Any aquarium hobbyists out there?
 

Not sure this is the proper place to start this thread but I didn't see a Tilted Hobbies section, so I started it here.

I have a 29 gal. saltwater aquarium right now. Had it for a few months and I love it. Probably will be upgrading to a 75 gal. in a few weeks. I usually watch the fish more than the TV. I will have some pictures of the tank soon, but have to find a place to host them. Don't think picture attachments are allowed in the Gen. Discussion.

Just wanted to see if any other TFPers were also into this hobby...

I have a 31 gallon tank...But the house we have now is unfortunately too small to set it up.
When I did have it set up it was a freshwater fish tank. I loved it.
I had it set up in my bedroom. The sound of the water bubbles and the filter trickling is actually very relaxing. I can't wait till I'm able to set the tank back up.

Saltwater tank. Is that hard to keep up? Cleaning and maintenance ? I've always loved the look of saltwater tanks but have worried about the maintenance of all of it.

50 gallon freshwater tank. Three huge (6 inch) goldfish, one angelfish and two algae eaters.

20 gallon and 10 gallon planted freshwater tanks. Looking to possibly to getting 120 gallon tank, but that might be too expensive and to much maintenance

All I have is a 10 gallon freshwater, which I've had for about two years now. I would love to get a bigger one, somewhere around 50 gallons when I get the money.

I have a question though. How much more maintenance is required for a saltwater tank? The only thing that keeps me from starting one is that it seems like alot of work.

39gal reef tank, skimmerless. 3 years old

If you understand the Nitrogen Cycle, which is also present in a freshwater setup, then a saltwater tank isn't to much different really. If you keep only fish, then it's a little easier. Having a true reef tank with corals takes a bit more dedication though. Have to have the correct lighting conditions and water quality is paramount. If you like keeping a fish tank and don't neglect water changes and the day to day stuff, then a saltwater tank isn't that hard. Best thing you can do is read, read, and read some more. Knowing what to expect is a big part of preventing issues when you are starting a saltwater tank.

Here is a link to an awesome forum/information resource:
Reef Aquarium Guide

That is the best place I have found to get started.

yes.
years ago I did the whole bit, big tanks, saltwater reef, etc.
That was a lot of work.
Now I keep a 20 gal and 10 gal with goldfish
and Koi in the backyard pond.

I've presently got a 20L tank. just enough to keep the habit going. Now that I've finally moved someplace I'll be for several years I building a 45 Imp Gallon corner tank. And looking forward to it in a big way.

I've got a 20 gal community tank, and I'm building up a 50 gal tank for some cichlids. It's a great hobby!

I just bought me a new AGA 120g for my new reef, will be lighted by 2 250watt metal halides with pc actinics for the photosynths. Just drilled the glass to hook up a closed loop system, also have a 30g clam lagoon, and a 20g that houses all of my frags.

For your interest, a couple links that will answer all your qustions, and them some.

Reefs

ReefCentral

Heh, I'm bitten by the reef bug. Been lurking on RDO, RC and www.nano-reef.com. Read some books. Read them again. Unfortunately for me, the college student, it's not a cheap hobby. By a longshot. I'm about to set up my 29g, once I finish staining my stand. Patience is supremely frustrating sometimes.


Oh yeah, my g/f keeps FW. Best place for show quality goldfish is from Rick Hess at www.goldfishconnection.com. Sometimes pricey but always worth it. We have a beauty of a black moor whose body is as big as my fist.

I've got a 75g reef tank that has been up for three years, moved into froma 50g tank that was up two years before that. It's been a lot of fun with some highligts and lowlights.

It really isn't that hard to keep a 55g+ reef tank, as long as you pay attention to things and act on signs as soon as they are noticed.

I think it's important to be aware of the environmental affects of what you collect for your tank. Learn what the requirements are for things before you buy them, and only buy them if you think you can keep them alive. Also try to avoid things that are endangered, or that collecting damages the reef.

There are some plusses to keeping reef tanks. For people to get behind conserving something, they have to be able to see it in person. The more people are aware of how beautiful reefs are, the more dedicated they will be to preserve them. If we can contribute to this while minimizing the damage we cause the the reef then the hobby is a good thing. TM

55 gallon fresh water tank with 5 goldfish. Had 6 but one got old and died. I have had it up for 5 years with the same fish. I tell ya these babies are tough. For the first 3 years I was very good at keeping the water clean every week and checking the PH and stuff. Now I think I change it when the water level drops down an inch or two :) .

My fiancee loves fish stuff, hell, she's going to school for Aquaculture and Fishery Technologies. Right now at her house, she's got a 35 gallon saltwater tank which she is using to help out her local elementary school. At the elementary school, she's setting up a 90 gallon saltwater tank because all the little kids want a Nemo tank.

I've been in this cool hobby for the past 20+ years and working in various areas for the past 12. I presently have a 33 gal skimmerless reef with soft corals. No hard corals as I don't have too much time to do the maintenance they need to thrive. I'll post a pic in the photography area with specs and maint regimin.

I have a 2' cube aquarium that I'm going full planted after the g/f and I get our place all painted and stuff (going through a re-decor phase :rolleyes: ).

actinic: sweet if your username reflects your hobby. :)

If you've been doing saltwater that long, I'm sure you've seen some amazing advancements in the hobby. I think at 20 years ago the best cure for hair algea was still taking a tooth brush to all the rock in your tank. Lighting was crap, and keeping coral for a few months was a major accomplishment.

Yup...you guessed it obediah :D .

IMO the basic advancements we have come up up with are:
1. the WWW in the sharing of information
2 Understanding of the requirements of these animals
3.Better understanding of an enclosed aquatic environment
4. Technological methods to manufacture products for #1 and aid in #2
5. Compared to the 80's, increase in international trade

This leads to (no specific order of importance):
1. Proper handling and transportation
2. Expedient export/import
3. Lighting
4. Supplements (nutritional and chemical) to help the animals thrive
5. Importance of partial water changes

It's a great hobby that many enjoy. It keeps me out of trouble and a great substitute for TV ;).

I've had aquaria since 1970 and have kept pretty much everything but goldfish during that time. I enjoyed my stint at saltwater and reef tanks, but I moved on for ethical reasons. I currently have discus tanks (largest 130 gallons) and numerous small tanks for breeding guppy strains. I find it difficult to imagine living without an aquarium!

Good luck with the salt water.
I had to ditch the salt water fish in my 75 gallon tank for fresh water. I was just to hard to keep the fish alive and keep a job.

I just got rid of my 250 gal, it was taking up too much of my day. Now I have a 29 gal tetra tank in my bedroom and an african frog in a goldfish bowl in my kitchen.

I have a 55gal tank, still filled with water and filters running but devoid of fish now for about two weeks since my beloved Central American cichlid died after 6 years. I'm considering finally making a reef tank out of this and it will be my first venture into a salt water tank.

I also have a 29gal Hi, I think that's the size, with many guppies that used to be food for other fish a few years ago but they outlived the eaters and looked nice so I let em settle in; lots of nice plants, underwater tree trunk, rocks in this tank too since guppies don't dig and ruin underwater landscaping like the cichlid did. I also dropped two green newts in there but they hide so good under rocks I rarely see them.

And last year my most talented son won a goldfish prize at a local fair by accurately tossing a ping pong ball about 10 inches exactly thru an 8ft wide opening, what an aim! Now that guy lives in a 10gal tank by himself and is about 7 inches long already with some nice veily fins like most Comet goldfish.

While the type of fish have changed over the years, my 55gal and 29gal tanks have been running for over 10 years with no tear-down, just occasional water changes and plant additions/deletions. IMO, it pays to research, set it up right and spring $ for good filtration.

BadNick:

Good luck with the saltwater setup, 55 gal should be enough water to get a pretty stable reef going, and will be a lot easier to keep than a 30 gal or smaller. If you've got the equipment to put a little sump on it, that would be even better, but that opens up flooding issues (that can mostly be mitigated with good design).

Your experiences with research and buying high quality stuff will pay off even more with saltwater. There is a lot of stuff you can buy to help, and it takes a lot of research to figure out how much is worth it - i.e. a lot of stuff makes a lot more sense for a 200G+ setup than a 55 gallon setup.

I just bought an Eclipse System 12 for my townhouse. Can't fit much more than that in there....Haven't kept fish in years, hoping to get back into it...

The environmental aspects of your aqurium should definatley be in consideration. The vast majority of our oceans and especially coral reefs are extremely threatened by among other things, ovcer fishing and the pet trade. There are plenty of good ways to go about having a great aqurium without damaging these fragile ecosystems.

For info on coral reefs:

http://www.coralreefalliance.org/

And more on conservation friendly aquariums here:

http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/

The issue of conservation is a VERY important in this day and age. There are conscientious aquarium hobbyists, retailers, distributors and collectors out there but IMHO they are few and far in between.

To generalize, we are a consumer society and like to get "our bang for the buck"and what we want when we want, but also raise the question, "at what cost?"

Like it or not, the bottom line is the all mighty $$$. Years ago captive raised animals were anywhere from 10-200% more expensive than wild caught/collected. Today I've seen captive raised on par to 50% more.

I know of at least 4 reputable North American companies that captive raise/farm fish and coral. They are, when they get to the retail level, are more expensive but IMHO are very well worth the extra $$$ as the animals themselves do not undergo improper handling or lengthy waits during shipping. Other avenues of obtaining captive raised fish and coral frags are through aquarium clubs and fellow hobbyists.

The difficulty today with “farming” marine animals, for the most part, is the complex egg to larval stage of development. There are a handful of species of fish that hobbyists can “captive” raise. Most corals, hard and soft, can be cultured by asexual and physical means.

Think of the freshwater fish in general. Many of the species that are seen in the retail shops are farmed in the orient. Cheap labour, resources, ease of rearing and “pack rate*” make it to what it is today. Also small sizes are imported for grow out into marketable sizes. If the early development of the freshwater hobby were here today, we would be facing the same issues as the marine hobby today.

*amount that can be put into the box and overall weight per box.

I personally am for sharing information of captive rearing and propagation to save what we have in the oceans. It’s a philosophy that has to be spread and it’s not a difficult one. The difficult part is making a positive choice and knowing what going on within the 5 panes of glass.

90 Gallon Malawi Chiclid tank
55 Gallon Planted Tank, with lots of fish in there
29 Gallon tank with some fish that i havent gotten rid of
250 Gallon Pond that a heron keeps eating some of my fish

I got into the Aquarium faze awhile ago and glad I quit. It started with a small 20 gal, and that moved up to a forty because I wanted more fish, then that moved up to a 60 gal because I wanted bigger fish. Well I had one whole wall covered in tanks so that just did not seem right I had two empty walls to fill.

So off I went and bought a 100 and 210 gal tank, now it looked really cool, had 2 nice recliners and would sit there smoke some good bud have a drink and watch the fish for hours(they really loved Pink Floyd).

Well one day while browsing through the classifieds I saw it.......yes.....that was it......it was meant to be mine.........ALL MINE.......a 400 gal tank complete with stand......yeeesssssss!!

I made the call and the guy sold everything but the tank and stand, it seemed nobody wanted it because it was too big 4x4x8 he said if you come get it you can have it........I DID:cool:

Well, after filling that up buying pumps,filters, fish my front room was complete.......just an awesome sight to behold, my friends were amazed and just loved smoking the bud and watching my fish for hours.

Then it hit me two months later, Oh my god, I have to clean all of those tanks,pay that HUGE electric bill, buy all those feeder fish, monitor the tanks,and god forbid one of my fish get ICK, so after 6 months of all those beautiful tanks I sold fish and all, except the 400 gal tank which nobody wanted because it was too big:D

So if you get the urge to step up to a bigger tank, which you will......BE CAREFUL........it's ADDICTIVE!

How about making your own tank? I have a pass thru (basically an interior window) between my dining room and living room that I've always thought would be perfect for a custom tank. I'm an avid scuba diver so it certainly seems fitting. Any info appreciated.

20 Gal saltwater tank. Right now I just have a hermit crab, a couple gobys and a damselfish but I am planning to head back out to the beach soon and see if I am able to add to it. Wouldn't mind a small puffer or a humu humu.

Hey onetime2, it all depends on the dimensions. I've have a few services where the aquarium is used as a room divider within a wall. I wasn't involved in any of the consultaion/construction phase and I'll tell ya, it was a nightmare when I took it on.

If you're not familliar with the intricacies of aquariums, I suggest taking the time to get in touch with someone in your area that can help you with this project. Always ask for referrals, see a portfolio and make sure that they are insured and the work guaranteed. Also discuss your idea of what you want it to look like and they can better give you an idea of what you need, space requirements, equipment, etc.

One of my clients spent thousands of $$$ for a room divider aquarium. When I took it on, it leaked and the day after my consult, all I did was look at the overall set-up...didn't touch a bloody thing...the tank split and ruined his entertainment system and the walk in humidor in the room below it. You don't want to know the damages.

IMHO, when it comes to water and you have "nice stuff" in your house, it's worth spending the extra $$$ and time to have the work done right.

I am a big time do it yourselfer and find there isn't much of anything I can't tackle. Of course, I end up putting a lot of time into researching the project and if you equate it to dollars I'm sure you're right, but it's just not the same if you know what I mean.

I feel left out because all I have is a goldfish and a beta in different tanks.

At some point I'd love an aquarium though.

I have a 108G tank, loved it, but it has been neglected with school. During those years I only got real cheapy fish so I wasn't too concerned, but now I don't have the cash to get some more filler fish so I have a pretty empty tank.

Earlier I did get a lobster, stupid thing laid eggs and I had a lot of mouths to feed :(

onetime2: I know whatcha mean...can't get any more satisfaction than doing it yourself.

keyser: it definitely is a hobby with a steep and slippery slope if you don't tread carefully. I know, before I moved from home I had the basement wall to wall with aquariums

remeil: if their happy,healthy and thriving that's what it's all about

cyder: my old room-mate set a marine tank for a lobster that he bought from the market...all battered and sad looking. A few months later when it's color came back, regrew it's antennae and missing legs, puttering around the tank without a care in the world...he ate it for dinner. Go figure.

On the environmental impact of aquarium keeping:

I think the key is to build as many reef aquariums as possible, but to build them as non-intrusively as possible. Buying cultured rock and coral is of course a great way to do this. Some corals can also safely be harvested in a controlled manner from the reef. It's the responsibility of the hobbyist to learn these distinctions and minimize the effect of their hobby.

But increasing the number of aquariums is important (both large show aquariums and home aquariums). People are only interested in preserving what they know and familiarizing people to reefs is an important step in saving the reefs.

The reefs are delicate, and it is (unfortunately) conceivable that many reef species could one day exist primarily in captivity. The more experince and understanding we have with reef husbandry the more likely we'll be able to keep these amazing things alive.

I have the luck of living close to Inland Aquatics one of the larger culture sites and it's great to go wonder through their tanks, seeing how corals have grown, and saying hi to fish I've known for 5+ years.

A lot of interesting corals do well in captivity with the right settings. A lot of trading goes on between hobbyists which helps everyone.

currently running 3 freshwater tanks. a 10, 29 and 50.
the 50 has convict cichlids, the other two an assortment of tetras and gouramis. havent tackled a saltwater tank yet. i've dumped enough money for the freshwater stuff. i shudder at the thought of how much i might spend with a salt water tank.

funny this thread should get bumped up now... I just got a 30 gallon aquarium... have yet to put any fish in it tho.

I've got a 100 gallon with rummynose tetras, brilliant rasboras, 2 bristlenose plecos and a few kuhlii loaches. I used to have congo tetras, but they got too stressed (tank is in a high-traffic area)

I've got Multiple Tank Syndrome in a bad way. All Freshwater and planted with live plants.

75 SE Asian; 55 Amazon; 50 breeder full of loaches; 40 Breeder with pink gravel for my 7 year old; 33 flat back hex with neons, cories, and platies in Mrs. Hat's classroom; 28 high with leopard ctenos; 20 high with a breeding colony of platies; 20 high grow out tank for my bristlenose fry (this will be my breeding tank for the next couple of years); 15 with threadfin rainbows, kuhlis, and otos; 10 with a White male Delta tail Betta (Bruce) and 2 frogs; 5.5 with a steel blue yellow butterfly half moon male betta (Dan). Also a 110 waiting for me to level the tank for African Predators (Bichirs, Ctenos, and Butterflys), and a 2.5 for a snail colony if I ever set up dwarf puffers.

I've start a Post Your Aquarium Pix thread over in Titled Photography. Please, drop by and share.

Aquariums provide such a peaceful image, the fish gliding around in the tank. The quiet noises of the filter, the soft light at night. I miss my tanks.:sad:

nice looking tanks.
are the live plants difficult to maintain? been wanting to plant mine, but i wasnt certain of the effort involved. i have time, but not a lot of it.

75 gallon planted: 260 watts pc, pressurized co2, pps pro
20 gallon cherry shrimp tank.

Depends on the plants and the lighting. I have one tank (the one in the pictures) that's pretty high light (3.8 watts per gallon over a shallow tank). That one needs flourish excel every other night or I get black algae. Not a big pain in the butt, though, as I just add it into the feeding routine. It'd be a lot easier to hook up a CO2 tank to a PH driven solenoid, but that's more money than I want to spend.

The biggest time-suck in a planted tank is trimming, and that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. The 50 gallon pictured should probably get a good trimming every week. I generally get it every other week.

Course, if you want to go into the whole estimative index fertilization method, you need to do a 50% water change weekly, without fail, and there's a daily regimen of several different fertilizer mixtures on a rotating basis. That would be a huge time commitment that I want nothing to do with. (It is much less expensive that using prepared fertilizers, though).

Bottom line: Under 2 watts per gallon of lighting, a planted tank requires minimal extra attention, and can allow you to stretch your water changes a bit or up your fish load. Over 2 wpg , they require a bit more attention and expense, but that can be minimized too.

thanks.
i think i'll give it a shot.

if you're thinking about going planted and want to keep it pretty much maintenance free, try to stay to plants that don't need much in terms of light and ferts. in this one setup here, i did not do any fertilizing at all.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...m/CIMG1504.jpg

just pick your plants wisely. i used mostly moss and amazon swords. the tank also has micro chain swords and aponogetons. all these plants are easy to keep and hard to kill.

Sweet tank! That's excellt composition with what appears to me to be next to nothing by way of hardscape. What's the little foreground plant to the left of the pic? From here it looks like glosso, but that is rumored to need very high light.

I did up my 55 with swords, sags, java fern and moss, and pennywort floating on top. I think that'll be the next one on the photopage.

55 and 10 Gallon freshwater Tanganyikan tanks with Lamprologus Brichardi and a few Leleupi thrown in for color.

that was my first attemt at hc. this tank is not high light and i started with a 3x3 patch. it took about 3-4 months to grow that much. this tank had 2x40 watts odno.

75 gallon tank / 2x40 watts odno put this at around the 1 watt per gallon. so it grew VERY slowly. i had to move and the hc never got a chance to fill in.

Ahh, that'd do it. Looked really nice.

My loaches beat the living snot out of my attempted HC patch (should have known better, I suppose.) Replaced it with Red Crypt wendtii and that seems to be doing just fine.

I suppose since this thread popped up at an opportune time I'll comment on my recent tank.
So as my Valentines present from James he helped me set up my fish tank which is now the proud holder of three Florida Blue crayfish.
I'll toss some pictures on as well, though they're not the clearest.
The tank is a 45g Hexagon made by Oceanic with a stand. I got the entire thing for $60. The stand was in pretty awful shape when I bought it, but I sanded it down and stained it, then varnished it and it looks better than new. It's amazing what some stain can do to some mediocre pieces. And how it can sometimes ruin really beautiful pieces. Anyway, I love how it turned out, couldn't be more thrilled.
It was the best deal of a lifetime for a hexagon fish tank. I would have bought the other one from him and cleaned it up and sold it but I didn't have the cash. We did have to reseal the inside, but with vinegar, painters tape and razor blades that wasn't too much work.

I also have 7 bleeding heart tetras in it. Planning to add more, I believe it's full cycled by now but it's typically better to wait after a while. The crayfish look really neat, they add a lot of fun to the tank. Also we had a piece of driftwood that decided to float after the tank was finally set up. It has been sitting in the bathtub for the past 3 days, only some people would be so lucky.

In that first pic we were epoxying the trim, it had cracked and was allowing the glass panes to start pulling apart a little so we fixed that, the rope was used to keep the trim pulled tight.

we resealed the seams also... I thought that was neet, now I can buy peoples leaky tanks,fix em and sell em as not leaky!


looks really nice now.
GG got the driftwood sinking and back in place, and its all filled up and its final (for now) state she should be able to get some nicer pics now.

I love naturally planted tanks ...here's a couple pics of my first attempts with my 55 gallon. I got the clown loaches when they were about 1" long, I got that pleco guy when he was about 1-1/2" long, he's my favorite fish though the clown loaches seem funny and "friendly" in a fishy sort of way

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ics/55gal3.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ics/55gal2.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ics/55gal1.jpg

Nice Hygro. I have a devil of a time keeping mine from taking over and junglizing the tanks it's in.

Love me some loaches. Plecos too.

http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/phot...72502_2049.jpg
These are my Botia striata from when they used to live in my 55. Now I have 8 of them in my 75 with 5 Botia almorhae (Yoyos), 2 Pangio myersi (Giant kuhlis), and 3 Siamese Algae Eaters. It's really neat to see a 2" Striata tussling with a 4" yoyo or chasing a 5" SAE.

Those Botia striata look cool. I'm gonna get some.

Sometimes when I look at my tanks, I admit having evil thoughts. I love sushi/sashimi and this is almost like growing your own vegetables.

The Striatas are awesome. They hold their own agains yoyos that are twice as long and eight times heftier, and actually chase my SAEs aroud, and they're about as big as the yoyos.

On cuisine front, I once got smacked down on an aquarium forum for suggesting that the only thing compatible with Red Tailed Catfish is tartar sauce. I understand that RTCs, Snakeskin Gourmais, Texas Cichlids, and a number of other aquarium fish make for pretty good eating. I suspect that this would be even more the case in an aquarium wherte their diet is controlled.

Not if you've ever put any medication in the tank ;)

I have a 75 I'm setting up right now. Thin topsoil under rocks under river sand substrate. I like a native touch to my tanks, so the sand I actually went to the river for and got in buckets, then rinsed any silt out with the water hose and my hands for mixing. I'll take a pic later, but it's not much to look at. We have native E. cordifolius (one species of amazon sword) and I know where it is ;). It's surprisingly hard to find around here for some reason. It'll be a mix of native and tropical, but either way low-maintenance.

here's a pic of my latest creation.
it's a cell phone cam so the pic sux.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...m/IMG0002A.jpg

Hey that looks really good!

What is the plant called that is tied to the log at the end?

That is really sweet, MiSo. Someone has been studying their Amano :). Is that flame moss out there on the Driftwood?

That's a nice looking vegetable patch, MiSo. I didn't know what flame moss is, but if the stuff on the end of the branch is it then a 30gal tank I now have one large golfish in has a ton of that stuff; I often grab several handfuls of it and tear it out to keep it under control.

Haha yep, looks like it huh. I have the nature aquarium world series myself :)

Just made a run to the river and caught some fish for "testing the water" as it were. Caught a few of these
golden topminnow (Fundulus spp)
http://forum.nanfa.org/uploads/post-4-1156350149.jpg

And a few of these
Bluegill etc
http://www.outdooralabama.com/images...ppie200709.jpg

Wife and I are arguing whether to go native fish (yeah!) or store-bought (meh). I would love to do a SE texas tank, but not sure I'm going to win this one LOL.

Either way, the fish will kick off the nitrogen cycle again, and if they make it I will keep some and release the others back where I got them.

Good Stuff, luciferase. Dad and I caught about a dozen good sized Bluegills this weekend (course, for s the question was to fillet or release). Word has it that the sunfish clan is just about as territorial as cichlids, so 2 bluegills in a 75 is a good stocking level. That killi is beautiful!

I'm with you on this, luciferase. The idea of a local species tank really appeals to me, too. Even my boys have often commented on how beautiful the sunfish/bluegills are that they catch and how similar they look to some of the tropical/semi-tropical cichlids.

From what I gather, down in Texas where you are the local waters will have both sunfish and cichlids...like in the San Marcos River, see this link: Cichlid Research Home Page: Cichlids in the San Marcos River, Texas

Up here in the N.E. I think we only have one type of killifish and it is not as pretty as that one you show, or at least I've never seen colorful ones. We only get the more plain looking banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus).

Course, up in the northeast, a river tank, say about 125 gallons, with a pair of bluegills, some river dace, and some tadpole madtoms would be really sweet.

Tophat,
I also like the idea of adding local crayfish to that N.E. tank. But my experience with them so far has been frustration since they go around cutting off all my plants at the base. Is there a solution to that problem?

Break off the claws LOL

edit: that's a joke :D

Maybe wrap some of those lead anchor strips around the bases?

...since you're from Houston I'm surprised you didn't suggest eating them ;) and I'm sure the larger ones taste good, too. When I'm in Houston my buddy usually takes me to the Ragin Cajun for crawdads and stuff. I don't know if it's the best, but it's fun.

There's not a lot you can do with crayfish. Sooner or later, they will eat anything you put in the tank. There're a couple of things you could do to keep them from mowing down your plants or at least make that snot such a bad thing. One is plant with Vals and or sags. Get a good grassy mat of them going and them put your mudbugs in there. The other is to use floating plants, like hornwort. Or get a dwarf lily going with a good bulb and root system.

Thanks for the advice, Th. Eventually I shall prevail...or eat them...well actually I don't have any right now but next time I try it.

Meh never seen a crawfish in a tank big enough to enjoy, unless you count them big ones off the northern east coast ;)

Oh I went and caught a few more fish today. Got several Fundulus notatus (blackstripe topminnow) and a larger bluegill, which seems to be adapting well to the new tank. I also grabbed a couple of pieces of old wood and tied one to a rock to see if it would sink. It didn't, so it's floating in a cooler full of water until it sinks.

So my upcoming projects:
I hae a 10 gallon with 2 female bettas, 2 ottos, and an unsusscessful Iwagumi layout. I am going to set up a 5 1/2 gallon, using that gravel and stones, and get some dwarf hairgrass action to try and get something a little more Iwagumi-ish, then add a little bit of ludwegia and transfer the bettas to that. Then, I am going to take some Awesome hunks of raw Beryl from the rock collection Papa Joe left me (ranging between the size of a cigarette pack and the size of three fists) and take another crack at going iwagumi with that 10 gallon. I'll set that up in Mrs. Hat's classroom with the ottos and about 15 neons.

With that done, I'll be able to move my over/under Iron stand with the 20 and the 25 to where the 10 gallon was and, this is the fun part, 4' long Tanganyika tank. I've thrashed it out on aquariacentral and with the guy at the LFS. I have a 33 and a 55 to choose from. Either is going to get a big stack of granite scraps at one end, a sort of a canyon full of Valisnera along the back, some marine live-sand for quick cycling and a big old shell field (though I might futz about with the rock-stack in the middle and shell fields to either side. Going to get some julies for the stack and some shellies (Prob'ly Lamprolous stappersi, maybe sunspot brevis for the other side if I go that route.) for the shell field(s).

Hey Top, any idea what these are (3 fish on right)? I get the impression they may be tilapia?! Not too shocked since they have been released all over the US, but I will be surprised if I have 4 in my aquarium haha.

Image:
http://texasoverclockers.com/modules...002/whoru1.jpg

Could be. I do know that some tilapia species have gotten out of hand on the gulf coast (one is the most common species of fish in New Orleans), but with the exception of a very few that I have researched, I'm not much up on cichlids.

Yeah me either. Well another forum is starting to point to them being tilapia as well. If that's true, this means the san jacinto is part of a population explosion because these youngsters are everywhere in a small tributary that drains my neighborhood. I went dig-netting and caught one in nearly every scoop I made.

I gotta get over there with my cast net haha.

On the plus side, them's good eatin'.

Yep, and two of my neighbors have ponds (one medium sized, one HUGE), so raising them would be easy ;)

Not really appropriate for an aquarium thread, but damn do I loves me some fried fish fillets. And I ply a fairly speedy knife on fishies of that general shape. Get you some 50 lb bags of trout chow and I'll look you up next time im in that corner of the world.

LMAO! You'll have to fight my wife over the tilapia, it's one of her favorite fillets haha...

I had a 20 gallon fresh water aquarium with few barbs and tetras. I also had natural plants in it. Now I had moved to a new place and it will take some time to decide about aquarium. I will mostly go for fresh water school fishes and lots of natural plants.

ChyTrack, you can post the photos in flickr or picasa and embed the link here. Like this. or you can embed the picture itself like below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sugumar....88533153883170

But I think a separate forum for Garden & Pets would be a good idea. Moderator?

I had at one time.

10 gallon betta tank
20 L community tank
46 bow front with an Oscar and two HUGE pleco I had to get rid of though they just outgrew my tank too fast for me to get something larger, plus my small apartment didn't suit the tank upgrade

I took the 46 and added one single otto cat and about 5-10 mystery snails which I had for a number of years, then when I moved the otto was the only thing left and he didn't survive the move so I have had the 46 in the basement empty for almost a year now.

Here's a pic of mine finally, still in the setup stages. Most of the plants towards the back will fill the top and make a backdrop. Just playing the waiting game with them for now. Hair and staghorn algae are kicking my ass, which is why some of them are trimmed down to nearly a stump.

I have mixed native plants and fish with tropical now. Didn't feel like hassling with native plant adaption issues. It could work now that I've upgraded the light, but meh. Light in the pic is ~200w, 3 white 32w + 2 54w daylight HO lights. The two 54w HO actinics are off, but present. Waiting for the plants to out-compete the algae before I crank up the juice. It's not really necessary, but I want the plants to bush out with little upward growth, and I like the added blue tint. The yellow tint is kinda ugly IMO.

Image is link to fullsize
http://www.arsrclan.com/modules/copp..._aqua_full.jpg

Cory cats love the sand substrate...
http://www.arsrclan.com/modules/copp...l_aqua_sm2.jpg

See?
http://www.arsrclan.com/modules/copp...l_aqua_sm1.jpg

Good tank. Couple of things that will fix your algae problem.
- Lose the actinics and replace with 10000K or 6700Ks. Algae uses actinics more efficiently than vascular plants for some reason.
- More plants. Get something like Anachris or Wisteria (Hygrophilia difformis) that grows like mad and which you won't feel bad about ditching when that cabomba starts taking off for you. There aren't enough plants in there to make a good dent in the nutrients, and that's what's giving the algae an opening to get busy with.
- Siamese Algae eater. Now, this is one you may or may not want to do. They will take care of staghorn and black beard algae, given some time. OTOH they get up over 4" easily, and they get snotty when they get large unless they have company (I have 3 adults in a 75 who pal around pretty good and mostly limit their aggression to each other, but the one juvenile in my 50 is a bit persnickety and territorial - likes to move my monkey loaches along if they decide to get near him.) But over time they will solve any BBA problems.
- Flourish Excel. If you have a lot of plants in there, but you still have algae problems, then maybe your plants need a source of carbon, usually CO2. This stuff adds carbon in a form the plants can use but that won't outgas if you roil the surface.

Hope that helps you out.

Just to get you up to speed:
- Actinics have been off since my 3-day blackout. Hair algae is down, but staghorn is back up.
- I'm working on stocking the tank still. What I have will fill it up over time, but I'll continue to grab more ground cover as well. I'm looking for this one type of grass, maybe I can get some this week.
- I had 3 SAEs but they died. I got them from an excellent local shop, but the turnover is so fast there that I couldn't get known healthy and tolerant fish. Ironically the 5 otos I got from petco are doing great (all alive after 2 weeks) and the ones I got from the other shop, 2 out of 10 died within 24 hours. The rest seem to be doing fine. If your SAEs are grouchy maybe they are flying foxes? I had a couple of true SAEs in my last tank and never saw any aggression at all, even when they did mock breeding behavior. From what I've read, if your SAEs have any color in the fins except a mild yellow, they are probably FFs.
- CO2? No need for excel yet, unless I want to double dose.
http://www.arsrclan.com/modules/copp...normal_co2.jpg
Constant feed. Was feeding into canister intake but when the tank had higher levels the gas would build up some in the filter, so I went to just open tank release. It is positioned so that the bubbles hit the filter output and get dispersed in the water column. With this working as well as it is, I don't feel the need for a diffuser. I get so much pearling that some plants seem to be more air than matter. Trust me the water column is literally full of O2 bubbles from the plants. I use the central airstone to simply keep the balance, otherwise it would be too much for the fish at night. It also helps to break up the inevitable surface film that occurs when you fert the tank. pH is normally 7.8, but drops to ~7.2 with CO2. No signs of distress to the fish so I'm holding it there. I have some H. difformis on the right side in the second pic. Don't worry I'm there already and I know the plants I need, but budget is tight so it's just a few at a time ;). I'm depending on them to grow so I can do cuttings, rather than buy a tankful at once.

You're way out on top of it then.
Your algae problem, then, is simply a matter of there being too few plants to use all the nutrients in the water column. Time is your friend, because the stems will eventually take off, and if you get Saggitaria subulata (probably the grass you're looking for), that will carpet the tank right quickly once it gets going.

Still, anachris is cheap enough that some folks buy it to feed their goldfish, and you don't have to root it. Chuck a couple of bunches in there as nitrate sponges while the cabomba comes up to speed. That should help with the algae at least a little.

I think you're right. Last time I did a water change (right after I did the blackout) I didn't dose any more nutrients into the tank. I'm still getting the surface film so I suspect there is an overabundance. This may be coincidence, but every time the tank films up, the staghorn goes into overdrive. Something for me to think about....

That's a good idea on the anachris, I'll see if my local petco has some. I got some E. tellenus there in the sand, and it's already starting to send runners so I suspect the tank will fill up soon enough. I want to mix in this other grass though. It's not Sagittaria, it's a true grass of some sort. It's awesome looking. I'll find some and show you a pic with the genus when I get it.

That really is a sweet tank.

Is that proserpina or mexican oak leaf over on the right (or am I way off)?

Some aestheic advice of the thoroughly ignorable variety:
1) Adding dwarf hairgrass in front of the Pygmy Chain sword would create a sort of a green to rough contrast when it all grows in. That could look really nifty (if you keep up with replanting it as the cories kick it up.
2) Dwarf Lobelia cardinalis in front of the E. tenellus would provide a really nifty contrast of an entirely differnt sort, with the large, rounded leaves against the spear shaped ones.
3) To the left of the tank, between the filter intake and the front left corner (not the whole distance, but say 2/3 of it) would be a great place to put either some more driftwood or some rockwork to putt the focus of the tank away from the middle where it is now. It would also cover up the stem parts on the swordplant leaves on the left.

The red stuff? I'm pretty is was in the alternanthera genus, but I'd have to look again. Not sure on the common name. In front of that is H. Difformis, growing very quickly of course.

Yeah dwarf hairgrass, that's the one. I don't know why I couldn't think of it...duhhh. That's pretty much the plan, kinda alternate regions with DHG and tellenus. I also plan to add some rounded stream rocks, scattering them throughout to break things up and give pockets of dark color, about 3in dia.

Love those corys, they crack me up. They go all the way to their gills in that sand, and I've never seen corys with longer whiskers.

I want to get a thin driftwood branch for the area you mention, or a cypress knee. They are hard to come by though, since cypress is either alive or drifting miles downstream haha. The piece I have now is local, from the river. I just washed it off, let it soak overnight, and then attached a slab of rock and dropped it in the tank. The pleco LOVES it, and so did the upside down cats, until I introduced CO2 and the pH change killed them :(

Here is another piece of the same log. It was a stump that was turned sideways and just a few inches from the water. Moss everywhere, which is still alive on both logs as you can see.
image is link to fullsize
http://www.arsrclan.com/modules/copp...mping_pond.jpg

I might use that, but it's hard to figure out how or where.

I had a 29 gallon freshwater tank. The last fish I had was a rather large, ill tempered clown knife. The rooms in my current residence are small and poorly configured for an aquarium so the old tank in in storage in the basement. Hopefully, I will be relocating in the next year and I will be able to set it up again. Its relaxing to just watch the fish swim while listening to some music. I miss that.

I got so pissed that I tore mine down today and redid it. I had algae streaming all the way across the tank with no end in sight. I think it was too much topsoil under the substrate. I never considered that it might leech out enough to feed algae, but I guess so. Anyways, I sifted the sand and rocks out of the dirt and put that back in the tank, along with the two logs above and a few plants, some of which I cut back so far that they are just stems. There is still a little staghorn algae on the log and a couple of plants, but I'm going to watch it and make sure it dies this time.

http://photos-f.ll.facebook.com/phot...40157_7721.jpg
75 Gallon. Loaches & SAE retirement home.

http://photos-e.ll.facebook.com/phot...40156_7531.jpg
55 Gallon. South American whitewater stream biotope. (Whitewater as opposed to blackwater, not for rafting on.)

http://photos-c.ll.facebook.com/phot...40154_7157.jpg
40 Gallon Breeder. My older Daughter's tank. A mixed community.

http://photos-g.ll.facebook.com/phot...40150_6368.jpg
Zinj. My 110 gallon high tank. Bichirs & Leopard Bushfish (Anything else they would eat.)

http://photos-a.ll.facebook.com/phot...40152_6760.jpg
20 gallon long. Breeding tank for Rineloricaria eigenmannii. A South American blackwater stream biotope.

http://photos-h.ll.facebook.com/phot...40151_6579.jpg
15 gallon. This is my Orphan tank. Fish who lose their schools go here.

http://photos-d.ll.facebook.com/phot...40155_7336.jpg
5.5 gallon. My 8 year old's other tank. 1 male & 2 female dwarf puffers.

I've got about 10 more tanks, but I only recently got a tripod, so hitherto the pics have been lousy. I'll see about getting some in the next week or so.

Set up a 55 gallon yesterday for some Festivums I am trying to breed:
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...08400_6685.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...08403_7260.jpg

Also moved my breeding tanks upstairs this weekend so we could put up the Christmas tree. Apparently this is actually necessary. Who knew? Here's the breeding tanks:
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...08397_6136.jpg
Crappy picture. Lo siento. Here's one of my breeders muggin' for us:
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...08391_4842.jpg
One of the male Sterba's cories. I ought to be able to get them to spawn if I can time a water change with a weather front.

I want to congratulate you on all those gorgeous tank setups.

They really inspire me to get a couple more done in my house. But I have to finish my 3rd floor first, hoping to do that in the next couple of months, so my one boy can move up there and then his room on the 2nd floor can become my private den/fish room...since the family is already tanked-out on the 1st floor with just two fish tanks and one turtle tank. When I was single I had a few more tanks in this house...the good old days ;)