass, I tired spot dosing the biggest rock with h2o2 to kill BBA and ended up spot dosing a loach who died about 2 days later... So for now I will live with the BBA until I do a rescape or pull out the rocks and soak them in a h202 solution over night.

Interestingly the loaches seem to prefer "cleanish" glass as opposed to green algae caked on, perhaps as the green algae grows its softer / attracts them more.

I removed small stones from the left of the scape as they attracted the most BBA, also removed the jet nozzles from the filter outlets, sand has since moved and exposed a cavity under the biggest rock, this is now where most of the loaches live.


IMG_8816.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## Le duke (Jun 29, 2021)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Starting to get some nice green algae growth, here are some updated FTS, the loaches where sleeping / hiding, seem to only come out at the end of the light cycle / late at night, I have changed my light to stay on at 1% for two hours at the end of the cycle, gives me a good chance to watch the loaches scoot about.
> 
> *Pretty sure dosing silica has helped with green algae growth. Still got dots of BBA around the place but I feel with the green algae growth its slowly smothering out some of the BBA.*


Colm, I know it's 3 years down the line, but on the off chance that you are still around, can you expand on what you did here? Any specific product? Thanks!


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