Biotope Biologist

That is my dream setup too! Amazon biotopes are my favorite and if I could get a larger tank with a group of Oscars and 1000 neons id be salivating Speaking of Amazon, centipede knife fish have managed to elude me. Was going to do a tank for them in college but couldn’t track them down and of course when I was taking a long break with this hobby, walked into ACO and there was a school of 20 of them! Maybe if we cross paths again I might attempt that setup again. Shoaling knifefish are a rare sight in the aquarium

Appears that way. Drain fly larvae. These flies are rather small and mostly nocturnal so they can slip by undetected. They are rather indiscriminate about where they lay eggs, hence the name sink flies. A puddle in or under a sink can harbor the larvae, which feed on detritus and other debris. same is true for aquariums especially in cool areas.

Yeah it can get pretty stuck on there. The coop sponges are pretty good at removing them. They are just magic erasers without the chemicals! Snails have rasping serrated teeth, they are quite good at getting stubborn algae off of rocks and glass. But they tend to mow haphazardly so it would never be a permanent solution.

We moved again in the fall just a little ways away from where we lived previously. Hopefully this will be the final move for these fishies. One goby was incredibly stubborn about leaving the caves I provided. It took tremendous arm strength to lift the cave system out of the water and hold it there until he finally plopped out and was fished out with a net. anyway still get plenty of light on the tank so I took a photo of the java fern. It seems to be the new hangout for the minnows

It is very unlikely that you have a high amount of copper. Fertilizers that provide micronutrients for plants have such a small amount of these metals that it would take quite a while for them to accumulate in the water, even without water changes. I advise you check the ingredients of your fertilizers however, micronutrients especially metals are wasted on your water if they are administered at any sort of frequency. Humans also need things like cobalt and manganese to survive, but in such small amounts that it is extremely rare to have deficiency in them. Copper is used as a transport ion in plant roots I believe, but it is not required in large amounts. I digress, there are many hobbyists who have been successful in maintaining a water change-less system for decades. It can be done as long as all waste is properly recycled. As for your stocking, I would go ahead and do water changes on a schedule. Despite being classified as beginner fish neons are sensitive to poor water quality and guppies can be finicky if the water becomes depleted in needed ions. Measured by your gh and kh.

I would use an acrylic tank. Preferably one with only one seam along the bottom or back. Then for a stand something with sturdy construction and I would make sure that joints can move but not give. For example my tank stand allows for some movement in the legs without collapsing.

White cloud minnow, ricefish, a handful of barb species, and most danio species. You can use a low watt heater in the tank. Heating to 68 F doesn’t take a lot of electricity. And if your basement is 50 ambient the tanks will probably sit around 58-62. Water is a thermal insulator.

I can provide updated photos. Trying to replicate the creeks in south east asia where you might find my fish I use mostly emergent plants that are very slowly creeping into the water. I have a narrow leaf java fern that loves the stump it has just about taken over the entirety of it. You can run this setup with a lot higher flow but need to provide eddies and shelter for fish to get out of the current The orange fin hill trout were lethargic at the LFS but as soon as I dropped them in this tank they are 24/7 energy Since I can’t run many aquatic plants due to the flow, I let the algae and Christmas tree moss build up on the rocks.

Inline heater- dependent on your filtration are more efficient at heating the water as the water is forced to interact with the heater rather than waiting for the water to circulate to the heater. Water is a very good insulator so I imagine your inefficiencies are with the heater and not heat loss to the room. You are not losing much heat to the ambient air through evaporative cooling either so insulating the lid does very little for you I would imagine. For human comfort you should definitely insulate your house! 😋 I like the house cold- 60 F. But 55 and below is rather uncomfortable

Carbonate salts. I think seachem alkaline buffer has this but you can find them readily at any major pet store if you don’t have it on hand

You can also soften water a ton with heavy organic load if that is an option for you. But also angels are not terribly finicky about the gh like common belief. Neither are discus. They possess a remarkable ability to push ions across their gills mechanically when magnesium and calcium are not present in the water, but if the water is not lacking in these then they do not need to use the ability and they live just fine, happy as clams. Many, many people have had success with both angels and discus in hard water.

I wouldn’t worry too much about that gh that is a perfectly fine parameter

Looks like 1/2 tap 1/2 ro is a safe bet! Definitely brought your gh into more manageable territory for certain plants and animals. I would just start using 1/2 ro 1/2 tap in your water changes, your kh might need some buffering but I have similar parameters to yours and my plants are thriving, so just monitor kh and adjust if test strip shows yellow close to water change time

Bubbles like that form for a multitude of reasons. Industrial residue is something I would not be terribly concerned with. Sometimes grease will come off a new motor but the grease they use is aquarium safe and generally hydrophobic. It usually forms an ‘oil slick’ on the surface before dispersing If I had to guess the bubbles are oxygen that gets trapped on the surface by the layer of viscous fatty acids. It’s a layer that forms naturally by certain biological processes. It’s been a long time since I took my water chemistry course so hopefully I used the right name for these processes 😅

I think a Hanna or similar electric test will be your best bet for this application. If the $80 is too rich for your blood, you can break it down into you have to buy $14 nitrate kits every 8-12 months, after ~5 years the Hanna will have paid for itself. They last a long time with very little maintenance required. Then you might just carry it around and zap random bodies of water, muttering “interesting, interesting results” to yourself and never using that practical knowledge anywhere 😋

Don’t ask about fish tanks ask about water beds. If the apartment allows king sized beds they hold 250 gallons. Apartment managers are weird about fish and try to deem them as pets even though most renters laws around them word them as ‘water features’ or ‘water entertainment’ so if you ask you apartment manager ask if they allow water beds and what size water beds. Than you will have your answer. I have kept a 128g aquarium in an apartment space with no issue

Availability and readiness to breed are usually the biggest reasons for cost paired with general interest (or lack there of in the case of Geos)

It’s the same accuracy as before just more liquid required. And more expensive in the long run. If you need to measure low kH accurately taking human error out of the equation is the only way

El nino ferns can be temperamental if they don’t have water running through their roots. I often steered people away from them for that reason. It needs to be a stream, like having a powerhead pointed at the ground. I believe they are actually emergent plants that experience near constant flooding events because they grow on the streams edge in the riparian zone in Indonesia. I may have confused the point further, but just know that compared to other java ferns this species is quite temperamental.

I agree with @nabokovfan87 but I’d like to expand, because Petsmart sold these el nino ferns (which are also called java ferns to confuse people even more). el nino ferns are very similar to epiphyte ferns in that they need water running through their soil to thrive. I have a maiden hair fern growing out of my tank and people long thought this fern was an impossible house plant. Because of that very specific requirement. If they don’t get it they will melt, if they do get it they need little else and will thrive. My maidenhair is s bit temperamental and melted because it got TOO MUCH sun. 😅 but she is coming back in force.

Hanna instruments. Pretty sure they send a control vial too. If you want accuracy you have to step up into kh meters. There is more accurate titration methods but unless you have access to a college or state lab, it’s about $1k for the equipment. We use Hanna instruments often.

It’s not all that uncommon to see water like this especially if you are on well. 6.4 pH isnt anything id be concerned with and you can add carbonate salts to bring the kh up- it will likely raise your pH too as the carbonate will buffer the acidity in the water some.

Also don’t forget about the beauty of Anemoia! My generation is certainly chocked full of it so it may not be all that hard to find buyers. I’ve seen the 40 gallon ones sell for $500 at botique thrift stores depending on the condition of the glass and quality of the restoration!

If you can get some rhyme or reason out of it I imagine some variants might be sellable! They look great!

Sorry I think I might have jumbled words. Let me be clear I would not call myself hardcore biotope. I think if you can loosely get your tank to look like a slice out of the environment than you’re good. My tank plants were easy to source and like my hardiness zone so I have had very good success with them. I have a maidenhair fern that is being a bit temperamental right now but the epiphyte ferns really seem to like having running water through the soil if that seems plausible in your setup I am following because I like your idea!