Setting up my second loach tank.

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Finally got the tank inside and scraped the paint off! As promised, here's the image:

One of my friends also gave me an excellent suggestion to plug the overflow hole. They recommended using drilled pieces of the removed glass overflow, which is certainly a way to make the tank's troublesome parts the solution to themselves.

Also minor update on stocking: I'm a bit torn between whether to get tiger barbs, dwarf gouramis, Odessa barbs, some combination of them, or none of them (if the incompatibility I suspect turns out legitimate). Which one(s) it shall be will only be told by time.

 

[jjohnwm]

I'm not sure if I am interpreting your plan correctly; are you thinking of drilling round pieces of glass to fit into the overflow hole? Much easier, and definitely safer and more effective, to just cut a square piece big enough to cover the hole and silicone it in place. You want the water pressure to help hold it in place, rather than pushing a "plug" that has very limited contact area out of place.

Or, if the bulkhead is still good, just attach a short piece of the correct size of PVC pipe into it and then cap off with the appropriate size cap, available at Home Depot or similar stores. If the bulkhead is inside threaded, use a threaded adaptor for this, and then if you ever decide to backtrack and use the bulkhead for a future project you're good to go.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Your suggestion for a safer plan was exactly what I was planning on doing. I was going to get square or circle pieces of that glass siliconed to both sides of the overflow as opposed to inside it, because (as you point out) it's much easier and will give more reliable results.
But thanks for the tips anyway.

 

[Fishman Dave]

I agree with jjohnwm in my view there are two options.
One - remove the fitting completely from the drilled round hole with a Stanley knife blade and silicon over the round hole in the glass with a square piece of glass or plastic sheet.
Two- attach a pipe to the back and a bend taking it up to the height of the tank - putting a plug on both the inside and the outside for security of stopping leaks.

One is a more permanent option and avoids the fitting on the tank currently leaking and allows a better seal over the hole.
Two is a little more acceptable visibly if you don’t mind seeing the fitting and don’t want to see a silicones glass pane and also allows you to change your mind in the future and connect the tank to an external filter of some kind or sump.

Siliconing over the fitting is the worst of both options, you get a poor sealed glass covering and still see the silicones glass with the fitting inside.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Thank you for that heads up Fishman Dave! I guess I'll be removing the fitting before siliconing on the glass.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Just got some Boxing Week shopping done, which allows for an update on this thread.

There are some WIP pictures of decorating the tank. Also a small update: instead of barebottom as originally planned, it's going to have sand substrate.

cockroach , since you asked about the layout, you may be interested in said WIP photos of it.

Photo 1:

The 2 log caves and the driftwood on the right were purchased at the sale.

I also used some older, smaller caves from my clown loach tank that the clown loaches would eventually outgrow. They are the first and third in the sequence, and while they may be too small for adult clown loaches, they're an ideal size for the future Burmese, weather, yoyo, zebra, and striped kuhli loaches.

I'm very confident those loaches are going to enjoy this aquascape.

Photo 2:

These fake plants could not stand up without water, so unfortunately I couldn't photograph them in the tank.
But I'm quite happy with them overall.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Thank you for that heads up Fishman Dave! I guess I'll be removing the fitting before siliconing on the glass.

It has now been sealed, along with a resealing of the whole tank.
The fitting itself was very hard for the repairman to remove, because the previous owners actually used superglue to seal it. But he nonetheless got the job done.

Also, there have been changes made to the previously listed stocking (as per signature).
Striped kuhli loaches increased from 6 to 9, roseline sharks increased from 6 to 8, all 12 tiger barbs replaced with 1 pink tail chalceus, and I'm a bit torn between whether to get a red tail or rainbow shark.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

In a most unexpected turn of events (https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/my-tank-with-fish-in-it-is-leaking.745503/), this tank is going to have the 1st 473 liter's pictus catfish and loaches for a while until their tank is resealed. Probably 10-14 days until they can go back.

I can hardly wait to get them into their original tank again, as it was far more convenient to view them due to that tank's location in my workroom. My guess is they can't either, as I had to omit the original tank's sand substrate from this temporary setup for practicality reasons and they certainly enjoy having it (plus it looks nicer, so I'm also excited to have them back for aesthetic reasons).

However, this is not entirely a bad scenario. The following good/interesting things are to come of it:

-I can practice doing the maintenance on this tank prior to getting its permanent residents. Due to its location, I have to do water replacements with a Python instead of the bucketing I do on the 1st 473 liter, and this is a good chance to get the hang of that.

-Interestingly, this is a bit of a parallel with something that happened to Martin Thoene of Loaches Online and his loaches: https://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16219&hilit=hotel
Just as with his, mine are, for all intensive purposes, staying in a hotel.

-Even more interestingly, this is exactly 6 months from the date I had planned to set this tank up for its permanent residents. So provided everything goes according to plan between now and then, I'll have had some pre-emptive setup training exactly 6 months in advance. Lol.

I would never have foresaw myself adding this to the thread!

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Going to begin the preparation for the remainder of the aquascaping. Some factors that were unexpected at the time I shared the photo of the WIP make the aquascaping ordeal a bit more complex, so that's what this is all about.

-Surprisingly, to light the tank (and thus the aquascaping) up, a 91 cm light proved sufficient for the whole 1.83m tank. This is fortunate as I got that light as part of a very cheap deal for 3 and so I don't need to get a 4th.
Pictures will be shared at my earliest convenience, as knowledge of the amount of lighting I am using may benefit others too.

-Big shoutout and thanks to jjohnwm , Fishman Dave , and andyroo for the tips on anchoring the fake plants to prevent them from being uprooted by burrowing weather loaches. Interestingly, I actually now have a way to piggyback off aquarium wood that's otherwise no longer viable because of those tips.
Said wood began to rot a while ago, but came with a slate anchor that would be perfect to anchor one of the fake plants. It just has to be unscrewed from the rotten wood (nails are holding it in place) before it can anchor the plant.

-I asked Loaches Online some time ago about the ideal sand thickness for weather loaches, and got a suggestion to have twice the thickness of the weather loach. That comes out to about 10 cm of sand, however I cannot maintain a thickness like this on the edges of the tank due to the bars of glass that were put in with the reseal. Hopefully the space between those glass bars where the sand can be 10 cm deep will be enough burrowing space - it's something I'll need to be mindful of.

-To my mild annoyance, my earlier desire (https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/wood-for-indo-malayan-aquascape.745581/) for an Indo-Malayan wood aquascape is probably not feasible.
The amount of wood taking up space on the bottom in that aquascape restricts the amount of open swimming/foraging space directly on the bottom for the loaches and red tail/rainbow shark, and the tall up-and-down wood also places a restriction on space for the roseline sharks and especially the pink tail chalceus (probably the most affected spacewise by that aquascape of all the fish, which I find a bit funny/ironic since it's the only non-Indo-Malayan species).

Oh well. I'll just play the hand I'm dealt - the non-biotope aquascape is plenty good as is.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Time for updates once more. The pictus catfish and loaches from the leaky 473 liter have finally been moved back into it as of February 20, and they now have their sand back.

As for the tank itself, many changes in plans have been made since the start of this thread.

Thank you for the compliment! I plan on having the following (listed in the 'about' section of my profile):

-6x Burmese loach
-3x weather loach
-6x yoyo loach
-6x zebra loach
-6x striped kuhli loach
-6x roseline shark
-1x red tailed shark
-12x tiger barb

This stocking has undergone a lot of change. As of right now's plans:

-The only listed stockings that remain the same are the 3 species of Botia loach.
-As much as I like weather loaches, and as fortunate as I am to have access to Florida-bred weather loaches that would likely do well in a tropical tank, the commercially available weather loaches appear rather genetically poor/unhealthy from mass production to me (like neon tetras are, for example): https://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48376
So I won't be getting them. One upside to this however is the amount of sand - weather loaches need lots of sand to burrow in, and my cousin was very unhappy at the concept of buying 92 kg of sand to accommodate that, but now it is a non-issue.
-Striped kuhli loaches quadrupled from 6 to 24.
-Roseline sharks increased from 6 to 9.
-The red tail shark, as much as I like them too, made the chopping block due to an AqAdvisor error of having zebra loach adult size as 7.6 cm instead of 10 cm and therefore would overstock the tank if it went in with corrected zebra loach size.
On the plus side, though, I don't need to worry about aggression by taking this route.
-Not only have the tiger barbs been replaced with a pink tail chalceus (although the chalceus is not definite, more on that below), they have also been replaced with 9 Odessa barbs.
-In order to reduce the chances of the chalceus eating its tankmates, it will be introduced last and at the smallest size available, while being fed on dead foods that bear little resemblance to tankmates.
However, if that fails and it even tries to eat any tankmates, it will be promptly rehomed. The replacements should this happen are planned to be some red tail hemiodus if they are available.

I don't plan on using any circulation pump/powerhead/etc. This is primarily because of the weather and kuhli loaches, which would not appreciate much flow.

As it turns out, I will indeed be using powerheads and similar equipment. This statement was made before I got some idea of how to orient them so there are both flowing and calm areas in the tank, as well as before I learned just how much oxygen roseline sharks need.
The powerheads are going to be Aquaclear 802's, oriented for maximum surface tension and accompanied by a flexible bubbler wand+some very efficient airstones I saw at my local aquarium store.
I don't recall the brand of the airstones and did not have a chance to take a picture of them, but they are exactly the thing I need. They churn the surface of the water an enormous amount and don't have to be turned off during water replacements, averting previous concerns of mine that the roseline sharks would suffocate during said replacements due to lack of oxygen. Next time I'm over at the store I will take pictures and share.