Chiroptera's Native VA 20L Tank Build

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Chiroptera

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
392
Location
Virginia
As of: 7/21/2012
Overview:
Alright, so recently I discovered a very fun way to make an interesting tank that's colorful, unique, and calming, and that's to just recreate Virginia's native waterways and add some of it's very diverse fish species into the mix! There are 217 species of fish found in Virginia, quite a few of them very small. This leaves me tons of opportunities to make my tank something to look at!

The 'Scape
I plan on having a 3-tiered tank in this 20G, the three areas will be raised with sand and slate, each will be representative of different areas in a river. The top will be rocky, the middle will be slightly sandy and have maybe some aquatic moss or other small plants, and the bottom will be planted.

I'll post when new things come up, right now I'm finishing the planning stage.
 
Alright, how do you guys think I should keep the slate anchored and keep sand from going anywhere? It seems a little difficult.

This is somewhat like the slate pieces I'm looking at, texture-wise:
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All the fish and plants in the tank will be natural and wild. I'm making sure I know all the regulations and laws. (y)

Also, please excuse the bad diagram. It was done fast.
There's going to be probably half-an-inch between the slate and the glass on each side, to prevent scratching and to plant moss and rooted plants, for background and some foreground.
 

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To make raised areas of sand in one of my tanks I used rock to make walls to keep the sand in place. You could also use shorts pieces of acrylic siliconed to the bottom glass but unless you can figure out a way to hide the one side with the lower sand level it might look a little unnatural. This also works to keep plants that propagate by runners under the sand from encroaching into areas you don't want them in.
 
To make raised areas of sand in one of my tanks I used rock to make walls to keep the sand in place. You could also use shorts pieces of acrylic siliconed to the bottom glass but unless you can figure out a way to hide the one side with the lower sand level it might look a little unnatural. This also works to keep plants that propagate by runners under the sand from encroaching into areas you don't want them in.

Hm.. true. Also, I'm planning on having about half an inch on each side of the slate so you can't see the sides, and I can place some small aquatic grasses or moss there for a better effect. I Think if I put a bunch of pebbles in the sand at the edge under the top piece, it will help keep the sand from coming out too much.

Will Nitrates build up in the sand, though? I know you generally have to stir sand. Would this cause an issue if I couldn't reach it?
 
Good thought. Large amounts of nitrate may concentrate under those flat rocks. I think I might be more concerned of large anaerobic zones building up as the large rocks, laid flat on the sand, will keep oxygen from flowing into large areas of the sand. This would deal with the nitrate problem but would add a whole other major poisoning issue. Maybe someone else will have better answers, and some experience on this, for you. Good luck. I am going to follow along on this thread as I want to see how things work out for you.
 
Good thought. Large amounts of nitrate may concentrate under those flat rocks. I think I might be more concerned of large anaerobic zones building up as the large rocks, laid flat on the sand, will keep oxygen from flowing into large areas of the sand. This would deal with the nitrate problem but would add a whole other major poisoning issue. Maybe someone else will have better answers, and some experience on this, for you. Good luck. I am going to follow along on this thread as I want to see how things work out for you.

Thanks! I'll muse it over, I'm sure there's a way to work something like this out. Thank you for the help, too!
 
After taking another look at that pic of the rock a thought occurred to me... Could you possibly break the rock into smaller pieces and then reassemble it in the tank? Then you could lift out a few smaller pieces, vac/stir under it and place the rock back in. I am not sure if that would spoil the look you are trying to achieve.
 
I think it may. A lot of cracks.

What if I made the entire structure of stone tiles. Siliconed together, that could be just secured in the tank and left? I could layer the tiles and add the slate on top of the layers. The only place that would have a ton of sand would be the bottom, and I can add sparse sand on the middle layer like I want.

Almost like a tile staircase, if you will.
 
Hmmm... What about PVC "feet" to raise the slate and then hide the under-structure with smaller rock pieces at the front and side glass?
 
That sounds like there'd be a lot of places for water or fish to get trapped.

If I want a solid setup.. the tile and/or slate stack sounds pretty stable. I just can't see getting it in the tank without scratching the glass. But I looked at some slate staircases to compare to what I want, and found an image that looks pretty similar to what I would get, and that looks great, too:

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I'm just wondering where I could get something like that cut to fit. Lowes, maybe?
 
Alright, so now that I have a general idea of the rig (Going to lowes this week to price the sealant/adhesive and stone/tile.) Here's a link to a site with all the FW native VA species. I need anything under 100mm on the list (~4 inches). Look around, see what you like.

Viginia Tech Virtual Aquarium - Native Species

The tank has been bought, as well! All I need is the 'scaping rig, the hood/lights, and the stand. I have the filters, backup heater (I won't need it unless it gets super cold) temp gauge, temp reader, and everything else. May need a CO2 setup. We'll see. But everything is on it's way!

This is my to-do list:
Research fish
Rig
Buy stand
Start cycle
Find native plants, plant them.
- Set up lights and CO2 as needed
Plan trips to various regions in state for fish
If cycle over, take first trip

After I have the first (main) species I want, I'll wait a few weeks, go catch another. Each time I'll watch them closely. If they get along, perfect. If, for some reason, the two don't get along and it's one fish or one species, since it's highly illegal to re-release, or sell wild-caught fish without a special permit, they'll probably be used as feeders, or placed into a separate 10g unless there's too many, or it's too big. It's really hard, because there's little to no specific info as to what species co-exist, what species don't like others, how aggressive each species is, etc. It'll be trial-and-error. I feel bad doing it that way, but a lot of these fish haven't been too widely kept, except maybe a couple of the darters.
 
Sounds like a cool tank. I really dig the one piece insert idea.

Thank you! I'm going to try and buy the main 5-6 pieces of tiles for the rig tomorrow, as well as the sealant. If I can't find slate, I'll just use the tile.

I'm pretty sure a silicon sealant like the type used on aquarium glass will both hold the rig together and keep any water from getting into cracks in the tile, so there's no chance of waste getting in and causing unnecessary nitrates. Gonna get some of that, too.

I almost have my fish picked out too! I'll post that in a little bit with some info tidbits and pictures, unless anyone else has some imput from the fish gallery I posted earlier.

Viginia Tech Virtual Aquarium - Native Species
 
Sounds like a nice build. If you check out my 29 gal Paludarium, I built a retaining wall using River rock, slightly different purpose. In the bog (click the link in the sig), I loosely siliconed river rock and placed a piece of weed barrier behind it to hold the sand/peat moss mix in place.

Interested to see where you go with this one, so tagging along.
 
Wow! That bog tank looks absolutely fantastic. I'll be satisfied if this tank looks 1/2 as good as that. I have a pile or river stones just about that size.. if this tile rig fails, that's a definite possibility. Thank you!
 
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Sounds good, I think the stair step look should work out for you. So long as water is moving through your substrate and you're including plants to absorb the nutrients, problems should be minimal.
 
Yep. I'm hoping the plants will counteract any issues I may have. If I go ahead with the solid stone set-up, it will be a permanent rig once it's in the tank. If I don't like the way the solid stone looks, I'll do the sand original idea and figure out a way to make it work. Either way I have a set idea.

I suppose it's time to ask opinions about my proposed stock.

6x Mountain Redbelly dace: Attractive 2" fish, very active, likes current. Mid-swimmer.
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4x Fireyblack Shiner: Shiny 3-3.5" fish, mid active, current is preferred, but softer. Mid-swimmer.
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3x Redline Darter: Dramatic little 2" fish, goes from sitting perfectly still to.. well.. darting. Lovely pattern, males and females very distinct, males VERY aggressive towards eachother. Two females, one male. Bottom Swimmer. Pictured is a female, males are even more vibrant.
RedlineDarter.sflb.ashx


1x Tadpole (or other similar) Madtom: Shy little catfish. Hides most of the time, very inactive, but very neat to watch. 4-6 in. Bottom Swimmer.
N_gyrinus.jpg


And eventually a very pretty algae sucker, Native too. But that's after almost a year when there's even the hint of algae.

Think it's too much for a 20L? Need more? Let me know!
This is probably my last post for a while, I'll be building the rig, and setting up/cycling the tank. I'll check around for responses, though!
 
That stock plan looks like it would be very cool but for a 20 long it also seems like it is too much. I know the inch per gallon rule is all but meaningless but you have ~34 inches (potentially more, I used small size) of fish in 20 gallons. With that stock, and the look you are going for with then adding a sucker-fish later, a 55 might be more appropriate. But, let's see what others think also.
 
Personally, I'd probably reconsider the Madtom. Unless you've had some personal experience keeping this particular catfish with other fish. My general experience is that a single 6" catfish is all the fish a 20L needs, they are a messy fish. Generally speaking they don't do much till food hits the water, then they are out swimming, and with most catfish, 1" to 2" fish are just the right size to make a meal. Most people think that Oscars are mean, but believe me, they have nothing on native catfish - I've had one about 6 inches eat 10 feeder goldfish in about 5 minutes and make a great show of spitting out the scales every time he ate one. Now if you have had one of these before with other fish, I'll defere to your experience, because we don't have that particular fish around here so I have no personal experience with it. However most catfish are omniovores, meaning they will eat anything they can get in their mouth, including other fish. Beyond that, with the others look pretty good. I'd drop the shiners and daces to 3 and 5 respectively, simply because things look better to our eye in odd numbers, and then you should be ok.
 
Alright, hm.. I think I could just have the darters and have it still be a very interesting tank.

As for the inch per gallon thing, I almost never include bottom swimmers into that number, because theoretically they need more surface area than "gallon" swimming space. That brings it down to 24", but the rule is very flawed. With a powerhead, the dace will school tightly right where the current is strongest and stay there for the most part, while the Shiners will be the ones moving about the tank.

I could cut the numbers to 5/3, though.
 
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