250 tank and 250 air

[HX67]

The eel only comes out to eat. And is pretty fast moving when it does. Haven't gotten a decent pic of it yet. But I'll work on it.

About the plant list, my pleasure. What I'm wondering is how long a period do plants need to be acclimated to brackish water? They are always sold in FW and the salinity needs to be increased slowly, right?
Another point I sometimes wonder, is fluctuation in salinity. It's often agreed that BW fish can tolerate it to a suprising degree, but do plants tolerate it?

Lighting might be a factor in my tank, surely. But javas should be ok with it, I've put some of them very close to the surface. And even they don't grow. At all, practically.

Yes, I'm looking forward to the mangroves to grow into a nice bush in the tank. At the rate they are growing now, it could take some five years...

 

[Shiroi Katsune]

Beautiful tank, how did you make the fake roots? They look very nice.

 

[HX67]

Hi and thanks.


First I bent some pvc piping with a hot air gun and glued them together with melt glue:

Then I put some expandable polyurethane foam onto the middle part:

Carved that foam and sanded the pipes' surfaces to get a better grip for a water insulation material (that gives a better grip for the next layer):

Then I just put on tile grout mixed with an acrylic copolymere to strengthen it a bit:

A closer look:

I'm sure it will get to look more natural with aging. The underwater parts seen in previous pics look pretty nice already...


Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it is. But doesn't happen without practice, I guess.

 

[rza_mib7]

That looks really good. Very creative and artistic!

 

[HX67]

Thanx.

 

[gavigan1]

INCREDIBLE !

 

[HX67]

I want to share the stand I made for the tank. I had a stand that was not wide enough for this tank and welded an addition on top of the old stand...:

 

[groovitudedude]

Those guys will get big in no time. Are you seriously gonna consider a brackish puffer? He would have a blast in there, but I'm not sure about compatability.

 

[Tommydeal]

Killer DIY roots man. It's great that you documented it with pictures so well. About acclimation to a different salinity, I've heard this about acclimating fish to brackish: You shouldn't increase the salinity by more than 0.002SG per day. For plants, I would doulble or triple that, just to be safe. I can't see the pic of the stand.

 

[Shiroi Katsune]

Thanks for the info. They look great and I'm sure will only get better with age!