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Rio Negro biotope

George Farmer

Founder
UKAPS Team
Joined
30 Jun 2007
Messages
7,098
Location
Cambridgeshire
My biotope featured in Feb '10 PFK. March issue is Lake Inle and is also planted.

Nice and simple. Play sand, collected wood, leaf litter, E. tennelus and C. furcata. Water stained from leaf litter and Indian almond leaf tea-bags that sit in an external filter.

RO water, pH 6, temp 28C.

Fish are 15 Cardinal tetra.

amazonbiotopepreview.jpg
 
Hi george,i have to agree with saintly your best yet,with the stained water i bet those cardinals stand out a treat,
nice setup :thumbup: ,
regards john.

ps: do you want some fissidens moss yet ?
 
George Farmer said:
Thanks, guys!

John - you know I can't grow moss to save my life, so please stop taunting me! :lol:

Ok mate i,ll back off :lol: ,
regards,
john.
 
Was admiring this one in da'mag.

really like it, when i move (end of year?) hopefully i'll have enough space to set up that tank properly, i am going to do a biotope, yours have been very inspiring.

L
 
Excellent as always George!

Is it strange not look at crystal clear water? o_O

Its great to see something away from the norm! Have you seen any difference in the Cardinals behavior, better colours happier fish etc?

Regards

A
 
I admire your ability to churn out different biotopes each month. I do wish I had the money, patience and time (in that order of importance :lol:) to follow in your footsteps :thumbup:
 
Thanks, all!

andyh said:
Have you seen any difference in the Cardinals behavior, better colours happier fish etc?
This is an interesting question, Andy.

I've kept cardinals about 6 years ago in a 30ppm CO2 injected, EI set up.

I have to say the fish in this biotope seemed to settle in much quicker and were a lot more active than I seem to remember. Also feeding with more vigour. This is purely anecdotal evidence though, of course.

It may be controversial but I do now consider that some fish may 'prefer' low CO2 and low nutrient-laden water. In the majority of cases this is how the fish exist in the wild.

On the other hand, to provide an environment ideal for plant growth generally means that by default we are creating a good environment for the fish.

But I do wonder about pushing high (30+ppm) CO2 and the extensive use of liquid carbon products and consider this in future set ups.

It's also interesting when you read about Amano's CO2 levels - they're stated much lower than 30ppm. I think this may be because he uses CO2 mist where the actual dissolved CO2 is less than 'required' due to the plants obtaining sufficient qtys. throught the CO2 in its gaseous form.

Amano also records increbibly low NO3 levels i.e. <1ppm. This is presumably testiment to the incredibly rich substrate system.

It's something to think about, anyway. These biotopes are certainly making me think about things from the fish perspective, rather than the purely plant growth/aesthetic.
 
I have found some fish don`t like CO2 levels approaching 30ppm, especially when I had Trigonostigma hengeli. With those fish, it was a fine line between Spirogyra and unhappy fish.

My current house move/makeshift scape has Moenkhausia pinnieri and Pristella maxillaris, which seem happy nearer the 30ppm mark, but I do sometimes wonder how much more their activity would pick up if I slowly tweaked the CO2 down.

My tanks are generally run with high CO2 and lots of surface disturbance.

I like the tank George. Is it easy to live with a tank full of brown, dirty looking water? I have a bit of an OCD for gin clear water, unfortunately.

Dave.
 
George

I can see you logic with the each fish has its own preference levels, certain fish enjoy water with high o2 levels so why cant they not like the CO2 rich environments. One thing i defiantly notice is that some fish can take a while to adapt to the planted tank environment than others.

with ref the "mist" i really am seeing the benefits, i have enjoyed longer lasting CO2 bottles since switching to an inline diffuser, i have even turned down the bubble rate on my kitchen tank whilst still maintaining the green DC.


Dave Spencer said:
I like the tank George. Is it easy to live with a tank full of brown, dirty looking water? I have a bit of an OCD for gin clear water, unfortunately.

Dave.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I am in Dave's club! Years of keeping catfish in tanks full of bogwood with slightly brown water, has given me OCD for the gin clear water! :thumbup: Oh and i like the occasional G&T :rolleyes:
 
Rainbows don't like high levels of co2 either, I think it's a river type thing, I'm lead to believe co2 levels in rivers with lots of waste have higher levels so fish from these places can take more. I seem to remember Ceg laying this out regarding some fish that couldn't take the co2 levels, I could be making that up though.

The whole Gin thing confused me, till I realised it was only me who had red gin.
 
Looks great George, excellent effort and well thought out. I have just read the PFK with the White Cloud biotype,( It takes a while for the mag to get down under) loved the simplicty of that as well, it got me thinking Biotype for my Espei tank now!!

I dont know much about Cabomba Furcata and a Google search says this is very difficult plant to grow, have you had success with this plant before or this your first go with it? It looks like a stunning plant in some of the images

Cheers Nick
 
Hi George, just wondering if you know what the species of the wood is and what you did to it before you put it in the tank.
 
Thanks, all!

Ivan said:
Hi George, just wondering if you know what the species of the wood is and what you did to it before you put it in the tank.

Ivan - the wood is collected and there's a bit of redmoor in there too. I just scrubbed the collected stuff, as it was already submerged in a local lake. There always a risk when using collected wood etc. but it's a risk worth taking, IME. However, if you have very expensive and/or delicate fish then it will be worth considering using the wood in a 'test' tank first with some less expensive and hardier fish.

nrus70 said:
I dont know much about Cabomba Furcata and a Google search says this is very difficult plant to grow, have you had success with this plant before or this your first go with it? It looks like a stunning plant in some of the images
This is my first time with red cabomba. I found it easy, with 2 x T8 too.

I have issues with the antiquated 'difficulty' categories. I think these were created 20 odd years ago before CO2, decent nutrient management and circulation levels were the 'norm'. What was once very difficult is now relatively easy in the 'modern' planted tank. Lighting levels do not have to be as high as previously assumed with the nutrient-rich substrates/water in the presence of good circulation levels.
 
Yep, collected wood looks brill I think. I have some bits of Beech in my tank, with the discus, but it is starting to drop to bit and I need some more.
 
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