Tom's Bucket O' Mud

[BigTom]

Cheers. Really would love to see some fish in there but realistically it is going to be at least April before its ready to be stocked.

 

[Carlovel1]

One of the best tanks I've seen! Fantastic!

 

[BigTom]

One of the best tanks I've seen! Fantastic!

Thanks, still quite a lot of planting holes to fill and remains to be seen how it pans out long term, but reasonably happy with the progress so far.

 

[Biulu]

Beautiful! What do you mean by probably a disaster ?! It is very nice! Not all of those emergent plants are rooted in the substrate, are they? Are they just floating or how do you keep them in place?

 

[BigTom]

The emergent plants are mainly planted in shower caddies http/www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0014XQC90/ref=asc_df_B0014XQC901586614/?tag=nextag18948-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B0014XQC90&linkCode=asn attached with suction cups and filled with hydroton (clay pebbles) as substrate.

By disaster I just meant that as the whole thing is a bit experimental there is plenty to go wrong! Such as my mysterious mass shrimp die-off recently.

 

[Biulu]

Very clever solution! And the cups don't show at all!

 

[Kesaph]

The emergent plants are mainly planted in shower caddies http/www.amazon.co...90&linkCode=asn attached with suction cups and filled with hydroton (clay pebbles) as substrate.

What a great idea!

 

[Verminator89]

Amazing. It looks so much bigger than 240L, which is credit to your scaping. This has to be my favourite tank in progress currently.

What sort of lighting are you using. Sorry if you've mentioned before, its late and can't be bothered to re-read it all. Would love to know.

What sort of algae issue do you get, if any in this tank so far? Pesky GSA crops up in ALL my tanks regardless of routines.

 

[BigTom]

Amazing. It looks so much bigger than 240L, which is credit to your scaping. This has to be my favourite tank in progress currently.

What sort of lighting are you using. Sorry if you've mentioned before, its late and can't be bothered to re-read it all. Would love to know.

What sort of algae issue do you get, if any in this tank so far? Pesky GSA crops up in ALL my tanks regardless of routines.

Cheers!


Lighting is a 70W metal halide spotlight (£18 ebay), about 2 feet above the tank. A bit industrial looking at the mo, although I have plans to beautify it. Almost zero algae in this tank so far - just a smattering of green and brown dust on the glass next to the window.

 

[lljdma06]

This is looking soooo awesome! I love experiments like this. If it works, fabulous. If it doesn't, a lot can be learned regardless.

I like the combination.


I like Hara species. They'll enjoy the sand. Would love to see a nice school of semi-agressives. Like Hyphessobrycon species, even Serpae. The salmon would look amazing against the greenery. 25-30 or so would be impressive. But not sure if they'd go with Hara, doubt it. The tank is large and very tropical. A tetra with more substance would be lovely, which is why I suggested the serpae. Black phantom, red phantom...

Tiger barbs, maybe if you wanted to go Asian. I don't know, I don't think these species are given their due enough. People complain about them so much that they are so agressive. Kept in the right numbers, they are an impressive display fish with more edge.

Just my two cents.

Liz

 

[BigTom]

Hi Liz, thanks very much for the comments. Would love a big shoal of something like you suggest but I don't think the 'ecosystem' would be able to provide anywhere enough food to support it. Will be starting off with around half a dozen paros/badis, which may well prove to be the limit! We'll see though - its all part of the fun.

 

[markandhisfish]

cant believe i missed this. its fantastic!!! great work

 

[FreedomFighter]

Hmm, another one for me to follow.

I'm also in the process of an experiment for me, and the idea of a filterless tank is extremely interesting.

 

[flix_cw]

I am loving this so so much. Keep us updated!

 

[BigTom]

Well, I'm off tomorrow on fieldwork until mid-April, so the tank gets its first test of zero maintenance soon (my flatmate will top the water up every now and again).

Tank inhabitants all seem happy and are busy reproducing (little do they know!), plants are mostly growing. Had a huge melt from the MM after it went in, around 80% of the leaves vanished, but it has since recovered and is putting out new ones, although it looks a little straggly still. Will probaly need rpelanting at some point but I'll let it do its thing for now.

Glosso is slowly but surely creeping across the bottom - I give it about 2 more years til I have a full carpet

The echinodorus has turned into a monster, it's putting out huge new leaves every few days. I may have to invest in some more when I get back.

All the lillies are flowering away and growing well, which is nice. Parlour palm continues to not die!

A couple of FTS for the record (excuse the mulm!) -