# help please, River Tank System informaton



## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

on cragies list their was a 30 gal tank, it came with (inside and siliconed in place) a 3d mount with tunnles and areas to put land plants. your saposto only fill the tank a little. not all the way. and theirs a small sticker that says

River Tank Sytems
Finn Strong Designs, inc
po box 445
exeter, ri , 02822
us patent no. 5083538

my problem is....i cant find info on the tank at ALL. i googled and read and looked and read and looked. AND FOUND NOTHING OF RELIVENCE! ARGGG its driving me crazy. i want to know if i had purchased it new, what would have come with it, and the instructions on how to set it up. im thinking of taking the 3d background out and resiliconing it all, so i can clean it, its in ruff shape. the former ower has no clues. Any information or if youve seen this working. google has not helped. i did find many teachers use this type of river tank in their class room. but they give no mauals or what i need.
please help a sad person.
laura


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

read this, there is a couple of sites mentioned in it.

http://www.rivertank.com/riverTankText.html

or look here
www.abundantearth.com

or here
www.carolina.com


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

yes ive seen this site also, its from a teacher to teachers kind of thing. ive read it and its not what im looking for,


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

and their site has many brocken links i found, and is also gives u links to brocken links, what a drag,huh


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

http://google.carolina.com/search?q...ervlet/google/products.xsl&btnG.x=19&btnG.y=7


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

yes their are nock offs that have river in the name, but im looking for the "river tank system" by "finn strong designs". its not just a background, it touches the front of the tank in many places


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

If you read the beginning of the article I first posted, it says they no longer make them IIRC.
And, or that they are impossible to find anymore, so that is the best I can come up with.
Good luck in your quest.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

This one tells what it comes with:
https://www2.carolina.com/webapp/wc...=50166&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=&crumbs=n

"River Tank™ Complete Ecosystems are shipped with an Ecosystem Mold already mounted inside an aquarium and include a submersible pump, fully adjustable hood light, filter cartridge, and an owner's guide."

So you'll need a pump, a light, and figure out whether the one you have contains a filter built into it--probably the pump runs the water through the filter on its way from the lowest pool to the highest one.

If you start with a thorough cleaning, you'll could learn a lot in the process: where the filter goes (if there is one); where the pump intakes and outtakes go; etc.

I think one of those sites told which pump was used, and its obvious that the water needs to move from the low to the high side. I'd say set it up with the pump and water and nothing else, and figure out how the water flows and how much it needs. Then worry about adding gravel, plants, fish, etc. Even with the instruction manual for the set, you'd probably have to thinker with it somewhat. If you have to buy a pump, it'll come with its own instruction manual, to help set it up; so you'll just have to figure out how it hooks into the tank and the 3d part inside.


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

i should try and get a pic for yall of the tank, its totaly 90s. "The River Tank ecosystem" is so not cool compared to what i have sitting in the ttruck right now. its very similer to this.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

This River Tank was created using a River Tank Ecosystem kit. Originally, the River Tank was sold by FinnStrong Inc., the kit is currently marketed by Perfecto Manufacturing. They now offer a "New River Tank" kit that has a more natural design. Unfortunately, Perfecto only sells to retail pet stores. 

I would go to a Pet Store and have them look to Perfecto for help.


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

holly MOLLY i just posted my first picture. aww im proud of myself. im really getting into this tank, its tight. and the back is where the piping for pumps might go, and you want to have acses to behind the tank so you can see your lizards and frogs hiding. heres a pic of the back, yall, hehe.










my tank is made by ALL GLASS not perfecto, and its not as tall, mabye its not even a 30 mabye biger, its longer than taller.


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

oh ok, so this Mr. Strong sold his ideas or whatever to perfecto and moved to tiheti or dosnt exist anymore or whatever, thank you for all your help so far. i will try to search my lil heart out on perfecto now.


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

> This River Tank was created using a River Tank Ecosystem kit. Originally, the River Tank was sold by FinnStrong Inc., the kit is currently marketed by Perfecto Manufacturing. They now offer a "New River Tank" kit that has a more natural design. Unfortunately, Perfecto only sells to retail pet stores.


 "the river tank ecosystem" looks like this. and the origonal name was called "river tank systems" and thats what finn strong made.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

lottie_pufferfish said:


> holly MOLLY i just posted my first picture. aww im proud of myself. im really getting into this tank, its tight. and the back is where the piping for pumps might go, and you want to have acses to behind the tank so you can see your lizards and frogs hiding. heres a pic of the back, yall, hehe.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What are the dimensions of your tank? If you measure it, you can tell what size tank it is. (See here: http://www.alysta.com/books/fishtank.htm)

Is that a photo of the tank you have, or a similar one found online? It looks like the same tank shown here: http://www.carolina.com/tips/95jan/index.asp
There's a picture of the back that's really similar, and it's labelled "This rear view of a 30-gallon tank shows the large, gravel-filled cavity, which provides an area for bacterial growth and increases the filtering capacity of the tank." So that's the purpose of part of that, at least.

This site explained pretty well how such a tank works:
http://www.rivertank.com/riverTankText.html
"To circulate the water, a Rio Aqua Pump 1400 is submerged in the lower pool where the nozzle of the pump fits into the wall of the filter chamber. The filter chamber is designed to fit the extra large Whisper Bio Bags. There is a spill-over channel starting at the top of the filter chamber that carries the water from the filter chamber back to the upper pool. A submerged Tronic 100 watt heater located in the upper pool keeps the water at a constant 74� temperature."

Gee, the more I look, the more I want one too!


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## lottie_pufferfish (Jan 16, 2007)

the pics i posted are from the carolina web site. i just got back form the national killiefish convention in miliwakie WI. so i pic might come tommore mabye?
i think when the web site talks about bacteria, the auther just noticed it and said thats what the backs for, this is wrong, the back have holes and stuff to acomidate pockets the show in the front to put plants in. my tank is for sure NOT a 30 high like in the pics above. we think its an oddball tank but all glass soposidly didnt make thoses, like 37 or 38 idk.


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