# 150 gal mission ready



## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Well, the frogs are coming next week and I'm working out the final kinks in the tank. I quasi-finished it before the summer guiding season started but had to just let it ride for a few months because I was so busy. I've had some real ups and downs with this monster. Things are finally running great and I'm just about mission ready. 

It was definately a hassle to get the water parameters stabile and filtration worked out. Water circulation was a nightmare with the pond. I failed to relize how difficult it would be to clear proper volume from the pond. It is too isolated from the main water supply. I now have to pump water out of the pond area and into the false bottom. That way, the eheims can get at it to run it thru the canisters. Now the full force of the extra large canister filters can do their jobs. Second problem was water flow in the pond. The river's flow was just not enough. An additional micro pump now agitates the surface and completes the flow. I almost gave up and initiated plan B.

4 terribilis show up next week. I'm a bit nervous as these are my first darts. Havent done herps since the chameleon days back in the day. My parameters seem good and the fruit flies are booming. tank is very well seeded with springs, breeding colonies of dwarf whites, and dalmatians.

At any rate, here it is as of now. thanks for all the advice and support.

Build thread :
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beginner-discussion/304465-150-gallon-stream-bank.html


cheers
JD


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## mike123 (Nov 5, 2016)

Wow! Looks awesome. Great job the frogs are going to love it.i have a 125 g.and in the process of filling it in with vegetation. Goal is to be filled in like yours. You need a video of it. Would love to watch. Good luck and keep posting pics.


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## wimvanvelzen (Nov 1, 2008)

Mission accomplished!


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## deeloc (Jan 21, 2017)

OH wow!!! Your tank is amazing! I was going to look for your build thread the other night to see if there was anything I missed lately


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

thanks folks! I'll get some pics and a video soon. I plan on doing a big trim of the ficus trees and pulmilla (which may have been a mistake to plant before the frogs show up so I dont have to mess with anything for awhile. Quaruntine tank is up and running now and should do the trick

thanks again

JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

heres some progress pics


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## Xan (Jun 4, 2015)

This is fantastic. Those are going to be 4 very lucky terribs. You could probably fit 10 in there!


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Frogs are in the 20G holding tank! 2 were DOA which is a real bummer. So expensive to ship, i'll have to eat the loss. The 4 others seem happy enough. Two of them ate right away, not ravenously but a few. Hope its a good sign. I ran several fecal smears thru the scope and could not find any sign of infestation of parasites. I'll do some more research tonight on identifying problem nematodes and protazoans. definately no large hookworms present. I would love to see a group of pics that can really show the things to look for. I'll try and get some pics tomorrow. No worms in the fecals but its cool to see all th body parts undigested!

JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

i spent about 45 minutes with a new, super fresh fecal sample this morning. It took awhile, but I started to find some fecal fauna. Not sure what im looking at yet as I just havent had the time to use my neophyte search-fu. Heres some pics. the scope is a pretty nice one, not great. I might grab a really nice one from a colleague and see if it makes a difference. any thoughts...........


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Update:

Terribs: 1 is acting super healthy. Eating, chasing, bold. The other is still skinny, not nearly as active in chasing flies. He does move about and is readily available to watch most of the day. His fecal smear after a separate quarantine proved to be filled with cilliated protozoans. some are small and round while others are very large and move like paramecium (but without the chloroplasts). They are completely clear. I captured some video of them moving in a very fresh sample. I now have a small army of students that would rather run fecal smears than listen to my lectures....... imagine that.

Leucs: the small froglet is really active, comes out often and seems to be nice and plump. The large adult (?) nevers comes out and has yet to be seen unless checked upon. He was very plump when i got him and seems to have lost some mass. I have never seen him eat but i know he moves around a bit. I have found him in various spots.....around the tank. Hes now isolated and i can manage his diet better.

Feeding melanos, FF larvae, springs.

Any thoughts?? on the right track?

Thanks
JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

one of my ficus trees is bursting some aerial roots finally!! I hope they take hold and I can twist them into a new small trunk. The fishing line seems to be working well in training it to grow over the water section. 

I am excited to put the frogs in. I built in 11 caves of varying size and elevation. They range from pretty darn dry to quite moist. I tried to get some shots of the larger ones. NOw that there is a lot of growth, the ledge nooks and hideouts are bigger and really cool. If they never wanted to be seen, I would never know they were in there! 

JD


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## deeloc (Jan 21, 2017)

its looking really sweet AOA!!! Congratulations!!!


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## tigers9601 (Jul 21, 2017)

Awesome tank! How did you build the structure for the terraces in the back? Foam only or egg crate?


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## Entomologist210 (Apr 24, 2014)

The fifth picture in your post from September 29th is a deutonymph, likely from an Acarid mite. Mites are funny in that they have all sorts of weird and wonderful forms as they develop. Astigmatina (which contains the Acaridae) have a typical life cycle of egg -> protonymph -> deutonymph -> tritonymph -> adult. Deutonymphs are phoretic, which means they are in a form that allows them to move around, as my acarology instructor would say, in time and space. Essentially this means they are trying to get a ride to a new area so they don't compete for resources with the adults and can find better mates than their brothers and sisters. Feces is a great place to find copraphagous insects that have wings and can carry them long distances away, so it makes sense to find them near dung. If you flipped that deutonymph over you'd probably find adhesion pads that let them stick to things like a limpet. Here's some pics of a deutonymph I've cleared and mounted on a microscope slide, the adhesion pads are the circular structures at the back end of the mite.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

tigers9601 said:


> Awesome tank! How did you build the structure for the terraces in the back? Foam only or egg crate?


THANKS: i used egg crate to make the 5 inch false bottom then foam for the rest of the hardscape.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Here's some pics of a deutonymph I've cleared and mounted on a microscope slide said:


> Awesome! thanks so much for chiming in. I was hoping for some intel on that little guy. Your pic is amazing...your scope is way better than mine!! I have yet to find any more of those small clear roundworms in any feces, just the cillited protazoans. Any idea if those little ones are harmful?? all frogs seem to be eaating and acting ok......I think. The terrib with the cilliates seems to be putting on mass. Just wondering if I can put them in the tank soon. These guys are way bigger than the little circular ones and create huge waves with their cilia as they swim around like paramecium.
> 
> Thanks again for your expertise.
> 
> JD


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## FlyFishRI (Jan 15, 2017)

Following so I can come back and read all the posts when I have time. Great build!


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

a few grow in pics.

no major issues other than the trimming needed to keep it looking sharp. I filled in the pond to decrease maintenance. Kept the river and drip wall...love the moving water!

some great growth with the two middle ficus trees. Gonna start training those ones too!

Cheers
JD


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## LGro (Nov 24, 2017)

Looks terrific, very inspiring. Did you also have to trim the Alocasia in the back? I am thinking about getting one, but afraid it will grow too fast.


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

This looks absolutely fantastic. If you want to encourage aerial roots from the ficus you can wrap some damp sphagnum around the trunk where you want them to emerge from, it will definitely help. 
for training them you might find that some thick horticultural wire would be useful too, this is how they train bonsai.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

LGro said:


> Looks terrific, very inspiring. Did you also have to trim the Alocasia in the back? I am thinking about getting one, but afraid it will grow too fast.


thanks! and yes, I have to take down one or two huge leaves every 3 weeks or so. Totally worth it to ahve that plant. I love the shade it offers in my tank. That section has no undergrowth and a cool canopy look to it. I do a trimming once a month when it gets gnarly. I guess thats not too bad for a display tank. 50% water changes once a week to keep the water healthy.

JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Louis said:


> This looks absolutely fantastic. If you want to encourage aerial roots from the ficus you can wrap some damp sphagnum around the trunk where you want them to emerge from, it will definitely help.
> for training them you might find that some thick horticultural wire would be useful too, this is how they train bonsai.


I will look that up, thanks! two of the ficus trees have sprung lots of little aerial roots. and one of them has launched a super long runner that has found the river. I wrapped it up and around some branches to see if it will thicken. Can I try and wrap some of the aerial around each other to get them to merge and thicken???


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

You absolutely can, here's a great link about encouraging and training aerial roots in bonsai Aerial roots. I'll look forward to seeing future pictures of this tank as it grows in more.


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## zZephyr (Mar 6, 2017)

Holy crap this is like my future dream build. Looks amazing


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## Ibn (Aug 3, 2016)

Love how well this tank is growing in!


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## Johnson18 (Jan 21, 2018)

What a beautiful build! This is definitely inspiring. I'm picking up a 120g tank (48"x24"x24") this weekend. Looking forward to building the custom back & filling it with a variety of interesting plants.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

thanks so much for all the great feedback! I received my training wire for the ficus trees and its safe to say that I should have wrapped the trees a long time ago. It is so hard to get my hands in the tank and effectively wrap the wire. I'll try and post some pics soon but am almost embarrassed with my work. I am so afraid to snap stuff off in the process. Plus I cannot bend down and see what im doing while i work. I can either lean over and see and not reach the plants, or reach in and get to the trees but have no visibility. I have been employing some of my students to talk me through it as i work and it is truly comical! safe to say i may just let them grow where they want and call it good.........more to come.

thanks again everyone for all the suport over the years. this forum has been most inspiring.

JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

finally got the trees wired and the advice was spot on! definately the best way to train them to grow exxactly how you want. no signs of stress to the tree at all. Frogs seem to be doing well and so are the plants!!

Thanks again

JD


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