# Tanks w/ a Bit of a Twist



## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Practicing photo taking, so what better subject than ones that don't move. The basement tank room with my biotope or terraphyte tanks.

Very little tank maintenance, including small, weekly water changes. A balanced water chemistry: "0" ammonia and nitrites and low nitrate levels. Pure water for the fish and plants. Five tanks: a 38, 45 and three 55Gs.

B


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## Nereus7 (Jun 13, 2012)

What up Bbury, looking good as ever. A few questions, the plants in the pots, what do you have them in dirt? (I think I may have asked you this already but I can't remember to save my life) Also, eyeballing the bio load if you had to guess how many nitrates you accumulate over the course of a week? And how many do you think would be in there if you removed all the plants? Basicly how many nitrates do you think those plants suck up? You think you could add enough to get to 0, past 0 actually to the point the plants would start to suffer from lack of food? And lastly, do you do anything special for the snails, or do they basicly do there own thing as far as food and all that? Thanks - N


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Nereus7 said:


> What up Bbury, looking good as ever. A few questions, the plants in the pots, what do you have them in dirt? (I think I may have asked you this already but I can't remember to save my life) Also, eyeballing the bio load if you had to guess how many nitrates you accumulate over the course of a week? And how many do you think would be in there if you removed all the plants? Basicly how many nitrates do you think those plants suck up? You think you could add enough to get to 0, past 0 actually to the point the plants would start to suffer from lack of food? And lastly, do you do anything special for the snails, or do they basicly do there own thing as far as food and all that? Thanks - N


Good morning Nereus...

The potted plants are in pea gravel and miracle gro organic potting mixture. Last time I tested the first tank I put the land plants in, the nitrates were at 10 ppm. The more plants you put in, the lower the nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites have always been "0".

I keep standard HOB filtration in all the tanks too, because the plants stop filtering the water at night. I've pretty much stopped the the weekly, 50 percent water changes, the land plant roots filter the dirty water and return pure water to the tank. Without the plants and no water changes, the chemistry would "go south" in a big hurry because the tanks are heavily stocked. As long as I have a lot of fish that do their business, the plants are healthy and keep filtering the water, "a balanced tank".

The Ramshorn snails keep the algae down and remove any fish that dies. I only replace the water lost to evaporation, about a gallon per week, per tank, the tanks are mostly uncovered and I service the HOBs weekly. I've noticed the media needs more attention with more plants.

That's it. The time I spend on the tanks is less than half of what it used to be. The plants keep the water as clean or cleaner than I could with the large, frequent water changes.

Thanks for asking!

B


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

It's a neat experiment - like beaslbob, you seem to focus on the low maintenance benefits above all. It's an odd look for a tank, and I don't think the flooded greenhouse biotope is a look that will catch on. Still, I don't think your goal is the look of the tank. The aquarium is its own filter, packed tightly with media. 

It'll be interesting to see what happens with fish growth rates, breeding rates and longevity, and which species do well in it over the nexrt couple of years. Keep us posted, please.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

navigator black said:


> It's a neat experiment - like beaslbob, you seem to focus on the low maintenance benefits above all. It's an odd look for a tank, and I don't think the flooded greenhouse biotope is a look that will catch on. Still, I don't think your goal is the look of the tank. The aquarium is its own filter, packed tightly with media.
> 
> It'll be interesting to see what happens with fish growth rates, breeding rates and longevity, and which species do well in it over the nexrt couple of years. Keep us posted, please.


Hello nav...

Not sure the comparison to Bob's set up is a compliment or not. My tanks are only partially self sustaining. The water chemistry is stable due entirely to the plants and aside from treated replacement water, a little organic, liquid plant fert and fish food, nothing chemical goes into the water.

Agreed, the tank appearance is unusual and doubtful it will gain in popularity. I've gotten away from the fish oriented tank and am interested in the plants and how to get them to do more of the work keeping the water pure. The plants have been at the job much longer than we have and do an infinitely better job if given the opportunity, so why not take advantage of their expertise?

The key is to introduce as many plants as there is room. I still have a way to go with the plants, but the situation looks very promising.

B


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## Nereus7 (Jun 13, 2012)

I personally like it alot. Something about the backlit plants "glowing" and looking good and lively, mixed with there being more things to look at than you can first glance at, pulls in my attention. Along with the "plants have been doing longer than we have"... no point in reinventing the wheel. 

Nav if you don't like the plants in the tank and want to keep it more "traditional" I saw an idea someone had where they made a 

from tank...
>>>=========||
=====<<<=====
||=========>>> into tank

..along the entire top of the tank, put in some track lighting on the ceiling and made 
a real nice live plant display (I brought this up in another post, thought I'd mention it again)

It's a ghetto pic but if you squish it all together so there's no spaces it fits real nice, stagger it like 3 stairs so you have a top, middle, and bottom, you can water all kinds of plants and still have the whole tank to play with. You could do anything really, sky's the limit.. - N


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

do you not worry about redox with the small water changes?


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

zero said:


> do you not worry about redox with the small water changes?


Hello z...

The small water changes are only needed to rinse the filter media. I have to use standard filtration at night when the plants slow their filtering process, the HOBs act as a backup filtration system. At night, any wastes not used by the bacteria in the filters and on the surfaces inside the tank is used up by the land plants as soon as the lights come on the following morning. So, there's no time for pollutants to build up in the water.

The more waste in the water, the faster the plants grow. So, this is a perfect set up for heavily stocked tanks with a heavy bioload.

I do dose a liquid with the "trace elements" when I top off the tank due to evaporation and when I do the small, weekly water changes.

Hope this answered your question.

B


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

yes it does. what tracel elements liquid do you use?

theres a really good product called wonder shells you might be interested in;

Wonder Shell Aquarium Mineral Blocks; Water Conditioner, Ich treatment


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

zero said:


> yes it does. what tracel elements liquid do you use?
> 
> theres a really good product called wonder shells you might be interested in;
> 
> Wonder Shell Aquarium Mineral Blocks; Water Conditioner, Ich treatment


Hello again z...

Thanks for the information. I'll check into it. I currently use an organic hydroponics liquid called "Microblast". It's inexpensive and easy to dose. My plants seem to do very well with it.

B


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

oh you add plant mincroneurtiants?! you should really be adding stuff to the water for the fish. with small water changes it will put the redox out of wack and the fish wont be getting all the minerals they need.


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## JohnniGade (Dec 22, 2011)

Good pictures  quite a farm you got there


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## whitetiger61 (Aug 2, 2011)

you know ive read this entire thread..and thought about it alot before i decided to respond..his methods are no where similar to bob's methods basically because he uses filtration and does on ocassion do water changes as bob claims he does not..would i have one of these tanks..no..its not my style.do i think they look great..oh yeah they look great..its their style..if it benefits the enviroment ie ..plants and fish as it seems to be doing then it works for him..might not work for everyone..everyone has different ways of doing things, and i for one think they are doing a fantastic job..there are going to be those out there that will judge these methods, but the proof is there in the pics ..it works for him

Good job on some really nice tanks

Rick


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

whitetiger61 said:


> you know ive read this entire thread..and thought about it alot before i decided to respond..his methods are no where similar to bob's methods basically because he uses filtration and does on ocassion do water changes as bob claims he does not..would i have one of these tanks..no..its not my style.do i think they look great..oh yeah they look great..its their style..if it benefits the enviroment ie ..plants and fish as it seems to be doing then it works for him..might not work for everyone..everyone has different ways of doing things, and i for one think they are doing a fantastic job..there are going to be those out there that will judge these methods, but the proof is there in the pics ..it works for him
> 
> Good job on some really nice tanks
> 
> Rick


Thanks Rick...

This approach isn't for the purist, for sure. For me, the idea was to have the "best of both worlds". A lot of healthy plants and fish for one and the second, to have a "balanced tank" with a minimum of work. 

It's just an experiment to see if the plants and the fish can work together in a relatively small cube of water to the benefit of one an other, like in nature. So far, the tanks have worked as I'd hoped. Time will tell, though. The tanks need more plants and more time.

B


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I like the general idea of the tank, but free-floating plants is just crazy when you can add wood and other types of plants that will attach. Maybe those plants would? You need a hood, or whatever it is you're using, to do it. Do it with no type of hood or holder and then maybe it won't look so funky. May get a little complicated for you though.


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## LeopardSpot (Jul 30, 2012)

I think it looks really cool! Maybe not a display tank, but it definitely seems efficient and is a great idea.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> I like the general idea of the tank, but free-floating plants is just crazy when you can add wood and other types of plants that will attach. Maybe those plants would? You need a hood, or whatever it is you're using, to do it. Do it with no type of hood or holder and then maybe it won't look so funky. May get a little complicated for you though.


Hello shipmate...

I like your humor. A little "dry", but in a good way. Actually the plant is naturally bushy and with a little help from the plastic trays or lattice, the plant stays upright in the water.

The wood is a good idea and I have used pieces of driftwood and simply set the plant on top of the wood.

The best part is, it's much less work and "less complicated", than large, weekly water changes. 

You're also right about the funky look. But, new things always look a little odd, just because they're new.

Still need to get more plants into the larger tanks. Just a work in progress.

Thanks for the comments!

B


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