Badger's 150g Rio Negro/Orinoco Flooded Rain Forest

Well, here we go. Tore down the rainbowfish tank today and mucked everything out. Ever mucked out a four-year-old, densely stocked tank with a dirt substrate? Not too fun. But tomorrow comes the fun part: Building a new scape. The badgerling and I went out to the desert a couple days ago and found some extremely picturesque, anciently dead wood, and I've been stockpiling play sand, rocks, and other supplies. Tomorrow, a new journey begins! Stay tuned for pics.

Here's the plan. This is not going to be a strict biotope by any means. All the fish will be from northern South America, and most of the plants.

Livestock:
6 Blue angelfish (possibly reducing to a pair eventually, depending on what sort of personalities I get)
10 red phantom tetra
10 platinum hatchetfish
4-5 common whiptail catfish
9 adofo cories

Plants: (I usually start off with a ton of plant species, and see which ones adapt to the setup over time. Usually some die out and others become dominant)
Java fern (left over from the rainbow tank; used on wood work to complete the rainforest look)
Christmas moss
Dwarf lily
Frogbit
Spiral val
Melon sword
crystalwort
dwarf chain sword
dwarf sag
reinekki
Whatever else looks good tomorrow when I order plants.

Are you using some of your old substrate under the new.

itiwhetu said:

Are you using some of your old substrate under the new.

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No, new substrate. Organic topsoil under natural-colored play sand.

I can't wait for the pics!

Hardscape and substrate installed! Plants should start going in tomorrow; fish should be here Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing some angelfish cruising through those tree trunks...

Boundava said:

I can't wait for the pics!

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Ha, you ninja'd me. Poof, there are pics!

That is going to be a phenomenal setup! Be careful with the hatchetfish, I had marbles years and years ago and even with a tight lid I would loose one weekly to jumping. When I broke the 75g down two houses ago, I found some hatchetfish chips behind the tank.

You can put a nice size pleco in there too, I know you already have the whiptails planned, I have some and they are MIA more than they are out. You can go with a nice size royal panaque, at a larger size they are always out and about. They are really awesome and would be a great feature in the tank along with the angels. My Belle (the watermelon royal) is my tank Muppet because she is so big its surreal and she looks like a Jim Henson creation residing in my tank. The larger ones do not rasp the wood as much as their diets would have switchover to protein and vegetables. Freshwater Exotics has some nice panaques right now. I would say Leporacanthicus which are active and about, but they are also territorial and may fight and kill the whiptails.

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its so cool!

Thanks, UB and Nat. I'm really excited. First shipment of plants is coming in today (a day early!) so maybe I'll have some more pics before the day's out.

T

By the way, @Boundava , I decided to go with diamond tetras instead of platinum hatchets. If nitrates are high enough, I want to remove the back of the lid and install some water hyacinths and/or syngonium with the roots hanging into the water. That kind of set up might not end well for hatchetfish. ha ha

Ooooo...the diamonds are going to look great. How many are you putting in?

Sorry if your shoulder deep in planting...lol.

Is that tank a 6 foot 125 gal?

Its a 150.

Nat, 10 diamonds and 15 red phantoms. Should look great. And yes, lots and lots and lots of plants. Already getting started on that today. By the way, you know how aquariumplants.com has that 2nd day air guarantee on their website? Apparently 2nd day air means "you might or might not get your plants within a week." So half of my plants (including all the bazillion tiny carpet plants) are coming in the same day as the fish. But I'm not bitter.

OMG that will be fun...do you have somewhere to keep the fish while you finish planting? Maybe bring in a storage tub to keep the fish, not sure how speedy of a job you can do planting...