Apocalypse

The 150 is emptied and reconfigured. I had quite an adventure in the process. Netting out each species for relocation to various locales, arranging meetings with other hobbyists and even turning in unwanted individuals for credit at the LFS, all accomplished in a day. Then I had to deal with the play sand. I highly recommend regular play sand for most any tank - it is very fine and soft so appropriate for the delicate barbels of catfish.

Aside: This is a very important aspect to keeping cories, in particular, and one that is very often overlooked! If you have cory cats in a tank with gravel, you will likely find the cories have a shorter lifespan, unless you observe meticulous maintenance habits. These fish sift through sand in the wild and they will very much appreciate sand in their habitat. There are many aquarium sands that are sharp and can damage barbels, so choose carefully. Play sand is one that works very, very well.  *EDIT:  Be aware that this is my own personal opinion. I can't say, truly, what cories "like" best, but I prefer to use sand for them, and soft sand that is not sharp.*

Back to the story! Why, you ask, do I not simply keep the play sand for my Africans? Well, originally I had planned black sand substrate, so I intended to remove every speck of play sand. Somewhere along the line when I bailed on my background project and realized I would have a solid black background and dark rocks, I decided black sand would be overkill and white sand would be preferable. Since my rocks are river rocks and are not calciferous limestone (like I was planning at one time) I decided to use aragonite sand, which is a buffering substrate, and will help me maintain a pH closer to 8.

I recognize that the fish I will likely keep have been tank bred in the US and may never have seen water as alkaline as their wild cousins in Lake Tanganyika, but it is easy enough to use a buffering sand and give the alkalinity a boost. Couldn't hurt. I do not have plans to go to great efforts to buffer my water at this point. The other benefit is that the aragonite sand I purchased (CaribSea) is white white white, and offers a very nice contrast.

Ok. Here's how it went. The tank was emptied and cleaned out.

The filters were also cleaned down to new floss and completely scrubbed out to eradicate the MTS infestation, and replaced under the tank. Heavy job! On the left is the Rena Filstar XP4, and on the right is the Fluval FX5. On the far left is my CO2 tank and regulator, which is parked in storage there for now, as I won't be using it on this tank in the near future. I am keeping the pH monitor running, as that is handy.




















I used the overflow box from when the tank was drilled to hide my large and unsightly filter intakes. If you look closely in the center of this photo you can barely make out the horizontal slits cut into the overflow box. The vertical PVC pipe is the strainer for the drain in the bottom of the tank, which came in VERY handy during the emptying and cleaning of this tank. At the beginning of this blog you can see how this was configured, with a hose bib on the outside of the stand. I connect a garden hose to that and turn the hose valve to drain the tank out the door, and I used another garden hose connected to the outdoor faucet and washed out the tank, with the water going down the drain. Love that. The overflow box is not siliconed in place, but stands quite firmly in place with tiny gaps next to the glass to allow better water flow. I may wind up adding more slits to this box to increase flow to the intakes, but we will see how the filtration looks. I have quite a bit of flow in this tank and don't think the box gets in the way too much. It is very effective at hiding the intakes, and it blends right in with the black external background.

Here's where I started stacking rocks and adding sand.


The sand was just a bit problematic. I read up on it and decided not to rinse it first, since I wanted to keep all of the buffering properties. Everyone says how it "clears up in a few hours...." It didn't. I had to drain and refill and rinse the sand in the tank after all. This is not much of a problem, though, with my drain hose as described above.


Cloudy. Hmm. Better drain and fill one more time. This time I'll use the Python and fill it from the sink as well as use a garden hose from outside to make things move along more quickly. Oops.

Oh well - no worries! We have technology to suck water off the floor! *Ahem*

Anyway, I kept at it and finally it started clearing, and I started playing with rocks. I have to say I'm not entirely happy with these rocks, as they are too small and it makes the tank look cluttered in spite of the spare decor.
I redid it several times. And redid it several more times.... I had to stop because the wet arm and sopping shirt gets annoying after a while.

OH! I forgot about the lighting! I'm very pleased with that. I used "puck" lights from an under cabinet fixture. Each puck is daisy-chained together so you can add or remove a fixture as necessary. The fixture I have came with 4 pucks, each connected with a removable wire about 12" long. I installed them randomly in the hood. Each puck is about 3" in diameter and has I don't know how many individual LED lights.
Here is a shot of the lights. I have since taken out all but two of them (this tank needs to be relatively dim), though the fixtures are still there. The frame is screwed in and connected by the wires, but the actual light component can be unscrewed and removed, without the other pucks going out. Love this fixture, and it was under $20, unlike the LED fixtures made for aquariums ($$$$). I will install a small fan under the hood to reduce humidity that will no doubt damage this fixture.


















I finally got the water to clear up after 4 days. Again, I'm not entirely happy with this tank at this point. I wish I had a DIY internal background, either some sort of real rock veneer or a carved styrofoam background coated in concrete and painted to look like rock, but I did not have the energy to deal with the styrofoam method and I could not find thin rocks that would 1) not be too heavy, 2) not break the bank, and 3) not look contrived or too deliberate. I don't really like the rock decor but they are growing on me.

















I will put a trio of N. leleupi in there to start things off. Their bright yellow is going to show up very well in this tank, and they will love the rocks.

A word about the rationale behind how this tank is being 'scaped: C. frontosa are deep water Lake Tanganyikan fish and are accustomed to dim conditions. Again, I realize the fish I'll likely get have never seen the lake, and may have spent their entire fry-hood under fluoro lights, but I do think they will feel more comfortable in conditions closer to that of the lake. If you look on You Tube for Lake Tanganyika videos you will see what I mean. There are rocks and sand and that's pretty much it. Few plants, and certainly no driftwood and flower pots, lol.

I have kept aquariums for nearly 30 years now and as I've matured I've been leaning towards natural looking aquascapes, with lots of plants and wood and rocks and such, which is pretty, but it is one of the reasons I took down the 150 - I'm tired of the fussiness and overcrowded way I tend to keep aquariums: lots of lush plants layered together with artfully arranged driftwood and rocks, and hardly room for the fish. It is pretty but I yearn for a minimalist tank that is simple and clean. This will certainly be that! More later.