Aquatic Plant Forum banner

SE Asia Biotope: 33.6G Rimless Iwagumi Rapids

17K views 28 replies 13 participants last post by  gwclark 
#1 ·
Picked up some stones today. ~50 pounds (probably more) for $12. Not bad.
I've wanted a rapids-esque tank for a while now.

I could do an Asian stream biotope
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm#Southeast Asian River
a southern thailand Forest creek biotope (the one listed as "Rocky Rapids")
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope_thai_creek.htm
or an Indian river biotope http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm#Indian/Burmese

I'm ordering an MP 10 wavemaker/ powerhead this week. I've wanted one for a while now, and I'm finally paying up the large amount of money for one (considering it's a powerhead), but the wave feature is something I really want in this tank.

The water will have high oxygen levels, no CO2 injection, and minimal plants, which will most likely include crypts and some willow leaf hygro (depending on which biotope I chose)

I will be buying a 33.6 gallon rimless tank I've yet to decide on substrate, but it will most likely be a coarse beige sand (any recommendations/ links?)
The light will be a 70 watt FNI MH thats a couple of feet above the tank. I want a crisp look, with crystal clear water haha.
Here's the scape that I put together:






I'll most likely have the waterline two or three inches below the rim. It's a deep tank, and I don't want to worry about water sloshing over the edge.

Plants: Plants will be crypts. Maybe some other SE Asia plant. All of the plants and fish will be natives of Vietnam/ Southeast China. I know that blyxa japonica comes from this region, and I think that it would look awesome with my scape, but it comes from marshes, and not high flow streams. Maybe I could do the blyxa anyway... at least it's from the same region.

Fish:
I have almost completely made up my mind on what fish to get. I'll be keeping white clouds and Reticulated hillstream loaches, along with some kind of shrimp (most likely cbs, since they are native to SE asia, and I already have a bunch).
This is a very cool white cloud mountain minnow biotope tank (southeast asia)

Shrimp:
Here's some great information on CBS in the wild in Vietnam:


http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55526

Wild type neocaridina heteropoda are also found in SE China/ Vietnam

http://www.myaquariumclub.com/neocaridina-shrimp-in-the-planted-aquarium-90.html
These should be easy enough to "make". I've had a small colony of snowballs in my 40 breeder paludarium (no journal on here) with a couple of cherries. They have had plenty of babies, but no wild coloration has appeared yet. Instead, the cherries that are in there have become very pale in coloration, and it just looks like I have a colony of snowballs. Maybe I should add more cherries?

Flow:
The problem with comparing the flow in a tank to the flow in a river/ stream, is that flow in a stream is measured in ft/ sec, and not GPH.
Since one cubic foot of water is 7.48 gallons, and the MP10 (that I ordered a couple of hours ago btw) will be on one side of the tank, flowing the length of the tank, to find ft/ sec that 1600 GPH is, you need to determine how "long" one gallon of water is in the tank.
The tank is 17.5x17.5x24"
One cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches. Divide that by the width and height of the tank (17.5x17.5= 306.25 square inches) to get the dimensions of 7.48 gallons in the tank, and you get 17.5x17.5x5.64 inches. Divide that by 7.48, and you get that one gallon of water is 17.5x17.5x0.754 inches. Now you know that if you move one gallon of water/ hour, the water in the tank is moving at .754 inches/ hour. 1600 GPH is 0.754x1600= 1207 inches/ hour (in a tank with these dimensions). To get that into ft/ sec, divide it by 3600 seconds/hour, then divide it by 12 inches/foot, and you get 0.0279 ft/ second? (did I do this right?)

That isn't too much flow, but it is coming from a small(ish) point. vortechs do have very wide flow, but I wouldn't be using the full 17.5x17.5", considering the water does have to come back to the pump... however, if I have it on pulse mode, the flow would be closer to the 0.0279 ft/ second, or 1/3 inches per second that I calculated above. One inch of water flow every three seconds doesn't seem like much, but I guess I'll have to wait until I get the powerhead to see.

Lots of research still to do. What do you guys think?
 
See less See more
1 8
#2 ·
Very nice pictures overall and I think you are doing a nice job. How have you been, foo?
 
#5 ·
Thanks!

I ordered the MP10 and tank yesterday. I had finally saved up enough money to buy them both, and the MP10 went on backorder the night before I was able to order :(.
The tank shipped out within an hour of me ordering it, though, so I should have it sometime this coming week. The MP10 will be a couple of weeks before I have it, but at least I will have the scape in the tank, and out of my floor. I don't want to move it so I won't forget how to set it back up again haha.

I'm about $60 away from having enough money for the 70W fish need it metal halide.

Things are coming together :D
 
#10 ·
The White cloud biotope is by George Farmer a poster on here and something of a UK phenomena. A very nice scape but I don't think it was 100% biotope correct, Heiko Bleher subsiquently mentioned that there was plant growth within the habitat where Georges biotope had none. Not to detract, the scape is still exceptional.
 
#17 ·
I will be ordering a 70W Fish Need It MH pendant. My MP10 should be here in a few days :D I may just put an Eheim 2213 on the tank. A little under filtered, but I will have plenty of flow lol

The scape is a liitle off in this pic. I now have it fixed and filled with water :)
 
#25 ·
Thanks!
Nice tank! Personally I think you should blend the sand and gravel together a little more, right now it looks a little forced and un-natural.
Thanks! I agree with you about the gravel, but over time it will start to blend together on its own, and I'll have the edges of the gravel covered up with mini pellia and singapore moss.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top