P. pictus and S. multi owners, advice ideas?

[Bas Pels]

Wow, is this rock piling ever difficult! Haarvard Stoere has magic hands I think.
I should be done next year...

I think Haavard attaches many by mechanical means(screws & glues)
Just remember you may have to tear it down occasionally for various reasons and if just stacking be certain they can not tip either from getting knocked by you or a fish or from fish digging sand out from under a stone.

Good luck and have fun with it.

Actually, rock piling is quite hard. After all you will want the tank to look natural, the piles to remain firmly as they are, and the whole to function

I'm piling rocks in tanks (never fixating anything, gravity will have to do the job) now for some 20 years, and I'm still improving

[L number Banana]

Bas Pels wrote:

Actually, rock piling is quite hard. After all you will want the tank to look natural, the piles to remain firmly as they are, and the whole to function

I'm piling rocks in tanks (never fixating anything, gravity will have to do the job) now for some 20 years, and I'm still improving

I'm not trying for a natural look with this tank (pink and black ) but I am going to try to let gravity do the work for now. I'm pretty good with dry stone walls but that's done with limestone around here and that's like a walk in the park compared to these pieces! Just like you say - practice, practice
Going to see how hard they are to grind/drill today if I get off work early. Get the sharp points off and try not to split them. Should be fun. It won't be a perfect job but I hope it will be okay for a first timer!

[MatsP]

I've drilled quite a bit of stone, and unless it's already cracked and/or you use a very large drill-bit in a powerful hammer drill (SDS+ is great here), it should be fine. Take your time, patience is a good thing working with rocks.

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

Quick update:
The fishguy said the P. pictus recovered nicely but when I saw them tonight they looked kind of sluggish??? Maybe they still need more recovery time. No purchase until they look like they did before.

On the rock cutting front: It's a learning experience! No luck cutting slabs for the cave lids. (Used a lap saw - like a trim saw but fixed in place with a slider that feeds the rock into the blade. Get about halfway through and they fracture sort of cube-wise. I think I just need the right speed and the right pieces because fast or slow made no difference. The pieces that looked more solid like a countertop worked best and I got a few done but they're still small.

The grinder was too rough and broke them into cubes again (or the rock-cutter needs more practice!). A handheld Foredom drill with a carborundum bit did a great job softening the edges without breaking the rock.
I'll try to tumble the small pieces to get enough to make a back wall that I can 'glue' onto mesh. Maybe put moss in the cracks. Indiana Jones wall.
I put a few into Frank the syno's new tank and he makes them look good.

Will update when the pictus aren't dragging their tails anymore. They said that they'd be ordering more if I wanted to wait. I'll wait and see how these five do.

[MatsP]

It sounds like your fractures when cutting is caused by not pushing exactly straight which makes the blade push to one side. Either that, or you are overheating the rock and it cracks. But I think it's "pushing in a curve" (not like you are making half-circles, it doesn't take much at all... You could try cutting a bit too wide first, and then in the right place - I'm not sure I'm describing that very well, but essentially, you want the first cut to make extra space for the cutting blade for the second run so that if it's getting tight, there's somewhere to go.

Or, just get an angle grinder with a big enough blade to cut your pieces, and a diamond blade. Still takes some practice of course.
I'm not familiar with Canadian power tool places (or the companies that may sell them, rather).
If I was in the US, I'd probably get this from Harbour Freight tools.
I found this in a Candian web-site tooltown.

I'm not sure how big a difference the price is, once shipping to Canada is accounted for...
I checked Lowes and they only do a 5" one, which is probably a bit on the smaller size - probably cuts a max of 1.5" (4cm).

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

No granite cutting going on at the moment, too busy at the garden centre BUT......Got some tanks!!

Came in cheaper than dirt and in very dirty condition. See this thread http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=26888

So now the two 42 ?? gallon tanks are sparkling clean and the others (40's?) are about to be - got all five!!!

Two are 36 x 18 wide x 15 high and three in-need-work-condition are 48 x 16 wide x 12 high.
Hubby gave me "The Look" when it comes to setting them all up in the basement as we have a de-humidifier filling up each day as it is...
A long one would make a very cool headboard for my bed, but I'm sure I'd get a priceless look for that idea too.

So, hopefully, P.pictus will be going in one and S.multi in the other. Will 12 or 15 inches in height be okay for these guys or do I need to wait to get something taller as well as floor space?

[Birger]

Put some real thought into how and where you will set those tanks up...it is fine to keep adding tanks but when tanks are scattered it turns into a real chore for maintenance. Except for showtanks it is ideal to keep most in one area.

[L number Banana]

Thanks Birger, Sage advice

Right now I do 3 20L wine buckets out and three wine buckets in for the showtank and that's enough to keep my arms from getting flabby The little tanks only require a reusable water jug that has a handle (15g and 20g tanks). I'll only be using two of the tanks for fish, the rest are for plant propagation - gotta afford the catfish somehow...Just haven't decided which tanks to use. Might be wise to put them near a drain and lower than my rain barrels. I'm still trying to come up with a good plan for the stands.

I've also decided to use some of that funky ash in a plants-only tank so I can monitor the water and see what happens. I'll post the info here so we'll all know once and for all what happens with ash at neutral ph. University here will test the water once for free.
I'm learning patience is good. I still have the other three to clean next week when I have time off. No rushing into regrets. Twice I almost bought pictus that all got ich at the store and were possibly over-medicated after . No rushing..my regular store gets their cats sometime in August.

[arcsb]

i keep 5 P.pictus with 2 Doradids,there is plenty of rock and slate cave's for them all but the P.pictus seem to spend most of their time amongst the wood in the part of the tank that has the most.
i would go with the idea of having the branche's along the back of your tank,i think that would work well behind the rock work.

[L number Banana]

arcsb wrote:

i would go with the idea of having the branche's along the back of your tank,i think that would work well behind the rock work.

Hmm, now there's an idea. I've had the tank set up for a while and have had zero luck getting healthy pictus - both shipments got ich and then there were never groups of five left. I'm hoping my new supplier has better luck. My regular LFS charges double the price of everyone else but their fish are quite large - I want to start with little guys. Got the hatchetfish though, Orinoco tank even though it has pink granite

I like the branch behind the rock-work idea, every configuration I've tried just looks funny, maybe the branch will help break it up a bit. Worth a try Nice picture too!

I don't know if you read back in this thread at my rock cutting issues but for anyone who's curious about whatever happened, I've solved the problem with the rock breaking. It seems that this granite is for aquariums and not countertops or headstones because of it's 'cleavage', it has a cubic crystal structure so breaks that way. If I could get to the larger and finer lap-saws at the gem and mineral society, they have one that would work - really, really slow and on a feed track that moves it into the blade perfectly. The shop opens up for winter again soon so I'm still willing to give it a go. Meanwhile all the other pink granite are just sitting in the tank kind of willy-nilly. The fish don't seem to mind but I'm going to move them out and try the branch - good idea.