Shallows - 40g Ready

[Update pictures Post #4]

Just putting the finishing touches on a L36" x W18" x H34" (or 91 x 45 x 36 approximate centimeters) Euro-Style cabinet, which means something knew on the horizon. It's a bit hard to see the color, but it's kind of a charcoal/gun metal grey - a dark grey with a hint of blue tones. The cabinet is currently in front of a kitchen table, so it's difficult to try and take better photos until it's moved to it's actual spot. Not looking forward to moving it for about the seventy-ninth time since it's made out of 3/4" Plywood, which has been doubled up to 1 1/2 inches on every panel except the sides to support the weight of the water volume safely. Well over a hundred pounds.




Double door with plenty of room inside for who-knows-what. Well, I guess I know...2x canister filters and a 10lbs Co2 system sometime much later. With any room still available I'll be able to hide some emersed grow out containers and grow them inside. Rest assured it'll be a gross amount of wires and hoses, so my O.C.D. Really pays off with the level of neat you might notice with how everything is ran.




There's access points for the intake/outflow on either side, which I incorporate into all my cabinets, but this is my favorite method to run hoses neatly from canister to tank, and in this case x2 canisters.




2x brushed aluminum LED puck lights for interior cabinet lighting. Trust me when I say if you every use interior lighting in a cabinet you'll never be able to meddle in the dark with a rats nest of wires ever again. I don't even mess with running anything in a cabinet I've made until I install the lighting.




So yeah, I guess there's no current Aquascape (yet...) but it's moving along, and coming soon.

Almost ready!

[Notes:] While I'd love to do everything I want to right off the get go the first "Aquascape" is likely going to be a temporary reconstruction of my 20G long as a means to decoratively house many of my fish as I move my tanks/stands around, meaning some Aquascape will be deconstructed to prevent any chance of damage to a few of my low-iron rimless tanks. I'd rather have to restart every single one than break one of these tanks. Haha!

We'll see if I actually do reconstruct my 20G long into this tank, but it's an easy temporary way to house some fishies where plants won't need to acclimate and it's big enough to segregate species from one another without unnecessary stress.




----> How I managed to catch all the fish in that last photo behaving so well I will never know. You're guess is as good as mine because they very rarely do that when I want them to. Haha!

Cheers!

 

ummm I just wanna say that whoa, I love your 20gl!!!!!!! it looks so much bigger than a 20gl too. I love the wood and how your tetras are all perfectly lined up!

 

ummm I just wanna say that whoa, I love your 20gl!!!!!!! it looks so much bigger than a 20gl too. I love the wood and how your tetras are all perfectly lined up!

Haha! Thanks!

If you could have seen it in person it would have been apparent and obvious that the visual depth is only an illusion when viewing it from the front pane. The large piece of wood is butted against the back pane of glass tightly and just barely touches the front pane of glass if the rocks holding it in place shift. I used Java Fern 'Needle Leaf' in the background, which has leafs that get very long but are only 1/4 inch wide. Probably a good deal of the illusion is created by the wood that enters the surface water column, but is 90% outside the tank and hanging on the back glass pane. Using the exterior of the tank in the Aquascape and the way I groomed the Java Fern 'Narrow Leaf' in the foreground were key to the illusion. 'Narrow Leaf' has leafs that grow to about 6 inches long and are about 1/2 " wide when new and a little over 1 and 1/4" wide when at their full height. By persistent trimming of mature leafs on the 'Narrow Leaf' and keeping only short new growth it makes it look like a much larger specimen than they actually are.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your compliments 100% and am glad you enjoy it but that tank is/was a lot more confined then it looks, and you know what? Those black skirts and neons never displayed or engaged so naturally in any other tank they were in prior to when I nestled an intricate piece of spider wood and various other drift woods into that 20G Long. I thoroughly researched their natural environments when I noted how much different they behave in there, and it turned out this was really an ideal Aquascape for them because it imitates dense root systems and plenty of hiding places they are found in naturally, and that's really the foundation of nature aquariums and Aquascapes, I think. At least that's what TakashI Amano wanted to relate to people with his contribution to popularizing this small portion of the hobby.

As for how the fish are all schooling so linearly and nice? All I can say is I think I accidentally took 1 of 80 photos accidentally at the wrong [accidental] time. Whoops! That and, well, I pretty thoroughly cleaned the tank the night before I took the picture. They were all getting along and schooling so well out of fear of my soft-bristled brush and and glass-cleaning frenzy I terrified them with less than 24 hrs ago, probably. There's 9 neons, 7 black skirt tetras, 4 corydoras, and an unknown number of cherry shrimp, but everyone else was too timid to come out from the foliage and crevices of wood. Ha!

Yup, they were just holding fins out of apprehension of what the big, weird walking fish that sometimes feeds them might do to their home this night, as well as keeping them up an hour past their lights out bedtime taking photos and making very, very slight adjustments.

A state of cautious awareness of what I might do next - the key!

 

 

 

Wow. Just wow.

I need to follow this thread!

 

I love a triangular layout. Really nice.

 

Details -

Dimensions/Tank: 36L x 18W x 17H
Stand: Framless European Style
Substrate: Inert Sand/Gravel mix
Hardscape: Local Grey Stone; Redmoore Wood & Local Driftwoods

(Not yet installed)
Filtration: 2x Cascade External Filters
Heater: 2x 200w Inline Units
Lighting: Customized Full Spec RGBW LED lighting
Start-up Nutrient dosing: Niloc dry EI regiment 20G dosing levels

[Note:] lighting right now is really off. I had to use some pretty terrible LEDs I had lying around to place the hardscape, but when I plant the tank I'll install a lot healthier looking hanging light system and take some more detailed photos. Took about 60lbs of stone and approximately 2 hrs with taking photos. The first, largest stone in the third photo is about 13 x 4 x 5 inches - for scale.

 

Looks good. Cant wait to see it planted.

 

What wood are you using in the setup pics?

 

What wood are you using in the setup pics?

Details are listed post #8, but it's a mixture of redmore root wood (aka spider wood) that's pretty aged, and locally found driftwood pieces taken from various rivers near me that resemble a more pale-looking spider wood.

 

It doesn't look like much... but that's about half my Java Fern collection!




Okay, that's close to half. Haha! Probably 40 narrow leaf rhizomes & 25 needle leaf rhizomes - definitely Philippines mixed in there and two good sized chunks of windelov. These are all pretty interwoven through the hardscape.

 

Next step is to gather the other half of my java ferns (more narrow, trident, other..), my anubias nana petite collection (& bucephalandra), Bolbitus mini... probably others I'm not thinking of and store them in this 40G.

So much work to move tanks! Haha!

 

Wow, looking amazing!

 

Wow, looking amazing!

Thanks, Geoff! Appreciate it!

I realize it's hard to see the plants from the front shot, so I included two other shots of the tank.










I had microsorum pteropus variations in almost all of my tanks, so the plants seen here are from two of them, grown into several large bushes. I snipped 1/3 of all the leafs, removing any algae and taller portions.

The plants were grown on Malaysian driftwood by me, but the driftwood didn't fit well, so when I removed the bushes I separated small rhizomes and propagated larger ones.

It think it hurt me more than the plant to cut up those bushes and remove so many leafs, but it'll look much nicer when they regrow. Figured this was the best way to house some of my plants that won't do well stored emersed as I move all my tanks.

I Definitely wanted to do a better Aquascape than this in the new tank, but it doesn't require much maintenance and I know the style and layout does well short-term, or long-term.


So far, just have some of my tetras in there, two different kinds of Cory groups & an unknown amount of shrimps (probably between 50 and 1,000,000). I can't wait to see how much Anubias Nana 'Petite' I pull out of my tanks! I know I have a pretty large amount, but it can surprise you when you see it all removed.

 

This scape looks soooooo amazing

 

Alright, so let's say this is approximately 80% of all the Java ferns I have grown - all of which were a single portion at one point, save for the 'needle' leaf variety from Jocelyn Adelman




Pretty sure I have every variety in there, at least those I'm aware of that exist in the hobby, save for one.

**on the right side that is a large bush about 8 inches x 8 inches at the base, which was removed from my 32 a -about 3x the mass of how it looked behind the main driftwood in the center in this photo.

 

 

Fantastic job. Great thread.

 

Fantastic job. Great thread.

Thanks!

 

I love the look of these tanks. Great job!

 

[Update pictures Post #4]

Just putting the finishing touches on a L36" x W18" x H34" (or 91 x 45 x 36 approximate centimeters) Euro-Style cabinet, which means something knew on the horizon. It's a bit hard to see the color, but it's kind of a charcoal/gun metal grey - a dark grey with a hint of blue tones. The cabinet is currently in front of a kitchen table, so it's difficult to try and take better photos until it's moved to it's actual spot. Not looking forward to moving it for about the seventy-ninth time since it's made out of 3/4" Plywood, which has been doubled up to 1 1/2 inches on every panel except the sides to support the weight of the water volume safely. Well over a hundred pounds.

View attachment 463298

Double door with plenty of room inside for who-knows-what. Well, I guess I know...2x canister filters and a 10lbs Co2 system sometime much later. With any room still available I'll be able to hide some emersed grow out containers and grow them inside. Rest assured it'll be a gross amount of wires and hoses, so my O.C.D. Really pays off with the level of neat you might notice with how everything is ran.

View attachment 463301

There's access points for the intake/outflow on either side, which I incorporate into all my cabinets, but this is my favorite method to run hoses neatly from canister to tank, and in this case x2 canisters.

View attachment 463303

2x brushed aluminum LED puck lights for interior cabinet lighting. Trust me when I say if you every use interior lighting in a cabinet you'll never be able to meddle in the dark with a rats nest of wires ever again. I don't even mess with running anything in a cabinet I've made until I install the lighting.

View attachment 463304

So yeah, I guess there's no current Aquascape (yet...) but it's moving along, and coming soon.

Almost ready!

[Notes:] While I'd love to do everything I want to right off the get go the first "Aquascape" is likely going to be a temporary reconstruction of my 20G long as a means to decoratively house many of my fish as I move my tanks/stands around, meaning some Aquascape will be deconstructed to prevent any chance of damage to a few of my low-iron rimless tanks. I'd rather have to restart every single one than break one of these tanks. Haha!

We'll see if I actually do reconstruct my 20G long into this tank, but it's an easy temporary way to house some fishies where plants won't need to acclimate and it's big enough to segregate species from one another without unnecessary stress.

View attachment 463308

----> How I managed to catch all the fish in that last photo behaving so well I will never know. You're guess is as good as mine because they very rarely do that when I want them to. Haha!

Cheers!

What brand heater is that?

 

That's a Inline SunSun aquarium heater I found on eBay. I don't recall if it actually says SunSun anywhere on the heater - I'm pretty sure on the box it did - but basically just a generic Chinese Inline heater. I found this from a USA seller so it's correctly configured electrically for the USA power grid as well as shows temperature in F and not C.

 

Have you used them before, and how you like them

 

Have you used them before, and how you like them

I have them on every tank from 5G - 40G. I only have one complaint, which is they're about 1 FT tall and in a standard 30" tall tank stand with a tall canister filter they are hard to install correctly without kinking a hose because of the overall height. There are ways to remedy it, but it would be nice if they weren't so tall. I've also only had one malfunction once, but it was my fault. The water in a hose on a filter drained out, and when there is no flowing water through the heater it is suppose to flash and error and turn off. It didn't do that for whatever reason and about 15 minutes later I noticed because the plastic casing was melting and smoldering.

For the price they're great. I think I own 5 of them at the moment, with only ever having one issue because I didn't unplug the heater like I should have.

$25 or $30 think is what I pay for one (I think), which is reasonably when a good interior tank heater is similar in price & wattage to the 300w or 500w external inline heater.

 

I have the Hydor for my 55 and know what you mean about the size. The way I have it installed I have to loop the hose right at the connector at the filter to make it work, and when I turn the filter off there's always water left in the outflow line so it won't burn out. It's been a great heater with no complaints. I'm definitely gonna look into these Sun Sun versions though, maybe for my 20 long when I redo it this winter.

 

Corydoras Breeding Habitat?

Photo #2: BAM! Corydoras babies everywhere!

So when I tore my 20Gallon down I was given a scare when digging through the bottom. I'm very good at keeping a mental tally of what should be in a tank according to stocking, so when I removed the set number I mentally held in the back of my mind, only to see something else that should NOT have been in the water, it gave me quite a startle.

Turned out that a single Cory had been concieved in that tank without me ever having seen it, a Cory who later became known as, "stewie". I was photographing this tank when once again... I noticed some other critter that contradicted my mental tally of stocking that exists in a tank I personally stocked. I found the little Cory follow Stewie around. He's less than 1/2 inch long.

So... I started noting movement of things that should NOT exist according to mental tally numbers, and the corydoras (the peppered ones) have suddenly become proficient breeders.

It's neat, but I'm honestly not that thrilled...

 

I tried taking photos of the other babies, some even smaller than the one I photographed, but their size and the dense plant growth makes it extremely difficult. Their instinct directs them to hide from every thing because they can be eaten by any thing, and their camoflauge is much better in adolescense than an adult has. So yeah, there were at least 3 very tiny corydoras a little over 1/4 inch long. The different sizes sort of leads me to believe there are at least 2 separate hatchings that have made it - not including the one from the 20G since Stewie was the only survivor from that tank.

 

Hey! Love the tank it looks absolutely fantastic! Did you by chance list the fish in the aquarium? I might have missed it.

 

Hey! Love the tank it looks absolutely fantastic! Did you by chance list the fish in the aquarium? I might have missed it.

Sorry for the late reply. I don't think I said what was living in there actually. I think -

14 Neon Tetra
10 Black Neon Tetra
4 Bronze Corydoras
4 Pepper Corydoras + unknown number of new fry (at least 3)
9 Ottocinculus catfish
40+ Cherry Shrimp

 

Do you know what the baby cories are eating? Very cool!

 

Not sure. They're incredibly small and too timid to come out of the dense growth most, so I haven't witnessed them eating. Just my opinion, but because of their size, they don't need much at all. The cories are fed pellets every day, so any bits of uneaten food is likely scavanged by the tiny offspring when the lights are off because they do come out a little when it's dark. As they get bigger along with how much food they need draws them out more later

 

Some new pictures. I definitely need to reroute the 2nd canister filters hoses in a much better way! Look at that pictures makes my skin crawl.

 

For educational purposes only...Why are you running two canisters on that tank?

 

For educational purposes only...Why are you running two canisters on that tank?

For circulation purposes. Almost all of the plants in the tank absorb nutrients from the water column, so circulation is even more important as they grow in more densely. Using two filters on opposite sides of the tank helps circulation, preventing dead spots, without increasing the force of flow by using a single, more powerful filter.

Also, one filter has a inline heater, a surface skimmer & purigen as chemical filtration. The other contains more biological filtration, less mechanical and no chemical. Because of the media used in the second it never truely clogs or has reduced flow, and is also the filter I would connect a Co2 system inline if I go that route in the future.

There's definitely a bit of reasoning and logic I tried to incorporate into it all, but is it necessary? Not at all. A fact which can be proven by many aquascapes.

 

I finally managed to photograph the baby corydoras!

And, yes, that female cherry shrimp seriously dwarfs that little Cory! They're less than a half inch away from each other.

 

For circulation purposes. Almost all of the plants in the tank absorb nutrients from the water column, so circulation is even more important as they grow in more densely. Using two filters on opposite sides of the tank helps circulation, preventing dead spots, without increasing the force of flow by using a single, more powerful filter.

Also, one filter has a inline heater, a surface skimmer & purigen as chemical filtration. The other contains more biological filtration, less mechanical and no chemical. Because of the media used in the second it never truely clogs or has reduced flow, and is also the filter I would connect a Co2 system inline if I go that route in the future.

There's definitely a bit of reasoning and logic I tried to incorporate into it all, but is it necessary? Not at all. A fact which can be proven by many aquascapes.

Very interesting. I appreciated the explanation. I have noticed the care that goes into all of your plumbing. I was certain their was a reason for two canisters. I'm sure others may find this interesting as well. Thanks.

 

Very interesting. I appreciated the explanation. I have noticed the care that goes into all of your plumbing. I was certain their was a reason for two canisters. I'm sure others may find this interesting as well. Thanks.

Yeah, no problem!

Whenever I set up a filter in a tank I always try to follow what should be a golden rule of planted tanks: "If you can get even a single leaf of every plant in your layout to move with the circulation of water you'll find you have a much healthier and more vivid ecosystem than a vast majority of hobbyists."

I'm not exactly sure where I picked up this little tidbit of knowledge, or even how accurately I've quoted it, but it contains a noteworthy truth nonetheless. Aquascaping with my angelfish was the most difficult experience I've had while trying to follow the above rule(photo of tank post#18 this thread).

"How do you increase good circulation with fish that aren't designed aerodynamic enough to tolerate constant and strong flow jetting from a filter outflow?"

The simplest solution I was able to find through research h and trial was to incorporate two filters with a combined GPH (gallons per hour) of a single more powerful filter that has GPH equivalent to 10x - 15x the water volume in gallons of the tank, or in the case of this 40 gallon, just two big filters running 1/2 to 3/4 their max output. Circulation is more widespread, but the intensity of the flow doesn't overwhelm fish that aren't tolerant of fast moving waters.