Cypress river bank

[kwc1974]

As I finish backfilling the hollowed out cypress knees to weigh them down I just realize I did not photo document how I did it. Sorry

Short story, had a lot of miss match stainless bolting that was going to the scrap bin; I filled the hollowed out area with bolting, sand and gorilla glue. The sand and gorilla glue mixed better than I thought it would, the sand and glue mix helped fill in the voids between all of the bolts and nuts. All of this creating a very solid mass to counter act the Wood bouyancy. This weekend looks like the setup date, will fill you in.....this time with pics

[Kotter-Wane]

I like the first layout. The second doesn't seem balanced to me. I like the threadfin rainbows. I like to watch my males "flashing" the girls after mealtimes. )

[danielp]

but for main fish, maybe threadfin rainbows

I like this idea.

Something busy that will interact with the wood swimming around and in and out of the openings.

[FrontosaurusRex]

Rainbows would be awesome in that tank.

[kwc1974]

For planting I am lookag at a heavy gouping of anubias nana (almost carpet like), and behind the wood groupings crypt retrosprialis.

I might add some moss, but that will depend on what the native mosses that I will try to keep do once/if revived.

As for fish the usuall cleanup crew
o-cats
olive nerites
shrimp

but for main fish, maybe threadfin rainbows

I thought about a group of angles but I am liking that idea less and less.

[Roujin]

Looking forward to seeing the progress Kevin! Its been awhile but man you certainly are back!

[cichlid1409]

this is gonna be sweet! I like #2 also. will this be a heavily planted tank? what type of fish are you thinking of putting in?

[JGUERRA]

i really like #2 looks nice

[danielp]

Thats right......I'm baaaaaccckkkkk

No any trimming will be done from the bottom up. The natural look of the wood is one of the most important parts for me.

makes sense.

some of the short knobs really make the piece hopefully you can retain as much as possible.

what kind of fish are you looking at.

[manifresh006]

yeah like u said iff any trimming to the bottom(of some only) would be done it would make them look great
and i like the second layout more good luck and keep posting updates

[kwc1974]

are you doing anything special to decontaminate the cypress knees?

I went through a pretty rigorous rinsing process. Not much else you can do without blasting it so hard that you start altering the look of the wood.

Usually I do a quick bleach dip as well, but in this case there was some native mosses that I wanted to perserve so I only used clean water to rinse with.

[kwc1974]

Good to see you posting up it's been awhile.

Very nice pieces of wood.

I wouldn't cut the tops of the knee's off. It wouldn't look natural. If you want to remove them take them at the base.

I think tanks i've seen in the past with limbs coming out of the water look good.

Thats right......I'm baaaaaccckkkkk

No any trimming will be done from the bottom up. The natural look of the wood is one of the most important parts for me.

[danielp]

Good to see you posting up it's been awhile.

Very nice pieces of wood.

I wouldn't cut the tops of the knee's off. It wouldn't look natural. If you want to remove them take them at the base.

I think tanks i've seen in the past with limbs coming out of the water look good.

[FrontosaurusRex]

I think this tank is gonna be awesome. Keep us posted.

[CichlidFan]

are you doing anything special to decontaminate the cypress knees? I'm not sure, but they might have some residual chemicals from being in the creek and exposed to who know what.....I do like the looks though.....and I hope everything turns out well with your experiment there....

Maybe the wood can be anchored with a footprint of redimix cement? ....whatever you end up doing, I can't wait to see more pictures down the road...

CF