Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Re-decorated 150

Started by Guest_itsme_* , Nov 21 2010 01:22 AM

Please log in to reply

19 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 01:22 AM

I redid my 150 gallon last night. Stayed up _late_. This tank is about 30" deep by 24" wide by 48" long. I've got six standard aquarium 48" fluorescents on it. I hope that's enough for these new plants in such a deep tank. There's a Magnum 350 canister with gravel in the media chamber, and a powerhead buried on the right front end of the tank to provide a riffle like flow along the front. I made a perforated plastic (acrylic) box to cover the intake of the powerhead and buried the whole thing. There's a short piece of curved rigid tubing that releases the flow to the front bottom of the tank. The riffle type fish definitely enjoy it and they display nicely at the front of the tank. Anyway, I wanted to show it off while it was still sparkly before the algae takes over and the plants die. The photos have been color and contrast corrected to make up for poor lighting, etc. Here ya go:

forum01.jpg 417.84KB 7 downloads

forum02.jpg 473.95KB 2 downloads
Silver Redhorse, Moxostoma anisurum

forum03.jpg 455.32KB 1 downloads
Gravel Chub, Erimystax x-punctatus

forum04.jpg 467.65KB 3 downloads
Plants

forum05.jpg 413KB 2 downloads
Plant collected in Ohio River near Steubenville Ohio

forum06.jpg 496.68KB 7 downloads
More plants

forum07.jpg 395.96KB 7 downloads
This is the outlet of the powerhead. I hid it well. You might see the transparent tube.

forum08.jpg 400.87KB 6 downloads
An oddly colored variegate darter. May be a hybrid. Collected in Captina Creek, trib of the Ohio River, with many other, normally colored, variegate and other darters including banded darters. I guess that tells you what my suspicion is.

forum09.jpg 351.4KB 1 downloads
ghost shiner, Notropis buchanani

Thanks, Brian Z, Tyler F, Mark K, Todd C, Ed B and the rest for some great recent collecting trips. This tank is well stocked!

Back to top

#2 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 09:08 AM

It looks nice.

You know, if you're worried about lights you can go to Home Depot and see what they've got. I got a nice 4 foot long piece for my 55 gallon tank for $30 total, including two 700 lumen full spectrum bulbs. I don't think I'll ever spend money on standard aquarium lights again.
This is the model I like: http://www.homedepot...catalogId=10053
It's supposed to be suspended from the ceiling but I've got it resting on the tank with no problems. The lights sit about a centimeter or two above the metal overhang, so they don't touch the tank edge and are a good three inches above the water.

I think your plants are more likely to have issues with their gravel substrate than with lighting, though. You can tell what the problem is by documenting which die first. If the vallisneria is one of the first to whither, then it's your substrate (vals need good substrate rich in minerals).

And that plant collected in the Ohio River looks similar to Potamogeton gayii.
Potamogeton gayii:
http://www.h2oacquar...mogetongayi.jpg
http://www.poecilidi...te/CIMG0056.jpg

Edited by EricaWieser, 21 November 2010 - 09:21 AM.

Back to top

#3 Guest_fundulus_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 11:03 AM

Your "variegate" darter definitely has bands of banded green, for once I'll say that hybrid is a believable possibility.

Back to top

#4 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 07:39 PM

And that plant collected in the Ohio River looks similar to Potamogeton gayii.
Potamogeton gayii:
http://www.h2oacquar...mogetongayi.jpg
http://www.poecilidi...te/CIMG0056.jpg

Yeah, it's kind of like that. Seems like mine branches more. In the shallower tank it was in, it shot right up to the surface and then began to branch out. Thanks for the links.

Back to top

#5 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 07:41 PM

[quote name='EricaWieser' timestamp='1290348514' post='83896']
Erica wrote:
It looks nice.

You know, if you're worried about lights you can go to Home Depot and see what they've got. I got a nice 4 foot long piece for my 55 gallon tank for $30 total, including two 700 lumen full spectrum bulbs. I don't think I'll ever spend money on standard aquarium lights again.
This is the model I like: http://www.homedepot...catalogId=10053
It's supposed to be suspended from the ceiling but I've got it resting on the tank with no problems. The lights sit about a centimeter or two above the metal overhang, so they don't touch the tank edge and are a good three inches above the water.<<<

Mark wrote:

That looks like a nice, economical unit. I was debating what to do, because I have to lift the strip light off to get much access to the tank.

Edited by itsme, 21 November 2010 - 07:42 PM.

Back to top

#6 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 07:46 PM

[quote name='EricaWieser' timestamp='1290348514' post='83896']
It looks nice.

Erica Wrote:
I think your plants are more likely to have issues with their gravel substrate than with lighting, though. You can tell what the problem is by documenting which die first. If the vallisneria is one of the first to whither, then it's your substrate (vals need good substrate rich in minerals).

Mark wrote:
There are several layers of substrate in there: Silt from the Maumee R, Clay from the Olentangy River, Gravel from the Olentangy, fine gravel from the Licking R, and the top layer is pebbles from the bank of the Ohio River. So not just native fishes, native substrates! :smile2:

Back to top

#7 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 21 November 2010 - 07:47 PM

Your "variegate" darter definitely has bands of banded green, for once I'll say that hybrid is a believable possibility.

I can't figure what else it would be except a color variant of variatum. Is that why they call it variatum? :biggrin:

Back to top

#8 Guest_wargreen_*

Guests

Posted 22 November 2010 - 07:21 PM

I can't figure what else it would be except a color variant of variatum. Is that why they call it variatum?

Lol....that is one beautifull darter, whatever it is.

Back to top

#9 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 23 November 2010 - 02:11 PM

I agree, that is an odd looking variegate. I've seen a lot of them, but never one with that light of a coloration.

Back to top

#10 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 23 November 2010 - 10:59 PM

I agree, that is an odd looking variegate. I've seen a lot of them, but never one with that light of a coloration.

I know, it's weird, right? A friend of mine has another one from the same trip. We should try to breed them together.

Back to top

#11 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 19 December 2010 - 09:06 PM

How does burying the powerhead affect the output? Is there a decrease in flow or chance of it getting clogged up?

I am still trying to figure out what to do about my new tank. I want all outputs from filter and powerheads on one side, but I would like to disguise all of that as much as possible. I thought about 2 high output powerheads or one really high output submersible pump plumbed with a T pipe and having the output split into 2. I thought I could burying the pump like you did the powerhead, but I wonder if that will restrict the output. What is your observation of your setup.

Back to top

#12 Guest_BTDarters_*

Guests

Posted 20 December 2010 - 12:57 AM

I've got to disagree with Erica about the Ohio plant. I believe the plant you have is Water Stargrass (Zosterella dubia.) I almost always have some in my tanks. Never had it do well, though. Maybe it needs a more nutritive substrate than I give it? Hmm. Sorry for rambling.

Brian

Back to top

#13 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 20 December 2010 - 05:39 AM

I've got to disagree with Erica about the Ohio plant. I believe the plant you have is Water Stargrass (Zosterella dubia.)

Oooh, that does looks very similar to it. I didn't know Zostrella dubia existed. It's always nice to learn about new species of plants.

Back to top

#14 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 20 December 2010 - 11:24 AM

How does burying the powerhead affect the output? Is there a decrease in flow or chance of it getting clogged up?

So far, no problem. I did this once before. It is certainly possible for it to get clogged up. I suppose it depends on how much debris is generated in your tank and how clean you keep the gravel above the powerhead vault. Maybe I described it above, but what I did was built a box out of that thin plexiglas you can get to replace storm door windows and such. I used a solvent adhesive to join the panels. Like Uland does for his photo tanks, only sloppier. :biggrin:

It doesn't need to be water tight and it's buried, so no one sees it. Mine has a plexi lid I made that has sides to keep it in position on top of the box. It's held in place by the gravel over it. I drilled lots of small (1/16" ?) holes in the box, and a large hole for the intake portion of the powerhead. My original idea was to use this as a kind of hidden undergravel filter. I've re-purposed it here, but it functions in exactly the same way. So the bottlenecks are the pore spaces between the gravel particles and the holes I drilled in the plexi vault. I would expect any clogging to begin at the exposed surface of the gravel, which you could hydro clean as needed. I'm using very fine gravel/coarse sand mix. I think this helps because it prevents debris from moving down into the gravel toward the vault. Really, it's "wild" river bottom/bank sand/gravel mix of many particle sizes. The finer stuff sifts down to the bottom over time. I think this works well for live plants, and looks very natural, which I also like. There are large plastic strainer units you can buy to use on pond pumps and sponge strainers too that could do the job if you don't want to build something. The more design time you put into it, the greater your likelihood of success, I suppose.

Back to top

#15 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 20 December 2010 - 11:45 AM

I've got to disagree with Erica about the Ohio plant. I believe the plant you have is Water Stargrass (Zosterella dubia.) I almost always have some in my tanks. Never had it do well, though. Maybe it needs a more nutritive substrate than I give it? Hmm. Sorry for rambling.
Brian

If that's rambling, I've been doing epics! :biggrin:

Guess I'm of the long form generation, rather than the texted code generation. Yeah, that does look a lot like it. Cool! Thanks! I'd like to see it bloom. I recently got another batch of something similar out of the Big Darby. This one grows in dense clumps in fast, shallow riffles. It was very cold and the leaves were pretty much gone, but they are starting to sprout and look a lot like the one from the Ohio river. That one came from deeper, quiet water near shore. If anyone wants to try some of these, I'll be happy to share. I've got some in a tank with gravel only and some in tanks with clay and silt layers. I'll let you know if I see any differences.

Back to top

#16 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 20 December 2010 - 11:53 AM

How does burying the powerhead affect the output? Is there a decrease in flow or chance of it getting clogged up? I am still trying to figure out what to do about my new tank. I want all outputs from filter and powerheads on one side, but I would like to disguise all of that as much as possible. I thought about 2 high output powerheads or one really high output submersible pump plumbed with a T pipe and having the output split into 2. I thought I could burying the pump like you did the powerhead, but I wonder if that will restrict the output. What is your observation of your setup.

One more thought about this: If you use a higher volume (more powerful) pump you might have more problems with clogging. The solution would be to increase the surface area of your strainer. So build a really big vault with lots and lots of holes all over it. That way the flow rate through each strainer hole is reduced and the force pulling clogging material into them is thereby reduced.

Back to top

#17 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 21 February 2011 - 11:25 AM

Mark, do you have a pic of the box you built?

Back to top

#18 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 04 March 2011 - 04:39 PM

Josh, sorry about the long delay. Don't have a photo. And it's buried in the tank. It's very simple, though. Just a rectangular box made from thin acrylic plexi bought at hardware store (intended as window "glass"). It's big enough to house the intake strainer of a Penguin 550 powerhead, about 6 x 3 x 4 inches. I also made the bottom larger than the adjoining sides. So it has kind of a "flap" that extends out so that the weight of the gravel on this flap will hold it secure against the tank bottom. The top is removable, but not attached. It has narrow "sides" like a very shallow box lid, so that it won't shift side to side when in place, and is held down by the weight of gravel on top of it. There are small holes drilled all over the sides (not the top or bottom) to allow water movement. The holes should be small enough to prevent your smallest gravel particles from entering. That's about it. Just size it to the size of your pump, and so that it can accommodate the desired flow-thru rate. The pump could be fully enclosed, or just the intake enclosed, as I did. If fully enclosed, I guess you'd make a small notch in the side at the lid deep enough to let the power cord(s) pass thru, but no more.

Back to top

#19 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 12 March 2011 - 05:56 PM

Mark, how do you think this would work?

I have a Laguna statuary pump that I bought on clerance from petsmart about 3 years ago. I thought that I may use it one day. The GHP is rated at 384 gph, but a graph on the side show output based on height (of the statue)and at about 10inches I should get nearly 500gph.

Anyways, the input and out put have 1/2 hose connectors on them. I thought about burying the pump and plumbing with PVC on the input/output to come up out of the gravel. If I run the input above the gravel and use a strainer/sponge/or rock cave to cover the input I don't think I'd need the box, right?

Back to top

#20 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 14 March 2011 - 01:35 PM

Yeah, I guess. You mean you would bury the pump and have the intake above the gravel? I would think you will need some kind of strainer to prevent fish, plants, gravel, whatever from getting sucked in. You need something that is solid enough to not get bumped and moved around, exposing the intake. And whatever you use will have to be cleaned on a regular basis to prevent clogging.