bottomdweller_fan

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica! Sorry to hear about Bruce (love his name).

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica!

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica!

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica!

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica!

:welcome: Welcome to Alberta Aquatica!

you could fit 14,000 tetras in a 350gal

I hope you're thinking cardinal tetras cause my congos are too big for that many -roll-

Congratulations you two! How long have you been Mr. and Mrs.?

It looks great! I bet the fish love it.

:boxed: You would think they would have even been happy in a 108. You must be able to fit a ton of them in a 350

You would think so wouldn't you, but they share the tank with a number of loaches and other bottom dwelling fish and as everyone grew, the space in the 108 got a lot smaller - go figure

Actually I had 6 congo tetras in the 108 and I have 14 in the 350.

Everyone in the new tank seems to behave more naturally than they did in the 108

It wasn't until I moved my congo tetras from a 108 gallon to the 350 gallon and added a few more to the group that they began spawning.

I was wondering what the average time is that people keep their fish in quarantine after treating them for parasites, etc.

get 3 clown loaches

Please keep in mind this is a 10 gallon tank. Clown loaches get 16 inches in size and prefer groups of 5 or more to thrive.

I have never seen my khulies eat snails and the hillstreams definitely do not eat snails (I constantly have to remove them from their tank). As well, hillstream loaches need water temperatures at about 21C and extremely high current and oxygen content in order to survive and thrive.

Any of the loaches you get will eat fry. I agree with tbemis, the assassin snail is even able to eat malaysian trumpet snails. I have seen pictures of them doing it.

To keep the other tank inhabitants safe, this is probably your best bet. Besides, they add less bioload to the tank than loaches will.

LOL, with those types of fish you won't have to worry about overtocking! What kind of schisture do you have?

Schistura obeini, and the other I am not sure of the species, may be a color morph of obeini

That's great! How large are they?

It is a group of 14, with 4 males and 10 females. The largest male is 3" (snout to tail) and the smallest female is 2". The rest fall within this range.

Apparently all sorts of fish like sponges. I have 4 males who are doing everything in their power to attract the girls over to that corner for a little one-on-one time :shifty:

Looks really great! Good job.

What do you have stocked in it now? I love the aquascaping. Well done and congrats on the successful completion.

Thank you for the compliments.

I have a number of different species in there. I have:

• Ropefish
  
• YoYo loaches, kubotai loaches, zebra loaches, queen loaches, and schistura loaches
  
• a number of catfish (banjo, whiptail, Synodontis multipunctatus, cory cats (2 species), hoplo cats)
  
• congo tetras, yellow-tailed congo tetras, blue tetras
  
• I also have some rainbowfish and platys in there but they will be moving soon
  

I also have some red tailed otos, bumblebee catfish, blue tetras, and green-barred danios in quarantine that will be going in there in about 2 weeks.

It is a very busy tank -roll-

What are you using for lighting? Are those MH lights?

No, they are T5 Power Compacts.

Tank looks great. Any pics or plans of the internal filter that you're doing in the end section?

Thank you. Here is a plan of the internal filter it will be 35.25" long by 23" tall and 6.5" wide and built out of black acrylic so it blends in.

Absolutely stunning!

Man, that tank makes me want a bigger house. I just LOVE the length of it.

Fantastic job, you must be very proud and excited.

Thanks. I am really proud of it (cause I did it all by myself - except for some help with lifting).

I am really excited, but I think the fish are even more so - they use every inch of the tank :w00t:

WOW! That is very nice. You sure made it sound easy to build. How many hours you figure you put into that and was it as easy as it sounds?

Nice setup.

Thanks. Actually, it was easier than I thought it would be. The most time was spent researching and asking questions (I'm a real woodworking noob ).

As well, waiting for the silicone, varnish, and wood glue to fully cure took the most time. In total, I would say I spent a total of maybe 24 hours over the space of a couple of weeks.

............... here is the more!!

In order to make sure that the silicone would not pull away from the pond liner or the acrylic, I sandwiched it between the acrylic, plywood, pond liner, and 1x2 lumber.

I then did a second layer of silicone on top of the one that was sandwiched in order to have a nice finish.

I filled the tank partway to see if there were any leaks. There was a very small one so I emptied the tank, found the leak, fixed it and, after letting the silicone dry, started filling again. This time there were no leaks so I filled the tank and let it sit for about 4 hours. There were still no leaks so I emptied the tank and added the deck planks to the top as braces.

I added a layer of fluorite and then a layer of sand (SIL3). Then I decorated and then… added the fish that had been in the 108 gallon tank. The tank has been up and running for over a week now and everything is going well. It is taking awhile to fully fill as my holding container only holds 50 gallons at a time, but it is nearly there.

I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I enjoyed building the tank!