# The land of hidden fish - Do!Aqua 90p



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

After being in the hobby slightly over a year, I decided it was enough of ugly AGA tanks and I bought myself a new rimless tank from LFS in SF. Then, it was in my apartmentfor two months, waiting for me to find the time to actually set it up. The waiting was frustrating but on the other hand, I had so many ideas how to scape it that I couldn't decide  So, the extra time was useful to make my mind. And also to get the right driftwood and rocks.

Equipment: 
Tank - Do!Aqua 90p 94x45x45 cm (36x18x18") That's about 48 gallons 
Stand - half-DYI 36x18x33" 
Light - GLO light T5HO 2x39W, both 6700K, one Lifeglo, one Coralife 
Filtration - Eheim Ecco 2232 (35gal) and 2236 (80gal) with Do!Aqua and Aquamagic glass lily pipes 
Heater - Hydor In-line 200W (on 2236) 
CO2 - pressurized 5lb, 24/7 at about 0.5 bps. Diffuser under small powerhead (for now)

Scape:
Bottom layer - mix of natural Fluorite, Laterite, Turface and sand
Upper layer - mix of black Fluorite, Laterite and black Onyx sand. 
Front - Sand from Lake Tahoe
Manzanita collected in East Sierras and Lake Tahoe area (soaked and hand scrapped)
Rocks bought from fellow aquarist

Animals: 
Cardinal tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi) - 10 
Rummynose tetras (Hemigrammus bleheri) - 30(?) 
Columbian tetras (Hyphessobrycon colombianus) - 2
Panda cory (Corydoras panda) - 5 
Mystery cory (Corydoras ????) - 2 
Otto (Otocinclus affinis?) - 2 
Pitbull Pleco (LDA-25) (Parotocinclus jumbo) - 1 
Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica ) - 1 
MTS (Elanoides tuberculata) - many 
other snails (Helisoma sp. (?), Physa acuta, Lymnea (?), Planorbis sp.)

Plants: 
Java fern 'narrow leaf', 'windellow' and 'trident' 
Anubias nana and nana 'petitte' 
Bolbitis heudelotti 
Crypt. wendtii 'mi oya', 'Florida sunset', 'green gecko', (?) 
C. lutea 
C. parva 
Eleocharis acicularis 
Glossostigma elatinoides
Hydrocotyle 
Hygrophila corymbosa 'compact' 
Lobelia cardinalis
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Mayaca fluviatilis 
Rotala macrandra 
R. indica 
R. colorata 
Potamogeton gayii 
Polygonum sp. kawagoeanum
Blyxa aubertii 
Echinodorus 'vesuvius' 
Fissidens fontanus


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

This is how it all started









Tank on secondhand stand and trying some scape ideas...









After many trials, I settled on this








and from top


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

The stand was 36" tall and only 15" deep, so I had to add top plywood 18" deep and then styrofoam and all that would make the stand almost 38" tall. That was decided to be too tall and so I collected some serious tools and cut the stand all around and made it few inches shorter.
And while I was in the process, I actually turned the stand upside down. 
The stand was built like a fortress and was very very hard to remove some parts of it. 









Some kick-ass tool and my old tank in the back









Stand cut down 4" and ready to be assembled to my liking. The top was previously bottom









Cutting holes for filter. They are on both side. Couldn't decide which side I will route the filter, so I rather made them on both sides. It was a good decision because in the end, I have two filters.
You can see the demage caused by removing the rims on the stand








And holes done


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Painting the stand









And done. Doors are down and will be mounted after the tank is set up


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Day of setting up
Fill with water to level it and test for stability and leaks. All good 









I was going for front strip of sand. Here is plastic strip hold by styrofoam peices in place. The stones are there to hold the styrofome from floating. Base layer of fluorite mixture is there.









Balck fluorite mixture and sand is in
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cUV6A0O0UEc/S...oVjFsBzU/s640/48G_TM_20100410_058_akva48G.jpg

The hardscape. It surprisingly stayed as planned.









With java fern and anubias









Filled and after half an hour of planting









Done for today. And it's not even midnight yet 









Fish are in buckets with canister filters hooked up to them. they will wait till tomorrow and then go in the tank. As I'm re-using filters from my old tank and also half of the gravel is old, I'm not expecting any problems due to new-tank-syndrom.


----------



## Oscar17 (Mar 3, 2010)

Wow.. looks good! I like it!


----------



## londonloco (Sep 25, 2005)

WOW! What he said.....just beautiful!


----------



## Chris Noto (Aug 10, 2005)

Very nice work, Pavel. I love what you did with the stand. It is now a very tasteful setting for your aquascape. The 'scape, itself, looks amazingly good for just having been planted. I have a great feeling, as I look forward to seeing how it develops.


----------



## inghamb87 (Mar 10, 2010)

Amazing work and all the details you shared is very much appreciated. If you just look at the few pictures above you would have never thought it would come out so beautifully. It's amazing and satisfying to see something that was started from scratch turn into such a beauty.

Great job!


----------



## bbehring (Jul 14, 2009)

Looks super! Love the manzanita branch look. Where'd you buy your plants from? Also, how'd you attach the java fern to the branches?


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words to all. 

I had in mind a scape that looked almost exactly the way it turned out. It's hard to believe even for myself 
Maybe piece of advice for others starting aquascapers (this is my second planted tank and the first scaped one in my life, so I'm obviously 'starting aquascaper' too). Trying to make the hardscape to look pretty by itself is not the right way. I think. Try to imagine how it should look finished with all the plants, partialy and fully grown. My problem with the initial scape ideas was that they all looked good but when I started thinking where and how plants will be, it usually ended up with me either not being able to see the plants behind the wood or the wood in the plants. 
That's how I came up with the last scape. Assembled on the floor of my apartment, I have to admit, it looked awfull but I had the vision of the final product and so the intermediate uglyness didn't bother me much.

inghamb87, I tried to add these details because I always very appreciated when someone did it in their journal. It helped me so much to see how scape was created rather than to see the final product only. The same goes for making the stand, listing equipment and so on...

bbehring, I bought some plants from LFS (Eleocharis, normal Java fern, some stem plants) but majority is from exchange with similarily crazy people in the area. I used to have about 60 plant species (check my other journal of 30G tank) because of it but I thrown 2/3 of all the species. Some of them are still for sale on this site...
The small Java ferns and bolbitis at the upper part are glued with super glue but the big two clums are just placed on top of the cross point of the driftwood sticks. When they pearl too much, they start floating, so I may end up attaching a stones to them to keep them down.


----------



## joshd (Oct 16, 2009)

Just want to reiterate that your scape is great. Really beautiful.


----------



## tiffc (Jan 8, 2010)

Very, very thorough explanation! Thank you for that! The scape looks solid, and I can't wait to see it all fill in. I'm learning that patience is such a virtue when designing a layout...you can't rush through it, plant it, and a week later realize that there were better options for placement! Taking the time to set it up with the plants in mind is definitely the way to go!

Thanks for posting, looks great!


----------



## thai (May 14, 2007)

I never super glued plants to wood before. Will the java fern stay attached when it gets larger?


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

thai said:


> I never super glued plants to wood before. Will the java fern stay attached when it gets larger?


that's what people do and I haven't heard any complains. This is the first time I've tried. It's not perfect because the plant and the wood should be reasonably dry (on surface), which is somehow tricky. I don't expect to have the small java ferns too large for esthetic purposes but java fern get attached by its own roots after some time, so the glue is neccessary only for some time untill that happens.


----------



## thai (May 14, 2007)

Sounds like a interesting technique. I have to try it one day.

BTW, your scape looks awesome. Can't wait to see how it looks.


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

The next day after setting up. Fish are in. As two amanos (one is going to die in matter of hours 









And detail of my rummies. Here, they're still liking the tank and are swimming outside.


----------



## tiffc (Jan 8, 2010)

I'm really starting to like rummies. They add such a pop of color to a tank, even though the color is just on the tips of their nose!

Love this layout. Love the fauna.


----------



## kingken (Apr 18, 2010)

Really nice, it sortof looks like a beach right out of the forest.


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Two weeks later with 5-6 hrs of light. 









And you can tell now, why I call it "The land of hidden fish" - no fish in the picture. Except two otos and sometimes panda corys, all the other fish are hidden under the big java fern on the right side. That's 45 fish! All in that tiny spot. 
But only during light period. Once the lights go off, all fish are out in a second or two.

And yes, I tried pretty much everything to get them out. It's a month now and it hasn't changed. 
Some new, unconventional advices (that work) are more than welcome. 
(lower light, dither fish, changing scape, feeding less or more, changing water, adding floating plants, and similar stuff didn't work...)


----------



## Tausendblatt (Sep 16, 2009)

It looks great.

But I thought rummy nose tetras _were_ dither fish. I am at a loss on how to make them come out.


----------



## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

Wow that looks great. What is the grass in the middle of the scape?


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Tausendblatt - I think that tetras are not dither fish in general. Guppies are fearless and I guess platies would work too. People use danio or other carp-family fish but they're too fast swimmers for my taste, so I tried to stay away from them. 
I have 4 guppies juveniles and one baby angelfish as dither fish. Not sure it is really working. At least, the guppies are still out (have them for 10 days) and the angelfish is also out (have it for three days)

flashbang009 - it's Eleocharis acicularis (or similar species)


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

i haven't updated the journal for quite some time. Much have changed since. I was very frustrated with my hiding fish and therefore removed the stones and some wood. 
Will post pictures soon.

but the good news is that couple of days ago, the fish started to stay outside and swim normaly. It was a very long time to finaly see my fish during the day and without panic attack


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

The picture from a month ago. I removed the stones and the right driftwood and also some java fern from the left side. All to prevent the fish from hiding all the time. And also because I was worried that maybe the stones were changing water chemistry and that lead to the altered behavior of the fish. It turned out that removal of anything didn't change anything .... The rocks were in another tank for 4 yrs and the wood is manzanita I had in my old tank for months without any negative effect.
The fish occasionally get out but just dart from left to right. Very stressed when forced to go out but their color is still deep and they look very healthy...


----------



## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

Pavel, this is a beautiful tank. :high5:


----------



## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

that looks like some really good E vesuvius (sp?)


----------



## f1ea (Jul 7, 2009)

Very nice wild looking tank. I like it how it looks very deep even without much hardscape present.
Although i prefer the version with the rocks... maybe some green plants/bush behind the rotala rotundifolia?

In my case, I also rarely see my cories. I have some in my large tank, and sometiems i go several days without seeing them... but the tetras??  must be something outside scaring them hehe. Do you have a bully child?


----------



## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

Looks awsome, try to get the hairgrass 'street' out of the middle and position this at around 30 or 70% of your left. This would decrease the 'sectionized' layout you have now.


----------



## arowanaman (Jun 14, 2006)

I noticed on tanks that I setup like yours that have high light and low circulation the fish tend to like to hide and act skiddish. Try increasing the circulation in the tank and that might help. Very nice looking tank BTW.


----------



## riseabovethesun (Jul 15, 2010)

Gorgeous tank! I know how you feel about having "your perfect" tank all set up and then the fish hide, it happened to me. Mostly my Cardinals hide, the Rummies are pretty active. Just the other day I added some of the false Julli Corydoras and since they swim so much all over the tank they keep the Cardinals from hiding and after a few hour DIY of the intake/outake part of my canister filter, I made it so there is a current where the fish tend to hide, keeping them from hiding because it doesn't just have 'still' water there.

Maybe something like that could help you bring them out?

But either way like I said, gorgeous tank, I adore it.


----------



## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

hey pavel!

I thought this tank looked familiar. awesome tank. 

kevin


----------



## gwclark (May 10, 2010)

Very, very nice...

GW


----------



## Southern (Jul 17, 2010)

Amazing
I want to do something some day.


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Thnaks guys for the advices on hidding fish. I wasn't here for a while. I don't have email set up to see your responses. I need to do it.

Anyway, about 2 months ago, I added activated carbon to my filter because I thought, maybe there is something in the water stressing them out or altering their behavior with direct chemical stimulation (I'm neuroscientist by profession, obviously 
It took literaly couple of days and all fish were swimming outside and more importantly, even when I moved around the tank, they stayed out!!! It was like completely different tank. Of course, I snapped pictures and will post them soon.
Just about a week later, I bought Altums and they brought ich. During curing it, I had to remove the carbon and the fish started to hide again. But it's never been as bad as before. 
And talking about the altums - they're the real dither fish. They were skittish for about an hour and then started to look for food. Ever since, they left the front glass once! Lovely fish.


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

Here is the tank with most of the fish out. It's feeding time and rummies swim above half of the tank. They never ever done that before! 
And the tank is pretty dense. The bunch on the right side is not part of the tank. I trimmed and it's waiting to be sold.


----------



## barakainus (Jun 11, 2009)

doubleott05 said:


> that looks like some really good E vesuvius (sp?)


Thanks. It grows very good in the tank. I've just posted it in "For Sale or Trade" section today. 
It's supposed to be pretty small plant but it grows out of the tank. 18" tall.


----------



## drongo12 (Nov 25, 2008)

excellent looking tank, and i like the simplicity of the stand.

David


----------

