Perfect Setup?
Fri, 04/23/2010 - 17:18
So I have been in a funk for about 6-8 months with my fish tanks and just not knowing where to go next with the hobby. Everything seems to cost more and right now I do not want to throw any more money into small things that will only prolong the inevitable. I really started to rethink my tanks and how they are setup and I have become even more a fan of the lower maintenance tanks instead of the high plant growth rate tanks I so much wanted early on in my foray into plants. My tanks that are running around 1 watt of light per gallon seem to look so much better than my higher tech, higher light, and higher fertilized tanks. I just do not have the balance that I need I guess because my high light tanks (some running close to 4 watts, CO2, Fertilized everyday) seem to just look like crud. I digress...
In light of all of this I have been thinking of what you all may like and what seems to work for you. After 6 years or so I think its time for a change. So on with the questions.
What is your perfect...
- tank size?
- amount of light?
- amount of maintenance (RO, chemicals, filters, etc.)?
- substrate?
- type of setup (planted, rockwork, wood, etc.)?
- type of fish?<.li>
- type of tank (biotope, community, inverts, etc.)?
Fri, 04/23/2010 - 22:29
#2
Green Acaras would make intersting species for a low tech tank. They come from water that has a pH of 7.7 to 9.2, so you wouldn't need to fuss with water conditions, they're cichlids so they have the personality, and I think they're pretty cool looking too 
And maybe drift wood and river stones for hardscape and valisneria and java fern? as well as anubias? I'm not much of a plant expert...
Just my thoughts,
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 07:38
#3
I have four tanks going right now which is my max because my husband and I live in a 30' diameter yurt up in the mountains. I'm in the process of creating outside habitats for some of my cool water species that will be heated during the winter months. So here is what I've got:
29 gal high:
1.75 watts/gal
50 gal aquaclear filter
heated at 72 degrees
black flourite with black gravel and smooth river rocks
CO2
Malasian and mopani driftwood, 1 piece with java moss, 1 with marimo moss
Planted with wisteria, water sprite, crypts, flame sword, chain sword, marsilea minutea, and dwarf hair grass. Also volunteer duckweed that came in on a plant. I've encouraged it as something to feed my goldfish.
Inhabitants - longfin white clouds, celestial pearls and sundadanio axelrodi. Bottom/algae crew are oto cats, amano and ghost shrimp, red spot nerite snails.
This tank is very stable with plants and fish thriving. I do 10-20% water changes weekly and root feed the plants monthly. Nothing else and my white clouds are spawning like crazy right now.
40 gal high
1.75 watts/gal
2 - 30 gal aquaclear filters
heated at 72 degrees
black flourite with large, rough surface rocks to keep the herbivores from digging everything up
CO2
Malasian and mopani driftwood
Planted with wisteria, hornwort, red rubin, melon sword, a variety of java ferns and anubias, African water fern and dwarf sags
Inhabitants: purple passion danios, longfin leopard danios, corys, otos and red spot nerites. Soon to move outdoors into a planted deck water feature are five goldfish and a variety of zebra danios. It's a bit crowded in there right now but soon won't be!
Since all of these fish and plants like water currents, I have both a bubble curtain and a water pump set up to create a stream of water that runs across the back of the tank and circles under a large piece of driftwood that creates a bridge. The purple passions are extreme schoolers and ride the currents like it's an amusement park.
This tank is also very stable and only requires weekly 10-20% water changes and monthly root feeding for the plants.
The other two tanks are a 5 gal planted nano tank with pygmy corys, microrasbora kubotai and cherry shrimp, and a 2 gal planted tank with snowball shrimp only.
I'm really happy with all of these tanks and once they cycled and I got the plants, light etc balanced, I've had no problems, tons of pleasure and minimum upkeep other than water changes, glass cleaning, root feeding and pruning plants.
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 12:22
#4
Carmon, thank you so much for your input. Those tanks sound great, and the thought of having a larger, community aquarium like you seem to have is really what I would like to get to eventually. The cichlid tanks I have are great, I just need to find out what I truly want to do with them. Plants and cichlids do not get a long well.
If you do not mind me asking, what type of lights are you using? Specifically what type of bulbs, ballasts, etc.? How long do you run your CO2? Do you run any controllers?
Lastly, I saw your post regarding the white clouds, which my wife really likes and would go great in our community tank. What type of water are you keeping them in currently?
Thanks again to everyone for your help!
Sun, 04/25/2010 - 14:24
#5
I'm an artist and not the least bit scientific so I may not have great technical answers for you! I'm sort of an intuitive gardener though, with 'green hands' and can grow roses, herbs and other things that people told me I couldn't grow at nearly 8,000' altitude!
Our water is from a deep water community well, no chemicals added. All I can tell you is that it is *very* hard and very alkaline. One of the reasons I got hooked on danios (fancy goldfish are an old college passion) is because they are so forgiving. At the same time, my corys, otos and shrimp are thriving too. The sundadanio axelrodis are supposed to need acidic water but seem to be doing great so something must be right.
Lighting was as simple as I could get ordering online. The 29 has a coralife fixture with 1 colormax and 1 6500k T-5 lamp. It also has a single bulb fixture with 1 T-8 lamp. The 40 has an Aqualight fixture with 1 colormax and 1 6500k T-5 lamp and a second fixture with 2 aqueon 8000k T-8 lamps. I didn't think I would need that many lights but they are tall tanks and the plants really needed that much after all.
No controllers. The CO2 is simple DIY systems for each tank and I put the airstones in when I turn the lights on in the morning, take them out when the lights go off at night. Lights are on about 12 hours a day. I got tired of mixing all of the sugar, yeast etc every two weeks and just ordered Turbo CO2 Bio Systems for the two big tanks and I'll see how they do! Changing out a canister once a month sounded a lot more simple and not much more expensive.
I love, love, love the longfin white clouds! So much so that I just ordered some gold ones. They are charming, calm fish and the males are constantly displaying for each other. They have been laying eggs like crazy in the 29 and even though they are not known to eat their own eggs and fry, I don't expect many to get past all of the amano shrimp I have in there. Once I get things more settled with the outdoor water features, I'll set up a breeder tank in an old 10 gal I have if you are interested in getting some babies.
As for plants, my goldfish that tore up and ate every plant I had don't touch java ferns, African water ferns, anubias, moss or hornwort. I have one black oranda, three ryukins and one fantail, all with bodies that would completely fill up my palm. I know they are going to love having a big deck pond to play in this summer instead of being crowded in with all of those hyper danios.
Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but I'll put in my 2 cents...
I think get the biggest tank you can afford or have room for and then massively understock it. That will lead to very low maintenance. Its actually what a lot of planted aquariums lead you to, but you can do it with unplanted aquariums as well. Get a 100+ gallon tank and put a few smaller fish with interesting personalities and it will be very forgiving of maintenance.