# 大河 Stiphodon Hillstream 3ft Tank



## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

Looks great. We will all be watching as it develops. Can tell you enjoy a new challenge!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thanks man! And I do enjoy a good challenge. 

Update: the tank is completely cycled as of tonight. Ammonia levels and nitrites are 0 so I added my 3 surviving rosy loaches, 1 Cory habrosus, and 3 ottos back to the tank. 

In more exciting news, I just put in an order for 5 sewellia spotted, 5 stiphodon semoni, and 3 stiphodon elegans! Supposed to come in tomorrow. Very excited!
Joshua


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## skoram (Aug 9, 2012)

Looks nice and I love the concept, but won't algae harm your anubias? Anytime I have had an algae outbreak in one of my tanks, my anubias suffered the worst, presumably because they are such slow growers.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Looks great but I would have painted the PVC black so it wouldn't stand out so much, and also thinner PVC. Hopefully the algae will grow on it or you can wrap it in moss. Moss would also look good in a hill stream tank.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

@skoram: hey man. Thanks for compliment. And yeah the Anubias may suffer a little bit, but I'm counting on my past experiences to remain true that they will continue to grow even in te midst of the algae. I actually want them to be another surface for algae to cling to for te fish. I'll keep an eye on them though

@mistergreen: hey brother thanks for the comment and concern. Haha but did you not see the picture of the painted PVC? Everything in the front tank shot is a placeholder for the real piping while the paint cures. I don't actually have the manifold hooked up yet. 

In other news, my fish are coming in the mail this morning. I'll post pics later. 
Joshua


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## PacTOK (Jul 30, 2014)

Too much of the tube. Not pretty. Should decorate them to hide from the eyes.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

oh I see, Can't wait to see the painted PVC in there.

You should get some river dither fish to make the bottom dwellers feel secure so they'd swim around.


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

looks like a great set-up! i'm a little worried that adding 12 fish at one time is a lot for a newly cycled tank and you might lose some of the sewellia.... they don't handle ammonia well.

i'm excited to see how it looks when everything is cured and all the living fish are in.

my suggestion, from experience, don't slack on keeping algae off the front glass. i have a few patches that no matter how hard i try i can't get it off.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Your Stiphodon gobies will love that tank. The Anubias may get pretty grungy. Stiphodon gobies are aufwauchs feeders. They won't clean surfaces of algae entirely. They will graze a little off the surface. If things get too nasty, you can add Nerita snails and Amano shrimp to help you clean some of the worst growth, or like me, you can choose not to care. Good luck, I look forward to seeing how your tank develops!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

PacTOK said:


> Too much of the tube. Not pretty. Should decorate them to hide from the eyes.


Thanks for the suggestion! I will be hiding them with black paint. 



mistergreen said:


> oh I see, Can't wait to see the painted PVC in there.
> 
> You should get some river dither fish to make the bottom dwellers feel secure so they'd swim around.


Yeah, I need to wait about 4 more days for the paint to cure, but early next week I should have it all finalized. Well I have my 3 rosy loaches, 1 cory habrosus, and 3 ottos that are all very comfortable in my tank and swim around all the time. So they are good dither fish for the new tankmates. 



Aquatic Delight said:


> looks like a great set-up! i'm a little worried that adding 12 fish at one time is a lot for a newly cycled tank and you might lose some of the sewellia.... they don't handle ammonia well.
> 
> i'm excited to see how it looks when everything is cured and all the living fish are in.
> 
> my suggestion, from experience, don't slack on keeping algae off the front glass. i have a few patches that no matter how hard i try i can't get it off.


Hi Aquatic-Delight! Thanks for the compliment man! I was worried about that too. However, I added in lots of seeded tank material from another tank in addition to the eheim 2217 being completely seeded. I'm also going to do 25%-35% water changes everyday for the next week just to make sure that nothing goes wrong. But I tested ammonia and nitrites today and both read 0. So thats promising. I do my best to keep it clean with a razor blade. Usually works for me. 




Varmint said:


> Your Stiphodon gobies will love that tank. The Anubias may get pretty grungy. Stiphodon gobies are aufwauchs feeders. They won't clean surfaces of algae entirely. They will graze a little off the surface. If things get too nasty, you can add Nerita snails and Amano shrimp to help you clean some of the worst growth, or like me, you can choose not to care. Good luck, I look forward to seeing how your tank develops!


I want the anubias to get grungy.  I want algae to grow all over this tank. Anubias are just there to reduce nitrate and provide more surface area for algae. Thanks for the tips.


Update:
All 13 of the fish came in alive. 
-5 Sewellia sp. Spotted
-5 Stiphodon Semoni (2M 3F?)
-3 Stiphodon Elegans (2M 1F?)
Not sure about the sexes of the gobies yet, they are still pretty small.
All fish seem to be healthy although this next week will be critical as a few of them look a little emaciated and slightly starved.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow!
Joshua


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## Bettatail (Feb 12, 2009)

I like those lava rock, they remind me the river where I caught the butterfly loaches when I was a kid, the river is in the old volcano region, and houses, bridges, ... all made from lava rock.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Bettatail said:


> I like those lava rock, they remind me the river where I caught the butterfly loaches when I was a kid, the river is in the old volcano region, and houses, bridges, ... all made from lava rock.


Glad that you like them man. I really do as well. They are semi smooth, yet have some nice character to them. Where did you grow up?
Joshua


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Time for the promised pics:

These were all taken only a few hours after adding the fish. Everyone seems to be doing great. All of them came in alive. Only one or two out of 13 came in a little skinny. At this time I'm not positive on all the ids of the gobies, but they should be male and female stiphodon semoni and male and female stiphodon elegans.

These fish are incredible to watch.

Sewellia SP. SEWO1




































Stiphodon Elegans
















































Stiphodon Semoni





































More Stiphodon pics




























Tank Shots














































Please let me know what you think,
Joshua


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## Duck5003 (Oct 1, 2012)

Another great build, looks awesome! Those are some lucky/beautiful fish  I cant wait to see it with the black pvc. I feel like its really going to help "frame" the scape and really make that your focal point.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Duck5003 said:


> Another great build, looks awesome! Those are some lucky/beautiful fish  I cant wait to see it with the black pvc. I feel like its really going to help "frame" the scape and really make that your focal point.



Thanks Duck, and I agree. Once the black pipe goes in and I get the manifold completely plumbed up, I think its gonna look much better. All the fish seem to be doing well. They are out and about much more today. I think they are starting to get acclimated to the tank.
Joshua


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

That's a great looking set-up


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

is the current from left to right, or right to left?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Thanks Burr740! I like it too.

Aquatic Delight: Left to right. It will be more noticeable when the actual powerheads are in. Currently I just have my eheim canister and a koralia nano blowing in the same direction.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Finally completed the filtration system. Painted the pvc with Black Krylon Fusion Matte plastic spray paint. Let it cure for longer than a week and today, I finally found the will power to attach it all together. School has kept me really busy lately. 

So now the flow in the tank is more or less unidirectional. All water is pulled from left to right, goes into the sponge intakes, travels in the pvc underneath the gravel, and then comes back out through the powerheads on the left. I also have a pipe that is attached to my eheim cannister. It is plumbed into the pvc underneath the gravel as well. Therefore, all water must go through the sponge intakes on the right side of the tank. 

There are 4 intakes hidden in the sponges. They are Pvc pipes with lots of holes drilled all over them. I suspect that I won't have to clean them for quite some time. 

Fish have been doing really well. No deaths that I am aware of. Sewellia are still a little shy, but have been coming out alot more. I hope that the increased current will encourage more active behaviour. All the gobies are very active, perching and doing their goby thing. 

Also the algae is starting to grow in nicely in the tank as you will see in the pictures. I've also been supplementing with Repashy algae mix. I pour the mix over some lava rocks that I then place in teh tank. Everyone enjoys grazing on them. 

Lastly, the Anubias Nana have been melting back a bit, I believe that when I first set up the tank, they were in the dry air for a little bit too long. Stinks, but there are signs of fresh growth on all the plants, so I'm not worried. Besides, the fish I have enjoy the melting leaves haha. 

And without further ado, here are the pictures. Sorry if they are not up to my usual standards, I just got a new Samsung Note 3 and am getting used to the camera settings.



















Female Stiphodon Semoni I believe



























Here he has a Inle Loach Friend 









Pretty sure that this is a Male Stiphodon Elegans not showing his colors:









All the loaches crusing around the tank. By far the most active fish.









Female on a rock

























Look at that beautiful green algae forming!!









Sponge Intakes, 2 pipes on each side for total of 4 intakes.









Here you can see the 2 power heads, as well as in the very back corner a black pipe that goes up and out of the tank, and down to the eheim cannister. The eheim then returns to the spray bar. So even my cannister is assisting the uni-flow.









I still have one Cryptocoryne plant and 1 Bucephalandra baby left. Can't quite give them up just yet.









Here's the tank with all the filtration and bubbles running:



















That's all folks. I hope to update with more fish pictures once the fish settle down more. This was a quick 5 minute photo shoot right after I finished setting everything up.

Cheers,
Joshua


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Seems like a lot of thought has been given to construct an ideal habitat. The fishes are really lucky to have found such a dedicated owner~


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I agree!
Loaches are no doubt in Hog Heaven.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Xiaozhuang said:


> Seems like a lot of thought has been given to construct an ideal habitat. The fishes are really lucky to have found such a dedicated owner~


Thanks Xiaozhuang! I did do quite a bit of research for this tank. Its very rewarding getting to watch these little guys swim about in the current. 



roadmaster said:


> I agree!
> Loaches are no doubt in Hog Heaven.


Appreciate it roadmaster. They seem to be enjoying the tank thus far. roud:

More fish pics:

Stiphodons:




























































































Sewellia


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Hmm, I got a 20 gal set up with substrate of smooth gravel,flagstone,Faux caves,and a Aquaclear 70 running on a mature tank for a few weeks now .
Just could not decide what I wanted to place in the tank.( I thought maybe assassin snails but the deal fell through)
Might just give these a try.
I could add a Koralia power head, and some floating water sprite ,and maybe keep something I have never kept before.
Time for researching.
May I ask where you sourced the little critters?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

roadmaster said:


> Hmm, I got a 20 gal set up with substrate of smooth gravel,flagstone,Faux caves,and a Aquaclear 70 running on a mature tank for a few weeks now .
> Just could not decide what I wanted to place in the tank.( I thought maybe assassin snails but the deal fell through)
> Might just give these a try.
> I could add a Koralia power head, and some floating water sprite ,and maybe keep something I have never kept before.
> ...



Hey man, that sounds like a promising setup to me. I ended up sourcing these fish from wetspot tropical fish online vendor. You can search for them. They were very pleasant to deal with, just have to be okay with paying for overnight shipping. Which usually starts at $30+ for shipping. Thats one reason why I bought 13 fish at one time to make it worth it.


Update: Tank is still doing great, algae is starting to grow. I throw in a repashy soilent green covered rock every few days and they go nuts.

Cheers,
Joshua


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## inka4041 (Jul 27, 2008)

Looks great! FWIW, once they are eating the repashy reliably, there's no need to go through the trouble of coating rocks with it. They'll eat chunks and cubes just fine.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Neat setup! Any updates?


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## Agr414 (Jan 17, 2014)

I'm glad I found this thread because I actually saw your YouTube video a while ago. Looks great!


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

This is a great setup. I like the personal touches you were able to put on the river manifold system. I'm sure the fish will be very happy.


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

Very nice! 
I can get both of those locally... I need to try this at some future point, preferably with a breeder-style tank. 
Have you considered looking into some form of danio that might like dancing around in the water? Or, ooh, don't splashing tetras love current?


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

inka4041 said:


> Looks great! FWIW, once they are eating the repashy reliably, there's no need to go through the trouble of coating rocks with it. They'll eat chunks and cubes just fine.



Thanks man, I always enjoy looking at your awesome Hillstream setup as well. I pretty much stopped feeding the tank and just grew obsessive ammounts of algae which resulted in fat happy gobies and sewellias. :hihi:

How is your setup doing? Also do you know of anyone else with whom I can source more stiphodon sp?






kman said:


> Neat setup! Any updates?


Hello there, Thanks alot! And yes update in the text below.




Agr414 said:


> I'm glad I found this thread because I actually saw your YouTube video a while ago. Looks great!


Hi Agr! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Sorry it took so long to reply. I haven't been on forums recently. 





knm<>< said:


> This is a great setup. I like the personal touches you were able to put on the river manifold system. I'm sure the fish will be very happy.


I really appreciate your comments. I spent ALOT of time researching river manifold setups and felt that this gave me the best mix for my situation. I definitely feel that I have more than adequate filtration in the tank heh. 




Betta132 said:


> Very nice!
> I can get both of those locally... I need to try this at some future point, preferably with a breeder-style tank.
> Have you considered looking into some form of danio that might like dancing around in the water? Or, ooh, don't splashing tetras love current?


Thanks Betta! I've thought about getting something for the top of the tank, but I wanted to keep the species peaceful for any possible sewellia fry that might crop up. Maybe eventually!



*Update 2/3/2015*
So this tank has been up and running steadily for quite some time now. It matured very nicely and formed a pretty dense anubias canopy. I stopped feeding this tank completely, and just let the algae run rampant. I never lost any stiphodons or hillstreams or loaches, on the contrary, they grew fat and happy. Nor have I done any waterchanges since its initial setup. I just top off when needed. Nor have I heated or cooled this tank, it stays pretty much around 72-77 degrees Fahrenheit consistantly. I feel that the motors from the powerheads provide enough heat during the winter. 

So as far as maintenance has been, this tank is the dream. 

I have more news but no more time at the moment, so be expecting a big update in the next few days with pictures. 

Cheers,
Joshua Murphy


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## zerodameaon (Dec 2, 2014)

This is an awesome tank, Stiphodons are some of my favorite fish. I currently have stiphodon semoni, 2 stiphodon ornatus, and one that could be a atropurpureus or maybe even a elegans(not yet taking on color). I really want to find a stiphodon percnopterygionus. One thing that sucks about stiphodons is when they are at the LFS they tend to be very pale due to stress and you kind of have to trust the store or risk ending up with another species, but either way you will always end up with a interesting little goby.

Oh I forgot something, I don't bother feeding my stiphodons either, I focus on feeding the other fish and the stiphodons gang up on all forms of algea that I have including BBA. They will even chase off SAE for the good spot.


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## fishophile (Feb 6, 2012)

Really cool tank, the loaches look great. I'd love to see a +7' tank like this in person.


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## inka4041 (Jul 27, 2008)

pianofish said:


> Thanks man, I always enjoy looking at your awesome Hillstream setup as well. I pretty much stopped feeding the tank and just grew obsessive ammounts of algae which resulted in fat happy gobies and sewellias. :hihi:
> 
> How is your setup doing? Also do you know of anyone else with whom I can source more stiphodon sp?



Thank you! Tank is still up and running, looking basically the same. I had an incident last year that wiped out all of my rhinogobius, the hillstream loaches, garra, and SAEs, but other than that, the stiphodon and sicyopterus, which were able to climb above the water level and avoid the o2 crash I accidentally triggered, survived. Slowly getting new livestock, and trying to be more judicious about what makes it in there this time. 

Honestly, I got nearly everything from either Frank or MsJinkzd, other than one incident that got me a big packet in the mail from Fish and Wildlife. I'd assume availability of these species gets better once she get's her hillstream rack off the ground.


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

whats going on? what was the update? was it babies? i hope it was babies!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

So I had to move apartments, I spent all day resetting the tank back up about a month ago. 2 weeks later. The bottom seam busted... Water everywhere but I caught it pretty early so no floor damage. This tank has been reconsolidated into a 7 gallon tank lol. And well... thats that I suppose. I'll eventually get around to posting some pictures of everything. The new tank looks pretty good as far as I'm concerned. I have an eheim 2217 on a 7 gallon tank makes me laugh just looking at it. 

All is well,
Probably won't change anything for a while though, work is way too busy and junior year of college in electrical engineering.

Life goes on,
Joshua


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

thats a bummer man, i'm sorry to hear that. best of luck with school though


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Yeah so unfortunately this tank has died... as well as most of the fishes. A few of my rosy loaches have survived, but since the consolidation into the really small tank, most of my fish have gone down the great white way. I still have my little small 7 gallon setup, but man do I miss my bigger tank.

However, I am starting work on a project of much grander scale. A fully automated hightech planted tank with sump. Its probably going to be a few years before it comes into fruition, but my favorite part is always the journey anyway.


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## Dr Fishbait (Mar 16, 2013)

Hey, you're still around!!!
How's life treating you? School or worK?
I'm still plugging away with varied success. Have some Buces but can't figure out how to get them to flourish like you. 
Some of my plants grow like weeds but others just sit there. 
Have 15 Laetacara dorsigera that I kinda hord as they aren't very available. They lay eggs but I'm not just set up for it now. 
Looking forward to see what your next project will look like.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

love this setup! Very unique, beautiful fishes and tank


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Sorry to hear.

Hillstream loaches are my favorite fish. I have at least a dozen or so species between Sewellia, Gastromyzon, Pseudogastromyzon, Beaufortia, Hemimyzon, and some other unknown species, no Homaloptera though)
Mine were happy enough to have babies. It's fun watching the little guys grow up, they look so much different than what they develop into.

I have a ton of other various hillstream fish, but the sucker bellies are my favorite.

Did you know these fish were even a favorite of Allen Repashy, heres some of his youtube vids of his 125 gallon tank (last I heard though, he did switch the tank over to plecos for breeding)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfqwKy2lQDI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmDR0VZlti4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li1z_iUIiGE

Can't wait to see your next tank. But if it's a high tech planted, I don't think that will be a hillstream tank, right? 
Still will look great though I bet. Why so long of a wait to build it though haha.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Dr Fishbait said:


> Hey, you're still around!!!
> How's life treating you? School or worK?
> I'm still plugging away with varied success. Have some Buces but can't figure out how to get them to flourish like you.
> Some of my plants grow like weeds but others just sit there.
> ...


Hey buddy, still trucking along with both. I'm graduating in the Spring, so its the final push for school and beginning the job hunt for when I graduate. Oil and Gas are down so I'm hitting the job hunting hard. 
Glad to hear that you still have your plants man. I don't know what to say about the buces though, I never really had a big problem with them in high tech or low tech tanks. Those fish are awesome. Hope they continue to lay eggs haha. And I will be keeping another tank journal soon once I get some more research under my belt.




andrewss said:


> love this setup! Very unique, beautiful fishes and tank


Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to keep while it was running.



WaterLife said:


> Sorry to hear.
> 
> Can't wait to see your next tank. But if it's a high tech planted, I don't think that will be a hillstream tank, right?
> Still will look great though I bet. Why so long of a wait to build it though haha.


My next tank indeed will not be a hillstream tank. And I am waiting so long because I am blessed to be engaged to the most beautiful, wonderful woman who so lovingly puts up with my hobbies and does her best to be interested in them. And we are getting married next June and we will have to move in together afterwards and building a big tank setup now would be a big hassle... (Not to mention the dent in the checkbook).

Annnddd, I also am a perfectionist of sorts when it comes to projects like this, so I will be taking my time and doing it exactly how I want it to be. :hihi:


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