PlanetCatfish.com

I have redone the pumps on this tank. I hooked up an Rioâ?¢ -Hyper Flo- HF 20 (1290 gph) in line. Page 4 for new pictures with new pump.


New pictures of the bottom of the return after 6 months! see my last post on page 3.

I just finished setting up my 60 Gallon river tank... complete with Gold Nuggets(L81). I let it cycle for 4 weeks before putting in the Baryancistrus. The first day the nuggets sat in front of the power filters. I put in some ottos on week three and they showed mating behaviors.... I can only hope for the L81s.
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- Temerature range- 80 degrees
- pH- 6.8
- KH- 5
- Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels- almost none
- Water change frequency 40% weekly

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Return water manifold.

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- Two Aquaclear 802's run through a return manifold
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- 60 Gallon with river rock, back quarter of tank- flora base with florite on top.
- Milwaukee Co2 regulator w/ph controller, DIY Co2 reactor in-line with the Eheim.

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Eheim Ecco 2236 with spray bar, and a 301 w/Venturi running for 02.<br><br>
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- Aponogeton boivinianus, Bolbitis, Cryptocoryne balansae, Hygrophila difformis, Microsorum pteropus Windelov, Vallisneria americana(natans).
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<br>Happy Pl*co
<br>Let me know what you think.

A VERY nice tank - I especially like the way you have got the two powerheads positioned.

great looking tank, it looks very nice. good luck with the fish..

Justin,
Tank looks great! Glad you did the step by step photos as well.
-Shane

Tank is looking really GREAT!!!
U are not scared of too much weight on aquarium glass??
Why didn't U use styrophoam??

i like it. what other fish are you putting in it?

reminds me to get that african riverine tank that i've always wanted with lumphead cichlids, congo tetras and synos.

I did put some styrofoam under the far back corner under the power head and along the back wall.

I am not sure what other species I will be putting in the tank... for now I am hoping to set it up to try and breed the L81's. Any other species will have to be comfortable in lots of current. I was thinking Sturisomatichthys leightoni or Sturisoma panamense. Any suggestions?

Hi Whitepine,

I really like the way you have set up your tank, and the powerhead positioning is an excellent idea, one that I will adopt for the future.

I really don't wish to worry you but in my early days of fishkeeping I set up a 3 foot tank (brand new) and placed alot of weight on the glass just like you have done. I unfortunately only used very thin pieces of styrofoam and a month later a HUGE crack appeared in the bottom of my tank followed by a huge puddle on the living room floor. Since then, even with lightly covered tank floors I only use good quality, thick Styrofoam.

I realise it would be one VERY huge task to change things now so I hope your set-up has many happy years ahead.

Good luck in breeding your L81s!

Cheers

Tom

Tom2600 wrote:I really don't wish to worry you but in my early days of fishkeeping I set up a 3 foot tank (brand new) and placed alot of weight on the glass just like you have done. I unfortunately only used very thin pieces of styrofoam and a month later a HUGE crack appeared in the bottom of my tank followed by a huge puddle on the living room floor. Since then, even with lightly covered tank floors I only use good quality, thick Styrofoam.

Tom and Jeff, thanks for your concern. But the tank I choose is not glass... I realize that the pl*cos will probalbly scratch it, but I am hoping to breed them and then move on to breeding L046. I will see if I have any picures of the tank with the styrofoam in there(will post if I can find it)... there is actually quite a bit.

Cheers, Justin

Very nice setup there, are the current too tough for those plants there? hope the nugget breed for you.

polkadot wrote:Very nice setup there, are the current too tough for those plants there? hope the nugget breed for you.

I selected plants that I know would do well in current. If you look at the return water manifold you will also see that most of the water is not being pushed through the whole length of the tank... only a small current actually makes it all the way to the end of the tank and along the back.

big male congo tetras would look great in that tank.

I picked up some Congo Tetras today... and placed some Sturisoma panamense in the tank. They love it in there. Check it out. I am also posting a new picture of the tank... check out the growth of the Aponogeton boivinianus!
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Tank looks fantastic. That Surisoma is the Sturisoma sp. found in the Rio Atabapo in southern Colombia (it is in the Cat-eLog). That is the first one I have seen outside of Colombia. A few did make their way to Germany as they are included in Ingo's Wels Atlas. A very cool fish to my mind.
-Shane

Hello there Shane,


The sturisoma looks very much like a trio I recently bought in West Yorks UK.
It was labelled as sturisoma magladense, with the male showing a real beard of hard bristles

What species name does it usually go by?

Thanks
Stuey

I just checked the Cat-eLog and apparently it has not been added. Then again I did send Jools like 500 plus photos a few months ago, so I'll cut him a break

This fish comes from the Rio Atabapo in small numbers alongside the regular Atabapo stuff (L 52, some corys, Altum angels, Cardinal tetras, etc).
There is no Sturisoma "magladense." Sounds like a trade name added on since the fish came from Colombia. Probably sounded like a good name to the importer and my guess is it is a mis-spelling of the Rio Magdalena. Got to love those made up names.

Anyway, home waters are what you would expect since the Atabapo and Rio Negro start in the same place (one flows north and the other south). Very black, very soft (less than 1 dGH), and quite acidic. They are called Sturisoma "Colombia" in Ingo's book.

Shane,

I posted in whatâ??s my catfish a few weeks (11/13) ago under Sturisoma Panamense? No one commented so I assumed they where Panamense. How do you really tell the difference between the two... and how about sexing. I can start a new post if necessary with better pictures.

Thanks, Justin

Let's start another thread and I will post several photos to show the differences (if I can figure out how to post photos, note my non-working link above). Sorry I missed your first post. I'll look for it.
-Shane

That is very cool . My four clown loaches would love that !

Very nice tank, the plants look fabulous! Might I suggest some Buenos Aires Tetras (hyphessobrycon caudovittatus)? They are nice and robust, grow to about 12 cm and are peaceful community fish. They supposedly have a reputation as plant eaters but I have 4 in a heavily planted tank and they are one of the few species in there that don't go near the plants, so . . . Good luck with your breeding project!

I just relized that most of the plants in the tank are African... not south american. The fish still seem to love the tank either way. I hope my ottos will breed soon along with the L81.

I can't believe this tank! The fish are totaly loving it and the Plants are going Nuts!!

Check out this flower from the Aponogeton boivinianus.<br>

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Now If the fish would only start to spawn!!

The color on the flower is Really starting to come out! Check it out.
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Has any one else had a boivinianus flower with this much color?

Here are some of the new inhabitants... Congo tetras. <br>
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The gold nuggets hide in the caves a lot and come out at night to feed. <br>

They are really getting fat though... so hopefully something will happen soon.

Superb pictures!

Just wondering. Hw do you deal with dirt and grime build up underneath the pebbles? I used to have a fast river set up that I eventually broke down. I realized that I had a hard time getting dirt from poop and stuff from under the gravel and piping. I found out after a number of months, even with every other day siphoning of the gravel and water, that I wasn't happy with the cleanliness of the tank. Most plant and algae loving plecs, specially the panaques, produce copious amounts of waste. Also, from my experience, gold nuggets are hard to keep. I have been keeping a number of plecs for years but have not been successful in keeping g. nuggets for more than a year. I sincerely hope that you will not have the same problem as I when it comes to cleaning the tank.

Let me know if you have a more effective way of cleaning the tank gravel. Thanks.

Regards,
Mike D.

This tank is amazing!

Mike,

Thanks for your concerns about grime build up. If you notice I actually have an Eheim 2236 running for filtration. This unit is rated up to 80 gallons.... and the tank is really only 60 less all the rock and wood(I figure around 40 gallons). The power heads are keeping the waste suspended in the water column until the Eheim can filter it. I clean out the Eheim about every six week. I also choose the Val to help deal with the nitrate load along with some of the other fast growing plants. I do at least weekly water changes of 40 to 50% with a good cleaning of the rock and front corner where some mulm builds up. I also have one very large flexible pipe cleaner to run down the piping along with the 802's being reversible(one reason why I choose this powerhead)... so I can run them backward to flush out the rocks in the intake area. When I do this I make sure to have the siphoning occurring.

Cool man. Good work. I see that Shane has started building one himself. Nice. Maybe I should start building another one myself. hmm.

Regards,
Mike D.

Mike,
Whitepine has been talking about building this tank since he and I were undergrads together in Washington State. I visited him this summer in Seattle and saw his set up above. Needless to say, it motivated me to do my own rivertank.
-Shane