Hillstream Loach River Tank

[NoDeltaH2O]

EDIT: May 10th, 2005

These are more recent shots of the tank:












ORIGINAL THREAD STARTS HERE:
This is my River Tank. I set it up about a year ago exclusively for Hillstream loaches I got in Hong Kong, but have added a few SAE out of necessity, a dozen Amano shrimp, a school of glass catfish, a school of White Cloud Mt Minnows, a couple zipper loaches, 2 golden killifish, a Chinese Algae Eater, and a redtail black "shark". The tank sits at one end of a sofa, so you can view both of the long sides, one side from the sofa, the other from the dining room. It's now densely run over with mondo grass, micro-swords, anacharis, tiger lotus, moss balls, apogneton, amazon swords, rotala, and some plant that sends up broad red leaves and has propagated through plantlets on a stalk.

I've got a powerhead pulling water through an undergravel pvc pipe and a pond filter to create unidirectional flow that simulates a river environment. Hillstream loaches just love it. I have 3 DIY CO2 jugs, 2 feeding into the powerhead and 1 into an AquaClear Mini, creating a constant swarm of CO2 bubbles. It keeps the pH between 6.6 and 7.0. Filtration turnover rate is once every 3 minutes, so the water is crystal clear. I've got 2 overloaded flourescents on top and 1 standard for a total of about 80 watts on a 20-gallon long. Plant growth keeps nitrates below 10ppm with no water changes needed, just top off for evaporation couple times a week. I add ferrous sulfate daily, and a little potassium weekly.

Check out the lush aquatic river garden at:

[JeLeAk]

cool tank, is that green fish the Hillstream loach?

[NoDeltaH2O]

Wow, I am such a lousy photographer. There is no green fish in the tank. The green thing in the lower left quadrant of the tank is an "F1" moss ball that started growing against the glass. I let it grow for several months, and now it's about 4 inches long and stuck to the glass. The hillstream loaches are quite small and regrettably aren't visible in any of the pictures I've posted. Good point. I'll take a picture of one of them tonite and post it so you can see the little guys.

Visible in the middle of the main shot above are some of the minnows, and a glass catfish and the head of one of the SAEs. The tank is only 12 inches wide (I think), so you really look right through the thing, and it is very full of plants, all the way to the glass on both sides. It looks crowded, but very natural. It really makes people sit close and look inside for the fish. Nobody can resist it.

[Avalon]

Nice tank you have there! I can appreciate a wildly overgrown tank. I bet your loaches love it! Where are those little guys anyway? That plant you refer to as sending up broad red leaves is either a E. barthii or an E. rubin. Alternately, you have another sword, an E. 'oriental,' next to your tiger lotus. I'm not sure if this is the same plant you are referring to above; it's kind of hard to tell in the photos. That "mondo grass" is actually Echinodorus tenellus.

[NoDeltaH2O]

Avalon you are my personal God of Latin plant names. Thank you a million. I have a hard time identifying plants and it would come in real handy on sites like the Krib if I knew what I actually had. An interesting comment on plants. For months now I have been adding Flourish liquid fertilizer, but things grow so fast that it was costing me about $7/week on this tank alone, and I'm living on a student's salary, so I switched to adding Ferrous Sulfate daily instead. For about a week or so, the plants looked pretty bad, especially my nitrate hog anacharis. But after this period of "shock", things really turned around. My whole reasoning for having so many plants is to cut down on the work I have to do to maintain cleanliness. But anacharis was growing an inch ar so a day with the Flourish. Now, with just iron, it grows much thicker, with longer fuller leaves, but not so spindly. I have not trimmed anything in 2 weeks now, and it doesn't really need it because everything is growing denser and fuller, NOT taller,which is how it was with Flourish. Everything is nicer except for an amazon sword which seems to really miss something that was in the flourish that it's obviously not getting now. Any plant nutrient wisdom? Potassium maybe? I tried adding potassium gluconate, but it didn't seem to dissolve well. Maybe I should try potassium chloride instead...

[Avalon]

You might just drop the K altogether and use KNO3 (Potassium nitrate) instead. All those sword plants are nitrate hogs! They like lots of nitrate, so keep that around 10ppm. It's possible, when CO2 & light is available, for those plants to consume 5ppm per day or more! You should be able to get enough K from the KNO3 that you may not need to dose extra. KNO3 can easily be found at any garden center as Green Light "Tree Stump Remover." After trying that out for a couple of weeks, try dosing Phosphate. You can find this at any pharmacy as "Fleet Enema." I bet you're excited about buying that. Thank goodness for self-checkout nowadays Sometimes you might be able to find a powdered form from a local nursery.

[NoDeltaH2O]

I've had a real hard time finding that brand of stump remover. All of the stump removers I've found in my local search for KNO3 are all from Bodine and are a sodium pyrosulphite compound. Do you think the K in KNO3 is more soluble than the K in Potassium Gluconate? Potassium Gluconate comes in pill form in the grocery. I guess I really could kill 2 birds with one stone by adding KNO3. I've been adding Nitrate of Soda to keep the nitrates up when they drop too low. Thanks for the reminder. I need to get some KNO3 online because none of the garden supply stores around here have it.

[cbock]

sooooooo....when are you coming out to CA to setup my new tank?

that's much nicer than what i've dreamed of for a natural tank. GREAT job!!!

[NoDeltaH2O]

HILLSTREAM LOACH images

Here is a rare shot of one of my Hillstream Loaches, Borneo Suckers, HK Pleco, whatever name you want to call them. I think their Latin name is "Beaufortia kweichowensis". They DO graze on algae and micro-organisms, although they are MUCH MORE playful if you feed them bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp. They have been eating off of the fat of the land only for over a month now and I see poop stringing out their little orifices, so there's enough naturally growing stuff in the tank to feed them without my input.

They have flat smooth bellies and prefer to sit on rocks in fast moving water, or on the glass.

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium...h_On_Glass.jpg

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium...y_On_Glass.jpg

[JeLeAk]

Originally Posted by drdaviddrake

Wow, I am such a lousy photographer. There is no green fish in the tank.

okay.. so whats that green fish doing in your tank then?

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium...8RiverTank.jpg (top right)