Pictures added on 12/31/99......Click here to check them out!
Click here go to my new Freshwater Aquarium Product Review Page
The following pictures are of my 55 gallon freshwater aquarium.Click on the thumbnails below to view a full size picture.
Pictures added on 12/31/99......Click here to check them out!
The following pictures are of my 55 gallon freshwater aquarium.Click on the thumbnails below to view a full size picture.
--------------------------------------------------------------Neon Rainbowfish--P*eco Pete & Java Moss
Chequered Rainbowfish--Siamese Algae Eater-----Plants "Pearling "Oxygen Bubbles
Yo Yo loaches-------------- An SAE At Work-----Some Neon Rosy Barbs --Bosemani Rainbows
Full tank profile Sagittaria Subulata (Dwarf Sagittaria) in the foreground
Chequered Rainbowfish------------Yamato Numa Ebi/Caridina spp;
AKA Amano shrimp
This is my first serious effort to grow a lush tropical environment for my fish. I have kept freshwater tropical fish for over 35 years and have always had good luck in fish keeping. I have never been able to grow plants for very long. After spending many hours on the 'net reading news messages and web sites I happened upon the Aquatic Plant Digest home page and immediately subscribed. It is a wealth of information for anyone seriously into cultivating plants in a freshwater aquarium environment. A description of my tank is in order for anyone interested, I will be providing links in my description of my equipment as time permits in the near future. Due to the e-mail response I have gotten to this page I have decided to start a page of links to information, products and service internet sites that I have found useful and interesting. Click on this to go to my "Fish Links" page. The first place to start your journey for information on planted tank technology should be at the Aquatic Plant Digest home page to sign up for your e-mail updates! Another must read site if you are serious is the Krib.
Details of the tank shown in the pictures above:
55 Gallon (old style with the stainless steel frame and slate bottom)!
4 inches of "standard" natural, quartz aquarium gravel (1 bag of Seachem Flourite added before I realized that 1 bag was of not much benefit!, Seachem recommends at least 50% Flourite). I have enhanced the substrate with Substrate Gold, a laterite product. A foot note is in order here-when I had a hair/thread algae problem the substrate had small clumps of the stuff growing, EVERY clump I hand picked was attached ONLY to the Flourite! There was none attached to the regular gravel. Maybe someone can explain that?
High pressure CO2 setup purchased from Dave Gomberg ( adjusted to 7 PSI) , using a needle valve purchased from Pet Warehouse to reduce the pressure from 7Lbs PSI to produce 3 bubbles every 2 seconds as measured by an Aqualine exterior mounted bubble counter, this feeds the CO2 through Norprene tubing fed into the intake of of a HydroLogix HCO 150 external CO2 reactor ( added on 11/03/00) which is powered by the output of an Eheim 2226 filter. Co2 is provided by a 10 gallon CO2 tank purchased from my local welding supply company, which has been running for almost 12 months without requiring a refill. I must note that there have been reports of the tank "dumping" the remainder of it's CO2 into the aquarium when it gets low....I have not had this problem, possibly due to the fact that I'm using the needle valve to reduce the flow rate. I ran my 1st tank all the way down to almost zero on the gauge and only had to close the needle valve down a bit as the bubble rate increased near the end.
1-Oceanic power compact 4' (2 x 55 watt) strip light, 1-Double Bright 4' fluorescent strip light I have converted with compact flourescents ( 2 X 55 Watt 6700 K bulbs) using kits from A H Supply . All I can say is WOW !!! 220 Watts of lighting really gets the plants cooking! The retro only took 1 1/2 hours and anyone handy with a drill, screwdriver and wirestrippers can do this conversion. Highly recommended conversion and Kim of AH Supply is very customer service oriented and will answer all your questions by e-mail or phone!
1-Eheim 2226 canister filter and 1-Eheim 2206 canister filter. Both filters have only mechanical filtering media, no charcoal or any other chemical media used.Water is drawn in from the right, lower rear and left lower rear of the tank. The output of the filters is sent through tubing running along the top left and right sides of the tank, concealed by the tank frame, using 90 degree elbows and the spray bars are aimed at the front glass at about a 45 degree angle. I get very good circulation with very little plant movement with this setup and the output tubes and spray bars are invisible!
Good old New England tap water (well), measuring 3 KH and 7 GH, PH 6.8
I do a 40% water change every week adding 5 ml of Tropica Master Grow 4 days later. For those of you looking to buy the Master Grow in the US there are only four places that I know of that have it for sale. Dave Gomberg's site lists it and also sells KNO3 and Monolith Marine Monsters and Aquabotanic and Big Al's Online have TMG available also.
Fish assortmant changes occasionally but is mainly Rainbow Fish.
These pictures are my first attempt at photographing my tank. Criticisms are very welcome as I will be refining my technique as time allows. The photos were taken using a hand held, Olympus OM2N 35 MM camera with a 35 to 80 mm zoom lens and 1x, 2x, and 3x close-up lenses in various combinations. Due to the narrow depth of field using the close up lenses a tripod was not possible to photograph moving objects, so focus was hit or miss at best! Film was Fuji X-Tra at a speed of 800 ASA using only the aquarium lights for lighting.
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Last updated 12/31/2001
