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5ft Bookshelf Aquarium - River Scape

This should look great when it's filled.

That photo doesn't do the kyathit danios justice. Once you have them a few months the males will look much better than that photo. I think those with the sewellias would look good. I think the main thing would be keeping the oxygen levels as high as possible for them when it warms up and they should be fine.

Cheers Conor
 
This should look great when it's filled.

That photo doesn't do the kyathit danios justice. Once you have them a few months the males will look much better than that photo. I think those with the sewellias would look good. I think the main thing would be keeping the oxygen levels as high as possible for them when it warms up and they should be fine.

Cheers Conor

Cheers, I went back to the store that had the kyathit danios, they where the spotted varity, still no colour in them. Also some must be fully grown, about 5cm big, I am wondering if they will be to big for this tank, perhaps Mountain minnows will suit the scale more so.
 
Ok so the stand / floor is not level, havent figured out if its the stand or just floor sloping. There is about a 1cm water level difference right to left with filter/wave maker turned off. Will have a think about what I can do, none of the tanks in my house are level so this isnt anything new :p

Took is a iphone video before I drained the tank.

 
Cheers, I went back to the store that had the kyathit danios, they where the spotted varity, still no colour in them. Also some must be fully grown, about 5cm big, I am wondering if they will be to big for this tank, perhaps Mountain minnows will suit the scale more so.
They shouldn't get much larger than the minnows really. However I will agree with you minnows suit these type of scapes perfectly. The Vietnamese variety, tanicthys micagemmae are great if you can find them.
 
They shouldn't get much larger than the minnows really. However I will agree with you minnows suit these type of scapes perfectly. The Vietnamese variety, tanicthys micagemmae are great if you can find them.

I will have to have another look at the Danio kyathit, they where a bit pricey at my local store, they did also have a few tanicthys micagemmae but again price compared to the standard white cloud mountain minnows was 5x as much
 
Started playing around with the rock layout, fairly happy with the left side but didnt have big enough rocks for the right side, will head back to the landscape supply tomorrow.

Also now I think I need to move the outlet and wavemaker to the left side as I have a nice pocket behind the second largest rock where I could plant some Val or something long and thin. With the flow moving right to left I dont think the long leaves would flow out nicely.

Day time photo with lots of reflections, but you get the idea, will make a few changes tomorrow, mainly to the right side.

IMG_7479.jpg
 
I switched the inlet / outlet around, only thing is I will need to run the co2 (probably dont need co2) on the in pipe (into filter) have done this before without any real issues.

Also I have a second wavemaker on the way, tho with this positioning there isnt much need for it...

IMG_1405.jpg
 
Lovely stones. I didn't manage to get such a nice gradation in sizes. Something I'm still looking to fix. I really recommend Tanichthys micagemmae. Fish for this specialised environment should be expensive! They look really nice in a big group and even shoal. Plus, the light can make their eyes really glow at times. I wonder if you're gonna try any plants in there.

P
 
Lovely stones. I didn't manage to get such a nice gradation in sizes. Something I'm still looking to fix. I really recommend Tanichthys micagemmae. Fish for this specialised environment should be expensive! They look really nice in a big group and even shoal. Plus, the light can make their eyes really glow at times. I wonder if you're gonna try any plants in there.

Thanks, will defentely consider Tanichthys micagemmae, Last time I was at my local fish store they did have them, but I dont think they are common here in Perth, Western Australia.

The stones didnt come together completely as planned, still need to get a few more medium sized stones, one for the right hand side group and one to go after the 3rd largest stone. One good thing is that behind the 2nd largest stone is a nice void where I can plant some long strappy / flowing plant like vallisneria or something similar, probably as add a some anubias or similar scatter around
 
Nice try, the big stones looks a bit out of scale in comparaison to the others, it's an great idea to add some medium sized one in order to add some depth and realism
 
Nice try, the big stones looks a bit out of scale in comparaison to the others, it's an great idea to add some medium sized one in order to add some depth and realism

Yah i think a few medium size stones are missing from the layout, the landscape supply was shut today so will head there tomorrow.

How about some blue-eyes or melanotaeniidae

I am going to try Pseudomugil gertrudae (Spotted Blue-eyes) in one of my outdoor tanks, are you referring to some other kind of fish? Will have to look into melanotaeniidae did a quick google and seems there are many varieties of rainbow fish, tho in Australia we are pretty limited as to what fish are are allowed into the country, seems like there are some native melanotaeniidae
 
Hi all,
Lovely water rounded cobbles, they are perfect.
only thing is I will need to run the co2 (probably dont need co2) on the in pipe (into filter) have done this before without any real issues.
Added CO2 will out gas really quickly because of the large surface area to volume ratio and rapid flow. Those factors give you the advantage that CO2 and oxygen levels should track atmospheric levels pretty closely. If you don't add CO2 you will never have much, but you will always have some.
I am going to try Pseudomugil gertrudae (Spotted Blue-eyes) in one of my outdoor tanks, are you referring to some other kind of fish? Will have to look into melanotaeniidae did a quick google and seems there are many varieties of rainbow fish, tho in Australia we are pretty limited as to what fish are are allowed into the country, seems like there are some native melanotaeniidae
There are plenty. Have a look at <"Home of the Rainbowfish">.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
Lovely water rounded cobbles, they are perfect. Added CO2 will out gas really quickly because of the large surface area to volume ratio and rapid flow. Those factors give you the advantage that CO2 and oxygen levels should track atmospheric levels pretty closely. If you don't add CO2 you will never have much, but you will always have some. There are plenty. Have a look at <"Home of the Rainbowfish">.

cheers Darrel

Great website for the Rainbowfish thanks! Yes probably not much need for co2, planting will be minimal and surface movement will be very high, I have allowed / setup for co2 but there may well be not much point, specially if I want to keep hillstream loaches
 
Microdevario kubotai looks great and they love the flow too.

Here's a vidéo in the wild:

 
Microdevario kubotai looks great and they love the flow too.

Here's a vidéo in the wild:



Cheers, I have a few of them in my blackwater tank, originally had them in my 45p tank but they didnt do well, I started with 10 and slowly lost them / they jumped, the remaining 5 went into my blackwater tank and I lost 2 more, so now left with 3 (in with 30 odd other boraras), I didnt realise they liked flow, could be an option if I want to try them again. There small size would suit the bookshelf footprint!
 
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Planted (just some val/trident fern and anubias/buce) and filled the tank today, flow is not as good as I had hoped, I think the pipe from the filter to outlet is to long and really killing the flow from the filter. I think I will save for a bigger filter / fluval fx5 or 6. I seeded the filter with a sponge from another tank so hopefully the tank cycles quickly and I can see how fish deal with the current filter and wave maker setup.

The Jebao wave maker is rather noisey and really kicked up the sand when positioned low so I had to raise it right under the outlet pipe, added a bunch more la plata big near the wave maker to stop it lifting the sand.

I didnt wash the sand and its very cloudy not so noticeable front on so took a photo anyways, you cant see half way down the tank from the side. Will try take some better photos when it clears up. I kind of liked the layout better before planting, hopefully it grows on me.

39328747390_1a16bc13d8_z.jpg
IMG_1407
by Colm Doyle, on Flickr
 
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they jumped

Than they probably were parasite infested from the LFS.. As far as i know they are wild catch and not yet captive bred. Good thing to learn and recognize when fish are not healthy or show depressed behaivor.. It's hard to explain in words what to look for, i kinda learned it over many years trail and error. And now i see at first glance when not to buy and leave them in the shop and wait a few weeks for another batch to arrive. With boraras/rasboras they should be full color with a somewhat silvery shiny round belly. If they are pale and or skinny or belly is even worse and concave. Than do not buy.. Tho experience makes you see if it concers very young fish that still are in transition periode from larval stadium to young adult, these always look skiny and flat and have relative to body size i bit larger eye. Learn to see these small details, the smaller the fish are the smaller the details to overlook. :) Belly should never be concave in shape.

But the Kobutai are realy very lovely little fish.. In my tank they also regularly play in the filter outlet stream.. Healthy specimen are extremely playfull and constantly showingh sham battles and chasing eachother back and forth around the tank.. :)
 
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