# 5ft Blackwater Shallow Stream



## doylecolmdoyle (27 Dec 2019)

Tank - Fire Aqua 1500 x 210 x 240, 10mm low iron glass. 20G / 75 ltr
Stand - Ikea Kallax bookshelf's as stand, with extra soild wood top.
Filter - 1 x 1400lph canister filters (eheim copy)
Light - MML LED Tube on a Cade hanging kit
Hardscape - Bog wood / random wood
Substrate - Gravel
Plants - Anubias and bits of buce
Co2 - Probably slow / low 24/7
Fish - Thinking Pigmy / Dwarf Corys, 20 or so

This tank sat empty for months but today I got around to getting the hardscape setup and things should progress from here, I will keep this journal updated as I go.


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## 19Lee81 (27 Dec 2019)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Tank - Fire Aqua 1500 x 210 x 240, 10mm low iron glass. 20G / 75 ltr
> Stand - Ikea Kallax bookshelf's as stand, with extra soild wood top.
> Filter - 2 x 1400lph canister filters
> Light - MML LED Tube on a Cade hanging kit
> ...



Can’t wait to see this beauty up and running... what Corys are you planning on stocking?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## doylecolmdoyle (27 Dec 2019)

19Lee81 said:


> Can’t wait to see this beauty up and running... what Corys are you planning on stocking?



Thanks! I am thinking Pygmy corydoras, I have a soft spot for those little guys and have a few in my 12g blackwater tank and they seem to like it in there, I am thinking a nice big school will be interesting to watch


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## 19Lee81 (27 Dec 2019)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> Thanks! I am thinking Pygmy corydoras, I have a soft spot for those little guys and have a few in my 12g blackwater tank and they seem to like it in there, I am thinking a nice big school will be interesting to watch



I love Corys full stop!!.. I have 4 of each, Sterbai, Rusty and Skunk.. they all hang out together in one big group, always on the move... are you planning on stocking anything else?


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## doylecolmdoyle (27 Dec 2019)

19Lee81 said:


> I love Corys full stop!!.. I have 4 of each, Sterbai, Rusty and Skunk.. they all hang out together in one big group, always on the move... are you planning on stocking anything else?



They are fun fish, I am thinking just pigmy corys, tho probably some otos also, also some red cherry shrimp


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## Tim Harrison (27 Dec 2019)

Very sleek looking hardscape, already looks like there is water flowing over it.


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## Kalum (27 Dec 2019)

Love it @doylecolmdoyle looking forward to seeing it planted


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (27 Dec 2019)

Will pygmy corys be ok with that amount of flow? (I don't know the answer... genuine question!)

Love the hardscape and tank dimensions... keep us in the loop on progress!


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## Gill (27 Dec 2019)

Excellent use of wood to give that river flow.
Pygmy Corys will love this tank. And it will be interesting to watch the corys rest amongst the wood, and then dart up for a breath. 
Have you thought of having a nice long stemmed plant to compliment the flow and have it weaving in and out of the wood like a crinum or similar.


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## Arana (27 Dec 2019)

Lovely flow in the hardscape, will be watching this one closely


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## doylecolmdoyle (28 Dec 2019)

Thanks for the comments all. Glad you like the hardscape, was tricky balancing all the wood and naturally locking it all in place, I dont like using glue or anything, hopefully it holds together 



Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Will pygmy corys be ok with that amount of flow? (I don't know the answer... genuine question!)
> 
> Love the hardscape and tank dimensions... keep us in the loop on progress!



They should be ok, I am only using 1 filter, my previous scape in this tank used two filters. Being very long tank I am sure the little fish will take refuge down the far end away from the flow.


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## doylecolmdoyle (28 Dec 2019)

Gill said:


> Excellent use of wood to give that river flow.
> Pygmy Corys will love this tank. And it will be interesting to watch the corys rest amongst the wood, and then dart up for a breath.
> Have you thought of having a nice long stemmed plant to compliment the flow and have it weaving in and out of the wood like a crinum or similar.



Thanks Gill, I havent allowed for any stem plants or any plants actually planted in the soil, the plan is for just Anubis and a bit of buce attached to the wood, pretty minimal planting


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## Keith GH (28 Dec 2019)

doylecolmdoyle

There are not many tanks & waterscapes done today it's a pity as all members can see it can be done.

When it's fully finished and aged it will be something to sit back and admire.
One question do you have the inlet and outlet at the same end.

Keith


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## JoshP12 (28 Dec 2019)

I am so interested to see the finished product; the placement of the wood is impeccable.


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## doylecolmdoyle (28 Dec 2019)

Keith GH said:


> doylecolmdoyle
> 
> There are not many tanks & waterscapes done today it's a pity as all members can see it can be done.
> 
> ...



Thanks Keith, at this stage yes both the inlet and outlet will be at the same end (to minimize tube / keep things simple), I could put the inlet / outlet at opposite ends nothing has been hooked up yet, I also have a second filter I could run to have an inlet and outlet at either end, but I think that will created to much flow for the small cory fish.



Plants234 said:


> I am so interested to see the finished product; the placement of the wood is impeccable.



Thanks, I will keep the journal updated!


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## Keith GH (28 Dec 2019)

doylecolmdoyle

5ft tank the water movement at the opposite end would be limited and "might" cause a few concerns.   I would also be considering a small fine airstone under the wood in the middle of the tank.   Reason your plants will do far better with water movement.

There are safe products that can be used to test your water flow, a member might know of a product.

Keith


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## Sarpijk (28 Dec 2019)

Really like it and Pygmy Corydoras are one of my favourite fish too. I saw your tank in Reddit too, upvoted  of course.

In my mind a pygmy cory setup would have leaf litter, a chain sword and Limnobium laevigatum ( if you can get it down under) for the surface.


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## doylecolmdoyle (28 Dec 2019)

Keith GH said:


> doylecolmdoyle
> 
> 5ft tank the water movement at the opposite end would be limited and "might" cause a few concerns.   I would also be considering a small fine airstone under the wood in the middle of the tank.   Reason your plants will do far better with water movement.
> 
> ...



Thanks Keith, I will keep an eye on the flow, I do have a second filter (same brand etc) I can add, I may just do that from the start, I did want to avoid running tube up the back of the stand as it is a pain to get out when I want to do water changes.



Sarpijk said:


> Really like it and Pygmy Corydoras are one of my favourite fish too. I saw your tank in Reddit too, upvoted  of course.
> 
> In my mind a pygmy cory setup would have leaf litter, a chain sword and Limnobium laevigatum ( if you can get it down under) for the surface.



Thank you, leaf litter is a good idea, I will probably add some, in Australia we can get "frogbit' which i think is the same as Limnobium laevigatum tho its being banned in some states as it gets into water ways etc, I do have a small amount in my 12g blackwater I will probably add some to this tank


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## Steve Buce (28 Dec 2019)

Looking forward to seeing this up and running


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## gltjc (30 Dec 2019)

Fantastic work with the wood placement! Couldn’t really be better! 

I would think about moving one of the filter pipes to get some flow, though. I think you will end up with v little flow at the left hand side in a 5ft tank, even with a very punchy filter. I have two gyre pumps in my 10ft as the filters didn’t provide much flow in the middle at all.


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## doylecolmdoyle (4 Apr 2020)

So today after looking at the empty tank for months (and kind of enjoying looking at it empty) I filled it up... was a fail, the wood floated so I have put some rocks on top of the wood to let them soak and will try reconstruct the scape in a few days, the left hand side has kind of collapsed... I took a timelapse, the you can tell when I go off looking for some rocks...

The main driver for filling the tank was my tub of anubias and few bits of buce I had outside started to turn bad, I had it covered for so long the large leaves turned yellow / too mush, so I removed most of the bad leaves and just chucked them all in this tank, I am injecting co2 just via a in-tank diffuser thing, I have positioned it so the inline (to the filter) sucks in all the bubbles, I am hoping this works well, tho I have no drop checker to check what kind of co2 levels i am getting.


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## doylecolmdoyle (5 Apr 2020)

Well I got my hands wet and did my best to reconstruct the scape, its not exactly the same as the dry layout but close enough, the wood is still floating and from what I read will float for awhile, I have no idea what kind of wood i have here, it all seems different so may need the rocks in place for some time... hopefully it sinks eventually! 

My OCD kicked and I couldn't stand looking the the scape looking bad so I also stuffed all the plants into the nooks and crannies in the wood, nothing is glued in place all just stuffed in and hoping tomorrow morning the majority of it still is in place...




IMG_5322-Edit.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (5 Apr 2020)

Some photos I took awhile ago



IMG_4990.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr



IMG_4986.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr



IMG_4984.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr



IMG_4991.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr



IMG_4988.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## mort (5 Apr 2020)

Was about to say I'm really jealous of the tank then remembered a built a similar 4ft one that I have in the loft. So might have to blatantly, albeit badly, copy your idea but I quite fancy having a go at your last stream tank first.


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## Paul27 (5 Apr 2020)

Looks great


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## doylecolmdoyle (6 Apr 2020)

mort said:


> Was about to say I'm really jealous of the tank then remembered a built a similar 4ft one that I have in the loft. So might have to blatantly, albeit badly, copy your idea but I quite fancy having a go at your last stream tank first.



Thanks Mort, I love shallow tanks, these days I just have a 3ft bookshelf and this 5ft bookshelf tank, being so shallow they are pretty easy to maintain / tend to plants etc, barely get you hands wet!

The previous fast flowing river style tank was my favourite but I fried it with may to much light for way to long and couldn't not recover from the dreaded BBA, hopefully this tank with much lower light doesn't meet the same fate


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## GrowPod (6 Apr 2020)

Looks really good! I think outlet and inlet at opposite ends would help the river theme and water motion. Otherwise I think you will get circular flow at on end and no flow at the other.


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## doylecolmdoyle (7 Apr 2020)

GrowPod said:


> Looks really good! I think outlet and inlet at opposite ends would help the river theme and water motion. Otherwise I think you will get circular flow at on end and no flow at the other.



Thanks I want to keep things simple with this scape / setup so minimal pipe/plumbing, also where the tank is positioned and style of stand its hard to have have the inlets / outlets at opposite sides. Saying that looking at the flow of water within the tank there is movement at the far end, I think it will be fine, the filter is rated at 1400lph and there is probably only 50ltrs of water in the tank, I have had super high flow tank and tanks with very little flow... surprisingly I had more success with the low flow tanks


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## doylecolmdoyle (10 Jun 2020)

Finally removed the rocks to stop the wood floating, one bit still floats a bit but is being held down by the other bits of wood, added about 50 cherry shrimp they going good, getting diatoms / dust algae on the glass, saying that I have not even changed the water since filling it up for the first time, I will give it a water change next week and try get some fish.



IMG_0991-Edit.jpg by Colm Doyle, on Flickr


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## doylecolmdoyle (5 Jul 2020)

Today I added 20 Dwarf Rasbora (Boraras maculatus) and 4 kuhli loaches, the loaches where probably a bad idea considering everything I read says they will try escape from a open top tank... time will tell, they look cool like little eels!

Recorded a quick video this evening, really like the addition of fish, the Kuhli loaches are very active at times, then just hide away, very fun to watch. I didnt catch them swimming the length of the tank in this video, but they seem to like to explore end to end, it's interesting to watch them swim and you really notice their fins, look much less like eels when swimming freely. I need to work out some kind of way to minimise glare of the tank, I forgot to turn off the other lights in the house so reflections are pretty bad.


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## castle (6 Jul 2020)

One iof my favs on here as I'd love a long shallow; you might struggle with the khulis as they really like to bury themselves in sand.


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## doylecolmdoyle (6 Jul 2020)

castle said:


> One iof my favs on here as I'd love a long shallow; you might struggle with the khulis as they really like to bury themselves in sand.



Thank you, the Kuhli loaches where a impulse buy... they suit the tank parameters apart from no soft sand or soil... I may add some behind the wood... or I will add a heap of leaf litter and let it break down


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## Putney (6 Jul 2020)

This is so cool. Love the shape of the tank and scape. I


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## doylecolmdoyle (14 Jul 2020)

What causes fish to "surf" up and down the glass, I have noticed fish doing it at some stage in pretty much every fish tank I have had, the boraras in my 5ft are going crazy down at the "filter" end of my tank, they have been at it all day, occasionally a kulhi loach will join in, while about half of the fish are not bothered at all? 

Looks they are they feeding / hunting something but I cant see anything.


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## Onoma1 (14 Jul 2020)

doylecolmdoyle said:


> What causes fish to "surf" up and down the glass, I have noticed fish doing it at some stage in pretty much every fish tank I have had, the boraras in my 5ft are going crazy down at the "filter" end of my tank, they have been at it all day, occasionally a kulhi loach will join in, while about half of the fish are not bothered at all?
> 
> Looks they are they feeding / hunting something but I cant see anything.





I noticed the same thing with rummy nose tetras in the end I concluded that they were responding to their reflections.


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## doylecolmdoyle (4 Nov 2020)

Hope everyone is doing well, here is a photo I took today of this tank, very slow going / growing, which is good, basically no maintenance, I have only changed the water once since filling it up!


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## Wolf6 (4 Nov 2020)

Looking nice  did the kuhlis stay put or did they go exploring the outside world?


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## doylecolmdoyle (5 Nov 2020)

Wolf6 said:


> Looking nice  did the kuhlis stay put or did they go exploring the outside world?


Cheers, they have stayed put! No jumpers (only the odd shrimp) Perhaps the black kuhli loaches are less prone to escaping? Thte stay at the bottom of the tank generally and usually hide under the wood unless I put food in the tank then they go frantic and really love live food and sinking pellets. Really cool fish to watch at night when they come out for feeding, like little eels or snakes


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## Sarpijk (5 Nov 2020)

I still miss your hillstream tank! This one is nice too, any pointers on how to photograph my blackwater using a modern mobile phone?


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## doylecolmdoyle (5 Nov 2020)

Sarpijk said:


> I still miss your hillstream tank! This one is nice too, any pointers on how to photograph my blackwater using a modern mobile phone?


Cheers, the stream tank was my fav, maybe I will try again some day but not keep the hillstream loaches as its to hot in Australia for them (specially in my hot apartment) As for photos, I also use my DSLR so with mobile I prob wont be much help, if you can try get a tripod and see if you can shoot manually and use a longer shutter speed, blackwater is tricky to photography as its darker


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## doylecolmdoyle (6 Nov 2020)

Short video I filmed yesterday, feeding time! Had just put some micro worms in the tank and a sinking pellet


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## Chris Noto (6 Nov 2020)

Congratulations! It sure looks like you are achieving the goals you set for this project. Nicely done!


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