Re-education.....

[rebel]

Wow simply fabulous.

What lights are those? (Sorry if it's mentioned before).

 

[Ady34]

Do they have a black blotch around the anal area? I am just trying to determine the species you've got.

Loaches in general may need a bit more time to settle in, perhaps weeks, but once they do, they should be quite bold dancing at the front. SAEs seem to be confident in big groups too, very social fish that needs its own species. Most people buy 1 or 2 of them and wonder why they disappear or become reclusive.

Hi, yeah the loaches are getting a little more bold, we’ll 2 of them anyway, hopefully they haven’t been outcast from the group for being too photogenic
With regards the sae, no blotch around the anal area. They have a yellow tinge to the fins, I did my best to grab a couple of photos but they don’t tend to hang around for long



Interesting fish, maybe I should add more as I only have three, but I’m a bit concerned they may now be less tolerant of more?

Got a small group of 10 white fin bentosi tetra at the weekend, I’ve kept them before and really like their look and behaviour. I think I may also add a group of lemon tetra.



I also saw some stunning Congo tetra however they were already sold, it has confirmed though that when I find the right ones I will be adding Congo’s as the larger sized fish group.
Cheerio,

 

[Ady34]

A “sorority” group of Betta splendens usually does fine in a tank this size - just pick up 10-12 females
Chances of peaceful coexistence is improved with juvenile fish (avoid egg bound mature females as these can be reluctant to acclimate to “sorority” life, also losses are more likely due to inability to release/reabsorb egg masses ... depending)
A true “sorority” with juvenile females from same brood is a different experience than buying in unrelated females
ie have the fun of breeding your own Betta and grow out the spawn in this amazing tank! 😎

You can also add several Betta ‘Giant’ males or females or mixed group to an aquarium of this size (but these are usually much more expensive) - I noticed that Chen Betta had some nice coloured ‘Giants’
(though I personally prefer HMPK)

One comment re dumbo Betta - they often do better longterm in lower flow aquariums, there are compromises with the ‘dumbo’ gene, especially dumbo + dragon scale (as both may affect respiratory ability), also dumbo + rosetail
(again, personally I’d avoid rosetail in a community aquarium, and especially in a high flow system)
Consequences are often minimal in young fish, becoming more apparent with maturity

Note that Rosetail is in most Halfmoon lines these days, but as both appear to be multi-loci, the effects are variable over a fairly broad range

Apologies for the lecture 😳

Thanks for the detailed information alto, perhaps I will avoid these too and I’m pleased I didn’t impulse buy them. Time to think and research is always a good thing.

 

[Ady34]

Wow simply fabulous.

What lights are those? (Sorry if it's mentioned before).

Thanks rebel, the lights are Twinstar 600sp with inline controllers

 

[Guest]

Nice fish choice, my local Maidenhead has white fin bentosi tetra in at the moment, I think they're pretty cool; love the Hyphessobrycon genus anyway. I think lemon and Congo tetras would work very well too.

 

[sciencefiction]

The SAEs you've got appear slightly different than mine. I suspect you've got C. atrilimes due to the resemblence to mine but the lack of black blotch. Mine appear to be C. langei . They are both quite similar in appearance but C.Langei do have the black blotch around the anal area and resemble otocinclus a lot in coloration and even in body shape around the mouth, very grey backs with white underside, with a separating black stripe. The body shape is slightly different to yours looking at your pictures.

Here is the best I got of mine. I've got 5 in total. They school with the denison barbs a lot but tend to be always close together. I never knew they like their own kind so much or I would have gotten more of them at the time. They are also obsessed with human hands and love cleaning them 🙂 I am a bad photographer but at appropriate light and angle you can see purple and silver in their color.



The shape of the head is somewhat flat looking on mine, just like otocinclus.

 

[sciencefiction]

I was showing you the above as you might want to complete the school with C.Langei instead as they are better algae eaters and true BBA eaters, unlike C.atrilimes which may prefer fish food and soft leafed plants in their adulthood. Having said that, I feed mine algae pellets due to the lack of plants and algae in the tank.

 

[Ady34]

I was showing you the above as you might want to complete the school with C.Langei instead as they are better algae eaters and true BBA eaters, unlike C.atrilimes which may prefer fish food and soft leafed plants in their adulthood. Having said that, I feed mine algae pellets due to the lack of plants and algae in the tank.

I never knew there were so many types. They must be difficult to distinguish, although I think you maybe correct. It’s tricky as age and lighting can play a part I guess, mine do however currently seem to be more uniform In colouration, having less of a colour difference above the stripe.

 

[sciencefiction]

Yes. They are many species and some not yet well identified from what I've read. I think we've got two separate species. C.langei are the only ones with a black blotch around the anal area, at least that I know of, so they're easy to distinguish in a shop, although they're often in mixed species tanks, and all look pretty much the same when young.

 

[CooKieS]

Love the bentosi, nice choice!

Would love to have such an big tank to enjoy mixing différent species like you do and watch them school together...one day hopefully 😀🙄

 

[Ady34]

The SAEs you've got appear slightly different than mine. I suspect you've got C. atrilimes due to the resemblence to mine but the lack of black blotch. Mine appear to be C. langei . They are both quite similar in appearance but C.Langei do have the black blotch around the anal area and resemble otocinclus a lot in coloration and even in body shape around the mouth, very grey backs with white underside, with a separating black stripe. The body shape is slightly different to yours looking at your pictures.

On looking at my fish again there is one that is different, more slender with a flatter head and it does have the black blotch around the anal area so I guess I have one langei and the others likely atrilimes

Bristlenose are breeding, first batch of eggs under a rocky crag. I thought they were still too young but obviously not. I’ll likely spend many many an hour catching out juvenile bristlenose to take back to my lfs from now on
I had tens and tens of them before from a single pair but they all went with the discus. Shame as there were masses of them with no aggression. The ones I have now bicker all the time.
Interestingly they would only ever breed with the presence of rocks in the tank. Once I moved them into my big tank which only had wood and ‘plastic’ rocks they never bred again. I know it wasn’t due to water quality as when I initially set the tank up I had to weigh the wood down for a few weeks with some Seiryu stone which they laid eggs on. That was the last time as the rocks were removed once the wood became waterlogged.

Cheerio,

 

[Ady34]

@Guest, details of the water change set up. It’s not fully automated but makes things simple. Better planning would enable the waste to be positioned beneath and behind the tank or hidden better, however I didn’t know exactly the cabinet dimensions, access or position the builders placed things at the time and now although I could hide the waste behind the tank better, it is more practical where it is and you can’t see it in the living room anyway as it’s tucked away in the corner beside the tank.

I basically asked if the builder could put a hot and cold feed to the living room. They agreed and although initially placed them in the wrong place (as in the image below) I got them where I wanted them, behind the tank and hidden. They also put a waste away in which I’d planned, as it is conveniently on the other side of the washing machine wall:





Once finished and moved in I just plumbed in from the existing hot and cold feeds....



I used my existing equipment from the discus tank which was a ‘Bulldog’ thermostatic mixer valve, 3/8” John guest pipe and fittings and a 20” hma filter. The 3/8” pipe and fittings are used to allow sufficient flow rate (up to 7.8 liters per minute) so the boiler kicks in to get the hot water. A 20” hma can take the higher flow rate (plus the filters last longer......and I was doing a lot of big water changes on the discus tank; 2x 300 liter changes a week 😱)



The mixer valve just needs the hot/cold bias adjusting to reach the desired temperature, then it is set and can be left alone.

The hma fully removes chlorine and chloramine so no chemicals needed when water changing. The filters last for 30,000 litres but I tend to just replace annually at a cost of around £40.



I just have excess pipe below the tank with inline valves so when refilling I just pull it out, hook over the glass and open the valve.....





If a cabinet tank or tank with a coloured background were used instead of a rimless braceless minimal set up, you could hard plumb this all and just turn valves, however I didn’t want pipework to be seen.

The drain away is just a simple u bend and pipe which link into the washing machine drain conveniently on the other side of the wall. Not the prettiest solution which as I said could have been hidden under the cabinet, but I can’t really see it where it is in the living room and it is more practical like it is......



Quite simple really but saves an incredible amount of faffing around with hoses and buckets and water conditioners, especially on larger tanks

Cheerio,

 

[Edvet]

You could at least have build a stand colored removable cover for your waist drain.............................😉
My 400 gallon has a sump which has an overflow to the sewer. I couldn''t live without it.
If i ever build something new automatic waterchangeing ( continuous drip) will always be there, luckily we don''t need prime with our waterquality where i live.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Love that set up Ady, I totally planned to do this when I gutted my house but with so many other things needing doing I thought I'd do it later.... of course it never happened!
Great to see how you've done it though mate so think I now have another job in the summer list.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the detailed explanation and pics Ady. Absolutely what Iain said, great to see how you've done it.
Next house I'm definitely going to get that done; it'll doubtless save me countless hours researching and faffing about

 

[Ady34]

You could at least have build a stand colored removable cover for your waist drain.............................😉
My 400 gallon has a sump which has an overflow to the sewer. I couldn''t live without it.

I know 🙄

Yep an overflow or drain to the sewer is highly practical

Love that set up Ady, I totally planned to do this when I gutted my house but with so many other things needing doing I thought I'd do it later.... of course it never happened!
Great to see how you've done it though mate so think I now have another job in the summer list.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Yeah luckily (or unluckily ) for me someone else was doing all the building work, but I imagine doing it yourself there were an awful lot more important things to consider. It certainly does make life a lot easier though and is well worth it on larger or multiple tanks.

Tbh, in my old house with the discus, I retrofitted it, just t’d off the pipes to the washing machine, which was in the garage and conveniently right next to the boiler, and ran a long pipe from there to the tank. The waste I bored a hole through the conservatory wall to retrofit a waste pipe to the drain outside. Again the siphon pipe was just a bit longer to reach from the tank to the waste in the conservatory.

It isn’t essential but the closer your tank is to the boiler the better as the temperature of the water going in is reached quicker. I used to run a bucketful of water off in the old house to allow it to reach temperature.
I was fortunate in my new house again that the boiler is on the opposite side of the wall where my fish tank is situated, I don’t run any water off now, just straight in to the tank so no waste and up to temp almost immediately.

Thanks for the detailed explanation and pics Ady. Absolutely what Iain said, great to see how you've done it.
Next house I'm definitely going to get that done; it'll doubtless save me countless hours researching and faffing about

No worries Tim, it’s pretty simple when you can see it but sounds complicated if your unfamiliar with fitting sizes etc.

Cheerio,

 

[Dadofthree]

Ive done something similar on my big tank
Ive put a 200ltr tank in cabinet with a direct cold feed and a pump in the tank with a feed pipe up the back of the display tank so i just fill and declorinate then during the week for daily top ups just flick a switch and top up then at week ends just drain off display for water change then flick the switch approx 180ltrs nice freshwater then just turn the tap in cabinet and refill the 200ltr tank also during the week the stored water is at room temp

 

[Ady34]

Hi,
managed to get a few good Congo tetras last weekend along with a few other fish I’ve been looking for for a while. The Congo’s still have a bit of growing to do but are well shaped fish so I’m confident they will be nice adults.
I’ve also been looking for sturisoma aureum for a long time and some came up near to me so have added a small group of four which are now starting to feed and settle well. I thought they would utilise the branches more but seem more of a substrate dweller:



Added a few additional plants including extra h. pinitifida from fellow member @Konrad Michalski and some rotala green at the rear to bulk this area out in preparation of trimming back the remaining emersed bolbitis leaves. Also a couple more bucephalandra green to fill some gaps:






Cheerio,

 

[Konrad Michalski]

Really nice set up. Well done mate.

 

[Conort2]

The tank is looking great! Wish I had room for some sturisoms, will definitely be a show stopper when they're fully grown.

Do you have any other species that you definitely want to stock for this one? So many options with a tank of this size.

Cheers
Conor