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Making a new habit(at) . . . .

Wookii

Wookii

Moderator/Committee Member
UKAPS Team
Joined
13 Nov 2019
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Location
Nottingham
So I've long been wanting to have a go at a biotope style tank.

I'm aware that some folks can get a bit funny about using the word Biotope, as traditionally there are very strict rules around what qualifies as such. I have no intention of constraining myself to any specific biotope at this stage (I don't have the patience nor the skills) so I've opted to call this a 'habitat style' tank.

I originally planned to produce a proper dirtied river bank style tank, as discussed in my thread here: How to create a muddied river bank . . . However my time is too limited currently and I had a new (to me) tank waiting in the garage, and hardscape aging/greening out in the garden, so decided to press on.

My aim was to simulate a river bank of some sort - lot of roots, lots of leaf mulch and mulm everywhere, minimal planting, and low shadowy lighting.

This is my initial hardscape effort, consisting of some Talawa wood, inverted to simulate roots and mangroves, and then loads of actual roots added (courtesy of an old gift from @Hufsa), combined with some nice round lava rocks recently acquired from @Earlscapes. The substrate is mainly Hugo Kamishi, topped with some pre-washed Wio Heaven River sand, and then with a few sizes of gravel added.

IMG_5107.jpeg


IMG_5106.jpeg

Whilst I'm relatively happy with it, it still looked a little sterile and more of a 'scape' rather than a random cross section of centuries old riverbank.

Adding a jug full of loose root fragments, and pre-soaked and shredded leaves has softened it considerably - and it looks a lot better filled and with some tannins starting to leach.


IMG_5110.jpeg

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Planting consists of one lonely long leaved crypt (the identity of which I'm not sure of), some mosses (Miroshaki and Mini-Christmas), a few sparse bunches of grassy bits of Eleocharis of some sort, and an emersed dwarf Spathiphyllum - as I say, minimal planting; blink and you'll miss it. I will add a bit more of some grassy style plants here and there, but not much.

The end result, with the shimmer from the mini point source light (3 x Chihiros Z Tiny lights), looks great, and much more natural than my crap pictures might suggest:


IMG_5119.jpeg


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IMG_5122.jpeg
 
Wookii said:
So I've long been wanting to have a go at a biotope style tank.

I'm aware that some folks can get a bit funny about using the word Biotope, as traditionally there are very strict rules around what qualifies as such. I have no intention of constraining myself to any specific biotope at this stage (I don't have the patience nor the skills) so I've opted to call this a 'habitat style' tank.

I originally planned to produce a proper dirtied river bank style tank, as discussed in my thread here: How to create a muddied river bank . . . However my time is too limited currently and I had a new (to me) tank waiting in the garage, and hardscape aging/greening out in the garden, so decided to press on.

My aim was to simulate a river bank of some sort - lot of roots, lots of leaf mulch and mulm everywhere, minimal planting, and low shadowy lighting.

This is my initial hardscape effort, consisting of some Talawa wood, inverted to simulate roots and mangroves, and then loads of actual roots added (courtesy of an old gift from @Hufsa), combined with some nice round lava rocks recently acquired from @Earlscapes. The substrate is mainly Hugo Kamishi, topped with some pre-washed Wio Heaven River sand, and then with a few sizes of gravel added.

View attachment 221117


View attachment 221118

Whilst I'm relatively happy with it, it still looked a little sterile and more of a 'scape' rather than a random cross section of centuries old riverbank.

Adding a jug full of loose root fragments, and pre-soaked and shredded leaves has softened it considerably - and it looks a lot better filled and with some tannins starting to leach.


View attachment 221122

View attachment 221123


Planting consists of one lonely long leaved crypt (the identity of which I'm not sure of), some mosses (Miroshaki and Mini-Christmas), a few sparse bunches of grassy bits of Eleocharis of some sort, and an emersed dwarf Spathiphyllum - as I say, minimal planting; blink and you'll miss it. I will add a bit more of some grassy style plants here and there, but not much.

The end result, with the shimmer from the mini point source light (3 x Chihiros Z Tiny lights), looks great, and much more natural than my crap pictures might suggest:


View attachment 221119


View attachment 221120



View attachment 221121
Click to expand...
Looks great mate, really natural.
 
Cheers guys 👍

Some details I forgot in the OP:

Tank - 60 x 50 x 35 - I've intentionally filled well below the rim to help minimise stock jumping and keep humidity higher in that top area for the emersed plants.
Filter - my old Oase 650T has been pressed back into action. All the filter media is already very 'seasoned' as its been sitting in the sump of my other tank since the last tank this filter was used on, was broken down.


Things still to do:

  • I plan to clean the filter on one of my other tanks, that hasn't been done in about a year, and all the bacterial mulm from that tank, is going to be dumped into this one, with the filter off, to give it a couple of hours to settle over everything. I'm hoping that will complete the initial 'aged' mulmy look, you see in underwater videos of the Amazon etc. It will also boost the start-up biological maturation.

  • A bit more planting - some more Eleocharis, maybe a bit of Helanthium tenellum, and another decent sized emersed plant for the left side - I have a Boston fern in the kitchen that I might try.

  • After a couple more weeks, I'll start adding some livestock. Initially just some Ramshorns, and shrimp. There are a number of shrimp in my large tank that are appearing with really muted 'wild type' colouration, which will be the perfect look for this tank.

  • As with all my other tanks I need to set-up the automated water changes, so I need to run a 1/4" line from the RO unit in the adjacent room, to a water tank in the cabinet below. I have an old container with a float valve so this will be filled with RO daily. I've ordered a second hand ATO/water change unit off eBay. A little mini pump will draw old water off to waste, and the ATO will draw fresh water from the water tank in the cabinet to replace it and then ATO any evaporation too.

  • I have a old doser I'll also be setting up for remin and fert dosing. Both will be very low, as this is to be a very low TDS tank, verging on blackwater.

  • Lastly I have a tiny USB LED light that I want to hang at the back of the tank. The idea is that it will give a little illumination behind the frosted background of the tank. I'll then add some spare small roots hanging behind the tank. The idea is to give the impression of the stream carrying on into the distance with shadows of far off roots, with sunlight streaming through. It might be a bust, but I've seen it used to great effect in other tanks, so I thought I'd have a go.
 
OllieTY said:
Any ideas on what you're going to stock in here?
Click to expand...

To be honest, it’s the first tank I’ve set up where I haven’t had a clear stocking list before I’ve even come up with the hardscape design.

Definitely some Cory’s of some sort, and maybe some Betta Rubras that @Conort2 has bred (and maybe some Cory’s he has too).

If that doesn’t work out (as shipping might be a problem) then I may move my Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbows over as I think they would look stunning in the tank, and I might see if I can get them to breed, along with some of my Julli Cory’s to see if they might breed too.
 
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Looks great, I’d suggest leaning one of the roots slightly into the other? Maybe a some more leaves too? Seems crazy, but another branch might work 😊

Teeny rasbora would be ideal imo, but totallly up to you 👍
 
OllieTY said:
Wild bettas would be a great shout. I wonder if I will have some B. Albimarginata grown out enough for you to consider in the near future!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer mate - we’ll see how we go, I’ve never kept them before.

Looks great, I’d suggest leaning one of the roots slightly into the other? Maybe a some more leaves too? Seems crazy, but another branch might work 😊

Teeny rasbora would be ideal imo, but totallly up to you 👍
Click to expand...

Thanks mate - nah that wood is fixed now so there’s no moving it - and no more wood, I want to maintain some open space at the front.

The idea of the layout has been to create a channel through the centre. The filter outlet is directed at the front glass, so that it hits the glass and creates a flow back down the middle and sides at substrate level. The idea being it’s as if you’ve dunked you head under water and looking downstream.

One side affect is the leaves won’t settle on the front substrate - but yeah, I will be continuously adding leaf litter over time.
 
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Love it,
Tbh mulm I know a few betta breeders who leave a nice layer of it in all their tanks for fry to root around in.

A few suggestions. Haha jerdoni, great tiny catfish that you'll se every so often when not buried in the mulm layer. Waiting to gobble something going past.

If you have this teaming with life with ostracods, seed shrimp, gammarrus, black worms etc, shrimp to feed of the amount of biofilm you'll have in this.
Indostomus paradoxus/crocodilus would look very very cool flitting about in here. Tiny toothpick sized fish that just hunt all day long amongst the scape etc. Often just sitting on the hatdscape scanning for food.

There are quite a few betta that would suit this, the Ruby red Rubra would be very striking in here.
Or maybe some of the imbellis alien crosses that are communal.

Have fun with this, and just do what you feel you like the best.
 
So a couple of weeks back I added some more plants after a flyby visit to Pets At Home:

IMG_5136.jpeg

I also had some lovely Sagittaria subulata very kindly sent to me by @John q - which perfectly complements the look of the tank IMO.

All plants seem to be growing well (by well I mean looking healthy but barely growing at all - which is kind of the objective) including the unknown crypt at the back left that seems to be actually increasing in size the most despite having almost no light (to put it into context, it's illuminated by a 9w/400lumen light mounted over 60cm above the tank), and being transplanted from a hardwater tank to this low TDS tank.

All the filer mulm kind of disappeared quite quickly, and I've added more leaf litter which I'll continue to do periodically. I've also transferred about 20-30 odd shrimp from the main tank, that were either completely translucent, or very low in colouration. Not sure if they're from the Tangerine Tiger or Black Rose populations, but they fit in well with the natural colouration despite being very hard to spot.

IMG_5186.jpeg

Above the water I've also added a couple of daughter ferns and peace lilies from the emersed growth in my main tank - given that the existing Peace lily seems to be loving life.

IMG_5185.jpeg

Then on an outing to Bakewell at the weekend, after gorging myself on 1000 calories of Bakewell tart and several pints at the Thornbridge Brewery tap room (it was the wifes turn to drive 💪), during the waddle back to the car I spotted some lovely looking moss on a stone wall! No idea if it will take, but it was in a very 'dry' exposed spot, so I'm hoping it'll do well in the similar conditions here indoors - if anyone wants to attempt an ID, fire away?!

IMG_5187.jpeg
 

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