# A video of my almost finished project. PVC haters beware!



## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

I know most of you do a natural aquascape and hate PVC, but I love PVC and so do my fish! :lol: I put in 3 fish last night and dumped the rest of them in today. I set up a donor tank a couple of weeks ago and used it to start this one so cycling should be fast. It was spur of the moment when I bought the fish a few weeks ago and I don't even know what the primary species will be yet but this is what it looks like so far. I'll probably change things up here and there but the major setup is complete. I got tired of thinking so I filled it up and set it free! :thumb: They took to the caves right away and the Blue Johanni's already picked their spots. :fish:


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Very functional!

If the donor tank only cycled for a few weeks then the filter is not totally established? Did you cycle with fish or ammonia? What are your test results for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?


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## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

Very PC :lol: . I don't mind if people here don't like it. Non-fish people love it when they see all the PVC tunnels and the fish love it.

I used the HOB filter from the donor tank which was also in another tank for a few weeks and nice and cruddy. I left the filter media and bio-wheel untouched. I also used the gravel and the water so I'm pretty sure I'm good. My smell and clarity test tells me it's cycling.  The fish are also very active and happy which is another clue. Years ago I went crazy doing tests all the time so I don't even bother anymore. It will run. I'm using a Fluval 406 which has lots of good media to get things going.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Water full of ammonia and nitrite is crystal clear, smells great and can have very cruddy filters.

IME it takes six weeks at least to cycle a tank. Media is a place for the bacteria to grow but having lots of media does not mean the bacteria have already grown and are healthy.

Enjoy your PVC!


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## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

It doesn't smell great. It smells like a properly running fish tank. That's my point and I WILL enjoy my PVC unlike other posters who are whining that their fish have nowhere to hide in their pretty effing "aquascapes". Jezuz you guys are stuffy. Count me out of here...


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Nothing wrong with PVC, I have it in most of my tanks.


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

6Gears1Speed said:


> It doesn't smell great. It smells like a properly running fish tank. That's my point and I WILL enjoy my PVC unlike other posters who are whining that their fish have nowhere to hide in their pretty effing "aquascapes". Jezuz you guys are stuffy. Count me out of here...


take a chill pill, i do see your view as apossed to some here. it's your choice how you go about you tank, most people here are only to happy to help you with any problems.
please don't take some opinions as an attack to you! if you did not want opinions then why did you post? :-?


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## cich2it (Jul 23, 2012)

First time seeing your tank, I think its very cool, the rock work is nice too...good job! :thumb:


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## areuben (Jul 17, 2003)

Sorry, but why do we pussyfoot around this stuff ?? I know I am going to get flamed but here my .02 - especially after reading about insinuations of other posters and their uppity landscapes, blah, blah, blah.......
A Lada looks like a great car to anyone that hasn't ever driven a car since 1956.
If you like it that' s all that matters in terms of aesthetics - except for the fish.
Fish love it?? so where do they go if they don't love the bright white from the PVC.
Smell and clarity - sorry but that doesn't mean much. Test your water - yeah, its a pain but that's the REAL test - not smell and clarity. 
Lakes with high acid content from acid rain are "really" clear !! but not real healthy. Tons of them in North America.
I once bought a piece of swamp - it was the highest ground in the swamp but was still "in the swamp". 
Sorry, but looks like an easter egg hunt playground - grey rocks, beige rocks, striped rocks, flat rocks, round rocks, white PVC - looks like a Chinese buffet. I don't know what can be interpreted as "cool" in this setup.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with PVC and use lots myself, but like rust on a car, try and hide it - hide the PVC behind rocks. 
If I want to look at PVC, I can go into my basement and look at the floor joists where the plumbing is run.


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## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

DJRansome said:


> Nothing wrong with PVC, I have it in most of my tanks.


I apologize for losing my cool. I thought you were insulting me. I belong to lots of forums and get along well with most people. Like everyone I sometimes get sensitive about certain things. I'm not a noob and although I don't know everything I do know a lot. Though it may not have been your intention it came across to me as you were talking down to me which is a pet peeve of mine. Sorry for that and hopefully we can start over.

As for the PVC, rocks and water...

I didn't like the way the rocks came out either and since I had to remove a fish I had to remove everything and start over (the only bad thing about this type of setup is that it's impossible to get a fish out without removing everything). I rearranged things to look better in my opinion. I'll post a vid later. Some may still not like it but for me it's not just about the decorations. These are rocks I've collected over many years from different beaches so I like to put them in there. It looks a bit mismatched but I don't mind.

I had some test kits left over from years ago and tested for everything and it's all perfect. I started with a 10 gallon tank for several weeks and emptied its contents into the 75 plus a filter with a bio-wheel. I believe this gets a big tank going VERY quickly.

As for hiding the PVC, I hid it as much as I could while still having little nooks and crannies. The corner, front and rear pvc is covered with gravel and a few rocks and plants here and there. It still looks arranged but I had to strike a balance with looking a bit natural while still being very functional.

Sorry again for losing my cool.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

No worries, we all have good days and bad. Personally, I think your tank looks fantastic, has a bit of a zen rock garden feel to it from my perspective. :thumb:


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I like it : ) Looks like PlayWorld for fish! : ) I see lots of dark areas for them to hide, and it seems they actually prefer nosing around the pvc tunnels. I might try this in a growout tank - the more they move, the faster they grow! Thanks for posting the vid


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## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

I deleted the first vid because it doesn't look like that anymore. Once I'm done editing the new one tomorrow I'll upload it. For now here's a short clip of one of my Johanni's doing a bit of excavating. I love watching these guys do their work :fish: :lol: .


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## Bowfront (Jun 3, 2013)

PVC isn't bad but you have to either paint it or just use the black outdoor PVC so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

.


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

call me dumb, but they look exactly like maingano? Or is that a different fish?


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## 6Gears1Speed (Mar 18, 2013)

B.Roberson said:


> call me dumb, but they look exactly like maingano? Or is that a different fish?


The guy doing the digging in the above video is the Blue Johanni. There's another guy you see coming in and out of view which I THINK is a Labidochromis Textilis. That's what I was told at Neds any way. Apparently there is some confusion with Textilis vs Exasperatus.

This is a new video of the latest floorplan. I haven't messed with if for a while so it will probably stay this way until I get bored with it some day. I''m just starting to get algae growth on the rocks and PVC. The Acei likes to pick at the algae but I put my Pleco in because the glass otherwise gets too messy and cleaning it clouds things up.

As far as color of the PVC that was mentioned, you can see that since I have white PFS and white crushed coral anything but white PVC would stick out like a sore thumb. It's covered with substrate and rock but they do their usual good job of moving it around to their liking.


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