1930s historically accurate planted aquarium

[CalmedByFish]

On 5/17/2021 at 11:35 AM, Daniel said:

Just a reminder...this a very inexpensive super low maintenance aquarium. There is no light but sunshine through the window. There is no heater so the aquarium stays at room temperature. There is no filter except for that provided by the plants. There isn't even an airstone for goodness sake! Just a 100 year old glass box filled with water.

I did not cycle the tank before I put fish and plants in. I do not know what the parameters of the water are. I do not know the temperature, ph, kH, nitrate, nitrite, or ammonia levels in this aquarium.

...

But her fins and her health grew back over time and now she is healthy enough to breed.

To think that a tank can be so very hands-off, and yet healthy enough for a fish to heal and even breed, is enthralling, encouraging, and motivating. This tank is a "you CAN succeed" message to all of us. Personally, I needed to see this. The entire reason I keep fish is to give me a reprieve from a very demanding life, so seeing your low maintenance tank succeeding brings me peace. 

[Sliceofnature]

@Daniel i know this is sorta kitsch and not exactly the look your going for but when i saw them i thought of this thread and thought id share. Found a couple different ones on the petco website for a few bucks each and picked them up. Still waiting on the other to arrive. Anyway i think its a fun idea and sortve a cool throwback.

The site is interesting too you might wanna check it out. https://vintagefishbowl.com/collections/antiques-bowls-stands-aquariums

Edited May 18, 2021 by Sliceofnature

[Daniel]

2 minutes ago, Sliceofnature said:

@Daniel i know this is sorta kitsch and not exactly the look your going for but when i saw them i thought of this thread and thought id share. Found a couple different ones on the petco website for a few bucks each and picked them up. Still waiting on the other to arrive. Anyway i think its a fun idea and sortve a cool throwback.

The site is interesting too you might wanna check it out. https://vintagefishbowl.com/collections/antiques-bowls-stands-aquariums

I love the old retro aquarium stuff. Wow! That site has some very large, very cool vintage fishbowls. Thanks for the link.         

[Hobbit]

Quote

“The names of each figurine are of family, friends, or employees of the SLO mermaid company.”

Hmm. Not sure I’d find that flattering. 😅

[Daniel]

The angelfish are breeding again today. The temperature in the tank is lower than I thought would promote breeding. I don't use a thermometer but the house is about 70°F and when I stick my hand in, it feels like about 70°F. But nature finds a way. I think this recent round of egg laying has been prompted by upping the amount of blackworms I am feeding them.

[Lemon]

9 minutes ago, Daniel said:

The angelfish are breeding again today. The temperature in the tank is lower than I thought would promote breeding. I don't use a thermometer but the house is about 70°F and when I stick my hand in, it feels like about 70°F. But nature finds a way. I think this recent round of egg laying has been prompted by upping the amount of blackworms I am feeding them.

that's great, I noticed my kribs had fry a couple days ago 

how big are blackworms? 

[Daniel]

31 minutes ago, quirkylemon103 said:

that's great, I noticed my kribs had fry a couple days ago 

how big are blackworms? 

Congratulations on the Kribensis fry, those are so much fun!

Blackworms are pretty small. Even medium sized fry can eat them.

And at least for the purpose of keeping the 1930s aquarium authentic, it is sort of live food that is easy to collect in the wild. We have mud flats in the flood plain of a local reservoir that has tons of tubifex worms, probably, literally hundreds of tons of tubifex worms (which are similar to blackworms).

[Chris]

After reading through this thread, I began to read the copy of "The Complete Aquarium Book" By Innes that's uploaded here on the forum. After the first chapter, I ordered a hardback copy.

I received it on Wednesday, and so far have read the first 2 chapters - but have skimmed most of them for the juiciest morsels. I love how similar some of the core knowledge in the book is to how a lot of us keep fish today, and how alien some of the methods listed are! Sometimes, you'll find a concept that makes perfect sense and one that makes you balk in the same paragraph!

Also found it amusing that even William Innes advocated for quarantine, and mentioned that the inch per gallon rule is only accurate in certain situations.

My absolute favorite thing so far has been the mention of Stonewort - I love saltwater macroalgae, and had never heard of a freshwater macro. Now I have!

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by Chris

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 6/26/2021 at 11:01 AM, Chris said:

Stonewort

I've been thinking about what it would look like to have an algae based ecosystem aquarium and that's one of the types I've been eyeing.  There are so many algae based aquatic systems out there, and I'd like to try to do one in a tank to see what that looks like. 

[Chris]

On 6/26/2021 at 2:05 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

I've been thinking about what it would look like to have an algae based ecosystem aquarium and that's one of the types I've been eyeing.  There are so many algae based aquatic systems out there, and I'd like to try to do one in a tank to see what that looks like. 

I'd love to try a freshwater algae tank!

Unfortunately, it seems as if most of the species that may be suitable for a "presentable" display are either non-native to the US (and aren't traded) or are native to the US but are extremely invasive and are illegal to buy/sell/collect in most states. Bummer!

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 6/26/2021 at 9:21 PM, Chris said:

I'd love to try a freshwater algae tank!

Unfortunately, it seems as if most of the species that may be suitable for a "presentable" display are either non-native to the US (and aren't traded) or are native to the US but are extremely invasive and are illegal to buy/sell/collect in most states. Bummer!

I have plans.  But, I don't want to distract from @Daniel's incredible thread with honestly one of the best experiments I have seen in years.  So, please feel free to either DM me if you need details like now, or I swear I'll get a tank and get this started soon and start a thread.  I'm trying to figure out if I can fit a Marineland 90 in my space and you know then, get one.  Once that is up - Algae all the way! 😁

[PineSong]

Just found this thread and love the 1930's jungle val-filled tank, Daniel. Making a historically accurate tank is such a great idea.

I've had the Innes books for many years and back in the day had a tank which sat in a sunny window-seat, no filter/lights/airstone, full of plants growing in gravel-topped dirt. I loved that it was silent and the fish created the motion. Little orange platies in a still tank viewed from above...it was so sweet. Whenever I've thought of re-creating a tank from an Innes illustration, I've pictured jungle val as the key plant that says old-school to me, I think you've hit the nail on the head with your tank.

[Odd Duck]

I don’t know how I hadn’t found this thread sooner!  I love this reenactment of a mid 30’s tank!  It inspired me to dig out my very first fish book. I started with a well used, leaky, slate bottom, asphaltum sealed tank (no hole drilled in the slate).  I have read all 11 pages of your adventure so far and can’t wait for the next update.

The coarse sand/fine gravel you have is pretty much identical to the stuff I had that came in my first tank.  I gathered wild Val and Daphnia in my early years of fishkeeping because as a kid, I had minimal money to buy plants and there was no live food available to buy at my local fish store (a mom and pop basement store).

Thank you for bringing back some of my earliest memories of fishkeeping.  I was fascinated to read this book back in 1975 when I bought it, and many times since, but hadn’t in decades.  But guess what I’m reading again!

This is my edition of Mr. Innes book.  One of my favorite fish has always been the harlequin rasbora.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Odd Duck

[SarayParay]

On 5/17/2021 at 9:35 AM, Daniel said:

Okay @quirkylemon103 this update is for you!

 

Oh my gosh! I haven't been here in a few months and I love the update so far! It makes me so happy to see it thriving. Thank you for sharing this journey! Beautiful.

[Huck]

This thread is amazing. I love hearing the updates. I downloaded the book here and really like the way there is so much in there that is still relevant. 

[skadmiral]

Sounds cool post your progess. I would avoid putting milk in the aquarium. @Corymust have been thinking about oreos. LOL

[Torrey]

@Daniel so cool you are doing this. How is it coming along?

It's interesting how many people in the hobby are unaware of the similarities between Dr Diana Walstad's Treatise, and your book by Innes.

 

I wish I still had my 1800's German book on aquarium keeping, I think you would appreciate it. 

 

Thank you for the fabulous links!

[Carltronics]

On 7/27/2020 at 1:12 PM, Daniel said:

That is a great question!

Aquarium keeping in the 1930s seems pretty similar to what we do now, with pretty similar results. I won't do anything that isn't good for the fish. I might have to work harder though if I am trying to find live foods for example. And it's possible I won't have to work as hard as there will be fewer gadgets to maintain. From my initial reading of the literature, 1930s aquariums do not seem like they were worse for the fish/plants than now, just managed differently, certainly fewer fish per gallon than we tend to keep now. The living conditions of many economically important animals generally haven't improved since the 1930s. Ask yourself, if you were a chicken or a pig or a cow, for the short time you were alive on the Earth, would you have preferred to have been on a 1930s farm or in a 2020 Industrial production facility? I know it is not that good of an analogy but the point I would like to make is that while many, many things have improved in the last 100 years, some things are remarkably similar, and few things were possibly better a 100 years ago.

I am prepared to end the experiment if I have to make compromises that would cause the fish to suffer, but let's find out together what it was like to keep a planted tropical fish tank in the early years of the Great Depression.

And this vintage magazine just came in the mail today. Here is the cover for the August 1934 issue of Home and Gardens magazine. I think this will give me something to shoot for as I set up the tank.

 

I'm just curious about your heating methods. Shoots that's just one of many things I'm curious about this beautiful idea you came up with. And I'd choose livestock from the old days over the methods today lol good point 

[Daniel]

On 7/27/2021 at 3:59 AM, Carltronics said:

I'm just curious about your heating methods. Shoots that's just one of many things I'm curious about this beautiful idea you came up with. And I'd choose livestock from the old days over the methods today lol good point 

There aquarium stays a room temperature (no heater), maybe a little above room temperature because the aquarium is set before a south facing window so somewhere between 70°F and 74°F. I wouldn't put discus in there, but angelfish and everything else seems to do fine.

 

[Carltronics]

On 7/27/2021 at 2:54 AM, Daniel said:

There aquarium stays a room temperature (no heater), maybe a little above room temperature because the aquarium is set before a south facing window so somewhere between 70°F and 74°F. I wouldn't put discus in there, but angelfish and everything else seems to do fine.

 

But you also said you live somewhere where it freezes, how the tank originally broke. And also you mentioned no central heating in the 30s it just spurred some thought of how did they do it ? And the pic of the expanding food that you cant apparently over feed was super interesting. I'm just in love with your idea/ challenge. And picking the great depression era just makes it even more interesting I'm following for updates to see how this turns out. 😃

[Torrey]

@Carltronics when I lived near Mount Baker we had a wood stove to cook on and heat the house. In fact, it was reminiscent of the one my grandmother cooked on during the Depression. 

Stoked properly, they keep most of the home above 60°, even when it's -5° outside. 

[Daniel]

Temperature in the tank is probably about 70 – 71°F, it feels cool to my hand. The growth on the Vallisneria has been fantastic (after months of not doing anything). All the growth on the Vallisnera is just due to being near a south facing window. There was another thread on the forum talking about how nice sunlight looks in an aquarium, and I have to agree it's my favorite. I haven't done anything at all for algae control including even cleaning the glass. The tank still looks pretty good though.

I cut back on feeding, just some mosquito larva a couple of times a week, and they have cut back on breeding. But I'm thinking when fall comes, I may stop running the air conditioner and let the tank warm up a little bit, and start giving them some black worms. It would be nice to see a tankful of baby angelfish.

[PineSong]

On 8/8/2021 at 11:19 AM, Daniel said:

 All the growth on the Vallisnera is just due to being near a south facing window. There was another thread on the forum talking about how nice sunlight looks in an aquarium, and I have to agree it's my favorite. I haven't done anything at all for algae control including even cleaning the glass. The tank still looks pretty good though.

I came back to check on this thread because I just set up a 20g high in front of an east facing window. I would like to fill the back in with corkscrew val if I can find some, and I was wondering what to expect, algae-wise. Your setup still looks so good.

The bottom of the window starts about halfway up my tank and I don't like the view of that from the front so I'm considering rice paper backing for the tank, but also thought if enough val grew, the view of the window ledge would be blocked anyway...

[Streetwise]

Window light is very specific to location, direction, and shade. You can diffuse it with speaker grills, foam, paper, plastic, vinyl, etc.

[Brandon p]

On 7/29/2020 at 5:57 AM, Daniel said:

I hadn't thought about frozen food. Partly because I don't feed any frozen foods now. I do however keep my blackworms in the refrigerator, and I was planning to feed blackworms. There is another method of keeping blackworms in a sink under a drippy faucet that I will have to try.

I had thought about lighting. My plan is to put the tank near a north facing window. In the book starting on page 13, Innes says:

'Light. As above stated, aquatic plants in order to thrive and help purify the water must have good light. When in the sun many of them can be seen releasing a steady stream of fine bubbles. These are almost pure oxygen.

Strong diffused light, with an hour or two of direct sun is approximately ideal. Ordinary artificial light is worthless so far as any effect on the plants is concerned.

Direct sun in the summer months is dangerous to small aquaria, as it is liable to raise the temperature too high for the fishes.'

Here is a picture from "The Aquarium" magazine that I think illustrates indirect light.

He doesn't call it 'pearling' but it clearly he appreciates the plants 'releasing a steady stream of fine bubbles. These are almost pure oxygen.' Cool, even in 1936 pearling was a thing.

Refrigerators we’re pretty common and 30, I think that the first made in the 20’s and took off in the 30s