My River Tank Project

[wobbler]

I am currently working on a new project in my Juwel Rio 240 tank.

The setup will be a river with medium to strong current, Gh guite low, Temperature quite high (28-29 deg C or 82,4 - 84,2 deg F)and pH around 6,5- 7,0. Like the upper parts of for example Rio Orinoco. Fortunately the water in my local area is quite close to this (exept from the temperature that is around 0 deg C or 32 deg F this time of year...). I have used some time collecting nice naturally grinded "redish" sandstone and gravel from a nearby river. Currently I am in the process of cutting stones and planning the setup based on the stones availiable. My intention is to use stones from this local Norwegian river only to make a nice living environment for some Rio Orinoco catfishes...
The integrated pump was removed yesterday. it was a nightmare to cut the original pump out of the tank as it was fastened very closely to the glas...The original pump will replaced by an Eheim 2028 external filter together with one powerfull powerhead with diffusors to add enough current and oxygen to accomodate the fish in a good way. I assume that 3000-3500 liters of water will circulate each hour when the tank is operative.

The rear of the tank has been painted black.

I have made a tank "model" in my garage and are now working to find a nice configuration of the background. Added some pics so that you can see how it looks today.I will also include integrated caves in the background in addition to caves at the tank bottom. Anyone that have comments or suggestions to the current setup?

[Shane]

This will be a beautiful tank once up and running. My only suggestion would be to try to match the stones you will use on the substrate with those across the background. The current background stones are thin, elongate and slightly angled which gives a nice, natural effect. I would select stones for the substrate that are similar in shape (instead of rounded as they are in the above photos) and size and angle them into the substrate at the same slight angle as the background stones.
I hope that explanation makes sense.
-Shane

[wobbler]

Sure it makes sense. I didnt put to much effort in organizing the other stones, was to focused on working on my background. I will definately do as you suggest. Thank you!

Wobbler

[wobbler]

The latest stone formation was fastened today. . The rest of the week will be used to add gravel stones and finally WATER!

[wobbler]

First setup, it may change somewhat. Any comment or suggested improvements will be appreciated. Sorry for the bad quality of the pic but the water is somewhat filled by bobles as i am also testing my diffusor. The fish you see are Mosquito tetras. I also have 6 off small L066 King Tiger Plecos in this tank. Six adult L202 will also live here as soon as i have concluded on the setup.

Wobbler

[wobbler]

More or less finished with my project.

[2wheelsx2]

Very nice. Now we need closeups of the inhabitants.

[Bahri48]

Hi there

This is my first reply to tjis forum and I really liked your set up ! The stone work on especially right hend side looks a bit unnatural but a great set up in general.

Congratulation ;)

[Shane]

Looks fantastic!
-Shane

[Dee]

What an incredible looking tank! Makes me wish I was handy with this sort of thing.

[wobbler]

Thank you!

It was quite a lot of work, in particular all cutting of stones, but I enjoyed every every hour of it.

Wobbler

[Viktor Jarikov]

Nice, Wobbler. I've read all but did not get it how the stones are fastened to the back and side walls of the tank or did you not even touch on that?

[wobbler]

Hi Victor

I used black aquarium silicone. The bacground was not so difficult as i just posisioned the emty tank on its "back" so i could work with the glas horizontal and raise it again after about 24 hours. For the side walls i first fastened the stones together and a then put them on the sidewalls using heavy books and tape to keep them in position as as the silicone cured. see pics attached.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Nice. Resourceful and delightfully thorough you are. But it is the stones at the back that boggle me: they appear to be wide (front to back) but the attachment area appears narrow which means they should break off the wall easily. Silicone usually does not glue things together but acts as a permanently flexible filler. It is a very weak glue. So, I remain puzzled for now

[wobbler]

If you gonna glue really loadbearing stuff i would not use silicone. But, for this use it is ok. The stones are well fastened with the silicone, and I used force on the thin bacground stones after curing of the silicone to verify if they were fastened good enough. No problem.

The only important thing is to make sure that all surfaces are clean with no dust an that they are defatted. I used denaturated alcohol for washing both glas and stone in those areas where i planned to add silicone.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I see. About the biggest stone/most risky piece:
-- how much did it weigh,
-- how long was it,
-- how wide, front-to-back, was it ,
-- how thick was it,
-- what was the contact area between the rock and the glass (that is, if it was different from the math product of the 2nd answer (above) times the 4th answer)?

Just trying to learn for myself.

[Dan*]

Looks nice

[wobbler]

Thanks Dan, your tank was really nice

Wobbler

[har_eh]

awesome set up, what's the material called you glued the stones to?

[wobbler]

har-eh

I used black aquarium silicone.

Wobbler

[wobbler]

Prepared some caves and added them to the tank today. Standard pleco caves bought in my local shop. Added lots of silicone all over and rolled them in the same gravel as i have in my tank. The "camouflage" turned out to be ok. 6 caves today, will add two more soon. Total 8 caves in addition to all places to hide under and between all stones.

Wobbler

[Thriftyfisher]

That is a great looking tank! I really like the way you did the background. I am going to try my hand at something like that. Thanks for sharing.

[Leopardfrogplec]

Is your setup supposed to replicate any particular river or is it just a natural community? (You know what I mean. )

[wobbler]

It is a "general" river habitat, or natural community. A part of the project was to only use stones and gravel from a nearby river here in Norway and we have no tropical catfish in our rivers...(-15 deg C outside now..). So it is actually a cold Norwegian river converted to tropical water temperatures and tropical catfish .

However, this kind of river habitat is to be found in the upper areas of Amazonas ( ie upper River Orinoco). Stone and gravel only, no plants, medium to strong current, quite high temperature (28-29 deg C), PH 6-7, Gh guite low.

The water parameters here are the same as for many South American rivers except for the temperature. So I am in no need of adding chemicals to achieve acceptable water parameters.



Wobbler

[wobbler]

Here are some pics of the final result.

[wobbler]

Two more.

Wobbler

[2wheelsx2]

Looks great. Will you be lighting it that brightly when it's stocked? Seems to me some strategically placed LED's would give it a more realistic shadow effect.

[exasperatus2002]

Beautiful set up. Very well thought out. What particular species have you choosen to keep in it?

[wobbler]

I have 6 adult Peckoltia lineola L202 and 6 young Hypancistrus sp. L066 (King Tiger Pleco)

I also have some Boehlkea fredcochui, also called Cochu's Blue Tetra.


Wobbler

[wobbler]

The tank is actually quite dark, did not use flash on my camera so shutter time were very long. Using reflectors the " wrong" way so that the light is reflected up.

I have been looking around for some LED light for my tank but have not found any suitable yet. Any suggestions?

Wobbler