Newt's big tank renovation thread

I'll get some photos up early next week, with any luck.

Fishlvr- How are you going to seal the pond? Clay, concrete, hog, or just a giant liner? I've made a couple of little bitty ponds and water features, but nothing on that scale.

Not quite sure yet. I'm going to look into what would be best to use. Probably just a giant liner.

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I was beginning to think no one was even reading it anymore.

Newt,
I think lots of folks are reading it. We're just too busy wiping up drool to reply...

Newt,
I think lots of folks are reading it. We're just too busy wiping up drool to reply...

Haha. Definitely agree!

Thanks, y'all!

Here are a few more pics. The hood is over in the wood shop now being re-wired. Unfortunately it's impossible to get reflection-free images with the bright lights in the lobby on and the tank lights off.

Front view.



Left side.



3/4 view.



Some of the current inhabitants:
Vallisneria americana. I fear these may melt before the lamps are installed and returned, but we'll just have to see.



Pond snails. They are reproducing like mad, but this seems to be their basic response to any change.
"Conditions are bad- better lay eggs while I have the chance!"
"Conditions are great- what a fine time to raise a family!"
"Conditions are OK- no telling how long this will last, better lay some eggs!"
Some midge larvae (hitch-hikers on the driftwood) have taken up residence wedged on top of some snail egg masses.



There also an absurd number of scuds and Ceriodaphnia dubia, and they are also reproducing like mad. Unfortunately I couldn't get any decent shots of them. You can see a few little blurry Ceriodaphnia in that last shot.

Edited by Newt, 16 April 2008 - 01:41 PM.

It's looking pretty good Newt Thanks for the update!

Thanks, PMK!

Just got some golden shiners and fatheads from the local baitshop today and tossed 'em in a quarantine tank.


The baitshop clerk put them in a bag of blue water; does anyone know what's in that stuff?

I culled a few sickly fish right away and despatched them with my high-tech euthanizer:


I'll watch the rest for at least a week before I put them in the main tank.

Edited by Newt, 01 May 2008 - 05:07 PM.

Finally got the canopy rewired and returned to its place. I haven't yet replaced the old T12s on the right side, so there are still some blues on that side. There has been some dieoff of the bait minnows, but the survivors seem reasonably healthy; several of the fatheads appear to be gravid, and one of the males is tuberculate. There is some persistent green algae growing on the acrylic, which is absurdly difficult to clean compared to glass. Some sort of brown funk was growing on all the exposed surfaces for a week or so, but it seems to have cleared up now.

Edited by Newt, 21 May 2008 - 07:11 PM.

WOW.

Nice It's really starting to come together, thanks for the update.

looks good but I have one question,

Is there a reason why you have nearly 1' of sand in there?

otherwise it looks nice.

Thanks, guys!

There is no sand in the tank. It is a layered substrate of woodland topsoil, leaves, and gravel. I wanted to provide plenty of nutrients for the plants and lots of interstitial space for microcrustaceans, annelids, and other little critters who will hopefully act as a cleaning crew as well as providing occasional snacks for the fish. The deep substrate also makes it slightly easier to reach the bottom for maintenance.

The deep substrate also makes it slightly easier to reach the bottom for maintenance.

And it brings the plants closer to the lights.
You, know, I had to stare at it for awhile, but I almost think I like the blue light better. It reminds me of the color about 20 feet down when snorkling a clear lake.

Heh. 'Clear lake'. This is a middle Tennessee tank! Our lakes look like soup.

The blue is kinda nice, but the fixture on the left side of the tank is all HO T5's, so I can't put any of the blue lamps over there. For consistency's sake I replaced all the old SW lamps with Sylvania 'daylight' T12's.

Some new pics:

The tank is now spectacularly green.



There is a rather handsome mossy growth on the driftwood, but all other surfaces are infested with a fine filamentous alga. I scrape the front and sides a couple times a week, but there's not a lot I can do about the substrate. It has proved essentially impossible to use a gravel vac in this deep tank. I scoop out detritus as best I can with a net, but it's clearly not enough. The pond snail population has largely relocated to the filter, though at least a few are still in the main tank; they hide during the day, but I can see their grazing tracks on the glass. I think I may add some central stonerollers soon and see how they do; I need more minnows anyhow, as the warmouths are just about big enough to begin the inevitable annihilation of the fathead population.

Speaking of fatheads, they are looking mighty fine. There are always some breeding males, like this guy:



guarding nests, and gravid females. I have seen eggs, but no young. I don't know if the eggs are not hatching or if the young simply are being devoured/sucked into the filter too quickly to be spotted.

The golden shiners are finally starting to show a little fin color:



I obtained 10 sunfish from Zimmerman's - four warmouth and six red-spots. All fish were healthy and hungry upon receipt, and Brian had already converted them to prepared foods. Over the months I found one red-spot dead, and two of the warmouth vanished without a trace, but the other fish are growing rapidly and look great.

The red-spots have a subtle coloration and are rather translucent with a reddish suffusion:





Who could turn away from this pout?



They are quite active, and even occasionally school with the minnows.

The warmouths, on the other hand, skulk in the shadows unless food is in evidence. They are much more aggressive feeders than the red-spots. The red-spots sometimes come close to having their faces swallowed when they and a warmouth go for the same bit of food, and the warmouth frequently try to ingest my fingertips when grabbing for food. The warmouths can ingest an entire jumbo cichlid stick, while the red-spots can only take a small fragment of a stick. The day one of the warmouths realizes that he can he fit a fathead in his mouth will be a day of great carnage in the tank.

Nice shots. I just caught up on the thread and it looks like a pretty cool project. Too bad about the algae. Sounds like you need some sort of better nutrient export to cut off some of their food. With a covering like that I'm not sure that you'll be able to find a fish or invert that can really put a dent in it. Maybe as the tank ages though the growth will slow down and become more manageable.

Those little warmouths are some cool fish. They sound like they are going to be a menace though. Maybe you'll just have to mail them to me and solve the problem before it begins.


The blue stuff in the water from the bait shop was copper sulfate or sulfide. I can't remember which. It's the same stuff you used to be able to buy to get rid of pest snails in aquariums. It is basically a chemical that is toxic to invertebrates in much less concentration than it is to fish. It still isn't good for your fish, and I'd be careful feeding the snapper too many fish kept in that stuff. I'm not sure how quickly the copper leaves the bodies of the fish or if it ever does. It could potentially build up to dangerous levels if it was fed constantly. That is a cute common snapper. It has very nice markings on the face.

You, know, I had to stare at it for awhile, but I almost think I like the blue light better. It reminds me of the color about 20 feet down when snorkling a clear lake.

The blues are generally actinic lights. I've read that those stress a lot of fresh water fish for some reason. I'm not sure if it is true or not, but I've heard it recommended more than once that they shouldn't be used for fresh water.

Looks like the algae is coating the val and preventing it from spreading [I'm haveing the same problem right now]. You're probably gonna have to add more plants or cut back on the lighting. That substrate's gotta be loaded with nutrients.

I forgot if you mentioned it before, but are some of those rocks fossilized coral? Do you have high pH?

Newt,
The tank definitely needs more plants to suck up nutrients and block the light from getting to the bottom so much. Also, do you still have any of the frogbit? It will help shade out some of the lighting. If you don't have any, I can send some more. The frogbit is also a great nutrient exporter, since you have to harvest it to keep it in check. And it pulls all its nutrients out of the water column.

In the mean time, I would dose the tank with peroxide (3% from the pharmacy). Use 1 oz per 10 gallons. I forget how many gallons your tank is. You will see a dramatic difference.

Clayton- Thanks for ID'ing the blue stuff. I should have recognized it; the maintenance folks at work dose the fountains with it. And not to worry, the actinics are gone.

Mike- The algae is coating the vals, but they are still growing rapidly and producing numerous sports, which I've been feeding to my painted turtle. Yes, several of the rocks are fossilized coral, and the others limestone. But I live deep in the karstlands- our water has a pH of 8 and is hard enough to chip your teeth straight out of the tap. So I don't believe the rocks will be an issue; besides, this is meant to be an approximation of local habitats, which are all limestone slabs and chert gravel.

Laura- The trouble with this tank is that it has an overflow at the back into the filter chamber; any floating plants inevitably end up sucked against the intake. I even have to hold the fish food in the water to let it become waterlogged lest it immediately enter the filter.

I've been holding off an algicides because I don't want to hurt the beautiful lush mossy growth on the driftwood; I'm not sure if it's a green alga or a bryophyte. ad if the latter, whether it can withstand H2O2 treatment. I can't take the driftwood out easily, either. I think I will try hornwort and stonewort, as I have them on hand. Maybe Ludwigia repens too.

I really need to perform more frequent water changes (right now it's about 30% every two weeks), but it's at least a two-man job and I have trouble wrangling the necessary personnel sometimes.

Nate,

Couldn't you put a surface "trash rack" around the overflow intake...like an oil slick boom. I have done this with a curved piece of driftwood to keep duckweed away from the HOB filter outlflow. My java moss, java fern, and anubis so much better when shaded out by duckweed...it stops the algae from taking over.

Laura- The trouble with this tank is that it has an overflow at the back into the filter chamber; any floating plants inevitably end up sucked against the intake. I even have to hold the fish food in the water to let it become waterlogged lest it immediately enter the filter.

You can easily make a screen for intakes and overflows using plastic canvas (a craft supply). For an overflow, I've used just a simple rectangle, siliconed against the sides to cover the opening. For a filter intake, I made a tube out of it that would just fit over the intake. Tied the edges together with string. Then squashed the bottom to close it and tied that together. It is oh, maybe 6" long. It allows adequate flow into the intake but there isn't enough water pressure at any one point to allow plants to get sucked up against it.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, plastic canvas is this: http://en.wikipedia..../Plastic_canvas

It comes in all sorts of colors. Dark green is nice if it is behind plants.

Interestingly, the intake screen concept is the same thing that can be used to keep beavers from plugging up outflow pipes in ponds. A metal mesh box screen fits over the pipe, and there isn't enough water pressure for sticks to get stuck up against it.