Achieving that "perfect" balance…

[Magnum Man]

As I sit here, at 1st light, sipping my caffeine of choice, and looking at the 4 tanks that encircle my bed, I’m pondering achieving that “perfect” balance, in a tank… I have one out of 4 here, that I’m happy with “where” it is, at this time… on that tank, the glass never needs cleaning, even being on "my" time, as far as the lighting cycle… this tank needs next to no maintenance… I still do water changes albeit less than I probably should, the gravel gets vacuumed about once a month, filter components cleaned, every 3-4 months… and there is complete harmony within the tank…

… I’m pretty happy with my Asian tank… I do have to clean the glass about once a month, but that tank is still collecting new Hillstream’s, so I haven’t reached the balance of the tank above… I'm amazed at the variety of fish in this tank, yet how peaceful it is...

… in my African tank, the water and filters are at a good balance… the fish are happy, and spawning, but I don’t think I’m happy, with many components in this tank... with the floating plants… this is a high flowing tank, and so far, any lesser floaters have not thrived... the heartier, water lettuce and water hyacinths I’ve tried require more maintenance, than I’m happy with, that and the glass in this tank needs cleaning at minimum, weekly… I had originally chosen African Nile lilies as a terrestrial plant for this tank, they don’t seem to be happy in my "no fertilizer" quest, and haven’t bushed out like I had hoped, so I’ll be replacing them, ( I'm thinking Peace lilies, as I like them in another tank I have )

On my newest set up tank, my South American Cichlid tank, I must be learning from experience, as tank wise, even though this tank has only been up & running 3-4 months, most everything is at a balance, the problem there, is the 4 Geo’s that were sent to me in error… I think I’m going to have to break up the wrestling club… so I have a good balance on fish, except for the ones that were sent to me in error…

On my most balanced tank, there is literally 18 inches of jungle between the lights, and the tank surface, so it’s a filtered light.. I’m getting enough light that the electric blue rams, and the platinum rummy’s pop, yet I haven’t needed to clean the glass in close to a year… carefully chosen terrestrial plants must be using up the nutrients needed for algae ( I don’t add any fertilizer ) and even though I do have one fancy pleco in the tank, it’s not one particularly good at eating algae…

… so my newest set up tank, was growing algae on the glass, but seems to be getting better on the glass algae thing, as the plants begin to thicken above the tank, and roots develop, and nutrient consumption increases…
There are a lot of elements that have to be worked out, to achieving "perfect" balance on a tank

BTW… all of these tanks are heavily stocked… but your most balanced tank may not be…

So what is your “Zen” tank, and to what do you attribute it’s perfect balance???

 

[Ram419]

Most balanced to me means the lighting is not too overpowered and there's thriving plants. Once I've dialed both those things in then the tank becomes balanced and I don't really have any algae issues in them. Once the balance is achieved then the amount of stock can vary, depending on your filtration and water changing routines.

 

[GaryE]

I don't believe we can ever have a perfect balance in a tank, but we can have smooth functioning, for a while. My 120 tetra/Cory tank is smooth. I do weekly 30% water changes, clean the filters when they slow down, and occasionally rearrange a few things. The plants grow, the fish thrive.
I've had tanks for long enough to know that's a temporary state, and I'll have to intervene more for some periods. The biggest dangers are adding new fish, fish growing, and my tendency to want to try something new.
My larger tanks are the smoothest ones - the 120 and my 2 75s, which need only water changes and attention to the filters. My 40 gallon paludarium is relatively balanced, but my other 40s, and the tanks smaller than that are unstable environments needing attention.
All my tank environments only date back to my move, and this is only my third summer here. I consider these new set-ups, and they'll change with time. I'm careful with how I stock tanks, and like my dwarf Cichlids at 10-15 gallons per fish, and larger fish at 20 to 30 each. Cichlids grow, and become that very big kid at one end of the teeter totter. No balance there.
I have sunlight in the room, and that causes seasonal algae flareups. I also get Cyano sometimes, like now. I like having that light for the terrestrial plants, both roots in the tanks and filters, and potted. So I have a balance to strike there - more algae and Cyanobacter in those tanks, but a nicer room.

If the truly balanced aquarium weren't a myth, I'd probably quit the hobby. I like the adjusting, experimenting, and generally fiddling around side of the hobby. If something looks perfect, take a photo of it. It won't last.

 

[Magnum Man]

I definitely agree on the larger tanks… when I was younger, and not married, I bet I had 40 - 10 gallon tanks … I had even made stands up in small closets, and had 10 gallon tanks, stacked floor to ceiling just behind the doorways… at that point in my life, those were mostly species tanks, sometimes just one large fish ( I had things like full sized electric catfish )
my bigger tanks were reserved for salt water mostly, well, and fish like arrawana’s and pacu’s… I still cringe, when I see posts about people setting up 3 gallon salt water tanks, I always thought it was too hard to keep the smaller tanks stable… granted equipment has changed a lot since then… but my time for maintenance, has become harder to come by, but I recognize it's importance

 

[Magnum Man]

Also you often hear about old tank syndrome, or crashes… I’m betting the bulk of those, the owners are lulled into complacency, because they think the tank is balanced… maybe not changing water as often as they should, maybe not thoroughly vacuuming substrate, and slowly accumulating bad stuff in the corners or???

Speaking of which, I see one of my 2 filters in my “most balanced tank” had slowed enough, that it must be due for a cleaning… which is why I run 2 of them… so much for the low maintenance…

 

[GaryE]

Still, how long does rinsing out a filter take? They're quick jobs with HOBs, slightly longer and at times frustrating with canisters. But it's still not huge in the scheme of things.

"Early onset" old tank syndrome (less than 10 years) is neglect, and cause to take a look at practices. I rarely vac, and some debris accumulates in corners. Not much. A tank can reach an age when things start to go west, but usually, that ties in to overstocking.

I have to get better at filter maintenance. That's my current Achilles heel. I'm good with air and HOB systems, but I can slip into out of sight, out of mind with canisters.

 

[Magnum Man]

I've mostly switched to HOB's... mostly Aquaclear 70's & Tidal 75's for consistency, and they are a couple of the easiest to service... so, yes... only takes me 5 minutes to do one... with the Tidals, they self start, so very little to get them going again...

 

[gwand]

Retirement has made it easy to be religious about weekly water changes and monthly filter cleaning. The hobby would have been much harder to manage when I was working full time.

 

[MaloK]

I define "Achieving perfect balance…"

As reaching the point your maintenance schedule is sound, minimal and adequate. Your water chemistry should remain very stable and predictable.

When you can anticipate next interventions required and know exactly why and how to proceed. And you can perform all in a fluent process that is nearly transparent to the tank occupants.

In reality, it's a lot easier said than done.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

At most I have had 28 running (in summer when I had 8 go up and then come back down in the fall). Only 13 of the total were ever planted. All were fresh water and most were well to over stocked. They all ran on my well water with no form of treatment. The planted tanks ran from low light to one high tech tank with pressurized CO2.

Some of the tanks ran close to prefect for a while. When I leanred not to use lights on the pleco tanks and ran them all with large amounts of Poret foam as the filters, they ran almost perfectly as long as I kept up with weekly maint. and water changes.

Some of the planted tanks never ran great in that there was always algae while others ran close to perfect. But all of them got fertilizers added to some extent and all the planted tanks, except the CO2 added one, got dosed weekly with Flourish Excel.

The pleco tanks were the easiest to manage and keep running without issues. But no lighting and massive amunts of Poret were the key. No algae once I eliminated the sunlight which came in part of one window.

The planted tanks all got algae someplace. Often, not on the plants but on the glass. The tanks with the least work only got algae on the back glass.

But no tank remains in balance forever as Gery notoed. The balance changes as fish groe, get added ot fie or get removed, Plants grow which changes things until they need to be pruned way baclk whoch also changes the balance.

Nature is full of algae. Streams rivers, ponds lakes etc. are not often crystal clear either. "The blackwater and clearwater rivers, such as the Negro, Tapajós, and Xingu have clear or dark water with few nutrients and little sediment. The Xingu is crystal clear and carries little in the way of sediment."

Our tanks are small compared to nature and we can use a lot of techniques to keep the water clear and the plants doing well. But no tank will stay in balance for very long is we do no form of care what-so-ever. That means no food, not ferts no lights that do not come very close to nature etc. Evaporation will happen, so it is OK to add replacement water but even that we must do.

And lets be realistic and accept that nature is not consistent. There are seasons, the hours of daylight change. There are floods and droughts and even an occasional earthquake which might rearrange a habitat abruptly.

At best we can design a tank which requires minimal attention to keep things balanced as long as we do out part in maintaining it. But this cannot last for a really long time in most cases as the fish grow and the fish die and they may even reproduce. If we do not adjust things accordingly, balance disappears.

I agree with Gary that what makes this hobby so much fun is our active participation is needed. I know it is silly, but I am sure many of us do it, I talk to my fish now and then. I do so knowing they do not understand a word I say. But I guess it makes me feel better/happier saying it. When I approach my tank with the 4 Altums I love saying, Good morning (etc.) Angels, except I am not named Charlie.....

 

[Fishfunn]

I don't believe we can ever have a perfect balance in a tank, but we can have smooth functioning, for a while. My 120 tetra/Cory tank is smooth. I do weekly 30% water changes,

When we think about it, to keep fish in a static, very small volume of water while they can still survive is nothing short of a miracle. In nature, fish have thousands of liters of flowing water to live in, so waste is very diluted, to say the least. I think to actually duplicate nature, we would have to do 100% water changes several times a day just to come close to the natural environment that these fish thrive in.

 

[GaryE]

A friend of mine had a set up, very high tech, that ran constantly with unmetered water. The tank was well over 300 gallons, and the water was heated and dechlorinated as it entered. It was several hundred percent a day. The fish were spectacular - rapidly growing and spawning like crazy. That was the best I have seen, though it was far far beyond my budget.

That was getting closer to nature, but not emulating it. It was still too small a system.

 

[Ram419]

I have sunlight in the room, and that causes seasonal algae flareups. I also get Cyano sometimes, like now. I like having that light for the terrestrial plants, both roots in the tanks and filters, and potted. So I have a balance to strike there - more algae and Cyanobacter in those tanks, but a nicer room.

If the truly balanced aquarium weren't a myth, I'd probably quit the hobby. I like the adjusting, experimenting, and generally fiddling around side of the hobby. If something looks perfect, take a photo of it. It won't last.

Sorry to hear about the cyano. I've dealt with it in 3 of the 7 aquaruims I have, one being a saltwater tank (20/10/3 gallon). All tanks in the same room and some have less window sunlight then others. I've not had a reoccurance of it since getting rid of it however. Great to hear I might be visited by it again.

 

[MaloK]

While they often look like slime or threads, Cyano's have a free floating stage and others are naturally water motile.

A good piece of filter poly-wool floating on top of my hobs, stem's them up quick.

 

[Ram419]

I've had to resort to using Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover Amazon on the freshwater tanks to get rid of the Cyano. Only took 1 dose.

On the saltwater I had a Trochus snail and did more water changes then normal to combat the Cyano. This was part of the cycling of the saltwater tank I think. Not sure if it always happens but was prob introduces with coral or inverts I added.