Freshwater Tanks

[Anonymous]

d. walstad's book seems to be a very good one for just about anyone started a f/w planted. i have an online aquaintance who used this book to set up a natural sys for her class and is having terrific success.

for containing the soil (and for lots of other things) i LOVE using old hosiery (pantyhose and kneehighs).

don't forget that there are also houseplants that adapt well to planted tank situations. sygonium is one i can think of off the top of my head.

 

[LFS42]

I still keep a FW 55 full-o-plants.

I havn't seen the fish in 3 months, but I know they are there.
Plotting against me.

waiting for the day I have my back turned...


No, wait.

It's just my kids plotting against me. :lol:

 

[brandon4291]

my very oldest bio-bowl is the planted bowl. I guess its almost two years old now./

What interests me most about planted tanks is getting the balance between rot and long-term nutrient availability in the substrate correct. meaning wastes won't accumulate to the point of rot or needing siphoning, they are broken down and assimilated in the system. The starting point is the fishfood, and the endpoint is the leaf material we haul out at each pruning and the inert minerals left in the gravel. I love planted tanks, its neat you started this thread.

b429

 

[brandon4291]

skylsdale, I guess now is a good time to post a couple quick pics of those alternate ecosystems...


the bowl on the left is the terrarium bowl. the lighter region on the bottom is an area under the substrate where a pump returns nutrient-laden water from the substrate back to a small driftwood waterfall. Adequate space is left in the canal to avoid stagnation.

The bowl on the right is the planted bowl, uses a candle warmer set on low (and spaced) for substrate convection. It houses african dwarf frogs, hydrocotyle, hair grass (e. acicularis), anubias barteri and coffeefolia, cryptocoryne wendtii red and green, mondo grass and some pygmy chain swords for lateral growth. like you can get much on a bed 8 inches wide.

 

[brandon4291]

lighting is once again Azoo galaxy lights, each bowl has one 13w 7700K pc galaxy light above it FWIW.

These are the most versatile lights Ive ever seen when you are constructing small ecosystems. Depending on the bulb you use, they will run a reef or a planted environment with minimal heat transfer

 

[brandon4291]

just couldnt resist since we had a FW thread going...

5 foot tall tube ecosystem-- ivy on top with 5 foot roots is sucking up processed guppy nitrogen like a sponge. a regular sponge that is, not referring to a sea sponge. :? Small bubble column moves water fairly rapidly, prevents stagnation at the bottom of the tube. Runs on ambient room light
(large living room window)

 

[brandon4291]

picture of the root matrix up close. this was a few months ago--I have to trim them or they block out all the viewing area/

 

[brandon4291]

I also like terrestrial plants--for some time now I have been using a medical feeding pump to continually dose each potted plant (5 x 15 gallon pots--behind this planted bowl) with water from my 75g planted tank via drip-lines and tees. this water is not harsh and will not chemically burn the plants even if they stay wet. The trick is giving your plants time to develop root structures that support constant wetness (avoiding rot)--the drip feeding starts out slow.
these lines also drip into the terrarium bowl and distribute nutrients. The terrestrial plants benefit from the constant addition of tank water since they are in relatively neutral substarate. species like palms (usually slow-growing) are sending up new growths each week.

 

[brandon4291]

to clarify: five pots each having 15 gallon capacity

 

[brandon4291]

--

 

[brandon4291]

this 75 gallon planted tank was started in '96 thanks to some st loans well spent. it houses a few guppies and two aquatic turtles, one softshell and one musk turtle.

I have never looked back on nor regretted this form of asset allocation in the name of sound animal husbandry.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

my very oldest bio-bowl is the planted bowl. I guess its almost two years old now./

What interests me most about planted tanks is getting the balance between rot and long-term nutrient availability in the substrate correct. meaning wastes won't accumulate to the point of rot or needing siphoning, they are broken down and assimilated in the system. The starting point is the fishfood, and the endpoint is the leaf material we haul out at each pruning and the inert minerals left in the gravel. I love planted tanks, its neat you started this thread.

b429

Thats exactly what we do in our reef systems also. The only filtration on my system is a protien skimmer to compensate for a heavy fish load.

Sucess with reeftanks came with learning to balance the captive ecosystem. The closer we aproximate this the more sucess I have had. I think this should be our goal in freshwater tanks as well.

My 37 gallon reef has a deepsand bed live rock natural filtration method a balance of corals invertabrates and fish and I havent done a single water change in over a year. I only topoff with kalk and add trace minerals.

Perhaps someday freshwater will become the same, elimination of all mechanical filtration, no need for water changes, just a small enclosed well balanced biotope.

Any one reading this thread with nanos please give some input on my other thread nano's and nitrate which deals the same issues.
_________________
BMW 600

 

[Louis Z]

2x10gal tanks Weitzmanii Sailfin characins, The real red phantoms, African jaye barbs, Endlers livebearers. 75gal with pair of chocolate cichlids and yellowfin pinktail chalceus. I am very fortunate to have a great FW store in Houston that always gets the rarely seen fish in the hobby. I have yet to see the Moto stingrays for sale for I thought they were by permit only. We have some in the Houston Zoo. The last thing I want to do is run into some of those if they ever got loose.

 

[Anonymous]

oh! i absolutely love pink tail chalceus!
but, it was kinda hard to keep the whole shipment intact if they went into an uncovered tank (no cover, lots of reflections & stuff to spook at is my guess). how are yours (are they a bit spooky)? since i've never kept them in a home or customer's display i've never had the chance to really see them shown off in a natural setting.

 

[Anonymous]

ok-here are some really poor quality pics that do the tank no justice!

 

[Anonymous]

and a poor shot of one of the bosemani pair

 

[Louis Z]

Hi Seamaiden, Many different sub populations in the Chalceus species. I have tried with very young juveniles and still they spook. No way without a cover. Plants and larger tanks help keep them secure. The ones that I have now have the ventral fins yellow with the pink tail. The scales seem to be much larger than regular pinktails. Mine are always bruised on the snouts even with low light. Doesnt help when the Male chocolate nips them from underneath. The previous ones I had were about 11inches and really thick. The juveniles I started with were about 3 inches and slender and have grown to about 5+and thick. Although beware that some pinktails came in to my LFS that were truly terrors to each other. This batch seemed to knock off the weakest quickly. They had many losses. Yet most of the batches I have seen come in tame. I had seen some pinktails(8in+adults) with streamers on their caudal - that was cool.

 

[Mogo]

I have a 50 gal Tanganyikan Cichlid tank, 35 gal South American Tank as well as a 130 reef (oh ya, and a fish pond). Yes, you'r right. I'm nuts. The horror started when I bought my 2 year old a 10 gal with a couple guppies. 12 years later he could care less about fish, but his dad is addicted.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 55-gallon in my kitchen with 1 sailfin pleco, 5 corys, 5 rosy barbs, 2 Congo tetras, and 7 black phantom tetras. No live plants - just silk and plastic ones. It looks pretty natural, but I'm going to redecorate with some garishly colored plastic ornaments just for fun. (No bubbling treasure chest, though. I hate those.)

I also have a 60-gallon hex tank with 3 fantail goldfish, one black Moor, and two lionheads. Once again, fake plants.

 

[danmhippo]

I have a med size Tetra pond (approx 30Gal) with Lilies and 5 goldfish. I bought feeder gold. My kids can't tell the difference and my wife doesn't want me to spend anymore $$. Zero maintenance and the kids absolutely loves it. The feeder gold fish have all colored up very nicely.

Anyone knows anyother interesting critters I can put into the pond that is adapted to cold water and with bright coloring so it can be viewed from the above?