1320 liter clearwater biotope

[ChristosB]

Very impressive Haavard, can't wait to see it finished!!

[Haavard Stoere]

Update

[nvcichlids]

So to cut the rocks you used a diamond tipped blade and what type of saw?

[Haavard Stoere]

I use an angle grinder with a 9 inch blade.

[andywoolloo]

it's like watching a work of art be created.

[Haavard Stoere]

it's like watching a work of art be created.

Well...., Thank you, Andy! I have been struggling a lot this evening. 9 rocks has been placed, and the same number has later been removed. The problem is that I can`t decide the shape of each rock as they are natural. It would be a lot easier to make whatever I need out of ceramics or plastics. Actually that would be way easier, and I think my next big setup should be with artificial cast materials. This would also make it possible to "mass" produce in a small number.

About the durso standpipe on the right side of the tank... I will not cover it as the left one, but I may try some "feng shui" with vertically placed rocks to hide it from view. I will at least try it and see how it works in the overall composition. If I can`t make it work it will at least be a huge amount of time spent on nothing

[Haavard Stoere]

More rocks:

[GW_NL]

Looking better and better

You must be creating hundreds of hiding places for the catfish by decorating the tank this way. Great stuff!

[Ronny]

Ooohh.. Be careful! don`t drop the rocks in the tank. Even though it`s 19mm glass it`s not unbrekable.
This is looking very nice.
We are looking forward to your speech at our meeting i october. save some rocks for the demo tank.

[MatsP]

I use an angle grinder with a 9 inch blade.

Like this:


It's not for the faint hearted - it's got a 2000W motor, and spins the disk at 8000 rpm - if you let it "run", it will do about 300 km/h - or 180 mph if you like.

But it certainly does the cutting you need for these sort of things.

--
Mats

[Haavard Stoere]

Exactly Very dangerous machines, but cheap. They cost around 50$, and the blade cost around the same.

On smaller rocks in smaller tanks I use a cheap water-saw intended for cutting tiles. A water-saw for tiles is much more pleasant to work with, but is only suitable for pieces of around 3,5cm in thickness. Large water-saws costs the same as a slightly used car, and is therefore out of the question.

[Haavard Stoere]

Yesterday I made two prototype caves in concrete.

I did the following... Simplified explanation.
-Dug two holes in the garden.
-Poured some cement into the bottom of the holes.
-Put a sausage shaped piece of earth on top of the wet cement, and connected it with one of the sides of the hole.
-Covered the sides and top of the sausage with cement, and made a cement slab on top.

Today I dug out the two pieces and hosed them inside and outside. The two caves will not necessarily be used. They are prototypes to learn a proper technique.
The caves will eventually be painted with some thin acrylic to match the natural rocks. Finally they will be sealed with clear epoxy.


Photo taken with internal flash to show the inside:

[DutchFry]

looks great! good technique!

[Haavard Stoere]

It worked a bit better than I expected. Especially the way the concrete mimics the natural rocks in texture. The color is of, but sorting that will be easy with acrylic paints.

I made two more caves that I will dig up tomorrow I will have to buy more cement.

[nvcichlids]

Yesterday I made two prototype caves in concrete.

I did the following... Simplified explanation.
-Dug two holes in the garden.
-Poured some cement into the bottom of the holes.
-Put a sausage shaped piece of earth on top of the wet cement, and connected it with one of the sides of the hole.
-Covered the sides and top of the sausage with cement, and made a cement slab on top.

Why Sausage lol.. now my favorite food has a tainted name

[arjenk]

Very nice!

How do you make the holes? With cement.. But how do you make the inside of the holes?

I think, this will be a beautiful tank in a little time!

success

[Will77]

Now that's what I call dedication!
Stunning work.
I am new here, and one of your other threads was the first one I read, great introduction to the forum!

[Haavard Stoere]

The 9 caves have been painted with thin washes of acrylic paint to imitate what the rest of the rocks will look like under water.
Tomorrow I will seal them with Mapecoat DV from Rescon. This is the product:
http://www.mapei.it/Referenze/Multimedi ... dv_eng.pdf

[Phyllonemus]

Wich species did you plan to hold ?

[MatsP]

Wich species did you plan to hold ?

One of the first posts say "Large loricariidae", I don't think Haavard has decided exactly what he's going to keep (or he's not telling us

--
Mats

[DutchFry]

In the long run I will use this tank for Pseuda`s, but at the moment almost all my Pseuda are really small, and don`t need all the space in this tank. I will keep my 13 Baryancistrus demantoides (L-200 hifin), my Leporacanthicus sp. L-240 and perhaps my Pseudacanthicus spinosus (it may not be a good idea considering the L-240s)in this tank.

[Haavard Stoere]

Initially the tank will be used to house 10 L240s and 13 L200 hi-fins. The last couple of months I have been keeping these two groups in a 720 liter, and they don`t seem to mind each others presence. Feeding them in the same tank is also unproblematic as the L200s tends to go for the food items intended for them, and I think the L240s benefits from eating the L200s food beside shrimps, fish and discus pellets.

Today I sealed the 9 concrete caves. I mixed up a kilo of epoxy and used most of it. The caves are very glossy, but I hope they will look fine under water.

[Haavard Stoere]

Finished cave in another tank:

[Birger]

Hi Haavard...looks great,very natural...add a little algae growth over time.
Nicely done.

[Haavard Stoere]

Thank you Birger

The color is a little of. It turned out slightly purple for some reason. In the next batch of caves I will try to get a closer color match to the rocks. In time algae will make the concrete more similar to the other rocks.

[Tenzin]

Wow all i can say is that it looks great! even if it is unfinished..

Bump! for UPDATES!

[Farid]

hi havaard,
i missed the whole thread until today....

the project is once again amazingly cool!!! i wish i have the space...

one question i'm asking myself as i am close before to make contrete rock formation fpr my tropheus tank..is: dont you have problems with any silicone clued stones to the glass...that algae grow in between the stone-silicon connection...(until now i trust the glass-silicone thing but stone-silicone???

as i use to place my caves always under flat stones...i've seen that you also make a little roof in front of the cave entrance this made me think about the time when i started to set up catfish tanks...this was one of the first important advices i got of my friend Udo (he will be talking about the L354 in hannover...

the earthversion building caves is exactly what i needed...as i already prepared a styrofoam construction to fill with concrete... thanks for showing!!

farid

[Haavard Stoere]

Although the furnishing is not totally finished the tank has been running since August.

It is heavily populated:
13 large L200 "hifin"
3 Large L128
10 large L240s (has already bred in the tank)
4 small L25s
1 Medium L24
4 Pseudacanthicus spinosus (1 large male and 3 medium sized)
15 small Ancistrus sp. L107

Left side. I am planning to build something for the marked area:


Right side:


Through the right side glass:


Whole tank:


The largest inhabitant... My 21cm P. spinosus male:


Feeding time:

[Martin S]

As always Haavard, truly outstanding!

[matthewfaulkner]

The picture looking through the right side is amazing. You should do commissions.