North Carolina biotope - Local Biotopes

viridari · 01-04-2008, 07:31 PM

I'm a long-time aquarist (some 30 years now I reckon) but never ever really took a serious attempt at growing plants successfully. Oh, I did a couple of half-way attempts, merely by putting two el-cheapo flo. tubes over the tank instead of just one. You can imagine how that went.

But I'm going to give it a more serious go now, and combine my appreciation for native fishes with my desire to have a lovely planted aquarium in my home office.

The tank is a 55 gallon. Yes, I know, not ideal for plants. It was ideal for growing out baby angelfish, which was its original purpose. But I'll work with what I've got.

The UGF is getting put out to the curb next trash day.

The HOB filter is getting replaced with something like an Eheim 2215 most likely.

The old Home Depot shop light fixture is gone. I'm weighing my lighting options, and will likely go with something like a 2x65W power compact light fixture with those newfangled 6700K/10000K combo bulbs. Keep in mind, this will be a combination fish/plant tank hence the choice of bulb. Or is this a huge mistake?

All of the plants, rocks, substrate, wood, fish, etc. will either be locally collected by me or acquired through trades with other local collectors.

NoSvOrAx · 01-04-2008, 10:24 PM

Bulbs are fine. I have those and like them.
Personally I don't think thats enough filter for a 55. I'd perfer a rena xp3 (~175 gph).
HTH

Kurt Reinhart · 01-05-2008, 06:45 AM

You may want to consider a low tech tank... I think that you could probably do well. I would recommend reading "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" which uses lots of data rich research to relate natural aquatic systems with aquariums.

A couple highlights are use some emergent plants (aren't C02 limited so can take up nutrients and compete with algae), soil based substrate, fish food as nutrient additions, etc. I can envision your tank being an open top and having great success and less maintenance (except for clipping to keep the plants actively growing).

Either way, there a tons of ways of having a successful tank. I'll be interested in seeing what you come up with.

viridari · 01-05-2008, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viridari

I'm weighing my lighting options, and will likely go with something like a 2x65W power compact light fixture with those newfangled 6700K/10000K combo bulbs. Keep in mind, this will be a combination fish/plant tank hence the choice of bulb.

Just an update... I placed the order tonight for a Current USA Satellite fixture, and replaced the factory bulbs with 2x65W 6700K/10000K combo bulbs. So I'll have 130W of light on the 55 gallon tank.

I also ordered a 40W PC lamp with the same type of bulb for my 10 gallon quarantine tank. Given the 4W/gal ratio I'll have CO2 on the quarantine tank (one of those DIY jobs)

Tomorrow I have to make a little repair to the 55 gallon stand from when we moved to the new house and one of the supports got broken. I'll also start sifting topsoil from the back yard to get both the quarantine and display tanks started. I have a stream in my yard where I can collect live sand and some rocks to get the biofilm started.

I hope to have it all thoroughly cycled by the end of February, which is when I've got a big collecting trip on schedule with the local aquarium club, and I hope to pick up some good fish & plants. I have a couple more 10G tanks for fish quarantine, but just the one 10G tank for plant quarantine.

By next weekend I should be able to start posting "before" photos of the display tank with full substrate in place and some local rocks. If I'm lucky, the light fixture will be in by then as well.

With fish-only tanks I would typically go overkill on the filtration but I don't want to suck up the plants, and I'm not going crazy with the fish load in this display tank, so I'm leaning towards a lower flow rate filter. Actually Eheim suggests the 2213 for a 55 gallon tank. The 2215 gives a bit of a buffer. If this were fish-only I would go with a 2217 minimum. In any case, I'm pretty well set on getting an Eheim regardless of the specific model. It's likely to be either 2213 or 2215. I've got plenty of supplemental filtration around if the Eheim is not enough filter for the tank, and can always use that Eheim somewhere else like my turtle tank if need be, so it won't be a waste of money if I undercut it.

I don't really want to replicate a riffle or anything like that so I want to keep the flow rates down. Most of my collecting will be in fairly still waters for this particular tank.

viridari · 01-06-2008, 02:02 PM

The stand is repaired and the tank is on it.

I started sifting topsoil into a bucket and got enough sifted topsoil to put a fine layer across the bottom of the tank. That took me quite some time to get that far. I'm going to have to do some sifting every day this week until I get enough topsoil for the substrate in the display tank and the plant quarantine tank. I think it's going to be worth the effort, though. We've got some great soil in the back yard and it has just a little bit of red tint to it, so I suspect it's got some good iron content in it.

The top soil I'm sifting is what I've already dug up to put a pond in the back yard, so the soil was already disturbed anyway. It's not like I'm wrecking my yard for this tank.

I expect to have my live sand / gravel layer from the stream bed by this weekend and fill it up with water then.

viridari · 01-08-2008, 06:22 PM

Things are running ahead of my plans due to a cancelled dentist appointment this afternoon.

Substrate is in place. Water is in it, minus about 3-4" at the top. Letting the cloudiness settle out.

The lighting is due to arrive on Friday.

The kids have been getting involved helping me to get this set up so that has been an unexpected bonus. Sifting the dirt was very tedious and it went by faster with the kids keeping me company.

Kurt Reinhart · 01-09-2008, 06:38 PM

Sounds like its really coming along. You're about ready to do some collecting. As a general rule, I think low water conditions are better than high. The drought in your area might help concentrate the fish and keep you a bit drier. Get a nice dipnet. Seines can also work depending on the habitat.

I have fond memories of some collecting trips. The trick is to figure out the right places to go. Going with an aquarium group or native fish group (e.g. http://www.nanfa.org/default.shtml) will really help IMO.

And if you don't do well then there are a couple of online dealers that have pretty nice selections of natives (e.g. Jonah's aquarium [he also sells some nice nets and collecting gear]) and aquabid.com gets natives. I've found finding native plants for sale harder than finding fish.

viridari · 01-09-2008, 06:56 PM

Hi Kurt,

Yeah I'm already a dues-paying member of NANFA. I've moved around a bit over the last few years which is why I have to start all over again with my tanks. My seine has turned up. But my dipnet has not so I'll be getting another one shortly.

My Python turned up today so I did two rinse/fill cycles on the tank, which is just what the doctor ordered. The water is fairly clear now.

I've got some old HOB filters on there for now until the $$$ is ready for the canister filter. Whoever named these things "Whisper" has a bad sense of humor. The Aquaclear 200 is oh so much quieter.

I'm going out collecting with the Raleigh Aquarium Society at the end of February but honestly I'm not going to be able to wait that long so I expect I'll probably have the first few fish and plants in there in the next 2 weeks.

viridari · 01-11-2008, 02:05 PM

Lighting is in place. I would call it "adequate".

The product description for the Current USA Satellite fixture doesn't say anything about the "legs" being included (for elevating the fixture a few inches above the water) but they are included. I was missing a screw for the legs but I seem to be doing ok without it right now.

This fixture only comes with 2 of the moonlight LED's. It's a pretty cool effect. Perhaps too dim for true night time viewing, but we'll see once there are some fish & plants in there.

The water is still quite cloudy, and the supplemental HOB filters appear to be unable to polish this fine cloudiness out. I may have to do another water change. Not used to working with natural substrate like this, and I'm sure that's the source of all this cloudiness.

If I were to do it all over again, I would pay the extra for more lighting. The new light is a 130W power compact strip. Half the bulb is 10,000K white, the other half is 6700K white. 260W probably would have satisfied me more.

viridari · 01-13-2008, 07:18 AM

Cycling with rosies now.