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5ft Bookshelf Aquarium - River Scape

Cheers it is getting there, picking up the filter tomorrow, I am moving the 2 tanks in the background of the photo outside and the 5ft will go in their place, pretty much finished setting up an outdoor rack which will hold 3 fish tanks, will be interesting to see how they go outside, have no more room inside, I live in a 70sqm apartment with 6 fish tanks now :p

MTS strikes again lol, think the most I've had running has been 8 nano's, but I very quickly realise for me that's too much, and end up cutting right back. Currently got two running including the 4ft bookshelf tank, but I already want to change stock in it, and I've got two 24x8x8 inch tanks ready and waiting to go lol
 
Starting to plan out the hardscape, I am thinking of arranging the rocks as per below, with the bigger rocks down the intake end, leaving the outflow and wavemaker fairly open with smaller stones to not obstruct to much flow.

Planting will probably consist of attaching anubias, buce and java fern to small bits of driftwood and positioning in and around the rocks.

Tank-Mockup-v7.jpg


Also my local aquarium store has "Orange Finned Danio kyathit" in the store... they look rather dull in store but google images reveals a nice looking simple and smaller danio with a bit of a red/orange tinge... I think I may try get a school of these guys in the tank and add some Hillstream Loach in winter when the tank is well and truly established and a bit cooler, in summer the tank will sit around 25c and rise up to 28c on really hot days, in winter it should sit around 20c which is more around the temp hillstream loaches like, I am hoping if I get them in during the cooler months they will adapt to the slow rise in temp as the warmer months approach.

images
 
Are you going for a flowing river? If so use multiple cannister filters to get the required volume. I would hide the outflows behind some black filterfoam, and maybe even the inflows too. If you use coarse foam it won't hinder the flow and it wont show hardware in the tank.
 
Are you going for a flowing river? If so use multiple cannister filters to get the required volume. I would hide the outflows behind some black filterfoam, and maybe even the inflows too. If you use coarse foam it won't hinder the flow and it wont show hardware in the tank.

Yes attempting to get "river flow" but decided not to use a river manifold as would be hard to hide in a tank only 25cm deep. So the setup wont be a true "uni-directional flow"

I have already got all the equipment, tho I guess this could change if I dont like the amount of flow.

Filter is a 1400lph canister, using stainless steal inlet and outlet
Jebao SW4 Wave maker (controllable upto 4000lph)

Aquarium volume with rocks etc will be around 50 - 60 ltr... I should easily get 30x turn over which is what I have read is the min for hillstream loaches
 
Liking that visual drawing, the rock placement looks spot on with what I'd envisioned doing in mine also, somewhat adhering to the golden rule of thirds, and avoiding obstruction.
 
not to use a river manifold
I don't like them visualy either, hence the advice of multiple cannister filters:oops:
Putting a large boulder more towards the middle will increase flow velocity around that area too.
 
I have read that wave makers can be a risk for hillstream loaches, apparently they can get stuck/sucked on to them. Not sure if anyone has experienced this?

I am sure any fish could get sucked into them if they get close enough, I have looked over many setups for hillstream loaches and a fair few use wave makers (the river manifold is ideal), but I guess it is a risk, the hillstream loaches at my LFS are tiny and I could see them getting sucked in, something to keep an eye on...
 
Rock placement looks promising, maybe the big rock on the left would look nicer if moved a bit on the right?
 
I've noticed that people are covering the outer casing of the powerheads with a shrimp mesh. So that nothing get can be sucked in and shredded. Which I wish I had done with my puffers. Lost 6 to the wave maker years ago.

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
 
Exciting day, finally got the tank in place! Hopefully I dont let it sit like this for to long, tho there is something about a nice clean empty tank that is just nice to look at haha.

IMG_7422a.jpg


Full tank shots are going to be tricky (the room is only about 3 x 4mtr), the above photo is just from my iphone backed up as far as I can get from the tank, I do have a wide angle lens for my DSLR which will come in handy.
 
Hi,

Cool project! I keep a 'river' set up in a normal dimension aquarium with a canister filter (Eheim Pro 3 350T 1050lph), and a really nice yet cheap Sicce Voyager 2000 lph circulation pump.

I've got about 30x flow when you take into account the rocks and sand.

Bearing in mind temperatures, I think I should warn you that in my experience (1 year), some 'hillstream' species seem to struggle with higher temps much more than others.

In the summer where I live, temps can be in the mid to high 30s. I have Stiphodon gobies and Gastromyzon loaches that seem to have survived the higher temps with no problems. However, 2 of my 4 Sewellia loaches died when the temperatures were at their highest. It's ironic since Sewellia are becoming increasingly common in pet shops here. Also I think that they are the most active and you need large groups to repress aggressive behaviour between males (which you need a bigger aquarium to do).

Another problem with this type of setup is that species are sold with the incorrect names. Not always a big deal but I bought some supposedly algae-eating Stiphodon gobies only to later find that they were not Stiphodon and actually only eat live food.

P
 
Hi,

Cool project! I keep a 'river' set up in a normal dimension aquarium with a canister filter (Eheim Pro 3 350T 1050lph), and a really nice yet cheap Sicce Voyager 2000 lph circulation pump.

I've got about 30x flow when you take into account the rocks and sand.

Bearing in mind temperatures, I think I should warn you that in my experience (1 year), some 'hillstream' species seem to struggle with higher temps much more than others.

In the summer where I live, temps can be in the mid to high 30s. I have Stiphodon gobies and Gastromyzon loaches that seem to have survived the higher temps with no problems. However, 2 of my 4 Sewellia loaches died when the temperatures were at their highest. It's ironic since Sewellia are becoming increasingly common in pet shops here. Also I think that they are the most active and you need large groups to repress aggressive behaviour between males (which you need a bigger aquarium to do).

Another problem with this type of setup is that species are sold with the incorrect names. Not always a big deal but I bought some supposedly algae-eating Stiphodon gobies only to later find that they were not Stiphodon and actually only eat live food.

P

Thanks for the advice, do you have a thread for your river tank?! We must live in similar climates, here in Perth, Australia in summer (which just ended) its gets up to 40c with average temps around 30c over summer. I do want to keep Hillstream loaches and my local store has Sewellia lineolata at the moment I asked what temp the run their tanks at and they said 25c which I thought was a bit warm for these guys. My tanks over summer reach 28c on the hottest days generally over summer it will sit around 25c and winter around 18-20c. I am hoping if I introduce the Hillstream loaches to the tank over winter they will acclimatise to the summer as temps rise.

My state is fairly limited with what fish we get, we have very strict quarantine rules, I will have to hunt around to see what other species of Hillstream loaches are available locally.

Stiphodon gobies are basically impossible to get in Australia, they are not allowed to be imported into the country, we do have some native Australian Stiphodon gobies but they are super rare and dont think I will be able to source any.

The first lot of fish I plan to stock are Orange Finned Danio kyathit, hopefully I can get some nice colours out of them, in my local aquarium store they dont look orange at all but this photo is pretty stunning. I will not introduce any hillstream loaches until the tank is very stable and has some algae for them to eat.

j
images
 
Got the plumbing sorted, had to cut the Stainless pipes to size to fit the shallow tank. No leaks! Hard to say how much flow / how directional the flow is, I dropped a few grains of food in and they didnt exactly go flying down the other end, sort of tumbled around, im sure hardscape will change the flow in the tank.

I think the ground / stand is not level, there is about 1cm drop in water from left to right, is there anyways to fix this? Add shims or something under the tank stand on the right side?

Here is a photo after i filled to test for leaks etc.

IMG_7475.jpg
 
Is the water level different with the filter off? I have a similar 40x8x8" tank as part of my marine filtration and with the flow only coming from one end, and very strong, I get an uneven water surface.
If it's with it off then shims under the lower end will work fine.
 
Is the water level different with the filter off? I have a similar 40x8x8" tank as part of my marine filtration and with the flow only coming from one end, and very strong, I get an uneven water surface.
If it's with it off then shims under the lower end will work fine.

Very good point, will test this tomorrow, I turned the wave maker up to full and the water level dropped even more at that end, so I think you are correct, didnt want to unplug the filter right now but I will double check tomorrow before I drain the tank. Hoping to start the hardscape this weekend.
 
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