ok Im looking at bumping the 55 up to a 75 and transplanting the inhabitants. As a result of that, the 55 would be barren and in need of some life.
Idea I had (had to do something to ignore the 12'L 40+lb piece of my desk I was carrying up 10 flights of stairs) was to basically do a full driftwood setup.
Ill explain:
Manzanita or other branchy type wood laid horizontally and stacked on top of each other across the back of the tank, low light, low maintenance plants (anubias, Javas, maybe Bolbitis) with probably either a sand or schultzs substrate (possibly added leaf litter).
Its a bit hard to describe what I have an idea of, let me know if you want more clarification. I am basically thinking of the trying to recreate one of the pools that driftwood/mulm accumulate off of rivers, with a tannin stained look.
Inhabitants are one stumbling block, would like to have some shrimp at least for the cleanup factor.
Filtration would be done via a canister and also via 2 inverted powerheads connected via a spray bar to keep the mulm from accumulating behind/beneath the driftwood.
Any ideas/help to flesh this out?
Yes I realize it would involve a good amount of specific manzanita (all would need to be non branching pieces.
had an idea last night and wanted input..
had an idea last night and wanted input..
The other Jeff
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
We just so happen be selling manzanita at the meeting/auction on the 29th. 
The only problems I see with this are:
1. Possibly shading the bottom too much to grow many types of plants.
2. For the first little bit, your water is really going to be tea colored, or darker.
Otherwise, I think it's a great idea. I've contemplated doing something similar, but with a leaf-litter ground to simulate apistogramma habitat in the Amazon. (Of course, that's largely devoid of aquatic plants, so I haven't done it.)
The only problems I see with this are:
1. Possibly shading the bottom too much to grow many types of plants.
2. For the first little bit, your water is really going to be tea colored, or darker.
Otherwise, I think it's a great idea. I've contemplated doing something similar, but with a leaf-litter ground to simulate apistogramma habitat in the Amazon. (Of course, that's largely devoid of aquatic plants, so I haven't done it.)
hmm, why did I put this in critters??
Oh well.
might as well make use of the critter portion of the plant forum hehe..
Looking now to try and come up with a fish list, I am thinking I might try to do a school of smaller rasboras or something that wont devour shrimp, wont get huge and wont overpower my idea.
Oh well.
might as well make use of the critter portion of the plant forum hehe..
Looking now to try and come up with a fish list, I am thinking I might try to do a school of smaller rasboras or something that wont devour shrimp, wont get huge and wont overpower my idea.
The other Jeff
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
-
DelawareJim
- Posts: 1249
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:25 pm
- Real Name: Jim Michaels
- Location: Southeast PA
I don't know acidic it would be, but if the water doesn't disolve the shrimp, they will love feeding on all that mulm and organic matter.
I can picture the setup. You could do an african biotope with anubias and bolbitis or a South American Rio Negro biotope.
Talk with Robert Ricketts about his stacked wall backgrounds he's growing anubias on. I know he's using rocks but it should be the same principle with wood.
Cheers.
Jim
I can picture the setup. You could do an african biotope with anubias and bolbitis or a South American Rio Negro biotope.
Talk with Robert Ricketts about his stacked wall backgrounds he's growing anubias on. I know he's using rocks but it should be the same principle with wood.
Cheers.
Jim
Yeah I was hoping that Robert would pop his head in here to add a bit of info.
I can take what I have learned from my cork wall experiments and apply them to this idea with almost no change as well Id guess.
Re: the acidic shrimp issue, I need to check the PH of the 15h when I get it back to stable and setup but I think it was below 7 with no issues other then a constant stream of dead ramshorns (the shrimp love to eat the dead/dying snails).
I need to prune that 15h back but I am hesitant because the Galaxies are in there and I am hoping they are breeding (the sole glowlight is hopefully NOT eating the eggs).
DOH, just realized Galaxies love blackwater (according to everything I have seen on Google), maybe I will put them in the 55, err wait, I cant find them in a 15h, how the hell would I find them in a 55?
I can take what I have learned from my cork wall experiments and apply them to this idea with almost no change as well Id guess.
Re: the acidic shrimp issue, I need to check the PH of the 15h when I get it back to stable and setup but I think it was below 7 with no issues other then a constant stream of dead ramshorns (the shrimp love to eat the dead/dying snails).
I need to prune that 15h back but I am hesitant because the Galaxies are in there and I am hoping they are breeding (the sole glowlight is hopefully NOT eating the eggs).
DOH, just realized Galaxies love blackwater (according to everything I have seen on Google), maybe I will put them in the 55, err wait, I cant find them in a 15h, how the hell would I find them in a 55?
The other Jeff
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
I would use some type of fish with brilliant colors like cardinal tetras or espei rasboras. Otherwise, in the tanic water you won't see much. 
Using the Anubias and ferns could be tricky as they tend to thrive moreso in water with some hardness. Bolbitis should do well though.
I'm hoping to do a smaller blackwater setup to try growing some of my blackwater loving Crypts species submersed. My plan is to put a pair of dwarf chiclids in my setup.
Using the Anubias and ferns could be tricky as they tend to thrive moreso in water with some hardness. Bolbitis should do well though.
I'm hoping to do a smaller blackwater setup to try growing some of my blackwater loving Crypts species submersed. My plan is to put a pair of dwarf chiclids in my setup.
Oh I definetely am going for small fish in a big tank. I know the 55 is a pain to work with due to depth so hopefully the smaller fish will make it much easier.
I originally wanted to do the above setup with the Praecox but I dont think they would do well in a blackwater type setup.
huh, bit more research shows that they may well come from a blackwater setup. I am going to have to stop by TFW and talk to Jim K. about this.
I originally wanted to do the above setup with the Praecox but I dont think they would do well in a blackwater type setup.
huh, bit more research shows that they may well come from a blackwater setup. I am going to have to stop by TFW and talk to Jim K. about this.
The other Jeff
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
Master of growing algae and getting better at plants
-
DelawareJim
- Posts: 1249
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:25 pm
- Real Name: Jim Michaels
- Location: Southeast PA
Here's a start.
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... cle_id=603
Quite a few hits when I googled Rio Negro biotope.
Cheers.
Jim
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... cle_id=603
Quite a few hits when I googled Rio Negro biotope.
Cheers.
Jim
