Aquarium keeping natural/tecnological

[Ahmabeliever]

THe other day heard the most classic last words as a friend trialled a new tank.

 

Yep, looks like it's gonna hold" - Whoosh! 150 litres, he had to leap to avoid getting the brunt of it.

 

We test new tank designs ouside.

[Moontanman]

THe other day heard the most classic last words as a friend trialled a new tank.

 

Yep, looks like it's gonna hold" - Whoosh! 150 litres, he had to leap to avoid getting the brunt of it.

 

We test new tank designs ouside.

 

Yes, outside testing was one of the first things I learned when I first started building aquariums. Only one has failed during a test but get cocky and you'll swim to the front door before you know it!

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

The second thing you learn is...

 

As soon as your kid states that (insert choice of behavior) will not result in a tank falling or getting broken start preparing for disaster as it will surely soon follow their words...usually right after you leave the room.

[DougF]

Very good thread, thanks Moontanman for leading me to it.

I think everyone who has or had a tank, well have a leak or malfunction

or end up kill a tank full of fish. :shrug:

 

I have a 125 gal tank and a small pond, the pond was doing real good with a small waterfall and a bio filter the only thing I Had to do was remove some the leaves in the fall, all was good till the sandhill cranes found my fish! :doh:

 

my tank well in 2004 we had four hurricanes lost power for two weeks and the fishes didn't make it, but plan to set up this time with some coral.

 

Storm 2004 Hurricane Season: Summer of Storms

[Ganoderma]

YUP!!

 

A river runnin wild all over the living room makes one hell of a mess! One of my pumps blew a line draining my 75gal. tank plus both 55gal. plastic drums one of which served as a stabiliser (more gallons = slower water chemistry changes) one as a gravel filter. It litterally took an entire week to get things dry again.

 

 

LOL! i hate that! i remember when i worked at a conservation center back in canada when i was in school. we were doing a water change on one to the big cichlid ponds (in a lemur cage). end of the day, saturday night...you know how rushed things get. anyway, turns out we forgot to turn off the tap when we were filling it. next morning we get in and the African section is a few inches deep with water and the lemur cage has a new waterfall addition :eek:

 

being incredibly rare cichlids, extinct in the wild (the latin name escapes me right now) me and the other keeper were basically sh*tting ourselves. boss comes in later to see what all the chaos was about, and start laughing and congratulating us....the flood triggered them to spawn, and there were thousands of babies a few weeks later!!! pretty sweet.

 

 

anyway. right now i only have one running tank, a 90 gallon. just small things like cories and tetras. common pet store style. i use a bio filter i made. pumps water to top where it runs though stacked boxes, first 2 are mechanical. the last layer is lava rock for the little buddies to eat up all them nitrates (or is it nitrites??). i also have a couple vines growing in the lava rock to help take out stuff, and add some greenery to it.

 

Because my tank is kind of high (2') i only have low light loving plants :( plants are my favorite part, but not a lot likes my tank...and we dont want to use a lot of lights on it (right now only 2 x 24" and 2x CFL.

 

 

 

i would love to see your pics of the trees moon, whenever possible!!!!!

[Moontanman]

LOL! i hate that! i remember when i worked at a conservation center back in canada when i was in school. we were doing a water change on one to the big cichlid ponds (in a lemur cage). end of the day, saturday night...you know how rushed things get. anyway, turns out we forgot to turn off the tap when we were filling it. next morning we get in and the African section is a few inches deep with water and the lemur cage has a new waterfall addition :eek:

 

being incredibly rare cichlids, extinct in the wild (the latin name escapes me right now) me and the other keeper were basically sh*tting ourselves. boss comes in later to see what all the chaos was about, and start laughing and congratulating us....the flood triggered them to spawn, and there were thousands of babies a few weeks later!!! pretty sweet.

 

 

anyway. right now i only have one running tank, a 90 gallon. just small things like cories and tetras. common pet store style. i use a bio filter i made. pumps water to top where it runs though stacked boxes, first 2 are mechanical. the last layer is lava rock for the little buddies to eat up all them nitrates (or is it nitrites??). i also have a couple vines growing in the lava rock to help take out stuff, and add some greenery to it.

 

Because my tank is kind of high (2') i only have low light loving plants :( plants are my favorite part, but not a lot likes my tank...and we dont want to use a lot of lights on it (right now only 2 x 24" and 2x CFL.

 

 

 

i would love to see your pics of the trees moon, whenever possible!!!!!

 

Great minds do think alike:hihi: lava rock is great for biological filtration, for bacteria and higher plant growth. I also love to see tiny fish in large aquariums, it allows them to act out more of their natural behaviors. Have you tried to add small crustaceans as well? There are many types of small shrimps you can get at your local pet shop. I breed dwarf crayfish which are perfect for tanks with tiny fish. (big fish simple eat them!) I am luck in that I live in an area where I can catch many tiny to small fish that are beautiful and suited to aquarium life. I lost all my trees in the recent move but I will have more and I will give pics my best shot!

[Ganoderma]

its a great rock, that is for sure!!!!

 

i too love to see animals in large tanks! i loved keeping dart frogs the same....i dont want to look at one big aniaml that cant move....i enjoy searching for them and "spying" on them.....nto look face to face.

 

our tank is in our ESL school, so i cant do much cool stuff like having trees growing out of it (have to think about safety and kids being stupid). but i love the idea.

 

one thing i think of though. because plant roots use up oxygen, will that affect the fish in the water? i assume its not enough to make a differnece, especially if the surface is always being disturbed...but i always wondered about it. i used to grow Pothos in the aquarium and have them grow around outside of it...but took them out cause i wasn't sure if they would screw up the fish with O2 levels????

 

i used to have shimp, btu they have since died and were not replaced (3 years old :eek:) there are lots available her ein taiwan, it is a very aquarium loving country (too small for too big fish unfortunately), but the pet stores around use just have amin shrimp of whatever they are called. we also have soem of those blue rainbow fish that stay small (2") and they always eat the small shrimp!

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

nitrates (or is it nitrites??).

There are both in there! But the Nitrites are the more lethan to yer fishies!

 

Cichlids! I's got em! To be more specific Astronotus ocellatus:)

Mine are 9" (Butthead) and 12" (Lenny) long.

I also have 6 of their babies from their last spawn which range from 4" to 7".

(Taz, Mug, $#!+head, Futhermucker, booger, Scardcat)

But I really want a pair of Cichlasoma facetum!:(

[Moontanman]

There are both in there! But the Nitrites are the more lethan to yer fishies!

 

Cichlids! I's got em! To be more specific Astronotus ocellatus:)

Mine are 9" (Butthead) and 12" (Lenny) long.

I also have 6 of their babies from their last spawn which range from 4" to 7".

(Taz, Mug, $#!+head, Futhermucker, booger, Scardcat)

But I really want a pair of Cichlasoma facetum!:(

 

I've alwasy been nuts about catfish, I trained a flathead catfish to come when i snapped my fingers under water. It would even allow me to pet him! Now day si like small catfish like glass cats, debawei cats, hummingbird cats and upside down cats.

[Not half- but whole!]

I'm jumping in mid-thread...

Great to see some fish chat..

I do some part time work for a friend of mine and help him out in the fish room of the LFS he runs. It's nice to play on their dime. I have set-up and run a 250g reef, a 95g reef, and a 250g discus currently for him, but have done this all my life pretty much, I started when under gravel filters and hair algae were "good" for a marine tank..

Unfortunately I have not settled into a long term residence (too many apartments...) to have set up anything big at home in a very long time. Right now I just have a small 20g plant tank with some killies.

I prefer to run "natural" style tanks with minimal "gadgets." I ran my last home reef as a Jaumbert system basically only ran it with rock sand and a sponge filter. My current plant tank only has a powerhead in it for circulation. I have to prune the plants on an almost weekly schedule and the chemistry is perfect. (And as an experiment I'm just topping off evaporation, no water changes. 1.5 years down the line and only a small bump up in the hardness).

 

The discus tank is a DAS tank with basically sponge filters on it and I have had great success with it.

The 90g reef runs a Berlin. Not my favorite tank, but I get to play with some varied systems. it does have LED lights though. IMO not quite there yet (great on heat production, good on color rendition, but just not powerful enough, SPS grew at annoyingly slow rates).

the 250g reef is a Jaumbert system with a skimmer (the owner wanted a showplace for a bigger skimmer). It runs great, I have to prune the SPS about once a month to keep things from over crowding. The cleaner shrimp have spawned and the pair of maroon clowns have paired up.

 

I have had the best luck on "low tech" approaches. Balanced stocking, letting your inhabitants do their job and letting them be.

[Moontanman]

I'm jumping in mid-thread...

Great to see some fish chat..

I do some part time work for a friend of mine and help him out in the fish room of the LFS he runs. It's nice to play on their dime. I have set-up and run a 250g reef, a 95g reef, and a 250g discus currently for him, but have done this all my life pretty much, I started when under gravel filters and hair algae were "good" for a marine tank..

Unfortunately I have not settled into a long term residence (too many apartments...) to have set up anything big at home in a very long time. Right now I just have a small 20g plant tank with some killies.

I prefer to run "natural" style tanks with minimal "gadgets." I ran my last home reef as a Jaumbert system basically only ran it with rock sand and a sponge filter. My current plant tank only has a powerhead in it for circulation. I have to prune the plants on an almost weekly schedule and the chemistry is perfect. (And as an experiment I'm just topping off evaporation, no water changes. 1.5 years down the line and only a small bump up in the hardness).

 

The discus tank is a DAS tank with basically sponge filters on it and I have had great success with it.

The 90g reef runs a Berlin. Not my favorite tank, but I get to play with some varied systems. it does have LED lights though. IMO not quite there yet (great on heat production, good on color rendition, but just not powerful enough, SPS grew at annoyingly slow rates).

the 250g reef is a Jaumbert system with a skimmer (the owner wanted a showplace for a bigger skimmer). It runs great, I have to prune the SPS about once a month to keep things from over crowding. The cleaner shrimp have spawned and the pair of maroon clowns have paired up.

 

I have had the best luck on "low tech" approaches. Balanced stocking, letting your inhabitants do their job and letting them be.

 

 

Simple as possible is always better than complex, complex is more likely to fail and kill everyting. Slow is also better than fast. Setting up an aquarium and slowly adding fish over the course of weeks or monhts will alwasy work better than a fast start up.

[Ganoderma]

personally, i am a fan of fishless cycle! i always use gravel from healthy tanks instead of fish.

[johnfp]

I read a lot of this thread but not all, sorry. I am impressed with the eco systems some of you have. I have a 45 gallon tank and I found, about 3 years ago, this incredible stuff to help maintain it. It is called Freshwater Biozyme. It's in powder form. It looks like yeast. From what I understand it converts ammonia and nitrite to nitrate and helps break down fish waste. I found where I used to have to clean the tand and replace 1/2 the water once a month now only needs to be done every 6 months. It's great stuff.

[Ahmabeliever]

Got a link for that product johnfp, it sounds great. Have you kept records of tests done before addition of the product and after?

[Moontanman]

personally, i am a fan of fishless cycle! i always use gravel from healthy tanks instead of fish.

 

I am a fan of no cycle! Just light and water movement. I like to take my time in adding fish.

[Not half- but whole!]

I read a lot of this thread but not all, sorry. I am impressed with the eco systems some of you have. I have a 45 gallon tank and I found, about 3 years ago, this incredible stuff to help maintain it. It is called Freshwater Biozyme. It's in powder form. It looks like yeast. From what I understand it converts ammonia and nitrite to nitrate and helps break down fish waste. I found where I used to have to clean the tand and replace 1/2 the water once a month now only needs to be done every 6 months. It's great stuff.

 

Most of your biological additives along those lines are freeze-dried nitrosomas and nitrobacter bacteria. These are the work horses of most "biological" filters. These are the same bacteria that you add by seeding a filter with substrate from an established tank. Marineland actually makes a refrigerated live version that will establish the front end of the nitrogen cycle in a tank. The main concern is that nitrates (The end result of nitrogenous waste breakdown) have no uptake in most tanks. In natural systems this is used by plants (Nitrates are great fertilizer, just think about ammonia nitrate) or algae. If they are not used they can build to toxic levels w/o water changes. Either submerged aquatic plants or emergent bog plants do a great job at keeping the chemistry good (and will keep algae down and give the fish something to nibble..)

 

Moon, do you have a good source for FW inverts? Do you collect from local water sources?

[Moontanman]

Most of your biological additives along those lines are freeze-dried nitrosomas and nitrobacter bacteria. These are the work horses of most "biological" filters. These are the same bacteria that you add by seeding a filter with substrate from an established tank. Marineland actually makes a refrigerated live version that will establish the front end of the nitrogen cycle in a tank. The main concern is that nitrates (The end result of nitrogenous waste breakdown) have no uptake in most tanks. In natural systems this is used by plants (Nitrates are great fertilizer, just think about ammonia nitrate) or algae. If they are not used they can build to toxic levels w/o water changes. Either submerged aquatic plants or emergent bog plants do a great job at keeping the chemistry good (and will keep algae down and give the fish something to nibble..)

 

Moon, do you have a good source for FW inverts? Do you collect from local water sources?

 

I would like to point out that the whole idea of bacteria cultures and a filtration system to remove both chemical pollutants and sediments is only necessary when you have too many fish in too small a space. If course if you want to keep more fish that is the only way to go. If you keep your fish population to a more moderate level and add fish slowly over time and have a good growth of plants before you add any fish scrubbing the water clean will not be necessary. The tank I am setting up will probably hold between 100 and 200 small fish and crustaceans. Not only will I use a heavy growth of plants to help keep the water clean I also use a sump with no aeration to capture sediments as they travel through the flat still sump. A pump circulates the water from the sump to the tank. An overflow returns the water. Floating plants in the sump not only remove more nitrogenous waste they also help suspended sediments fall out of the water column and deposit in the bottom of the sump. I keep shrimp, dwarf crayfish, clams and mussels in the sump to consume the sediments. Once a month or so I drain out 10 gallons and replace it with new water. Intense lighting and a sump to collect sediments are the key in this tank.

 

Yes I do collect both fish and invertebrates, lots of shrimp, amphipods, isopods, vernal pool shrimp, even some amphibians. I also breed several species of fish and dwarf crayfish. The crayfish originates in Louisiana but the rest are from around here. When I get things started back up I intend to breed some of the small colorful shrimp from Indonesia. There is even a freshwater hermit crab I am drooling to get! I like to have as complex as possible ecosystem but I maintain it as simple as possible.

 

Michael Hissom

Captive Environments, aquaculture