River tank logisitcs

[Arinon]

Right now I have a 4ft tank whose primary inhabitants are five, seven year-old clown loaches sitting at about 5 inches each. They chill out with some corys, some rummynose, a couple of SAEs, and a couple of Bristlenose.

While I've been in the hobby for years, thus far I've kept things simple. (Canister filters, low stocking, low light, and almost no plants) Now I think I want to get a little more complicated.

I've decided I want to keep some Hillstream Loaches and that means setting up a river tank. I want to add a 6ft tank, probably a 100g long because I feel the extra height is kind of a waste given my preference for bottom dwellers. I also have an old 30g that I may try to use as a sump.

Anyone have an experience/advice on river tanks? Is 6ft overkill for them? I could move the stuff above into the new one and put the river manifold in the 4ft instead. Does a sump even make sense for a freshwater river tank? I'm also looking at tank mates for Hillstreams. Seems pretty limited. Weather loaches are appealing and I guess Mountain Minnows and certain barbs work? Tank would probably sit around room temp, 72 degrees or so. Haven't looked at required flow yet but I'm guessing it should be enough to tire out most non-river fish.

 

[henningc]

I had a smaller version in a 30L years ago. I went all natives darters, sculpin with an assortment of native killies, northren stud fish. I also had a few minnows. I fed the topwater fish flake and frozen foods and the bottom dwellers live bbs and micro worms. One thing I did was make a small plateau with a riffile section on one side and a drop off on the other. The deeper section at mid-point went on a downward slope and then featured a rock ledge on the end of the tank. My substrate was flat rock, sand and gravel.

I like your idea for the larger tank. You could likely get away with some natives mixed in such as blue fin killies, stud fish, sculpins, darters, least killies and various dance. Please update the thread as you go as I am sure people would like it and learn.

If you're interested in a clean reliable source of natives p.m. me and I'll send you the link.

 

[Mebbid]

I've been wanting a river tank for quite a while now but it's just not in the plans for my future tanks at the moment.

Setting one up isn't terribly difficult. Here's a link on the current standard of setting one up.

River-Tank Manifold Design — Loaches Online