River Manifold Breeding Rack
- Thread starter cockroach
- Start date
I am going to be keeping an eye on that but it should not be a problem.
Mulm is a natural part of tanks that are breeding beds for beneficial critters if the tank is properly cared for. My sump is also almost half the volume of the three tanks combined so there is a huge area for beneficial bacteria when taking into account the shear amount of biofilm and bacteria space provided by the rocks and gravel in each tank.
This coupled with regular large water changes gives me peace of mind. For now.......
Having said all that, I do believe behind one of the back left large rocks there is a gap, if I lift the rock out, that will allow me to get in with a suction hose and get rids of some should it build up. I also every few weeks use a small power head, about 200L/h as a leaf blower towards the overflow and sweep it down each tier into the bottom tank and sump floss. Then vacuum bottom tank.
This is what is in the sump. Each block is about 15cm x 3cm x 3cm (6"x1 1/4"x1 1/4") if I remember correctly.
Very porous
There are also about 200 of these @ 1.5" diameter.
Last edited:
The Panda Loach Tank taken as a panoramic shot
aka the Riffle Tank
aka the Riffle Tank
cockroach
, I've recently found myself back in the mountain-goby game, with a growing collection of native species (slowly growing collection, as they're fantastically difficult to catch). We've got a 12gal near the window with good flow and some surface/emergent plants but I'm not having any luck in developing turf algae and/or bacterial layers - the stone, gravel & wood are staying annoyingly clean. Thoughts? I'm supplementing with dead leaves but it's just not getting-going. My guess would be the plants you have are taking up the nutrients.
You could try removing them till you get the results you are looking for.
Awesome. Please post a pic or two.
I have my lights (20W LED shop light on a 37gal Tank) on for 11+ hours straight a day; 12:30~23:45. What I did to get mine to grow thick was take well covered river rocks and place them randomly, and not aesthetically pleasing, around the tank for the fish to feed on and to seed the other surfaces while the tanks algae matured. I also only added the plants once the algae was at the level I wanted it to be.
This took about 2 months of weekly, sometimes biweekly, changing out of "wild" rocks. Eventually, it took hold. I also had one of the tanks with no fish in it for a while which allowed the whole system to mature in the same way.
How many fish are in the tank? Do not underestimate how much algae these fish, especially when newly introduced from the wild, will eat in your tank. I have 6 Sicyopterus Japonicus that still live almost exclusively off the auwfuchs in their tank after a year.
As for catching them, I had luck with rhinogobius using cave like structures near where I wanted to catch them. Then I would remain still until many were out foraging. I would then go for them and they hit the caves for cover. I simply scooped up the caves and put them in a bucket. boom. A weighted PVC pipe may work as well.
This is not a bad idea. Once you have the starting of a diatom, brown algae, covering starting to cover all surfaces, you can add the plants back but still use "wild" or "raw" rocks. Raw rocks are what I call rocks grown in a separate tank to be used as feeding stones.
