- Joined
- 2 Aug 2007
- Messages
- 1,938
keymaker said:I never thought of a superb tank like this, great idea.plantbrain said:This tank is much easier than most tanks folks have.
And it's a heck of RCS and stem plant farm, making about 100-200$ a month these days. More than enough to pay for it's electrical/chemical cost.
A self supporting financial and biological ecosystem!
BTW, spotless plant health and incredibly clean look - as always. Still a fan...
Well, there's more to it than just the scaping.
That's one of the more over emphasized elements I think in the planted tank hobby.
Gets most of the press.
Really gets back to what are the goals for the tank from that person's/owner's persepctive.
Seems that many lose sight of that.
I can pick at that part as well, not to take anything away from that aspect either, but I have considerations that go wayyyyyy wayyy beyond anything to do with judge criteria. I suspect most aquarist fall into that group really.
Many fish only folks need brought into this hobby to keep it afloat and growing also.
So nice fish plant mixes are wise.
My tanks have much higher fish/critter loads than any winning scapes I've ever seen.
That's part of the element of the aesthetic rules applied to those tanks.
I prefer to sit and have my eyes delighted and a really nice community since it's my personal home and aquarium that I, not the rest of world has to look at day to day. I also think a "working tank" shows good husbandry for livestock and good farming for the plants.
I work around these same concepts professionally with agriculture and natural lands.
What are the best management practices?
What is a good sustainable model for aquariums?
Can it look good still and have a nice fish community and nice plant community?'
Do I need higher light?
This is much more holistic in it's goal than aquascaping is alone.
However, you can still do both :idea:
It just adds another level above scaping to work on and improve as well
Something to ponder more with a glass of wine or beer, or tea after dinner staring at the aquarium.
I'll actually be selling this tank and some equipment, stand, light etc, and switching to a nicer beveled edge starfire glass LeMar, much like the ADA style tanks, have a cabinet maker do a similar stand to ADA for this same tank size, then add a built in over flow on the outside and have a sump under neath, this is easier to care for and keeps the O2 levels higher for the fish than this system. It also keeps all the stuff out of the tank nicely.
I will do this for each of the tanks I have now and might change the shapes a little, adding a bit more width/height etc to suit since the stand and tanks are custom anyway.............
Regards,
Tom Barr
Regards,
Tom Barr