Oyster Reef Ecosystem Tank

[Chasmodes]

Another good news and bad news post. First, the good news:

The stream tank is completely done, ready for fish. Here's a video below. I still need to cycle it, but not a problem. I installed the canister filter and spray bar, and it is working just as planned, shooting current over top of the roots and across the top of the tank. The powerhead is hidden behind the roots and shoots current through the roots. There is an eddy effect, which is what I'm going for, so I'm happy with that. I also pulled a lot of the river rocks out, keeping my favorites, and I added a couple pieces of shale that I collected from a fossil site along a tributary of my river. I layered the rocks so that it appears that some sluff off of the wall (as Andy and Matt suggested) and will add a couple more soon. I have to dig them out of my fossil collection, LOL. I also have a preview of my sunrise to sunset feature of my light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O35-t5mGTg

Now the bad news. All of my benthic fish died in QT, succumbed to velvet. Copper treatment almost worked, giving them some relief, but, I'm not convinced that my test kit worked well enough and perhaps my copper levels weren't at therapeutic levels. I think I'm going to invest in the Hanna Instruments copper test device.

So, since my stream project is done, have no feature fish in my 20g oyster reef tank, which I broke down for the most part, will leave me time to focus on my big oyster reef tank with a goal of collecting again in April, as soon as it warms up. The oyster tank is still running, with no reef, just a live oyster, a bunch of tube anemones, a few mussels and barnacles, a few mud crabs and plenty of worms. It will run fallow until spring. I have in my QT some live fish from my last collecting trip, some rainwater killies and one sheepshead minnow. In my 20g high, I have an anemone, some mussels, a hermit crab, and plenty of mud crabs.

The big tank: I have to finish the stand first, then I can set the tank up. After that, I'll work on plumbing to my sump through my basement wall. I have to work out the lighting installation. Also, I want to build a water changing station, including my RO/DI unit.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That stream tank is cool! Nice job with the whole setup. And the rocks are nicely done! Amazing fake wall and roots to boot! Slick lighting too.

Sorry for your losses. Sounds like you have a lot of fun stuff remaining though. Hopefully you can hold onto some for the big tank. I kept a holding tank for my rebuild, and I'm glad I did.

Good luck with the next stuff!

 

[McPuff]

The tank looks awesome!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Michael. I'll remain optimistic for the future. I have learned a lot though the process. Maybe my V2 will be as successful as yours!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you McPuff.

Well, no aquarium project is completely finished until it supports life, and in this case, fish. I had a little time late on Sunday to get out to a creek that is only 15 minutes from my house to catch a few fish. My goal was to collect a few minnows of any time, and if lucky, a couple darters. So, I gathered up my hip boots, a bucket, and my net, and headed to the creek.

After about a quarter mile hike, I got to the spot that I wanted to collect. I had about an hour or so before the lost of daylight. I walked the creek bank for a bit and didn't see any fish at all. Either the fish weren't there, or the cold weather had them all hiding. I wasn't sure if perhaps they migrated out of the creek and into the river or were still there.

I climbed into the creek and tried kicking up leaves and, sure enough, the first fish showed up in the net, a small eastern black nosed dace (Rhinichthys atratulus). It was tiny, and I didn't want tiny fragile fish in a new tank. So, I kept disturbing leaves and eventually, found more larger fish of the same species. I kept five of them for the tank. I moved from pool to pool disturbing rocks and leaves with my feet, but, no darters.

So, I decided to start turning over larger rocks with my hand. So, I rolled up my shirt sleeves and began to work. I turned over the rocks, used my other hand to scare anything underneath into my net, which leaned precariously against my leg. After a few rocks, finally, a beautiful male rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)showed up in my net!

I was so pumped, what a beautiful fish. I should have taken a picture then, but, my phone was in my jacket on the creek bank a few pools back. It was very dark, and his orange/red fins were stunning. I kept turning over rocks looking for a female companion for him.

After a few more rocks turned over, another darter showed up in the net. At first, I thought it was a female, but, on closer inspection, it was a different species. It was a fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare). I tried for a while more, working down each pool with no more success on darters. I caught a sculpin, but released it, along with several more blacknose dace. Since daylight was ending, I called it quits, happy with what I caught. Not just happy, elated!

I took the fish home, stuck an airstone in the bucket and let it alone for about four hours, so the water temps would warm to room temperature in my basement, about 64 degrees. The creek was quite cold, so it took a while. I tested a few parameters of the creek water and they were very similar to those of my tank. After that, I netted the fish out of my bucket and released them into my tank.

Within an hour, the dace and fantail darters were exploring the tank. The rainbow darter hid and sulked for a long time, perhaps more than two hours before coming out to explore. I fed a few flakes to the dace, and they ate. I didn't expect the darters to eat the flakes, so, I tossed in some blackworms. The fantail darter ate some immediately, as did the dace. The rainbow darter had no interest in food yet.

Last night, I came home from a fishing trip and rushed downstairs to observe my new fish. All of the fish were happy, doing what they do. The darters explore every nook and cranny in the tank, hunting for food. I fed them flakes again first, thinking the dace would get full and not eat the worms. I learned that they are never full.

I dropped in some blackworm with a turkey baster, target feeding near the darters to make sure that they got at least one worm to eat, and that worked. Both darters ate them with gusto. Success! The fish are feeding already, and seem happy in their new environment. I marveled at the personality of both darters, and the brilliant coloration of the male, not yet in breeding colors, but still amazing that fish like that live so close to me.

I put together a video of the clips from the last two days, showing the tank with fish. I hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIcr2BOH_7U

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks for sharing your collection experience! The new fish are cool. Nice vid! It's great to see your tank come to life. What's next?

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Michael!

Next? Well, over the next few weeks, I want to get out and try and collect more fish. My target species include more of the same species of darters, with at least one female of each species. As far as dither fish, there are three or four species of minnows that I'm interested in. Either satinfin (Cyprinella analostana) or spotfin (Cyprinella spiloptera) shiners (they are very similar), Rosyside dace (Clinostomus funduloides), and silverjaw minnows (Notropis buccatus). There many other species, and I may keep some of the nicer looking ones. One of those are rosyface shiners (Notropis rubellus). There is another species of darter that I'm interested in too, the greenside darter (Etheostoma blennioides) which are quite beautiful as well.

Also, I am going to check out the river to see if there are any plants still alive. It's been cold, and typically they die off about now. But, there could be still some rooted and hanging on. If I can't get out and do that, then I may wait until next summer for the plants. I also need to figure out a QT process for my FW fish, or maybe just treat them directly in the DT since I probably won't have inverts other than snails. The darters eat snails big time, so I won't have to worry about an established population of them. So, algae control will have to be via growing plants.

Refine my QT process, including purchasing a better copper testing device (Hanna instruments). I will treat the fish with copper and Prazipro in QT before adding them to the DT. As far as macros and inverts go, all will be QT'd in the holding tank, observed and kept fallow for 9 weeks so I don't introduce parasite hitchhikers.

As far as the oyster reef goes, I was way too content with my 20g set up. It's time to get the 100g stand finished, install the lighting, and get the 100g tank set up. After that, I'll work on the plumbing through the wall, the sump in the basement, and set up the RO/DI filter and a water changing station. I want the big tank up and running, cycled, before spring collecting time.

In the past, I hadn't done a lot of water changes. I may do them more periodically. Once macros become established in my tank, I'll need to figure out their specific needs and address them. This is my plan for oyster reef V2.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Dang! That's pretty impressive. You sound like a man with plan.

I look forward to following your progress!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thanks Michael. Me too! I will be testing my carpentry skills soon with the stand.

 

[Chasmodes]

I wound up collecting more fish from a local stream about 40 minutes from my house for my FW stream tank this past weekend. This small stream has been one of my favorite smallmouth bass fishing spots over the years. It has a wide diversity of fish species, as much as any stream in the Western part of Maryland.

There are a couple species that I still want, but, for the most part, it's fully stocked now. I also found a beautiful red rock that I just had to put into the tank. I'm trying to find at least one rock to add to the tank from each fish collecting site. This tank is a Potomac River biotope tank, minus major predators.

The species below are currently in this tank:

Darters:
Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
Fantail Darter (Etheostoma flabellare)
Greenside Darter (Etheostoma blennioides)

Minnows, Shiners and Dace:
Eastern Blacknosed Dace (Rhinichthys atratulus)
Spottail Shiner (Notropis hudsonius))
Silverjaw Minnow (Notropis buccatus)
Longnose Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae)
River Chub (Nocomis micropogon)

Here's a short video of the tank and the new critters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3WnmcDz4jk&t=1s

I probably won't post more about this tank unless I have a major update or something really exciting happens. If you're interested in this tank, you can see regular updates on the NANFA forum.

It's getting colder outside, so my fishing trips shouldn't be as regular, which will free up time for me to rebuild my oyster reef in the 100g tank. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm determined to have it up, running, and cycled by the spring fish collecting season.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Cool pic of the stream you collected from. It's nice to see the context of your native fish. I enjoyed the video too! The tank looks great! I also found your NANFA thread. I look forward to following along.

Most of all, I look forward to following your oyster reef tank's progress. Keep us apprised!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thanks Michael! I definitely will. Even though it seems like a long time until spring, I've learned that my procrastination has no bounds, so it's really not that long of a time. I need to get busy on the build soon.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I know what you mean. I want to be ready for spring and my seagrasses' growth spurt, so I've been thinking about what needs to be done beforehand.

I imagine it's pretty hard to jump right in to another tank build! My favorite procrastination activity is to make a list of what to do, once I've worked up the energy. Then I just do one thing, then another one thing, so it's never overwhelming.

Take your time and enjoy the journey!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you for the great advice Michael. I will take heed. First step, finish the stand.

 

[Chasmodes]

Time for an update. As you might suspect with a new tank, I had an algae invasion, or outbreak, or whatever it's called. It wasn't unexpected, especially given the high bioload. About two weeks ago, I also cleaned the algae off of the wall, roots and rocks, in addition to a large water change that I'll mention again below. I also cleaned the canister filter, being careful as to not hurt the biological filtering ability of the system. As you can see, it's back.

To combat the algae, I'll be performing another large water change this weekend, complete with more physical removal of the algae. I also planted Vallisneria americana to try and out compete the algae for nutrients. I think that will help, assuming the plants take to the tank. The lighting is adequate (Fluval planted light), along with plenty of nutrients with the heavy bioload, which should help the plants grow and thrive.

I lost a few fish since I stocked the tank, mostly some of the smaller blunt nosed minnows, although one hung in there and is growing. All of the adult fish, except for one black nosed dace, are doing fine. I had to battle ich, and that was the main reason for the fish deaths (4 total fish died). I treated them for three weeks with aquarium salt by raising the SG to 1.003. The ich seems gone and hasn't returned since I stopped treatment by making a 90% water change. The fish still scratch occasionally. I may try a treatment of Prazipro, thinking that they might have flukes that survived the salt treatment, or some sort of other unseen parasite. This leads me to a question...do fish still scratch at times when they are parasite free? Are they really ever parasite free?

Now for some pics followed by another video...

Full tank shot:

Left side, showing the faux roots and current sources (spray bar top left, and circulation pump located behind the roots):

Right side, showing the newly planted Vallisneria americana:

And, finally, a video showing everything and showcasing the fish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Cp7BVXBBk&t=3s

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Wow, it looks great! The algae really gives it a natural patina. Super fun with all those fish too! Do any of them eat algae? Maybe consider some reproducing snails to help out. I love valisneria. I had some in my freshwater planted tank. It can get invasive, but right now, you can use a greedy plant like that to compete with algae. Well done!

 

[Chasmodes]

Thank you Michael! All of the minnow species nibble on the algae, but not enough to make a difference. Snails would work, but the darters eat them, so they wouldn't last long. I'd have to collect and restock them often to make a difference, and right now, they're all hibernating. The positive side to darters eating them is that it's a healthy food for the fish. The downside of that is that snails carry parasites that infect darters.

However, a friend on the NANFA forum recommended that I try and catch a species of fish that would eat the algae and make a difference, called a central stoneroller. I tried to get one on my last collecting trip, but no luck. It's been too nasty of weather to go collecting lately, between freezing temps or rain on the days that I happen to be off work. Isn't that always the case though? Why are all the nice weather days on work days?

 

[Chasmodes]

Well, it's almost a month since my last update. I've spent a lot of time out fishing, and not doing much with my tanks. My oyster reef tank project hasn't changed much lately. I want to get that going, so will begin work on it.

Mostly, I've been focused on my FW stream tank, doing some maintenance, mostly. Even with it, I have a lot of work to do still. I purchased a few more Vallisneria plants and, for now, have them in the foreground. I will probably move them as they grow. I have a few pics and a video to share. I really love watching this tank, the movement, the fish...I go down to feed them and intend to watch for 15 minutes, and wind up staying an hour or more.

Full Tank Shot:

Left Side:

Right Side:

My latest video. I hope y'all like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3I7_B3-Oro

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Man, that looks good! So real and natural. Awesome patina of life on the rocks and roots.

 

[Chasmodes]

Thanks Michael. Sorry I haven't been around much. I have a lot of catching up to do on your thread too. Work has been crazy busy, and when I get home, the last thing that I want to do is get on a PC LOL.