catweazle

One tank which is medium tech (169x59x59, one Tanganyika (160x50x50) and one wish. A NPT.

December 2011 I got a 120x50x40 (H) tank. And now at last I did someting with it.

The book in the tank must be recognized by you all.



I have all the time of the world, but I'll want to keep a thread with all the progressions.

The earth I will be using I did start watering, drying watering in october 2011. This to prove I'm patient.


There is only one pitfall. I want to create something which also echoes a hillstream...

Skizhx

You'd be amazed how many people try these tanks without actually reading the book :P

Not quite a pitfall, just a scaping challenge...

I had a hillstream-esque image in mind for my tank



The foreground is Echinodorus Tennllus, background is dwarf sag.

No reason NPT has to be a crazy jungle... Just gotta balance things and make sure you got enough roots to occupy the substrate to keep it from going anaerobic.

If you think your pitfall is not enough plants in your scape, just stick an internal filter with some biomedia. It's not really cheating...

Also, remember that Walstad advises against any surface agitation. I see a lot of people ignoring this.

catweazle

The title is "hopefully". I'll be cheating.

But first this:




This photo is made in 1966. The photo is from the archive of "my" tank-club and visible on the site of the club which I develop (http://www.onsnatuurgenot.nl, it is Dutch). In 1966 I was one year old, so it is not my tank .

At that time there was no use of CO2, plants where not feeded with all kind of bottles/powders, but a "heavy bottom" was used. And the availability of plant species was less diverse. But then again I still do not know what the tap water was consisted of. I think at that point there was more PO4 and NO3 in it.

What I want with my third tank is a low maintenance tank (it is in the attic).

The echo of the hillstream means that I have a internal pump attached to (two) pipes to create a flow from left to right. The pipes are there, I have to test the system this weekend.

Secondly it means that I'm going to use stones as in a river. Gaps will be filled with sand.

Only those areas which will be planted get the bottom of soil. Before the stones there must come a sand-only "beach" (Rhinogobius Duospilus).

Lighting is breaking my head at this point.

Plants will be cryptocoryne, echonidorus and real waterplants which must reach beyond the surface (unlimited CO2) . Lets say (not the right phrase) less demanding plants.

But I'll have all the time in the world. Because hard scaping is nicer than finishing and painting the cupboard I'll be first focussing on stones and polyurethane (PUR foam).

And I'm still not sure if I'll be using a Hamburger mattenfilter (See this German site: http://www.deters-ing.de/Filtertechnik/Mattenfilter.htm). By the way this article http://www.deters-ing.de/Gastbeitraege/Mulm.htm, maybe you can try it in a translate site, informs about the mulm in a tank.

Will my tank be succesfull? I do not know. Keeping aquaria is a broad grey area. And remember the tank in my living room is medium-tech. I'm using CO2, have a plantfeeding regime. But I just also want a tank which keeps me in touch with the old-school Dutch tanks. There so many ways to achieve a goal in this hobby.

By the way, it does not matter which type of planted tank somebody has, the book of Walstad is readable, advisable for everbody.

Skizhx

I'm itching to read those articles, I'll have to bookmark them.

Your post and approach is refreshing. I wish you the best of luck.

Please keep us updated.

PaulG

1966?

catweazle

Yes. You are amazed?

Let me show some other tanks from the archive:

1965


1967


We do not have many photo's anymore from that time, which is a shame.

You'll have to remember that the hobby in the Netherlands is old, very old. "My" club started in 1935. A recipe for the bottom taken from a book published in 1947:

1 part leaf mold (I do not think this is a good translation)
1 part peat
1 part clay
1 part limestone rubble
4 parts riversand

Without a past no present.

But back to my topic. I tested the system of pipes this weekend, and it worked. I'll put some photo's in this topic tonight.

Travis.808

45 years later with "technology" and stuff and I'm not anywhere in the league of these! Amazed!

catweazle

These photo's were taken in the context of the annual contest. Or better, test. Each year members of a club opt to let a judge, judge the tank (intention was to learn, to achieve knowledge, nowadays it is more a contest). The best of those will enter district level, and the best of that test (#1) will enter national level.

This means that the photo's which we still have, represent the top of the club in those years. So please do not think this is the "regular" aquarium in the Netherlands. But it shows that without many technology a certain scape can be reached. Because we do not have much additional data about the tanks, we'll have to geuss about the size. Which can be done by looking at the used plants. My guess is max 40cm high, 1 bulb (TLD-8 or TLD-20).

catweazle

As promised some photo's of the progression.

Hillstream pipes


First part of the background which must be mounted right. I do not know how much space I will reserve or which filter medium I will use, it will function as an internal filter.

Skizhx

Funny how that works, huh?

All we've really been doing lately in this hobby is striving to make aquariums accessible to anyone who owns a teaspoon.

There's a whole world out there that seems to have just vanished somewhere...