Right... this may turn into a wall of text, so please bear with me!
I gave up fishkeeping about a year ago due to starting a PhD which involves being away from home for 6 weeks at a time, 4 times a year. However, I've recently started thinking if there was a way I could run something lowtech and self-sustaining that could tick along happily without me - now I know there's always going to be a risk of somethin unforseen happening, but I do have flatmates who could step in should everything explode or something
I've drawn a lot of inspiration from this site - http://www.tuncalik.com/2009/09/biotope-in-my-study/ which I originally found when I previously kepy scarlet badis.
Basic idea is a shallow tank, something like 90x90x30cms, probably custom made unless I can find an old terrapin tank or something, with a vaguelly asian biotope.
Filtration by emergent and 'boggy' plants (I'm thinking quite a lot of purple bamboo and similar grass-like plants, plus whatever else I come across that might fit in), some water circulaiton from a koralia powerhead or similar. Would like to try and encorporate a hairgrass lawn (yeah I know, might be getting over-ambitious here!), so was thinking about getting a cheap old single 150w MH arcadia pendant off ebay and doing a dry start, could then raise the light much higher once flooded to cover the emergent plants and hopefully not cause massive algae problems.
Once flooded, seed the tank with a bunch of inverts - daphnia, gammarus, shrimp, blackworms etc to act as food for a group of Dario dario (Scarlet badis) or other micropredator to be introduced further down the line. WIll add plenty of leaf-litter to keep the inverts going and encorporate a small refugium hidden amongst the plants and hardscape at the back to try and prevent complete wipeout once the fish are in.
Would also be keen to add some freshwater gobies if (when!) I end up with algae growth. Will slowly increase fish stock to try and find a balance with the inverts/algae.
Biggest problem will presumably be water loss through plant uptake and evaporation... I'm hoping covering the tank with acrylic with holes cut out and overed with clear plastic domes where the plants emerge will keep it in check while away, I'm sure I could ask my flatmates to top up the water occaisionally.
Does all this seem feasible or have I gone completely mad?
I'm a little worried about balancing nutients for the plants - was planning on using topsoil/garden soil capped with sand, any advice here would be hugely appreciated. I'm not going self-sufficient for the sake of it, so can happily dose when I'm home if needed.
I gave up fishkeeping about a year ago due to starting a PhD which involves being away from home for 6 weeks at a time, 4 times a year. However, I've recently started thinking if there was a way I could run something lowtech and self-sustaining that could tick along happily without me - now I know there's always going to be a risk of somethin unforseen happening, but I do have flatmates who could step in should everything explode or something
I've drawn a lot of inspiration from this site - http://www.tuncalik.com/2009/09/biotope-in-my-study/ which I originally found when I previously kepy scarlet badis.
Basic idea is a shallow tank, something like 90x90x30cms, probably custom made unless I can find an old terrapin tank or something, with a vaguelly asian biotope.
Filtration by emergent and 'boggy' plants (I'm thinking quite a lot of purple bamboo and similar grass-like plants, plus whatever else I come across that might fit in), some water circulaiton from a koralia powerhead or similar. Would like to try and encorporate a hairgrass lawn (yeah I know, might be getting over-ambitious here!), so was thinking about getting a cheap old single 150w MH arcadia pendant off ebay and doing a dry start, could then raise the light much higher once flooded to cover the emergent plants and hopefully not cause massive algae problems.
Once flooded, seed the tank with a bunch of inverts - daphnia, gammarus, shrimp, blackworms etc to act as food for a group of Dario dario (Scarlet badis) or other micropredator to be introduced further down the line. WIll add plenty of leaf-litter to keep the inverts going and encorporate a small refugium hidden amongst the plants and hardscape at the back to try and prevent complete wipeout once the fish are in.
Would also be keen to add some freshwater gobies if (when!) I end up with algae growth. Will slowly increase fish stock to try and find a balance with the inverts/algae.
Biggest problem will presumably be water loss through plant uptake and evaporation... I'm hoping covering the tank with acrylic with holes cut out and overed with clear plastic domes where the plants emerge will keep it in check while away, I'm sure I could ask my flatmates to top up the water occaisionally.
Does all this seem feasible or have I gone completely mad?
I'm a little worried about balancing nutients for the plants - was planning on using topsoil/garden soil capped with sand, any advice here would be hugely appreciated. I'm not going self-sufficient for the sake of it, so can happily dose when I'm home if needed.