Setting Up A River Tank - Littlefish

Things not quite going to plan......
Collected the 3 bulldog plecs and 3 panda garra from store last weekend. Unfortunately the hillstream loaches had not survived at the store.
I've ordered 10 sewellia lineolata, 8 stiphodon semoni, and 20 rainbow shiners, but can't collect them until next weekend due to my schedule, and can't guarantee there will be 10 loaches available, just hoping they have some in their delivery next week. I might also increase the number of shiners to 30.
Collecting 7 stiphodon annieae this morning.
So much for the plans for getting everything at the same time and treating the main tank as a quarantine tank. Looks like I'll be using multiple quarantine tanks and putting the fish together some time in September.   
Tank still pottering along with small amounts of ammonia, and at least the extra time is giving me more time to grow algae on rocks and in the tank. 

I'm getting so used to all the quarantine tanks being in use and scattered around the living room.
I don't know what I'm going to do when everything is in the correct tank and I can actually walk around the whole room again. 

 

I still have an empty tank in the spare bedroom.

There are still so many fish that I would like to set up tanks for.....damn the watery world of fish for being so interesting.
 

I won't be doing anything new until I've got everyone settled in the river tank, and I've grown the bristlenose babies large enough to go to MA. I'm quite enjoying the chaos though. 

Plans for today include draining the tank, putg the rest of the stones from the algae tanks into the main tank, and restocking the algae tanks with rocks. Any last minute rearrangements will also be made, possibly including the addition of some more wood, then refilling the tank with a mix of RO and tap water.
I have arranged to collect the remaining fish from Kesgrave Tropical tomorrow.
I'm nervous and excited as I've wanted those particular hillstream loaches for over a year, got the tank just before Christmas, and have spent months planning the tank.
 

Good grief, it took a long time to empty the tank, put some more rocks in, and refill it.
I'm going to have to wait until one of the boys calls over later in the week to put the hood on top as it's too heavy for me to to that on my own.
I haven't switched the air pump on yet, as I'm currently monitoring the water flow to see how well the manifold is working, but I've already placed the air lines & stones at either end of the tank, but may end up putting more in. I'm also considering upgrading to a larger pump, as I'm currently not sure that the water flow is strong enough to keep the sewellia lineolata totally blown away, but it will do for now.
The plants in the slightly sheltered parts of the tank are doing ok, and two of the bucephalandra have got flower buds, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like.
I've not got enough rocks in the tank yet, and have more in the algae tanks by the window, but if the tank starts running low on algae for the fish I've already got the bulldog plecs, panda garra, and gobies eating the Repashy foods, which I've used to coat rocks & logs, so I can try that in the main tank as well.
Fishy shopping tomorrow. 

I collected the fish this morning, and they are now exploring the tank.
I'll wait until tomorrow to turn the lights on and take some pictures.
Without wishing to state the obvious, the rainbow shiners are really shiny.
The cobalt blue gobies are so cute, and are hopping rock to rock sampling the algae.
The hillstream loaches are  staying towards the back of the tank at the moment, possibly settling in, but a few have been spotted on the back wall of the tank, generally pottering around......oooh, one at the front of the tank...they are a fascinating shape.
 

I'm soo jealous...     

What temperature are you running the tank at btw?

I'm like a kid at Christmas with this tank, possibly because I've been planning it for such a long time.
The tank looked very empty earlier, but now the hillstream loaches are exploring the rocks, along with the gobies, and between them they've already completely stripped the algae of one rock and have nearly finished another. The shiners have settled down enough to spread out, so the tank looks more full.
The larger stiphodon, which I'm guessing is older as it is quite a bit bigger, has started to get some colour, and there is a smaller one with nice markings which are darker towards the tail. I'm looking forward to putting lights on tomorrow to have a really good look.
I still have the annieae gobies in a quarantine tank, and they are quite small, but I saw 2 of them have a tussle over ownership of a small rock yesterday. The winner got the green marbled rock, which I have to admit made his red colouring look great.
The panda garra and bulldog plecs are in a different quarantine tank, and I think when everyone is in the main tank it will actually look pretty full. I'm also wondering if the annieae gobies are going to be to small to do well with the other fish, but that's a consideration for another day.

The tank is currently running at 22C.
I also used RO to drop the water from my 17dH down to 14dH, which is the hardness of the water where they were being kept. The hillstream loaches are quite sensitive little things, so I figured that anything that would make the move less stressful would help. I still can't believe I've actually got them.