# 300l Wapoga River



## sanj (2 Mar 2014)

I havent really got off to a good start on this tank picture wise. I was not sure if I would do a journal and so I have not really documented the initial start up very well, but I guess most of you have seen it all before so it is nothing new really.

I set this tank up at the begining of February 2014 and then for 2 1/2 weeks its was left to its own devises while I swanned off to Thailand... 

Anyway the name is derived a river in Indonesia (West Papua province or formerly Irian Jaya) where the key fish habitants are found:

Melanotaenia sp. "Wapoga" ( looks like a red striped M. praecox, but is not the same species).
Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga"

In no way shape of form have I attempted to source flora specific to that river, probably next to impossible and rather dull.

I havent even tried to scape a river bed, it is very much lifted of a classic Amano design.

The details:

Tank: NA 120cm x 50cm x 55cm
Lighting: Metis Hyperion 8 channel led (from Pacific Sun led) 150 watt.
Filtration: Aquamanta Efx 400
Additional flow: 2x Hydor Koralia 1600s
CO2: 2kg bottle with a Sera reactor.
O2: Rena air pump that comes on over night
Substrate: ADA aquasoil, over alfagrog in filter bags, A blend of Nile and La Plata sand.
Hardscape: Manzanita and Yamaya stone
Additional nonsense (possibly): Twinstar Nano 

Plants:
Lagenandra thwaitesii
Lagenandra meaboldii (red)
Cryptocoryne affinis
Cryptocoryne legroi
Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
Needle leaf java fern (short version)
Hymenasplenum obscurum (its a fern)
Bucephalandra (many types most obvious being Dark and Green Achilles)
Polygonum sp. Sao Paulo
Potomogeton gayii
Weeping moss
Java Moss (was supposed to be Xmas).
Some others I currently cant recall...

Fauna:
Melanotaenia sp. "Wapoga"
Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga"
Otocinclus sp.
Blue neocaridinia shrimp.

Ok so as I said I did not document the start up properly and managed to take a series of blurred photos (sorry) but you can get the gist...



I used one of  those plastic flappy doorstrips as a substrate divider secured with tape:
Clear Flexible PVC Door Strip Curtain 100mm x 2mm x 1 metre length items in Flexible Trading store on eBay!

Yamaya stones, I really liked the feel of these, not dramatic in themselves, but works well when used to complement other hardscape. No fancy ground breaking scaping here, but my primary aim is a nice environment for some very rare rainbowfish. At this point in time I think I am the only person in the country with M. sp "Wapoga" and I know of only one other who keeps this  C. alleni strain. I have been raising these fish from fry since June 2013. They are F1 generation.



So, yes dont get too excited.

Anyway big gap as I got a little disheartened with several issues (albeit minor ones) with my NA tank. The short of it was I had to empty a filled and scaped tank in order to remove an inadequate number of "feet" at the bottom of the tank.

Off I went to Thailand (excellent country), came back and well this is the current state of things:


There is a bit of algae, but nothing disasterous yet.

Light duration is 8 hours, but 3 of these are ramp up/down and 5 hours ate 25% output. I think PAR was in the 30-40 range, but I will need to re-check.


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## Robert H. Tavera (2 Mar 2014)

to make an strict biotope with too many plant species..... imo is almost imposible...but we do what we can ! 
really nice setup, it promises a lot !!

can i ask the glass thicknes of your tank?


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## sanj (2 Mar 2014)

Hi,

yes I am trialing lots of species I have not used before, I think eventually there will be fewer types.

The glass is 10mm thick.


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## Robert H. Tavera (3 Mar 2014)

It's always very pleasant to work with new plants, lets se how this evolves !


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## EnderUK (3 Mar 2014)

> Off I went to Thailand (excellent country), came back and well this is the current state of things:


 
So left a bare tank and then the river washed it in? Nice tank, looking forward to rare rainbows.


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## Alastair (3 Mar 2014)

Nice sanj. Im sure youll figure out which species of plants to keep and which not. Very nice layout mate and that light unit. 40 par at 25 percent???? Crikey. 

Nice to see another set up of yours and am sure like your other 2 it will look great when mature.


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## James O (3 Mar 2014)

Bookmarked


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## James D (3 Mar 2014)

Really nice Sanj, I'm looking forward to seeing the fish in there.


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## sanj (3 Mar 2014)

Thanks for the kind comments.

As you may have guessed I am rainbowfish with plant garnish centric and not aquascapes only or fish only focussed. So I realise that I sometimes struggle with the aesthetic balance.

Anyway I yesterday I introduced the M.sp. "Wapoga". The adult (or still sub-adults) males are still less than 2" and are 9 months old. They have not fully developed their colours yet. I am not sure how big they will get but probably 2" at most.

Girl:


Boy:


Boy and blurry Girl (I did it on purpose, she's ugly... or maybe im just a bad photographer ):


In their little world...


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## Lindy (3 Mar 2014)

Stunning. 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk


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## tim (3 Mar 2014)

This is a beauty, so sanj looking at the tanks in your sig is this your nano  awesome scape mate.


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## Gary Nelson (3 Mar 2014)

A lovely scape Sanj and the fish are stunning too.... They look very at home in that setup


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## Iain Sutherland (3 Mar 2014)

Yep, very nice Sanj, the fish are beaut's!! 
As Tim said its a bit small for you though fella! 


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## ourmanflint (3 Mar 2014)

Very nice system, biotopes can be really hard to stick with but yours is off to a great start.


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## Four50 (4 Mar 2014)

Fantastic


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## Alastair (13 May 2014)

How's this coming along Sanj? 

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk 2


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## James O (22 Jun 2014)

Any news Sanj?  This must have grown in beautifully by now


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## Lee Sweeting (22 Jun 2014)

Looking beautiful as always. Watching with interest.


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## James O (26 Feb 2015)

Anything?


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## sanj (10 May 2015)

Ha so not very good at posting updates.

This tank has been on the slow grow.

July 2014:


And this evening:


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## sanj (10 May 2015)

I changed the placing of the Koralia pumps a few months ago so they are now providing flow in the same direction as the outflow instead of from the back to the front. Seems to wok better and I don't get BBA anymore.


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## Zak Rafik (11 May 2015)

sanj said:


> I changed the placing of the Koralia pumps a few months ago so they are now providing flow in the same direction as the outflow instead of from the back to the front. Seems to wok better and I don't get BBA anymore.


Awesome setup and journal details. I'm very happy for you that you managed to find the thing that triggered  BBA. I'm still fighting BBA from Oct 2014 till today in spite of making many changes to flow/ light /Co2. My tank specs are the same as yours. 
Cheers.


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## sanj (13 Mar 2021)

Didn't realise this one has been going on since 2014. I have three long term aquariums on the go, none have had co2 injection since end of 2016. This is the youngest. I guess these kind of planted aqaurims tend to have a wilder look to them, but then I dont tend to over manicure the plants.


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## shangman (13 Mar 2021)

sanj said:


> Didn't realise this one has been going on since 2014. I have three long term aquariums on the go, none have had co2 injection since end of 2016. This is the youngest. I guess these kind of planted aqaurims tend to have a wilder look to them, but then I dont tend to over manicure the plants.
> 
> View attachment 164741


Gorgeous!!! 😍😍😍 Fantastic that it's low maintenance too.


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## LondonDragon (13 Mar 2021)

About time you posted am updated, stunning and loving the great examples of long term tanks without CO2 and low maintenance!


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## Regent (14 Mar 2021)

Any chance of some photos of the Wapoga rainbows?


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## Conort2 (14 Mar 2021)

Love this, beautiful fish @sanj.


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