I'm working on a 20 long that will house:
Definitely: 4-5 Sewellia lineolata
Probably: 3-4 Pseudogastromyzon cheni OR 4-5 Stiphodon Percnopterygionus
Ideally, I'd like to raise fry of the loaches (and the Stiphodon, but that ain't gonna happen!) The Cheni might eat eggs of the Sewellia, so if that looks likely with more reseach, I'll skip them. I LOVE the Stiphodons, but I have some hesitations about getting wild caught fish that cannot be bred in captivity. I haven't made up my mind yet. Alternatively, I'd love some Rhinogobius, which would do well in this set-up, but they'd almost certainly hunt any Sewellia fry.
I have an Emperor 280 at one end of the tank blowing water left to right across the top.
I have a 90gph powerhead hidden in a ceramic stone on the other end of the tank, helping to return the water in a somewhat focused manner to the Emperor's intake. Watching particles in the water, I have a decent little stream in there. It's not as good as if I did a full-on rivertank manifold, but this was done with things I already had on hand, and I think it will be sufficient.
I'm also planning on lifting the Emperor up about an inch to increase the waterfall effect in order to increase oxygenation.
The substrate is sand, and I have a number of polished river stones and several other larger rocks with flat surfaces that I found. I have two Anubias and a bit of moss, but no other plants, as I am working to grow algae during the cycling process. I fertilized with Schultz 10-15-10 plant food to make Phosphates available for the algae, but I will likely stop using it once I stock the tank.
The tank is unheated for now. It tops out around 77 with my house's AC on, but I'll stick a heater in over the winter to keep it at 68-70 (we let the house get down to 62).
Since the Emperor is on the end of the tank, I can't use a regular hood. I bought a versa-top, which is being custom cut for me at the local glazier. It hasn't arrived yet.
Also, I cut some lengths out of the glass lens of an old hood to create 2 braces across the tank, since the hood won't be able to rest on the end of the tank naturally.
Lighting is two 20W T8's. They're a bit too long for the tank with the Emperor in the way, but I'm using reflective duct tape on the ends to keep light from bleeding out of the ends.
Here are some (crummy) pics:
The white "rock" behind the larger Anubias houses the little powerhead.
I'm not a fan of the middle rock aesthetically, but it will provide a really nice flat surface for algae grazing.
The glass braces:
One more FTS. Sorry for the poor-quality! The floating leaves are gifts from the LFS. They have various algaes on them, so I'm seeding with them.:
I'll post some more pics after the algae grows in!
Definitely: 4-5 Sewellia lineolata
Probably: 3-4 Pseudogastromyzon cheni OR 4-5 Stiphodon Percnopterygionus
Ideally, I'd like to raise fry of the loaches (and the Stiphodon, but that ain't gonna happen!) The Cheni might eat eggs of the Sewellia, so if that looks likely with more reseach, I'll skip them. I LOVE the Stiphodons, but I have some hesitations about getting wild caught fish that cannot be bred in captivity. I haven't made up my mind yet. Alternatively, I'd love some Rhinogobius, which would do well in this set-up, but they'd almost certainly hunt any Sewellia fry.
I have an Emperor 280 at one end of the tank blowing water left to right across the top.
I have a 90gph powerhead hidden in a ceramic stone on the other end of the tank, helping to return the water in a somewhat focused manner to the Emperor's intake. Watching particles in the water, I have a decent little stream in there. It's not as good as if I did a full-on rivertank manifold, but this was done with things I already had on hand, and I think it will be sufficient.
I'm also planning on lifting the Emperor up about an inch to increase the waterfall effect in order to increase oxygenation.
The substrate is sand, and I have a number of polished river stones and several other larger rocks with flat surfaces that I found. I have two Anubias and a bit of moss, but no other plants, as I am working to grow algae during the cycling process. I fertilized with Schultz 10-15-10 plant food to make Phosphates available for the algae, but I will likely stop using it once I stock the tank.
The tank is unheated for now. It tops out around 77 with my house's AC on, but I'll stick a heater in over the winter to keep it at 68-70 (we let the house get down to 62).
Since the Emperor is on the end of the tank, I can't use a regular hood. I bought a versa-top, which is being custom cut for me at the local glazier. It hasn't arrived yet.
Also, I cut some lengths out of the glass lens of an old hood to create 2 braces across the tank, since the hood won't be able to rest on the end of the tank naturally.
Lighting is two 20W T8's. They're a bit too long for the tank with the Emperor in the way, but I'm using reflective duct tape on the ends to keep light from bleeding out of the ends.
Here are some (crummy) pics:
The white "rock" behind the larger Anubias houses the little powerhead.
I'm not a fan of the middle rock aesthetically, but it will provide a really nice flat surface for algae grazing.
The glass braces:
One more FTS. Sorry for the poor-quality! The floating leaves are gifts from the LFS. They have various algaes on them, so I'm seeding with them.:
I'll post some more pics after the algae grows in!
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