Hello from Auburn,Wa. (pics)

[keman]

Well, East of Auburn (Lake Holm area)

We have four tanks in the living room;

125 gallon for the soon to arrive Rope fish. currently stocked with tiny feeder white clouds and guppies, as well as a family of blind cave fish and one Bala. It will eventually have a family of ropes as the main feature.

55 gallon community tank with frogs, rasborras, neons, kuhli loaches, and a pair of albino bushy nose plecos.

35 gallon half water/half "dry" with a small group of Chinese fire belly newts, a few small fish and a lot of plants.

55 gallon with Katie's Ornate Bichir and a small hybrid Gar (the feeder guppies don't count since they don't last long in there)

Elsewhere in the house is a 20 gallon with an Orange fantasy eel, and a few feeders, and a 20 gallon guppy tank.

Next project is a 55 gallon food grade drum with a 50 gallon sump system to go in the garage as a feeder farm to support feeding the ornate, gar, and the soon to arrive Ropes.

 

[DMD123]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[bassetman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Greetings. We demand pictures.

 

[Will I am]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Welcome! +1 on Bassetman's comment!

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Pics you say...

Blind fish (they move quick)

End shot 125 gallon

125 during set up and cycle (note the many tiny feeders to kick start the cycle) As of now, this tank has some plants and re-arranged décor, as well as the Blind fish and Bala. The chem balances are dead on as they should be since the tank was set up using old well established bio and media, including the 100+ pounds of black sand.

Newt tank, Pre cycle

55g Community tank

Community tank.

Sorry no good pics of the Bichir and Gar tank at the moment. Will post more later...

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

New as of today pics of the 125g...

Front...
The back is painted black (plasti-dip) on the outside of glass.

End shot to show bubble wall effect against black background.

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Pics today of Newt tank

And ghost shrimp in the newt tank

Can you see all three?

The waterfall feature (filter return)

The Newts are all hiding up on top of the waterfall, so no way to get a good pic of them. Perhaps later...

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Can't see it very well, but the hill of gravel in the Newt tank is actually hollow and full of moving water. I built a structure of egg crate grid covered with mesh so that at it's deepest, there is no more than 2" thickness of gravel anywhere in the tank. The intake for the filter (Fluval 206) is inside that hollow with little restriction to flow. Total actual water volume in this tank is just under 15 gallons.

Here's a shot through my "peep hole" into the void under the gravel. Not a great shot, but it's all I can get...

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Well, You asked for pics, pics you get...

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

^ Love seeing others setups and DYI stuff. Thanks for the post.

And, WELCOME!!

 

[keman]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Added a pair of Albino Bristle nose Plecos, a pair of Banjo cats, thirty Ghost shrimp, and this guy...

crap pic, I know...

Not 100% on what kinda Pleco, Think it may be a gibbiceps (sail fin). Can't quite get his colors on my phone camera. He's much brighter, with more shades of orange to browns. I really like the patterns and coloring.

The Banjo Cats are very cool looking and VERY mellow. The big one landed in my hand on the way out of the bag and just chilled there till I pulled my hand out of the tank.

Bristle nose... (one of the pair)

 

[tazeat]

Sweet, I want to see more of the banjo cats and that larger pleco

 

[DMD123]

Re: Hello from Auburn,Wa.

Well, You asked for pics, pics you get...

If we would have known we were going to get this kind of response... we should just have asked for money.

Awesome pics!

 

[Anthraxx]

see this is the kinda guy we need on the box, someone willing and able to post pics on demand. as im sure you guessed we all live off pics and require additional pics every few days.

seriously tho, really like the design of the newt tank. very cool idea and application to say the least. a quick thing i thought of, would it make sense to fill the void with some sort of media? sponges, ceramics, bio balls etc. its a huge surface area just kinda going empty.

 

[keman]

Thanks for all these great comments.

The "larger Pleco" is not very big at all. About 2" right now.

The "void" in the newt tank is not real accessable, so I left it empty. All the water in the tank flows through the gravel into that space before going out to the canister. The return flow has a hidden plastic channel that the waterfall flows into so that the water returning to the tank flows across the top to the area of deeper water before mixing.

 

[MorganEA]

the Banjo Cat is awesome!

 

[keman]

Little Gibby..

Banjo cat (the smaller of the pair just over 2")

 

[keman]

Kinda sick and twisted, but the banjos have earned the nickname "dead cats". They really don't move about at all when the light is on. They'll stay completely still for hours on end, move a half inch and stay there for several more hours. Hard to tell if they are actually alive till they move. (Schrodinger's catfish?) After dark, they prowl the sand looking for bits of missed food.

They are true sand lovers too. Took me about an hour this AM to find the larger one. the tip of it's tail and it's nose were the only parts not completely buried in the sand. Must have taken some work too, since that one is about 3" long.

 

[keman]

Finally a better picture of the Gibby

And an "almost" clear shot of one of the Blind Cave fish. (they are just never still... )

Note the lack of eyes. They navigate and find food with sound vibration (echo locate) and smell.

Once I find the memory card for my camera, I might be able to get them with a faster lens than my silly cell phone pics...

 

[keman]