just recently joined AKA

I joined the American Killie Association recently. Very cool.
www.aka.org

whoa there are more killies than when I started

As I have not completed my main project my fish are out in the garage in their massively overgrown planted tank. They've grown to about 7/8" - 1" or so and you can tell the males and females quite well. I don't have a picture because despite my efforts I can't get a focused shot with my little digital camera. The fish just don't ever stop moving. That's one reason for the constant flow tank because I think it would freeze them in place somewhat. They'd be swimming, but not really going anywhere.
Anyway the males have developed flowing pale yellow fins with little spots and already had some vertical barring on the body. They were always pretty pale (the eyes were the attraction) but now with age and size the color is starting to come out.
Funny how they told me at Albany Aquarium the fish wouldn't get any bigger than the 1/2 inch they were when I bought them. It's rare they make a mistake. Never having had them before I wasn't super confident telling them they would get bigger, but that's what the internet said. I believe they were only like $2.50 a piece which makes them a great deal.
Anyway, when feeding last night I was just sort of looking into the brush when a tiny blue spot caught my eye. It was hard to see but there was a baby killie about 3/16" long. Quite noticeable vertical banding (like parr marks on baby trout) and the characteristic neon blue lampeye. I assume it's been in there a little while - not sure if there are more. The tank is so dense that it's hard to see more than a 2 inches into the plants or so. Perfect nursery habitat I reckon. That baby killie was hiding all the way across the tank from the bigger guys and the barbs.
If one can make it, then so can others! I'm going to keep my eyes peeled - and try to get a photo.

where is new tank?

Been a little hectic lately. Haven't actually finished the tank. I have cut the panels and cleaned up the edges but haven't glued them up. Got busy with work and travel that cut into all my available time...

It is on short list of things to do.

done with R+D time to build beta tank

Tomorrow I'm going to start cutting material for a new tank. This one will have the baffles and flow dividers glued in. With them glued in the whole package will be more streamlined.
The alpha R+D tank served it's purpose over the last few weeks. I'll post pictures of the build process. I should have the panels cut and routed tomorrow, and can start glue-up this weekend.

supply diffuser r+d...

Today I fabricated the first of a set of test diffusers for the supply side of the tank. The first diffuser I put in worked great and immediately established laminar flow across the tank. I'm going to quickly move to getting the correct pump and plumbing on the tank for my target flowrate before settling on the final design. I'll also wait for the plants to grow some more to fill the tank up and obstruct the flow. Waiting should provide the best test conditions.

thinking about messing around with flow

I've started experimenting with the flow setup so I get laminar flow across the entire tank. I'm aiming for a nominal flowrate of 0.5in/sec.

To aid in the experiment I planted ~100 stems across the tank so I can see how the water is moving. I'm giving them a little while to grow and establish a foothold.

I'm going to make 10 or so little acrylic panels that will be drilled and slotted in various ways. They'll act as supply/return baffles and will be removable. This will give me flexibility to experiment until I find the baffle combination I like the most.

some plants from these 20L's

Plants will be coming from these tanks. It won't be a true African tank in plant terms - I'll have a mix of anubias, some crypts, etc... in there so it looks cool.

80g tank pics

I havent made any progress since washing and filling the new tank with the flourite black. So I decided to post pictures of the last tank I made. It's 4'x2'x17". It is sitting out in front of my house after I had wetsanded and micromeshed the seams and cutouts. The seams on this tank turned out perfect. One TINY bubble in 32' of seams using 1/2" acrylic. The new tank didn't turn out as well. I expected it to be easier since it was lighter, but I spent a great deal of time with this 80g getting the glue-up work surface flat and used lots of shims under the tank. The new tank has some bubbles but that's OK. I am happy with the new tank's appearance given the time invested. This tank mattered more visually so I spent a great deal of time (and beer) sanding and polishing.

dimensions + flourite black

Overall dimensions of the tank are 49.75" long, 6" deep, and 8" tall. I didn't have any luck taking good pictures tonight so you'll have to wait.
I filled up the tank with Flourite Black substrate. I wanted black substrate against the black background to make the plants and fish really pop. I've used flourite for a long time and 'm liking this stuff a little better because of the grain size. It beats crushing bags of flourite down with a hammer.
Next up will be getting the filtration ready then I can do water and plants.

fabrication complete photo

I invested a little time during fabrication to make a template for the top cutouts. That template had the small and large cutouts for one side, I simply flipped it to the other side of the panel to complete the operation. It made the routing job very quick and easy. I made a large tank a few years ago and opted for routing against a straight edge and radius templates carefully positioned on the tank. That worked well too - but was far more time consuming.
Next up I am going to put in the substrate and plant the tank. Once that's set up then I'm going to start construction on the hood.

mid-fabrication picture

After glue-up the tank sat for 2 weeks to cure. This tank was constructed from 3/8" GP I had leftover from another project. At this thickness and vertical dimension deflection should be non-existent so I was free to really open up the top. It's almost euro-braced, but I do have the small center brace as insurance. The two small braces at the end do almost nothing structurally, but are designed to serve as attachment points for other items once setup.

solidworks tank model

Solidworks rendering of the tank design.

flame polished + painted

Flush routed the ends, wetsanded them, then flame polished with MAPP. I previously used the micromesh series on my last tank and while it made perfect edges, it took quite a while. This tank will have almost all the seams concealed so flame polishing was the logical choice.

Second task was to spray 4 coats of black paint on the back panel. After unwrapping the masking last night the finished product looks great.

Next up will be to post 3 pictures of the tank:

1. Model of tank design.
2. Mid-fabrication picture.
3. Final product.

cleaning up edges

Tank has been glued up for almost 2 weeks. I've flush routed the front and back, but blew a bearing halfway through so had to get another bit. The top is already cut out and rounded over so I just need to finish the ends of the tank. I'm only working 5 minutes at a time, so progress is slow.

Northern California power outage

Wanted to work on the tank but Northern California storms led to power so no garage time. My little killies were waiting in the 20L house tank and it was getting cold. By the time I got home from work it was 60degF (down from 76). We didn't know when the power was scheduled to come back on so I drained the tank down and moved it to another house (relatives) that was not affected by the outage. Luckily only a few minutes drive away. This morning they're happy, and slowly heated back up to 72ish at this time.

w. african stream tank

Started building w. african stream tank for lampeye killifish. Flow-through stream tank, small volume, remote sump, wall mount for display in living room of house. Constructed of 3/8" Acrylite GP.