# 65 Gallon SE Asian "Nine"



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Goodnight Sweet Prince. RIP 2/2017










-Rimless 65 Gallon Mr Aqua
-DIY Birch Stand
-2x Finnex Planted Plus 48"
-Eheim 350
-Dirted Substrate (Indoor Sunshop Seattle house blend)
-Regular Gravel Cap
-In-line Co2
-EI Dosed

-River rocks
-Malaysian bogwood

-C. crispatula balansae
-C. Wendtii Green
-C. Wendtii MiOya
-C. Wendtii Tropica
-C. Lucens (xWillisii)

-16 Kryptopterus vitreolus - Glass Catfish
-1 Sewellia lineolata - Reticulated Hillstream Loach
-10 Clea Helena - Assassin Snails

Laying out the hardscape and pondering









Building ADA style stand, double layered .75" ply









Tank Purchased!









Leak Testing









Slid to corner of room out of foot traffic









Dirting with soil and clay balls









I feel like the most common dirted tank question is: how deep do i dirt?
answer: not very deep.









Capped, Conga Rock brand natural color gravel. Its got a great grain size.









Hardscaped. I'm going for a rootball effect here. In a natural braiding stream, the outside edge of bends can commonly undercut trees until enough large woody debris and rock builds up to stabilize the slope. When these trees fall into the river, their rootballs leave a sizable hole, which scours further and provides excellent habitat sheltered from the open flow of the stream. Imagine this is the rootball with the main stem of the trunk tipped over out of view to the the back right. The river has reclaimed the hole and filled in, burying half of the tree. Maybe it conveys that... i don't know... i like it either way. 









Planted up. Crispatula in the back and to one side, how original! 
Some might have cringed at the thought of a tank directly inside of an east facing window. Don't worry, i got you. I lined the bottom pane of these living room windows with static cling 98% UV shade. you'll notice its a lot darker after this point. The top pane still lets morning light into the room, but doesn't hit the tank.









Going through the usual dirted tank period of brown water.









A little Clearer on week 3


















Week 6 growing in nicely, added Glass Cats. Assassin Snails need to get off their butt and do some work.



















Anyway, that's where we are. I'll post updates and leave cheat page numbers in the OP when we get there. 

Thanks for looking!


----------



## Izzy- (Jun 11, 2014)

Nice dude, I love the driftwood layout


----------



## du3ce (Jan 26, 2013)

dig the scape


----------



## Patriot (Dec 22, 2010)

I love this. Can't wait to see the crypts grow in.


----------



## arunawick (Apr 2, 2015)

Nice picece of wood!!
Interesting combination of livestock!! I think u wanna get more close to natural stream?


----------



## fishophile (Feb 6, 2012)

Your layout is great! This should grow in very nicely.


----------



## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Already a very cool tank, love the hardscape

Will be following along


----------



## Onyx165 (Jul 16, 2013)

really love your setup

I feel like it'd look even better with a group of schooling/shoaling fish. If you're going for an Asian river theme, maybe some cherry barbs or zebra danios? http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm#Southeast Asian River

I'd also say you could probably use some more plants to avoid algae outbreaks, but at 6 weeks in, it looks like you're running strong


----------



## kylehca (Oct 15, 2011)

really like your setup!


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Onyx165 said:


> I'd also say you could probably use some more plants to avoid algae outbreaks, but at 6 weeks in, it looks like you're running strong


I agree, but i'm waiting for the mid ground crypts to go in before i re-assess space.


----------



## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

I think you have a really nice combo of wood, smooth stone, and gravel.


----------



## rballi (Mar 4, 2010)

Will be following the progress on this. This I think will fill in really nice and that hard scape looks great


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

I was pondering what kind of rasboras to put in here, and then i won some boraras brigittae at the local aquarium club meeting. I was hesitant at first because they're so tiny that they'd look odd it a big tank, but they're very active. Planning on building up a nice shoal of them this weekend.

I also added a frosted background by the same manufacturer as the film i have on the window. If anyone uses Gila window film for a background, do yourself a favor and google window tinting with johnson's baby shampoo. The first time around i tried to get an even coverage with just water, and it wasn't' happening. Second attempt with the johnson's mixtures worked like a charm.


----------



## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

looks great!!!


----------



## strangewaters (May 13, 2015)

very nice. cant wait to get me a rimless tank


----------



## whitepapagold (Aug 19, 2010)

nbr1rodeoclown said:


> I was hesitant at first because they're so tiny that they'd look odd it a big tank, but they're very active. Planning on building up a nice shoal of them this weekend.



I ONLY put small fish in my 125G. My biggest fish (other than a farlowella and rio pleco) are panda corys. I would have gone with smaller corys but they stop acting like corys LOL- the dwarf etc. just don't do the corys thing IMHO.

I think using only small fish increases how big that tank appears and gives a feeling of perspective lost with larger fishes.

BTW nice call on the glass cats. They always want to hide but your tank doesn't have anywhere they can disappear to most of the time. Still has cover, just nothing that makes them what I have always called "invisible fish" LOL. Any fish you buy that never comes out... 

Such a beautiful fish!


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Actually in the last week or so, they've been coming out into the open more. I don't know if its because the chili rasboras are in there as dithers now, some floating plants are providing shade, or if they're just getting used to the setup. I'll take it regardless!


----------



## Patriot (Dec 22, 2010)

I agree about the small fish in larger tanks. Just look better.


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Update: We've grown in a bit more. 

Winning the war on snails, and the Glass Cats are a bit less skiddish.


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Hey this silly project still exists, updated the foreground to hairgrass. Fish are now a school of 5 reticulated algae eaters AND NOTHING ELSE.


----------



## onlycrimson (Sep 7, 2010)

This looks really nice!


----------



## Jamo33 (Feb 18, 2014)

Wow! The tank was awesome before but this update shows how much a tank can advance!
I love it! Well done and keep going with it!


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Bonus Affinis Spathe!









excuse the iphone 4s quality photos.


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)




----------



## Couesfanatic (Sep 28, 2009)

Looks great. Thanks for the update. I love to see tanks mature.


----------



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Lovely tank. Really enjoy the hardscape! Did you buy a [censor] ton of dhg to carpet the whole bottom at once or have it grow in from a smaller amount? Looks good!
Do you still have snails?


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

AquaAurora said:


> Did you buy a [censor] ton of dhg to carpet the whole bottom at once or have it grow in from a smaller amount? Looks good!


We have a guy in the local club who grows dozens of pie plate sized trays of carpet plants and sells them at meetings. A 9" round of DHG ran me $3. 



AquaAurora said:


> Do you still have snails?


Nope! Assassin snails did their job as per usual. I find clea helena from shops to usually be scrawny and die off fast, where as ones from hobbyists always arrive ready to hunt!


----------



## fishboy199413 (Jan 20, 2010)

What ended up happening to the Glass Cats? Any plans to add any more fish or just the sticking with Reticulatus? It is really coming along nicely


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

The glass cats where getting stressed out by the co2/ph changes when the lights came on. I also think my eyes were bigger than my bio-load and i got too many. Sticking with reticulatus for now, they do an awesome cleanup job. I also have malawa shrimp in there, and i hear reticulatus can snack on shrimp, but i keeps seeing shrimp in the hair grass, so they're behaving for now. 

so: 5 reticulated algae eaters, 15+ malawa shrimp, 5+ breeding assassin snails... basically no free rides, algae eaters and snail hunters.


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

Balansae thinned out. it was choking itself. added Trident.




























Top lit for a little more clarity.


----------



## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

I've been off the forum for a while. We made a decision to relocate across the country about a year ago, and so the last 12 months my hobby has been about taking down and selling off this setup. It lives in another incarnation with a GSAS member now. I'm in a smaller apartment in Minneapolis now that only allows up to 20 gallons. Starting a new thread for that shortly.

TL/DR this was the last FTS as of 2/2017
onward and upward.


----------

