Journal Kwyet’s 60G Hillstream Tank

[Kwyet]

Sometime in Nov 2024, I bought a 60G Aqueon tank at the 50% off sale. I already had a 75 gallon stand and tank, but I wanted a shorter tank so I could look in over the top. The 75 gallon was relegated to the garage in case I want it again, and I painted the stand black. I also put black vinyl on the back.

My goal was to make a hillstream environment, based on the long-running tank of Rachel O’Leary. I had looked at other options like the river manifolds, but I liked Rachel’s better. I set it up with an fx6 filter, a horizontal spray bar on the left side, and 2nd modified spray bar situated vertically behind a corner Matten filter on the back right side. Glass strips were attached with silicone to hold it. I cut the Matten filter horizontally a few inches from the tank floor so the top part could be easily removed for cleaning. I also cut a small vertical groove from the inside so it wouldn’t constrict the holes so much on the curve.

This was how it looked on Dec 20, 2024:

 

[Kwyet]

I completed the hardscape on Dec 31. Although Hakkai stone was awfully pricy, I decided to get it anyway because I intend to enjoy this tank for a very long time, and I “had” to take advantage of Aquarocks Colorado’s December special, lol!

I used Aqua Natural Delta Sand for the substrate. It’s 0.8-1.2 mm, so it’s heavier than pool filter sand, but still supposed to be safe for burrowing fish. The wood is previously used Manzanita. I also scattered some dark pea gravel in and around the Hakkai stone.

The tank light is an Aqueon Optibright Max. I use a Kasa Smart Plug to keep it on schedule, because it doesn’t always turn itself off according to programming. This is on for 8 hours. The overhead light is a Sansi 120w LED Grow light, full spectrum, 4000K. I ran them both together until I had a bunch of algae, pictures later.

 

[Kwyet]

When the fishless cycle was nearly complete, I added the plants. When the cycle was complete and I had a lot of algae, I added most of the fish, but some were still in quarantine.

The fish list consisted of:
8 Rainbow Shiners
8 Longfin White Cloud Mountain Minnows
1 Reticulated Hillstream Loach
2 Hillstream Loaches (sent misidentified)

I removed some of the plants later, because I didn’t want the hardscape to be too obscured. The overhead light was changed to running 4 hours once the plants were in. Later I used the Photone app to find out that each light provides 40 par at the substrate individually, and 80 together.

The plant list:

Bolbitis heteroclita (removed later)
Bolbitis heudelotii (kept a little, removed some)
Crinum calimastratum
Crypt lucens
Crypt Wendtii Red Mi Oya
Crypt balansae
Crypt spiralis
Crypt willisi
Fissidens nobilis (removed later)
Hygrophila pinnitifada
Aponogeton madagascariensis

 

[Kwyet]

I initially put emersed plants in the black plastic planters seen above, but I felt they were too obtrusive. I replaced them with sponges. I cut a center slit and poked rods through the back, attached to suction cups. They’re working, but I need to redo them one of these days to make them more even.



The emersed plant list (all dog-safe):

Money plant
Maidenhair Fern
Spider plant
Baby bolbitis
Parlor palm
Fittonia ruby lime
Cyperus haspan

At some point I want to get some Purple waffle. The ones I ordered didn’t survive the trip.

Eight Golden White Clouds were added on 2/11/25, having completed their quarantine.,

 

[Kwyet]

I really love this tank, but it hasn’t been without problems. After algae started appearing on plants, I stopped overlapping the lights, but then algae started receding from the hardscape and I’m back up to a 4 hour afternoon overlap now. I’m back to getting some algae on ends of the longer flowing leaves, but it still hasn’t grown back on the hardscape.

This is a problem, not just because I loved the look of it, but also because it might be a contributing factor to 2 loach deaths. I found 1 dead Reticulated Loach with a white patch on its head, and 1 dead otherwise healthy-looking Rainbow Shiner on 1/31. I did lots of testing and made some changes—slowly bringing gH down to 8, slowly raising kH up to 3, cutting pps-pro ferts to 3/4 dose, and overlapping the lights by 1 hour.

On 3/5 I found one of the other Hillstream loaches dead, also with a white patch. More testing was done. Nothing seemed very amiss. I removed the Fissidens in case the wire mesh was a problem, increased the light overlap to 2 hours, increased feedings of Repashy, and lowered ferts to 50% pps-pro. I had to leave a couple of days later for 9 days, but I did a large water change the night before I left. No ferts or water changes were done while I was gone, but the tank was topped off with distilled water.

I got back this last Sunday and the last loach was still doing fine. I did a 50% water change on Monday and added 50% ferts. I noticed awhile later that the loach had developed a white patch, so I was pretty concerned, but a few hours later he was back to normal. I think the white patch may be a stress reaction, and not a disease. I also increased the light overlap to 4 hours.

Since I’m on the way back to Mom’s for another 2 weeks, I did another 50% water change yesterday, but I added the water in 3 installments with some time in between. I also mixed up macros without any Nitrogen, since tests keep showing around 30-35 nitrates. As of last night, the loach still looked and acted fine. I hope he’ll continue that way. My daughter is going to do a small water change for me in a week, and will feed from the baggies I left. I did notice a White Cloud yesterday that had a lumpy stomach. Not knowing for sure, but suspecting a parasite, I put it in quarantine with a dose of API General Cure. That’s all I could do for now. I didn’t want to dose the whole tank without being there to observe and react, so I’m just hoping for the best. I don’t know if what’s affecting the White Cloud has anything to do with the previous deaths or not.

That brings things current. Thanks for reading!



Edit: Oh yeah! I also put in 6 algae-covered rocks from another tank before leaving.

 

[JuJuFish]

Such a beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing its story. Hope everyone does well while you are away.

 

[Kwyet]

Such a beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing its story. Hope everyone does well while you are away.

Thanks very much!

 

[Kwyet]

Unfortunately, the loach, some White Clouds, and the one in quarantine all perished/disappeared during my absence. Plenty of algae was growing in the tank, and my daughter did feedings from prepared baggies, water top-offs and one small water change for me, so I think the problem isn’t anything environmental. I really think some kind of parasite is at work, in spite of all of the fish being kept in quarantine before being put in the tank. I’ve treated with PraziPro now and will just observe for at least a couple of months before trying to replace any stock. I’ll be returning to full pps-pro ferts, because I don’t think that was the problem.

 

[Phish Tank]

Really sorry to hear your tank had a tough time while you were away. Sounds like you are doing the right thing to wait for a while before restocking. Plants look like they are settling in nicely.

 

[Kwyet]

Really sorry to hear your tank had a tough time while you were away. Sounds like you are doing the right thing to wait for a while before restocking. Plants look like they are settling in nicely.

Thanks!