Hey all. I've been busy planning a river manifold tank the past few weeks, and have finally compiled all of the parts and have gotten busy building this thing.
But first, a bit of information. What is a river manifold tank? It is a tank that, through use of custom built under-gravel plumbing, closely simulates the one-directional flow of a river in nature. Why would anyone want to do this, you ask? Well, many interesting species of fish originate from river and fast flowing streams. The one that caught my eye and convinced me to build this type of biotope tank is the Hillstream Loach (also known as Butterfly Loach and Borneo Sucker). These fish unfortunately do not survive for very long in standard community aquariums due to their need for fast flowing waters and plentiful algae to feed on.
I won't bore you with a biology lesson. If you are interested, this website explains it all in detail: http://www.loaches.com/articles/a-river-runs-through-it. I also borrowed the manifold design from that same article, so I cannot take credit for the design.
Now, on to the good stuff! Currently we have a tiny litle 20g long tank in our family room behind our two recliners. This tank was great for me when I was in my apartment in grad. school, but then I got married and moved into a house with my wife. The tank is tiny in the room, and I've been planning an upgrade. I decided to go with a 40g long river tank build, and I decided to closely follow the manifold design from loaches.com since I am not particularly inventive with this kind of stuff.
The recliners (pardon the mess!). You can see the current 20g tank off to the left side. See how tiny?
The new stand for the 40g long. You can already tell that it will be in better proportion to the room.
The 40g long tank with all of the manifold plumbing materials.
All of the parts. Plan ahead! I had to make several trips to Home Depot for the same item because I didn't plan ahead...
The first roadblock came right off the bat - the width of the tank. It's only 12 inches wide, so I could not even fit 3 of the T-connectors side by side with 1 elbow on either side. I had to cut down the T-connectors down so that I could fit them. The stock T-connector is on the left so you can see how I've cut them down.
And then, again limited by the width of the tank, I had to cut small 1" segments of PVC in order to actually connect these T-connectors together.
And here is a dry-fit of the pieces for one end of the manifold:
Flash forward about 45 minutes. The other end of the manfiold has been build and dry-fitted, and the intermediate runs of piping have been fitted.
Next, the intakes. I just bought a block of reticulated foam from my LFS. It was a ripoff at $12, but I needed it for this project.
Then just cut a few pieces of PVC to size and drill some holes...
And then simply cut a slot in the foam and slip it over the drilled PVC.
The final step after the dry fitting is to cement the manifold together. From what I've read, a dry fitted manifold will not provide an airtight system, so cementing them pieces together is the only way to go. This stuff stinks to high heaven!
And finally, here is the entire manifold minus the powerheads and sponges all cemented up. Notice the clear risers at the far end of the manifold. These will lead up to the powerheads. I didn't want the ungly PVC to show above the gravel in the finished product, so I went with a clear rigid pipe that I found at the LFS. It didn't quite fit in the 3/4" PVC, so I solicone'd them into place in an attempt to keep the system airtight:
More to follow, but I am done for the night. I've ordered some more Eco-complete online, so I'll be anxiously awaiting that in the mail this week. For now, the manifold will cure overnight. I'll attach the powerheads tomorrow.
But first, a bit of information. What is a river manifold tank? It is a tank that, through use of custom built under-gravel plumbing, closely simulates the one-directional flow of a river in nature. Why would anyone want to do this, you ask? Well, many interesting species of fish originate from river and fast flowing streams. The one that caught my eye and convinced me to build this type of biotope tank is the Hillstream Loach (also known as Butterfly Loach and Borneo Sucker). These fish unfortunately do not survive for very long in standard community aquariums due to their need for fast flowing waters and plentiful algae to feed on.
I won't bore you with a biology lesson. If you are interested, this website explains it all in detail: http://www.loaches.com/articles/a-river-runs-through-it. I also borrowed the manifold design from that same article, so I cannot take credit for the design.
Now, on to the good stuff! Currently we have a tiny litle 20g long tank in our family room behind our two recliners. This tank was great for me when I was in my apartment in grad. school, but then I got married and moved into a house with my wife. The tank is tiny in the room, and I've been planning an upgrade. I decided to go with a 40g long river tank build, and I decided to closely follow the manifold design from loaches.com since I am not particularly inventive with this kind of stuff.
The recliners (pardon the mess!). You can see the current 20g tank off to the left side. See how tiny?
The new stand for the 40g long. You can already tell that it will be in better proportion to the room.
The 40g long tank with all of the manifold plumbing materials.
All of the parts. Plan ahead! I had to make several trips to Home Depot for the same item because I didn't plan ahead...
The first roadblock came right off the bat - the width of the tank. It's only 12 inches wide, so I could not even fit 3 of the T-connectors side by side with 1 elbow on either side. I had to cut down the T-connectors down so that I could fit them. The stock T-connector is on the left so you can see how I've cut them down.
And then, again limited by the width of the tank, I had to cut small 1" segments of PVC in order to actually connect these T-connectors together.
And here is a dry-fit of the pieces for one end of the manifold:
Flash forward about 45 minutes. The other end of the manfiold has been build and dry-fitted, and the intermediate runs of piping have been fitted.
Next, the intakes. I just bought a block of reticulated foam from my LFS. It was a ripoff at $12, but I needed it for this project.
Then just cut a few pieces of PVC to size and drill some holes...
And then simply cut a slot in the foam and slip it over the drilled PVC.
The final step after the dry fitting is to cement the manifold together. From what I've read, a dry fitted manifold will not provide an airtight system, so cementing them pieces together is the only way to go. This stuff stinks to high heaven!
And finally, here is the entire manifold minus the powerheads and sponges all cemented up. Notice the clear risers at the far end of the manifold. These will lead up to the powerheads. I didn't want the ungly PVC to show above the gravel in the finished product, so I went with a clear rigid pipe that I found at the LFS. It didn't quite fit in the 3/4" PVC, so I solicone'd them into place in an attempt to keep the system airtight:
More to follow, but I am done for the night. I've ordered some more Eco-complete online, so I'll be anxiously awaiting that in the mail this week. For now, the manifold will cure overnight. I'll attach the powerheads tomorrow.
