Fish Tanks

[lefty]

Originally Posted by Korben

^^^^ wow on both the previous post. I would love to have either the reef or fresh water. On the first fresh water tank, how did they get that beautiful bed of grass?

Short leafed plant or "carpet grass" though they were probably pruned for the shot.

Originally Posted by Korben

What species is it? media for the bottom? What type of lighting? Also, wouldn't plants need O2, I mean they make CO2.

Substrates used to be whatever sterile gravel you could find, but in the 70s the Germans discovered that an iron-based substrate would allow plants to flourish. There are specially designed products now. Many people use topsoil covered in a layer of gravel.

There are a variety of ways to light a planted tank, but basically 2 watts/gallon. Plants extract CO2 in the water and covert it to O2. Heavily planted tanks need the addition of CO2 usually in the form of a pressurized injection system.

Takashi Amano is a rock star of the planted aquarium. He was the first to use Japanese gardening principles in his tanks which look like rock gardens. The style is called Iwagumi.


These are large but need to be seen at this size.

Winner of the AGA 2009 Aquascaping Contest.

And others:

lefty

 

[BDC2823]

These are my two modest aquariums at home. 20 gallon with tropicals (need to get more fish) and 30 gallon with crawfish (not sure what I really want to do with it so just threw these guys in there).

 

[Wrigglez]

3 ft tank bout 120L, childs, blue rams, butterfly rams, tetra ect, pretty low maintainance, nice to look at when you on the phone to someone boring

 

[Willie5566]

@lefty those tanks are beautiful no doubt. They also seem like they were professionally done. How successful would a regular Joe be at doing one of those?

As for saltwater, nothing else compares IMO. There are so many unique creatures:

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/mari...rs/cowfish.php

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/mari...rs/dogface.php

Corals that have mouths and eat food:



Here is a clip with an anemone eating a fish but also shows the relationship clown fish have with anemones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZddJ...eature=related

This barely scratches the surface. Throw in venomous fish, invertebrate's, beautiful clams, etc. I think it is hard to beat a saltwater tank. That said they are a tremendous amount of work.

 

[Korben]

Originally Posted by Korben

What species is it? media for the bottom? What type of lighting? Also, wouldn't plants need O2, I mean they make CO2.



I have thought about a small reef tank. Just don't know how much time I have, What is the 20 gallon sump? Also, is there a good plug and play model?

I don't know what I was thinking with the above O2/CO2 comment, I think I got a case of the dumb tonight.

 

[unjung]

Holy hell, those planted tanks are stunning. Still not on the level of those Japanese reefs, and more sterile, but wow... really impressive.

 

[lefty]

One of the things I like about the Nature Aquarium movement is that add in aerial perspective and get a fair degree of depth to the landscape. I like reefs but they always seem like a wall. Here's Amano at work: http://akvarisztika.budapet.hu/2008/...azi-akvariuma/ lefty

 

[Korben]

Gosh... I want to get into this so bad. My problem is, I have limited time and will be moving in about 16 months.

 

[Henry Boogers]

Originally Posted by Willie5566

@lefty those tanks are beautiful no doubt. They also seem like they were professionally done. How successful would a regular Joe be at doing one of those?

.

Not lefty but I would consider myself an average Joe at maintaining aquariums and with a little research and patience I was pretty sucessful at keeping a planted tank. I had a DIY yeast CO2 system and daylight CF bulbs and it was gorgeous. The hardest part was the constant grooming that came with a healthy tank.

The caveat to this, of course, is the work shown by lefty is that of the premier 'artist' in this endeavor. Yours is unlikely to look like his, but if you steal concepts shamelessly on a smaller scale as I did you can do well.

 

[lefty]

^ Yes. You're looking at master work. Much like this bonsai from John Naka:

Henry is right - research + trial and error. I killed a lot of fish over the years before I got my Tanganyikans right. And this was in the 70s when fish that you can buy today for $2 cost hundreds. (When Neon Tetras were first exhibited at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago thousands lined up around the block just to see them. They arrived in Chicago via the Hindenburg.)

Do a search for "natural aquarium style" and you'll find lots of reading material and inspiration. The ***** is that the larger the tank the greater your odds of success.

Henry, the yeast worked well?

lefty

 

[ALFAMALE]

I have had this 65 gal reef tank for 7 years, but I'm considering putting an end to this hobby as ive calculated how much ive spent, $14,000. Dam I could **** a tom ford boutique if it wasn't for this thing.

 

[ohm]

Those are some beautiful tanks that have been posted.

I've had various saltwater tanks over the years although I don't have one now. For what it's worth my experience (anecdotal evidence!) was that if you didn't have any substrate on the bottom and had a significantly oversized skimmer all you had to do was add fresh water every week (and calcium if you had sps).

It can be a frustrating and expensive hobby and it's worth doing a fair bit of research before you go into it. For example, don't ever buy any blue damsels even though they're often recommended as first fish because they're territorial little bastards that are nearly impossible to catch and if you put them in first they'll attack fish you put in after them.

 

[lefty]

My first Tropheus cost me $75 ea and I bought a wild colony of 14 off of a German pilot who flew them from Africa. Lost six the first week, but the rest flourished and I became the goto guy for Trophs in my town. Made a few bucks off those guys, but for the most part hobbies are a money losing proposition. Love the Tropheus. Rock only tank which was easy to maintain.

lefty

 

[Henry Boogers]

Yes, the yeast system worked very well once I learned to put a check valve in line.

I just refilled it every now and then and had a very good stone through which the CO2 discharged as I didn't trust larger bubbles to do anything other than rise to the surface. The worst part about balancing everything was purchasing a fleet enema as cheap PO4.

This was my favorite tank endeavor, with killifish being a very close second:

 

[lefty]

When you got to the counter and said, "It's for my fish" did that make it better or worse?

Nothobranchius Rachovii?

lefty