Amazon Biotope

[J_S]

Hi everyone, I joined this community in September to get some community fish ideas. I have been thinking and researching since then and I’ve made the decision of going for an Amazon biotope - either blackwater or clearwater. Does anyone have any personal experience with these kind of setups as some inspiration or any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wills]

Hi that sounds really cool what size tank are you going for?

The thing I love about Amazon biotopes are the variety you can get in there. With tetras alone you’ve got disks, splash, darters, headstanders, torpedo and more!

Wills

 

[J_S]

Hi that sounds really cool what size tank are you going for?

The thing I love about Amazon biotopes are the variety you can get in there. With tetras alone you’ve got disks, splash, darters, headstanders, torpedo and more!

Wills

Only a 30 gallon, I got rid of my big tanks to free up some space, I kind of regret it but hopefully I’ll get some bigger ones again someday.

I agree with the variety, although I’m indecisive so i want to keep every kind of fish lol

 

[Guyb93]

Sounds cool , would you choose a specific region of the Amazon and be super specific with substrate and plants ? I’d love to do it but I know I’d go to far ahahah

 

[J_S]

Sounds cool , would you choose a specific region of the Amazon and be super specific with substrate and plants ? I’d love to do it but I know I’d go to far ahahah

Yeah that’s what I’m worried about, getting carried away haha. I quite like the idea of making it a certain region, only because I prefer things to be natural but on the other hand If I limit it, that would mean less variety of species but saying that there’s still quite a lot to chose from if I did go down the one region route. Good point though, I’ll need to think about it.

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

ok tell me what you think of this:
Amazon basin biotope aquarium: aquarium: 100 liters; moderate light; landscape: black water with tannins with light current, dirt as base and sand over the dirt, stones and large logs with many branches, with botanists, a cave for the apistogrammas, a few spaces under the wood and stones for the ancistrus to dig in; plants: echinodorus bleheri, echinodorus cordifolius, Cabomba, tortula ruralis, Limnobium laevigatum, Salvinia minima; inhabitants: 2 Apistogramma cacatuoides, 1 ancistrus dolichopterus, 20-25 cardinal tetras; parameters: 24-28 ° C, Ph: 5.5-7, Gh: 20-250 ppm.

 

[Wills]

Is your hardness really 20gh? That’s probably too high unaltered for this project to work? Are you able to use something like ro water to soften it?

Alternatively some of the smaller Tanganyika cichlids would work multipunks would be cool? Depending on footprint

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Is your hardness really 20gh? That’s probably too high unaltered for this project to work? Are you able to use something like ro water to soften it?

Alternatively some of the smaller Tanganyika cichlids would work multipunks would be cool? Depending on footprint

in case you are talking about me, my Gh is 300 ppm but 20 ppm is super soft water, ppm=parts per million. the upper value 250 is the hardest where all the fish I chose feel comfortable.

 

[Snagrio]

As someone who's set up a South American-themed tank, I'm going to go right ahead and say that, unless you have the money and time to go out of your way for perfect accuracy, don't sweat the exact details too much. At the most, try to get all South American-originating fish and perhaps plants. Trying to be more specific with things like localities and exact water parameters is just going to lead to countless headaches from my experience. I also tried to go the all natural route but in the end I did end up having to add a couple fake (but not tacky) pieces of decor to serve as caves.

All this to say, have a vision, but be prepared to have to compromise and adapt with that vision.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I did a Rio Negro Flooded Forest in a 29g a few years ago and was very pleased with it. It looked like this. Knowing what I know now, I would probably go for something different than angels, but my wife wanted some, which was the whole impetus behind the setup.

 

[Guyb93]

ok tell me what you think of this:
Amazon basin biotope aquarium: aquarium: 100 liters; moderate light; landscape: black water with tannins with light current, dirt as base and sand over the dirt, stones and large logs with many branches, with botanists, a cave for the apistogrammas, a few spaces under the wood and stones for the ancistrus to dig in; plants: echinodorus bleheri, echinodorus cordifolius, Cabomba, tortula ruralis, Limnobium laevigatum, Salvinia minima; inhabitants: 2 Apistogramma cacatuoides, 1 ancistrus dolichopterus, 20-25 cardinal tetras; parameters: 24-28 ° C, Ph: 5.5-7, Gh: 20-250 ppm.

Does your water really range in Gh like that ? Why the fluctuations? That would terrify me that one week my water is super soft the another it’s hard , so you plan of dosing ? My Gh is around 100ppm 6-7dgh so I keep South American’s probably the one thing I would t change if I opted for a full biotope even though it could be softer

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Does your water really range in Gh like that ? Why the fluctuations? That would terrify me that one week my water is super soft the another it’s hard , so you plan of dosing ? My Gh is around 100ppm 6-7dgh so I keep South American’s probably the one thing I would t change if I opted for a full biotope even though it could be softer

no, my water is always around 280-310 ppm in Gh, the 20-250 ppm means the minimum and maximum Gh levels where all the fish species i proposed will thrive in.

 

[Guyb93]

no, my water is always around 280-310 ppm in Gh, the 20-250 ppm means the minimum and maximum Gh levels where all the fish species i proposed will thrive in.

Ohhh yeah get ya , slow Brian over here today lol

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Ohhh yeah get ya , slow Brian over here today lol

yeah, no problem, it was meant to be a "you can keep them in any Gh from this to that" but i think it might have been screwed up by google translate, since i have my aquarium ideas in spanish

 

[J_S]

As someone who's set up a South American-themed tank, I'm going to go right ahead and say that, unless you have the money and time to go out of your way for perfect accuracy, don't sweat the exact details too much. At the most, try to get all South American-originating fish and perhaps plants. Trying to be more specific with things like localities and exact water parameters is just going to lead to countless headaches from my experience. I also tried to go the all natural route but in the end I did end up having to add a couple fake (but not tacky) pieces of decor to serve as caves.

All this to say, have a vision, but be prepared to have to compromise and adapt with that vision.

Yeah, I’ve had a look about and you’re right it will lead to headaches so I’m just going to go for a general South American setup.