U.S. Native Stream Tank with DIY 3D Background & DIY Roots

[Chasmodes]

I went fish collecting a couple weeks ago, and the fish that I collected went into QT for 2 weeks. I treated them with salt for the full period, and during the last 3 days, one dose of Prazipro. All of the minnows, shiners and dace collected survived QT OK and were added to the display tank yesterday.

I also collected 4 tessellated darters. One jumped out of the tank, one disappeared and I couldn't find it, and one died early on. The last one died the day before he was slated to go into the display tank, and was eating and apparently happy up until then. So, I'm bummed about that. I added 4 satinfin shiners, 3 blacknosed dace, and a bunch of bluntnose minnows to the tank. I also fished a local small stream for smallmouth bass on Sunday, and brought home some plants and snails. I collected wild Valisneria and water stargrass, and added those to my tank. I "cleaned" the plants with a mild hydrogen peroxide/water bath for 20 minutes. The snails just went into the tank,so I hope that I didn't introduce any villainous hitchhikers with them.

I found 2 species of snail, one very common one that looks like a pond snail. It seemed like if you looked at one section of chunk rock, you'd see over a hundred of those snails. The last time that I added snails like those, the darters in my tank hunted down and ate every single snail. This time, they seem to be ignoring the snails altogether. I also added a bunch of ramshorn snails. Maybe the darters will leave those alone because they are a bigger snail.

I got the snails to help with algae control and maybe as an additional food source for the darters. My stoneroller has done a nice job of keeping the tank pretty tidy, and he's getting big. I know he eats a lot of algae because I see him grazing often, and he poops out algae all the time. And, the plants that I had in there took off and I think that has had a huge influence.

I have a green sunfish in the tank as well, but his days are numbered in my tank. He's growing quickly, and seems to be starting to take interest in the minnows, and not in a kind way. It's almost a feeding response. In the past, since I got him, he merely chased fish away from his staked territory. Now, he has that evil eye toward the smaller minnows, dace and shiners. I will donate him to the local aquarium or give him away.

Anyway, below is my video tank update. Enjoy.

 

[FJB]

Very cool!
Looking very nice. Thanks for sharing.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

This tank is absolutely gorgeus! Love the stock! Looks so natural!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you FJB and The Masked Shadow!

 

[mfools]

Here's a video update from last night. The fish are a bit aggressive and excited, because I fed them a bunch of blackworms right before filming. They settled down quite a bit toward the end of the video. Also, I added a few new fish, some shiners and one more longnose dace.

 

[Chasmodes]

Sorry, I haven't been on the forum in a while. A lot has happened with my tank. I posted a few notes about the status of the tank in the video and a list of the fish in my tank now. I will post a few things here as well as the direction of this tank that I'm heading toward.

My plants died back but are not dead. I see new growth on them. Maybe because my water temperature is in the mid 50's? Last week it was as low as 52. Yesterday, it was 55. The tank is in my basement where I don't have heat. I know that in the fall in the river, most of the weeds die off and then come back the following spring. I don't know if this is happening in my tank as well. The problem with that is that when pieces of the plants float around the tank, they clog my filter intake.

The biggest thing that you'll note is the lack of the roots. I pulled them out so I could get to the filter intake to clean it out. The fish love the roots. The river chub loved to hide in there, and the other fish swam through them often, and the darters perched on them as well. But, visually, they grew old on me. They take up way too much space in the tank, making maintenance difficult.
I also wanted to see more of the faux rock wall. So, I pulled them out permanently, at least as they looked before. I sawed them into two pieces, thinking that I'll keep one half on the left side, and one on the right, to provide cover. I also cut out the middle section. I didn't like it anyway, as the short branch looked like ET's hand. I need to trim back some of the roots at the base to get them to fit into the tank better, where I can easily remove them for maintenance and also have them not take up so much room. Then, I have to seal them to keep water out. They were never completely water tight anyway. If the trimming doesn't work or it becomes too cumbersome to fix, I may scrap them and create a couple smaller versions.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. My favorite part is the duels between the feisty male satinfin shiner and the river chub.

 

[jjohnwm]

Nice to see an update on this interesting tank. I must admit that I miss the fake roots; I thought they looked terrific and added a great deal to the natural look of this scape. I hope you do bring at least some of them back...although the comparison to ET's hand has totally ruined that particular branch for me...

I certainly get that some features in our tanks simply stop pleasing us and just have to go. For me, that would be your big chub; he's too large to look right with those little guys, but too small and fast-moving to fulfill the role of Big Fish. I love that Sailfin, and the assorted Darters.

My plants do the same thing yours do, i.e. die off and come back strong in waves. I have a room temperature 20-gallon-ish tank housing a small colony of Heterandria, that had a massive growth of Najas which required frequent and heavy pruning to keep it under control. I would return home after a 2- or 3-week work rotation and pull out handfuls of verdant green just to be able to see the fish. One time I came home and the tank was barren, very little Najas remaining and most of that brown. I cleaned it out and carried on; went back to work, returned three weeks later to find the tank filled with thick, healthy brilliant green Najas once again. I guess I was able to provide just the right combination of water, light and neglect to suit it.

Looking forward to seeing where you go now with this tank. Good luck!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you jjohnwm. Yes, the river chub will need a new home, probably in the next 6 months or so. By then, he'll be too big for my tank. I have two friends that are interested in him and will take him. I will definitely bring the roots back, but smaller sections that I can move around to change the look of the tank. The section that was on the left, and the long branch that was on the right will be two separate pieces. I think that the extra cover makes the fish feel more comfortable and not as skittish. It will take me a couple weeks to fix them and get them ready for the tank. I have to create a replica of my tank out of cardboard so that I can make sure that my modifications of the roots fit properly in the tank. That way, I don't have to break down my tank again and freak out my fish.

I also found a box of slate/shale in my house that I collected a while back that I forgot that I had, and that will help with more fish hiding spots.

Thanks for the plant info on your tanks. That makes me hopeful. My Vallisneria was growing and spreading just fine a couple months ago. If it doesn't come back, I may rethink what I do with the substrate. I like the look of the gravel, because I collected it in the river, but maybe I should mix with sand, or maybe add soil underneath. I've been adding plant food spikes and the plants respond OK. I'll be patient. I can always restock the plants as there are a lot of them in the river!

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Looks good, it has been fun to see this evolve.

 

[Chasmodes]

Sorry for not being around lately. Since my last post, I've added more rocks that resemble my DIY faux rock wall, and tried to blend them in to take away that wall feeling. My plants from last year died off this summer. I've since collected and obtained more replanted them, and now they're growing like gangbusters.

I guess since my river chub has grown so much, I almost qualify as a monsterfishkeeper

The species on the left side of the tank is water stargrass (Heteranthera dubia) that I collected locally. There's also a little in the center of the tank. To the right side and in the middle is Valisneria americana. Val grows wild in our rivers but these came from a buddy's tank. I also collected some curly-leaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus), which is surviving but not taking off like the other two species. The stargrass was almost brown when I collected it, and it's really greened up a lot. Here's a video, and I hope you enjoy it.