Another Tennesseean

[doktor zhivago]

Hi all,

Seems like there's quite a few Tennessee people in here so here's another.Getting back into the hobby after 12-15 years out (I've forgotten so much). Got started on a new 37 gallon tank. Not sure what fish to put in there yet but I'm all about plants and more plants. I think the fish may take a back seat. Starting easy with some val and pearl weed. Might get some floaters. I think I'm just gonna get a nice low stocked community tank so I can mess with more kinds of plants. 

 

 

[Guppysnail]

Welcome to the forum. Would love to see photos so we can follow your tank journey.

[Schuyler]

I just noticed yesterday that the club finder lists three aquarium clubs in Tennessee! I guess the hobby is going strong there.

What pulled you back into the hobby?

[doktor zhivago]

Quote

On 2/7/2024 at 8:32 PM, Guppysnail said:

Welcome to the forum. Would love to see photos so we can follow your tank journey.

Not much in there right now. Its only been cycling for a couple days. I think I'm going to swap the hob for a sponge because the noise it makes is driving me nuts

On 2/8/2024 at 1:34 AM, Schuyler said:

I just noticed yesterday that the club finder lists three aquarium clubs in Tennessee! I guess the hobby is going strong there.

What pulled you back into the hobby?

I filled my house with plants and I can't keep other pets or have an outdoor garden right now so it was the next best thing

 

[Guppysnail]

On 2/8/2024 at 4:35 AM, doktor zhivago said:

filled my house with plants and I can't keep other pets or have an outdoor garden right now so it was the next best thing

You may want to look to also establishing a riparian style tank. 
This channel has lots of good suggestions 

 

Here are a few of my tanks. Emergents are so beneficial to tanks.  I find almost anything that can tolerate “wet feet” (wet undrained soil) do fabulously.  
 

@dasaltemelosguy has also gone a step farther and really took riparian to a whole new level recently.  I’m in awe of his new riparian and now aspire to upgrade mine.  
 

[doktor zhivago]

On 2/8/2024 at 8:42 AM, Guppysnail said:

You may want to look to also establishing a riparian style tank. 

 

i have a peace lily i'm gonna add to the tank eventually but i need to take him out of the pot to propagate and I'd rather wait till it gets warmer outside so i can set him out in the sun to recover. As a fly fisherman I would love to do a native fish extremely high flow tank for brook trout and sculpins and madtoms and stuff but I that's a long term dream as well as possibly having legal issues. I know lots of guys around here raise rainbow trout as bait for stripers but they can get huge compared to the brookies

[Schuyler]

@Fish Folk do you know if there are any cool NANFs in Tennessee?

[doktor zhivago]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:15 AM, Schuyler said:

@Fish Folk do you know if there are any cool NANFs in Tennessee?

The heart of genetic diversity in the sunfish family, which includes the black bass (smallmouth, largemouth, spotted etc) is here in the south-east. There are literally dozens of species of sunfish, my favorite probably being the redbreasts and long-ears. Up in the mountains in the eastern part of the state where I'm at there was formerly a large diversity of fast water rocky stream fish but most of that habitat has been severely degraded for the past couple hundred years and there's only a few small creeks at very high elevations in the Smokey Mountain National Park that actually maintain the original fauna. In the park itself the trout there are mostly feral wild breeding fish from the stocking regimes that stopped in the 70s/80s (they're usually very small and die around 3-4 years old because of the lack of food in the degraded habitats, the exception being some large piscivorous browns). Many of the tailwaters of dams in the TVA system contain non-native trout like European browns or pacific coast rainbows. The native brook trout have been completely out competed at lower elevations and the ones you catch now are usually stocked rather than wild bred fry. 

 

https://smokieslife.org/product/fishes-of-the-smokies/

great book on some of the native species that you can't usually catch on hook and line, lots of the smaller minnows and sculpins and catfish. 

 

 

[Fish Folk]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:15 AM, Schuyler said:

@Fish Folk do you know if there are any cool NANFs in Tennessee?

Yes! Loads. However TN is one of the most restrictive states when it comes to collecting, keeping, or shipping NANF.

Knoxville, TN hosts Conservation Fisheries, dedicated to preserving, propagating, and restocking endangered freshwater NANF.

I have heard very good things about the fish club ETAA (East Tennessee Aquatic Association).

Definitely take a pilgrimage to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga when you’re able. It is world class! 

Edited February 8 by Fish Folk

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 2/8/2024 at 6:17 AM, doktor zhivago said:

i have a peace lily i'm gonna add to the tank eventually but i need to take him out of the pot to propagate and I'd rather wait till it gets warmer outside so i can set him out in the sun to recover. As a fly fisherman I would love to do a native fish extremely high flow tank for brook trout and sculpins and madtoms and stuff but I that's a long term dream as well as possibly having legal issues. I know lots of guys around here raise rainbow trout as bait for stripers but they can get huge compared to the brookies

On 2/8/2024 at 5:42 AM, Guppysnail said:

You may want to look to also establishing a riparian style tank. 
...I find almost anything that can tolerate “wet feet” (wet undrained soil) do fabulously.  
 

@dasaltemelosguy has also gone a step farther and really took riparian to a whole new level recently.  I’m in awe of his new riparian and now aspire to upgrade mine.  
 

My introduction into emergent plants in aquariums was actually by taking part in an experiment where we were measuring, comparing and optimizing nitrate uptake and emergent's proved to be very powerful in that regard. I did what @Guppysnail did by replacing part of the lid with lighting grid to support the weights and keep the stalks (of the lucky bamboo) erect. This latest incarnation quite literally dropped the nitrates in these large tanks to zero. That will change as they stabilize in growth but nonetheless, they are quite the nitrate sinks.