AquaticArt

40 gallon update

2008-09-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

It seems with my 40 gallon, I underestimated the difficulty of what I am trying to accomplish. Trying to balance a tank that is full of rock, foreground plants, and slow growing delicate plants has been challenging. Algae blooms, high summer temperatures, and plant eating snails have all been major obstacles to the success of this tank.

Despite all this, the majority of the plants are growing very well, and I still expect the tank to become trouble free in the near future.

15 gallon update

2008-09-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

The 15 gallon has been chugging along for 5 months now, and is looking much more mature. There have been minor algae problems, but for the most part it has been pretty smooth sailing. Hopefully the background will start to fill in soon, and there are still a few plants to be added that have been difficult to track down.

The tank is home to two species of fish: clown killies, and Boraras brigittae aka chili rasbora. A species of red shrimp, called cherry shrimp, will be added when a good source is found.

The makings of a high tech tank

2008-05-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

It is time to reveal my new tank, but first, a look at it's components.

The tank I am using is a 40 gallon breeder, dimensions 36x18x16.
The lighting is a pair of 55 watt compact fluorescent bulbs, with high quality reflectors. This should provide enough light to grow any plant available, but still low enough to keep growth slow enough to be manageable.

The plumbing is driven by a Rena Xp3 cannister filter, which cleans the water and provides a home for the bacterium necessary for aquatic life.
The water is then directed through a CO2 reactor, which churnes bubbles of carbon dioxide into the water. From there the water passes through an inline heater, and back into the tank.

This shot of a leak test:

Nutrients are provided through additions of dry fertilizers, and the water is kept nice and clean with weekly water changes of half the tank water.

The results, an algae free tank full of healthy growing plants.

The plants should be grown in enough to start shaping and propagating them very soon.

Here is the solitary current resident of the tank, more to come soon!

15 gallon update

2008-04-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

The 15 gallon has been planted for nearly a month now, and it has survived a fungus outbreak, a diatom algae outbreak, and is fighting of a minor black beard algae fit.
It is now inhabited by pond snails, mini ramshorn snails, and some type of tiny white worms, as well as a single introduced species, 3 amano shrimp.

The plants are all healthy and growing new leaves. The floating plants need to be thinned once a week or more. All with nothing but a bit of top off water and a pinch of various fertilizer powders weekly. Once set up, low light tanks are extremely easy to maintain!

Equipment for the 15 gallon

2008-04-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

One of the beauties of a low light tank, is that the equipment demands are very low.
Everything can be purchased at even the worst of pet stores, and for a relatively low price.

Here is the list for the 15 gallon:
A hang on the back filter, in this case, an Aquaclear 30,
A cheapo powerhead (aquarist term for submersible pump used for water movement),
A submersible heater, in this case a 100 watt marineland visi-therm stealth,
and a home made lighting fixture with 2x15 watt fluorescent bulbs.

The set up of powerhead and heater:

The lighting fixture was assembled using the end caps and ballasts ripped from $8 fixtures from Home Depot. In addition, reflectors from the local weed grower store were added. The bulbs were upgraded to a more plant friendly full spectrum bulb. It is important to shield the ballasts to avoid unnecessary replacements and a smoky house.

That's it. Nothing more than filter, heater, water movement and a bit of light!

Is There Life on Mars?

2008-04-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

Just a teaser of what I've been working on...

Almost finished!

2008-04-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Update on the tank: the stand has been polyed and leveled, the lighting hardware has been attached, and the tank has been planted!

I'm using a substrate that is a mixture of eco-complete and topsoil, with a layer of pure eco-complete on top. The topsoil will provide additional nutrients to the rooted plants, and as the rooting plants I'm using (cryptocorynes) hate change, hopefully it will provide them with a greater degree of stability.

The hardscape is manzanita branches and basalt. The plants used so far are cryptocoryne spiralis, cryptocoryne wendtii "red", and narrow leaf java fern, as well as various floating plants.

And here is the complete set up with the hanging lights:

Once more plants have been added, and have had time to stabilize and grow, it will be time to start adding fish!

More progress on the stand

2008-03-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit of work on the stand this weekend. I finished attaching the trim, countersunk the nails, puttied them in, sanded the entire thing and stained it.

This tank previously had a painted background. I have been thinking of removing it, but the move made the decision for me:

Luckily, Krylon Fuzion comes off of glass well. It requires some time and effort, but comes off clean and scratch free. The tank actually managed to be moved 4300 miles across the country in a U-Haul without receiving a scratch or crack.

I also started putting together the fixtures to hang the light. I am using ridged electrical conduit for the task.

It is a really nice solution, just add some eye hooks and black spraypaint for an elegant fixture.

More work on the new stand

2008-03-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

I managed to get some more work done on the stand for the new tank today. Not as much as hoped, but it continues to move along.
I added a plywood "skin" to the 2x4 frame:

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a measuring error, but it will be hidden in the next step:

I then began to add the trim boards, which conveniently hide any sloppy work and make the whole thing look nicer in general.

Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to start staining and sealing.

The Needs of Aquatic Plants

2008-03-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Growing aquatic plants is first and foremost about creating a proper environment for them to live in. Unlike terrestrial plants, aquatic plants can not be over or under watered (unless removed from the tank!) do not have humidity requirements, and will not be afflicted with bugs or disease.
They do, though, have their own set of specific requirements, which must be kept in mind when
putting together the components of the tank where they will be kept.

Light

Light is the energy that drives a planted tank. Too little and the plants stall out and die. Too much without the proper understanding and equipment can drive the plants and system too hard, leaving dysfunctional plants in a tank full of algae. The question then is how much is right? The answer depends on what sort of system the tank will be running, high light for high tech systems, low light for low tech systems. More on that later, but the baseline is usually around 1.5-2 watts of fluorescent lighting per gallon of tank water.

Carbon Dioxide

Plants are carbon based life forms, and their source of carbon is CO2. CO2 is much harder for aquatic plants to obtain than terrestrial plants, with liquid being a poor medium for gas exchange! Under lower lighting, many plants can remove enough CO2 from the tank water to remain healthy. Using higher lighting allows faster growth rates and a wider selection of plants, but using a method of injecting CO2 into the tank water to raise its concentration becomes necessary.

Fertilization

In additon to light, water and carbon dioxide, plants need their nutrients, and aquatic plants are no exception, they need their NPK as well. Nitrogen, potassium, phosphate and trace elements such as iron are needed for healthy plant growth. In a properly lit tank filled with plants, they simply can not receive enough of these nutrients from fish waste alone, and these elements must be supplemented by other means, through the substrate and added into the water directly.
The trick then becomes adding enough for the plants, and not so much to adversely affect the health of the other tank inhabitants.

It might sound complicated, but there are proven methods for balancing all these elements: lighting, fertilizing, and managing carbon dioxide levels. With a bit of knowledge, having a successful planted tank to be proud of can be quite easy!

Beginnings of a new tank

2008-02-24T21:25:00.000-08:00

It is time to get started on a new tank. For this one, I can clearly imagine a low light, low tech tank filled with crypts and epiphytes for sort of a "fantasy forest" feel. Unfortunately the tank currently looks like this:

Clearly I have a long way to go!
First step, this tank needs a new stand. I'm not fond of any of the readily available stands, so I'm building my own. Unfortunately, I don't have the proper tools to do the sort of job I would like, but it should look halfway decent in the end.

To start I have created a basic skeleton using 2x4s.

The next step will be to add a plywood skin.

What is a planted tank?

2008-02-23T23:08:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows what a fish tank is, but what is a planted fish tank? Plenty of aquarium owners have at one time or another added a live plant or two as decoration into their tank, but a handful of plant inside a fish tank does not make a planted tank. A planted tank is a fish tank where plants occupy a significant portion of the tank, ofter the entire surface of the substrate. It is an important distinction, as a planted tank requires different maintenance and upkeep than a fish only tank, or a tank with a plant or two.

Why a planted tank?

The first reason is easy, tanks filled with plants look cool. A garden like arrangement has much more visual interest than a tank with few decorations. Many fish interact with their environments, and different behaviors can be observed in planted tank. Fish health is another benefit. Plants process fish waste and remove harmful chemicals from the water. Healthy plants equal healthy fish!

Is it difficult?

While any planted tank is going to require a bit of planning to be successful, there are ways to create planted tanks that actually require less maintenance than fish only tanks.
For those that enjoy more complexity, there are plenty of ways to make tanks that are time consuming and challenging as well.

Previous tanks

2008-02-23T20:42:00.001-08:00

I'll start off by showing my previous tanks.

This tank was done in a low tech, low light, zero water change style. It had the barest minimum of lighting for the plants health, needed very little in added nutrients beyond fish waste, and only required water changes when the substrate was disturbed.

The equipment was removed for this photo, but only consisted of a hang on the back filter and a heater.

Although the plants lived and grew under the low lighting, they were never able to thrive to the point that I could shape them as I wanted.

At the time of this picture, the inhabitants were a male Betta splendens (siamese fighting fish), a Corydoras pygmaeus (pygmy cory), and a Parotocinclus sp. (pitbull pleco) along with numerous snails.

This tank was done in a high tech, high light style. It featured compact fluorescent lighting, injected CO2, and a canister filter. I used what is called the EI method, which basically means relatively large additions of nutrients are added daily, along with a weekly water change of %50 to disallow the levels of those nutrients to reach levels toxic to the fish.

At the time of this picture, the inhabitants were 11 Trigonostigma heteromorpha (harlequin rasbora), 5 Otocinclus sp. (Oto catfish), 5 Corydoras reticulatus (network cories), 3 Crossocheilus
siamensis (siamese algae eater) and a Cardina japonica (amano shrimp) as well as countless tiny snails.

Look out for this tank in the upcoming Aquatic Gardeners Association and Aqua Design Amano competions!