Aquarium Geek Thread?

Psittac · November 2, 2024

Is there a thread for aquarium nerds? I searched and didn't find one.

Here is my most recent aquarium

I've waited for years and years to get a good sized one. It's a mess in this picture but just put the shades up today so I can sit on the couch or nap on the couch without light's in my eyes. It's an 8ft 310g planted community tank.

I've been fish keeping for about 20 years now and have occasionally not had aquariums, mainly when I move I take a year or two off.

This aquarium was of such a size that it wouldn't fit down the stairs in the front door so I had to cut a hole between the garage and garden level basement and cover it with a fire rated door (white square to the left).

If anyone has an aquarium post it up!

Here is a video of this aquarium from earlier this year, might clean the tank tomorrow and make a new updated video. The reason it's so long is that a long time friend of mine manages a fish shop and they have a computer monitor by the register and every now and then they'll put up a video of my tank because 95% of it came from their store.

porina · November 2, 2024

I moved earlier this year so nothing at the moment. Above is from when I was at my worst 11 years ago! Feeling an itch to get back in but need to sort out my new place some more first. Can I limit myself to 1 tank?

I experimented with ultra low maintenance towards the end. The pinnacle of that was a planted shrimp tank that I needed to do nothing more than top up for evaporation and rarely remove plant growth.

Since I live by the sea now I'm wondering if I could do some kind of native marine/rockpool like arrangement, but I've not researched that at all.

Psittac · November 2, 2024

3 hours ago, porina said:

I moved earlier this year so nothing at the moment. Above is from when I was at my worst 11 years ago! Feeling an itch to get back in but need to sort out my new place some more first. Can I limit myself to 1 tank?

I experimented with ultra low maintenance towards the end. The pinnacle of that was a planted shrimp tank that I needed to do nothing more than top up for evaporation and rarely remove plant growth.

Since I live by the sea now I'm wondering if I could do some kind of native marine/rockpool like arrangement, but I've not researched that at all.

Nice man!!!! I love low maintenance tanks because I'm either to busy to work on them or completely unmotivated. Here was the lowest maintenance salt tank I've done, it was a fluval edge so minimal topoff required and the algae kept the nitrates down. Though I would recommend something other than calerpa because that has a nasty habbit of randomly one day dieing off. I've done this tank a couple times and always with a pistol shrimp and a watchman goby. Problem is that the watchman is to good at his job and you never get to see them, so perhaps not one of the super attentive watchman's. I had to set up a camera and leave the room to get this video. I think it was this exact tank that when I tore it down finally, he had built a dome out of rock chips, sifted through the whole tank to get them all too. One potential problem with a no/low maintenance SW tank is that the salt and minerals can get used up.

porina · November 2, 2024

I've forgotten so much. Think I had several types of caulerpa over time, can't even remember if they were fresh or salt water. Grape one was considered bad wasn't it? As in, it grew everywhere if your tank had the right stuff to feed it?

For a low maintenance salt water tank I wouldn't keep anything bigger than plankton and algae. There's always a chance something bigger hitches a ride on rocks or whatever. While reducing the "low maintenance" aspect, I can collect sea water locally. Recently upgraded my microscope for it. Haven't decided how big a tank or where it would go.

The shrimp tank I had was crystal red/black bees, so they loved soft water. I did have some "shrimp stones" in there. Some kind of soft rock that dissolved as needed to replenish minerals, wasn't limestone. I did occasionally feed the shrimp, which contributed to plant growth.