1320 liter clearwater biotope

[apistomaster]

I like your concept of using one of the 2 approximately 50 gal sumps as a fry refugium, if I understood your design correctly. The fry being in the first tank(sump) to receive the unfiltered water should work very well for providing the little bugs that always live in the settled detritus which they can search for live micro foods in addition to whatever you feed your fry. It should help the fry get off to a good start.
I would probably allow some free floating natant plants in the fry tank too. Maybe some Ceratophyllum or Najas? The plants would help create a more complex ecosystem. I'm a big believer in trying to doing that sort of thing. Doesn't mean I would plant the show tank.

[nvcichlids]

You know, If I win the lottery, I am flying you over here to set me up a tank and you can bring some fish with you (oh and don't worry about it, will send you back with whatever you want if I win the lottery lol.)

Awesome start. I may Attempt something similar on a smaller tank to start, then upgrade the idea when I get a another large tank I mess around with.

[Haavard Stoere]

I like your concept of using one of the 2 approximately 50 gal sumps as a fry refugium, if I understood your design correctly. The fry being in the first tank(sump) to receive the unfiltered water should work very well for providing the little bugs that always live in the settled detritus which they can search for live micro foods in addition to whatever you feed your fry. It should help the fry get off to a good start.
I would probably allow some free floating natant plants in the fry tank too. Maybe some Ceratophyllum or Najas? The plants would help create a more complex ecosystem. I'm a big believer in trying to doing that sort of thing. Doesn't mean I would plant the show tank.

You understood me correctly. Refugium is the word. I will probably not use plants, but that is not important. I would like a lot of algae in all my tanks, but the fish room gets to hot, and the bills... The whole idea is to have a tank with the same water as the large one for egg-hatching and raising of fry. If fry hatch in the main tank and gets sucked in to the PVC system the will end up in the refugium.

Do you remember about a year ago I asked about canister filters for my 12x200 liter tanks? You advised me to use to use central filtration instead. I recently purchased and installed heavy duty PVC parts and large lifting pumps. It was an extremely expensive makeover, but I am very glad I did it. Soon all my tanks will be have similar systems. It is much more efficient and easy to maintain. Thanks Larry

Awesome start. I may Attempt something similar on a smaller tank to start, then upgrade the idea when I get a another large tank I mess around with.

That is very wise! Always attempt such things in smaller tanks. Preferably several times. The level of difficulty increases with tank size when using rocks.

Not much progress, but here is yesterdays update:


Left side black:

[Bristlenose 94]

..... WOW. that looks like it took a lot of skill to make.

what fish are you gonna put in it?

[apistomaster]

Hi Haavard,
I'm glad you liked how my suggestion worked out for you.
Your creative approach to your pleco tanks has, in turn, helped me.
We have many talented fish breeders here on planetcatfish and it shows in ways like the rapidly expanding list of catfish now being bred where at one time, people may have said it wasn't even practical to expect them to ever breed in captivity.

[nvcichlids]

I was wondering what the exact product you use to silicone/adhere the rocks to the tank.

[Haavard Stoere]

..... WOW. that looks like it took a lot of skill to make.

what fish are you gonna put in it?

Thank you
I will keep my L200 hifins, L240s, L160s and L128s in the tank. There will of cource be changes as I get new species.

We have many talented fish breeders here on planetcatfish and it shows in ways like the rapidly expanding list of catfish now being bred where at one time, people may have said it wasn't even practical to expect them to ever breed in captivity.

It is really amazing how many of the supposedly difficult species are breeding. This is important and nice since Brazil are getting more restrictive on export.

About using industrial pvc in sentral systems. I believe that most fishkeepers with a fishroom/shed with several tanks would benefit greatly from this sort of system in one form or another. It takes some skill and knowledge to design and assemble. Luckily I had a very good local friend and consultant, so I could get it right the first time.

I was wondering what the exact product you use to silicone/adhere the rocks to the tank.

I use black silicone for aquarium use. Silicone adheres very well to non porous rocks like granite, some basalts and in this case amphibolite. Gluing porous rocks with silicone is hopeless.

[Haavard Stoere]

Today update:

I dislodged the large rock on the right and moved it 10cm down and 15cm to the left.

[Lloydy]

I'm sure not what its going to take, but I am already thinking of ways to bribe the girlfriend so she lets me get a tank like this.

I could imagine a big group of L25 or big Royals would look amazing in a huge tank like this, or maybe 25+ hypans!

Now I need is the space, permission from the girlfriend and probably about £2.5-£5k to buy, stock and maintain something that big!

[DutchFry]

Haavard, good choice to replace the big rock!

it looks nice this way and more important, it looks far more stable like this with 3 instead of just 1 permanent rock underneath!

[ChristosB]

Very impressive Haavard, can't wait to see it finished!!

[Haavard Stoere]

Update

[nvcichlids]

So to cut the rocks you used a diamond tipped blade and what type of saw?

[Haavard Stoere]

I use an angle grinder with a 9 inch blade.

[andywoolloo]

it's like watching a work of art be created.

[Haavard Stoere]

it's like watching a work of art be created.

Well...., Thank you, Andy! I have been struggling a lot this evening. 9 rocks has been placed, and the same number has later been removed. The problem is that I can`t decide the shape of each rock as they are natural. It would be a lot easier to make whatever I need out of ceramics or plastics. Actually that would be way easier, and I think my next big setup should be with artificial cast materials. This would also make it possible to "mass" produce in a small number.

About the durso standpipe on the right side of the tank... I will not cover it as the left one, but I may try some "feng shui" with vertically placed rocks to hide it from view. I will at least try it and see how it works in the overall composition. If I can`t make it work it will at least be a huge amount of time spent on nothing

[Haavard Stoere]

More rocks:

[GW_NL]

Looking better and better

You must be creating hundreds of hiding places for the catfish by decorating the tank this way. Great stuff!

[Ronny]

Ooohh.. Be careful! don`t drop the rocks in the tank. Even though it`s 19mm glass it`s not unbrekable.
This is looking very nice.
We are looking forward to your speech at our meeting i october. save some rocks for the demo tank.

[MatsP]

I use an angle grinder with a 9 inch blade.

Like this:


It's not for the faint hearted - it's got a 2000W motor, and spins the disk at 8000 rpm - if you let it "run", it will do about 300 km/h - or 180 mph if you like.

But it certainly does the cutting you need for these sort of things.

--
Mats

[Haavard Stoere]

Exactly Very dangerous machines, but cheap. They cost around 50$, and the blade cost around the same.

On smaller rocks in smaller tanks I use a cheap water-saw intended for cutting tiles. A water-saw for tiles is much more pleasant to work with, but is only suitable for pieces of around 3,5cm in thickness. Large water-saws costs the same as a slightly used car, and is therefore out of the question.

[Haavard Stoere]

Yesterday I made two prototype caves in concrete.

I did the following... Simplified explanation.
-Dug two holes in the garden.
-Poured some cement into the bottom of the holes.
-Put a sausage shaped piece of earth on top of the wet cement, and connected it with one of the sides of the hole.
-Covered the sides and top of the sausage with cement, and made a cement slab on top.

Today I dug out the two pieces and hosed them inside and outside. The two caves will not necessarily be used. They are prototypes to learn a proper technique.
The caves will eventually be painted with some thin acrylic to match the natural rocks. Finally they will be sealed with clear epoxy.


Photo taken with internal flash to show the inside:

[DutchFry]

looks great! good technique!

[Haavard Stoere]

It worked a bit better than I expected. Especially the way the concrete mimics the natural rocks in texture. The color is of, but sorting that will be easy with acrylic paints.

I made two more caves that I will dig up tomorrow I will have to buy more cement.

[nvcichlids]

Yesterday I made two prototype caves in concrete.

I did the following... Simplified explanation.
-Dug two holes in the garden.
-Poured some cement into the bottom of the holes.
-Put a sausage shaped piece of earth on top of the wet cement, and connected it with one of the sides of the hole.
-Covered the sides and top of the sausage with cement, and made a cement slab on top.

Why Sausage lol.. now my favorite food has a tainted name

[arjenk]

Very nice!

How do you make the holes? With cement.. But how do you make the inside of the holes?

I think, this will be a beautiful tank in a little time!

success

[Will77]

Now that's what I call dedication!
Stunning work.
I am new here, and one of your other threads was the first one I read, great introduction to the forum!

[Haavard Stoere]

The 9 caves have been painted with thin washes of acrylic paint to imitate what the rest of the rocks will look like under water.
Tomorrow I will seal them with Mapecoat DV from Rescon. This is the product:
http://www.mapei.it/Referenze/Multimedi ... dv_eng.pdf

[Phyllonemus]

Wich species did you plan to hold ?

[MatsP]

Wich species did you plan to hold ?

One of the first posts say "Large loricariidae", I don't think Haavard has decided exactly what he's going to keep (or he's not telling us

--
Mats