Aquarium keeping natural/tecnological

[Ahmabeliever]

Several species of glass shrimp. My buddy with enviable fish collections has some marine shrimp that are clear but grow up to 12 cm! Mine get to 5-6 maximum.

The paratya are androgenous (most of them). They start off as boys and become girls later.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Ahmabeliever

Several species of glass shrimp. My buddy with enviable fish collections has some marine shrimp that are clear but grow up to 12 cm! Mine get to 5-6 maximum.

The paratya are androgenous (most of them). They start off as boys and become girls later.

Starting off as boys and becoming girls isn't that unusual, fish do the same thing (are paratya fish?) We have large (eating size) freshwater shrimp here as well. Not to mention marine shrimp are a local industry worth many millions of dollars every year. As are oysters, clams, scallops, and lots of other unusual types of shell fish that most people never see. (pen oysters are my fav) big seafood place around here.

[Moontanman]

#5. setting up the tank and stand and sump lights. I use florescent shop lights over the sump four 40 watt bulbs suspended about four inches above the water level. I also use a smaller chamber next to the sump (about five gallons) to house the pump. A siphon transfers water from the sump to the pump chamber. A over flow baffle in the pump chamber keeps the water in the sump at a constant level.

#6. interior set up, I use a special soil mix under the sand about one half inch thick with about three inches of sand in front to around five inches of sand in the back of the tank. The soil mix consists of...

Aquarium Soil Mix Ratios

2 Pt. Peat Compost
1 Pt. Red Clay
1 Pt. Oak Leaves (ground)
3 Pt. Lava Rock Flour
2 Pt. Ground charcoal, (not briquettes)

Once you have your back round in place and the sand in place it's time to put in decorations. I use lots of drift wood and water worn coal. I like dark colors because they make the fishes color more intense. (for some reason the opposite works better for marine fish.)

#7. Light Hood, I usually use two or three 175 watt metal halides for lighting but this time I am planning to use xenon lighting. It will take around six to nine of these lights but I am hoping they will put off less heat and more light.

More later

[Moontanman]

Please fell free to post any critiques or your own idea's, everyone has there own way and I am interested in reading about them.

[Moontanman]

I will start out by explaining the steps I take to set up an aquarium.

#1. First you have to have an idea of what type of aquarium you want to set up. Big fish, little fish, do you want to mimic a complete ecosystem or do you want a totally artificial tank with florescent pink gravel? For me the eco-mimic is the only way to go. To set up a real ecosystem I would have to rip out the side of my house, possibly even reorient my house in relation to the sun so lets not get too far into fantasy land

#2. I like to build my own aquaria to match both the space available and the use I intend to put the aquarium to. Right now I have an existing 125 gallon tank I built 23 years ago that is still in good shape.

#3. Decide on how you plan to filter the water. I use a 55 gallon sump with a five gallon pump container. I plan to grow a dense cover of Azzola carolinias in the sump and stock it with dwarf crayfish, ghost shrimp, amphipods, isopods, cyclops, daphnia, and clams.

#4. Plan ahead for what you want the tank to look like. I plan to glue lava rock to the back of the tank to make a porous rock wall that will serve both as a back drop and growing place for creeping plants but also a refugium for tiny crustaceans so that they can hide from the fish. It's important to give tiny animals a place to hide and reproduce. I often start months or even years in advance by picking up small stones, drift wood or even aging green wood when I find pieces that are hollow or other wise interesting in shape or color. I plan to use black sugar sized sand (Tahitian Moon Sand) I have been collecting rock from various places and I have several pieces of water worn coal, drift wood, a bright white piece of solidified weathered polyester polymer. (very cool looking)

I know this seems complex but it's really only wordy, more later on. (and you thought you were an aquarium fanatic ) Since I do much of this stuff on an ongoing basis it's not difficult for me to have a supply of Rocks, drift wood, and other things already at hand. many pet shops sell rocks and wood but I like to know where very peice came from OC for sure!


#5. setting up the tank and stand and sump lights. I use florescent shop lights over the sump four 40 watt bulbs suspended about four inches above the water level. I also use a smaller chamber next to the sump (about five gallons) to house the pump. A siphon transfers water from the sump to the pump chamber. A over flow baffle in the pump chamber keeps the water in the sump at a constant level.

#6. interior set up, I use a special soil mix under the sand about one half inch thick with about three inches of sand in front to around five inches of sand in the back of the tank. The soil mix consists of...

Aquarium Soil Mix Ratios

2 Pt. Peat Compost
1 Pt. Red Clay
1 Pt. Oak Leaves (ground)
3 Pt. Lava Rock Flour
2 Pt. Ground charcoal, (not briquettes)

Once you have your back round in place and the sand in place it's time to put in decorations. I use lots of drift wood and water worn coal. I like dark colors because they make the fishes color more intense. (for some reason the opposite works better for marine fish.)

#7. Light Hood, I usually use two or three 175 watt metal halides for lighting but this time I am planning to use xenon lighting. It will take around six to nine of these lights but I am hoping they will put off less heat and more light.

In time I will try to download pictures to help explain more clearly what I am talking about .

#8. Bring your tank and stand into the house and mount the lights over your tank. Going with commercial lighting will be much easier but more expensive. Spread out a layer of the soil mix about ½” deep evenly across the bottom of the tank. Get a piece of fiberglass window screen and cut a piece about one inch bigger than the inside bottom of your tank. Split each corner at a 45 degree angle about ½ inch into the screen. Place this screen on top of the soil mix and bring up the sides of the screen. They should stick up about ½ inch above the soil. Spread in your sand of choice to a depth of 4 inches across the bottom of the aquarium.

#9. Hook up all your plumbing, make sure all the over flow drains connect with the sump and the sump is connected to the pump chamber. Spread out a piece of newspaper across maybe one third of the bottom of the aquarium and pour water onto the news paper. This will keep the sand from being stirred up by the water flow. Fill the aquarium up to the over flow, then you can start adding your decorations. In my case this will be several pieces of water worn coal, drift wood (already water logged), and various rocks. Complete the fill up, turn on your pump and allow the water to circulate for about 24 hours.

#10. After you have made sure everything circulates the way you want you can add your plants. Tall plants should be added to the back of the tank and short plants to the foreground. These decorations should please you, no one can tell you what plants to use or what rocks drift wood or other things to add. I plan to add various aquatic mosses to the back layer of lava rocks on the back of the tank. I also like Cape Fear spadder docks, red lotus, amazon swords, any thing with lots of big leaves and I like red plants as well.

#11. I like to allow my plants to establish themselves fro about a month before I add fishes. I plan to add fish from the following list.

Cetopsis cf. Montana 7M 6.b x2
Synodontis multimaculatus 7M 6.b x2
Cetopsidium cf. pemon 7M 6.b x2
Hummingbird catfish 7M 6.b x1
Tatia perugiae 7T 6.a x2
Cetopsis umbrosa 5M 6.b x3
DEBAUWI CATS 9M 5.a x4
GLASS CATS 7T 5.b x4
CLOWN PLECOSTOMUS 3S 7.a x3
UPSIDE DOWN CAT 7S 6.b x5
PANDA OR SKUNK CORY CAT 5B 6.c x1
BANJO CATS 3B 8.b x2
BUMBLE BEE CATS 3B 7a x3
Microsynodontis batesii
African Bumblebee catfish 3B 7.b x2
FLAGTAIL PORTHOLE CATS 3B 8.a x2
Hyalobagrus flavus 7M 7.a x2

COOLIE LOACH 5B 7.a x4
DWARF BOTIA 5B 7.a x4
Dwarf Indian puffer 5M 8.a x2

OCTICULATUS ALGEA EATER 7S 7.a x5

CHERRY BARB 5M 5.a x5

BUMBLE BEE GOBIE 5B 5.a x5
DWARF GOURAMI 3M 8.a x1
CELEBES RAINBOW FISH 9M 7.a x3
CELEBES HALF BEAK 3T 8.b x3
CARDINAL TETRA 12M 6.a x5
GLOW LIGHT TETRA 7M 6.c x2
RUMMY NOSE TETRA 9M 6.c x3
SILVER TIP TETRA 7M 6.c x2
MARBLED HATCHET FISH 7T 6.c x3
Galaxy Rasbora 9M 6.c x3
Blue tetra 7M 6.b x3

MOSQUITO FISH 36T 4.a x2
WHITE CLOUDS 12M 4.b x3
Tongue sole F/W 3B 7.a x3
FLOUNDER F/W 3B 7.a x3
GLASS KNIFE FISH 1A 8.a x5
ELEPHANT NOSE FISH 1B 8.b x3
BABY WHALES 5A 8.b x3

STURGEON 3B 9.a x1
ROPE FISH 3B 9.a x1
DRAGON EEL 3B 9.a x1
DWARF MUDPUPPY 3B 7.a x2
Dwarf sirens 3B 7.a x3

GLASS SHRIMP 36 3.b x3
CLAMS 12 3.b x1
MUSSELS 12 3.b x1
CRABS 12 3.a x5
Dwarf Crayfish 12 3.a x5
BEE SHRIMP 24 3.a x10

Isopods TNTC 2.b
Gammerus TNTC 2.b
Rotifers TNTC 2.a
Daphnia TNTC 2.a
Cyclops TNTC 2.a
Black worms TNTC 2.a
Tubifex worms TNTC 2.a

Substrate NOEQ 1.a
Plants NOEQ 1.a
Trees NOEQ 1.b
Green Water NOEQ 1.b

Plant list

cypress
pond apple
water tupelo
roughleaf dogwood

barclay longafolia
spadder dock
dwarf umbrella palm
pickeral plant
dwarf cattail
sweet flag
dwarf swords
bannana plant
water poppy
snow flake
yellow fringe
dwarf water bamboo
water iris purple

amicules

eugalina
rotafers
chorella
red algea
stentors
inforazoans

animals

amphipods large and small
isopods large and small
cypris
daphnia magna
ghost shrimp
jap shrimp
atydid shrimp
dwarf crayfish


Of course all these fishes and plants will not fit into this 125 gallon tank but it is a working list of what I like and I can select from these lists as I find them in pet shops. Even better I also have the choice of collecting native fishes from my area. What you put in your tank is up to you, just make sure you add the tiny animals first and the bigger fish last. If all goes well I will be adding fish within three months of start up. I will add the tiny crustaceans and planktonic animals after about a month of plant growth. I will not add anyfish until my sump has a complete growth of Azzola across the top of the water to help purify the water. I know this isn’t complete but I will be glad to answer any questions and I look forward to reading your own idea’s.
If anyone is interested I will try to down load photos of this process as I do it.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Freezy- This thread is long overdue, so I'm glad you started it MM.

YUP!!!

I like to call these instances 'involuntary water changes'.

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.

Amabeliever- I like to run 'clean systems', meaning, I do not have to clean anything myself.

Yep...much better to let things balance out and take care of themselves than to have to bust your buns scraping glass, cleaning and changing carbons every week or so followed by vaccuuming fish poopies

My 75 which houses my 12 year old mamma and pappa Tiger Oscars has only needed the occasional top off once every couple of weeks or so for years now.(And yes I moniter my water chemistry) I don't dink around with carbon or any of that other junk. It has 5" of plain old creek gravel and assorted natural (found while rock hunting in local streams and along the shore of Lake Erie) "rocks of interest"(pretty ones) providing mechanical filtration via an undergravel plate. The return is fed through an undergravel plate which is covered with lake sand in a 30gal. Duckweed and ancheris take care of the final pollish before overflowing back to the 75.

Sadly their offspring aren't enjoying as good a luck in their tank...I'm pretty sure all fishkeepers suffer "perfect setup madness"(The desire to achieve a perfect closed/semi-closed loop self maintaining environment leading to increasingly more elaborate kit)...in any case I do and they are the unfortunate test subjects (I don't let it get bad but they don't seem to appreciate the constant weekly/bi-weekly intrusions for pest control ,water checks and changes.).

[Moontanman]

You should try a couple hundred gallons of salt water spewing out into a carpeted room! You just can't fix that! I've built aquariums from 90 gallons to 3500 gallons. aquarium keeping never gets old, just more and more interesting! The fish and plants list I have posted were meant for a 1200 gallon tank that was in the works as a addition to a new room I was planning. Needless to say it didn't happen. It would have been outside the room with just the face of the aquarium in the room and the rest of the tank would have been outside in a small greenhouse. Yeah I know fanatic

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.