Hi All,
I had an idea for a tank by some windows and wondered about what experience people have with them and if they're a good/bad idea, since I've read arguments for both around the internet and am not completely sure.
A month ago I got myself a bargain tank with the dimensions of 100cm x 40cm (depth) x 30cm (height), and decided that it'd make the perfect BigTom-style pond tank (half the depth, but I don't have the space for any deeper), with basically no plants in the water (ideally blackwater even), and with lots of riparium growth from echinodorus, stem plants, maybe a rare houseplant or two, and providing great extra filtration.
There are two options for tank placement, the first is just in a back room with no window or anything so not difficult to plan, the second (and my prefered) option is in my living room right in front of two big south-facing windows. I've attached a photo of the spot, the side table is approx 2m long, the tank would sit in the middle with plants either side. My current thought was that the only tank light I would add is a spotlight (maybe AI Prime kinda thing), mounted in the slot between the windows so we can see the fish. The tank will have some sort of painted/stuck on background behind it to stop sunlight getting in that way/hide the windowframes. I would be taking out the sidetable and making sure to reinforce it well, just in case, and adding a new top instead of the fabric that's waterproof, strong, and looks nice.
Here's a photo: the scale is weird, everything looks smaller than it is - the table is 2.1m long (the plants are massive too, some are moving to other parts of the house).
Because the tank would be a blackwater style, I'm not too fussed about a bit of algae, but also I don't want it to be FILLED with algae, and I'm not sure about what the riparium plant growth will be like year-round. My gut says it would be fabulous, but I wanted to check first... I have no experience with tanks and windows, and I wondered if anyone here does I'd love to know the benefits/pitfalls of doing it this way.
I had an idea for a tank by some windows and wondered about what experience people have with them and if they're a good/bad idea, since I've read arguments for both around the internet and am not completely sure.
A month ago I got myself a bargain tank with the dimensions of 100cm x 40cm (depth) x 30cm (height), and decided that it'd make the perfect BigTom-style pond tank (half the depth, but I don't have the space for any deeper), with basically no plants in the water (ideally blackwater even), and with lots of riparium growth from echinodorus, stem plants, maybe a rare houseplant or two, and providing great extra filtration.
There are two options for tank placement, the first is just in a back room with no window or anything so not difficult to plan, the second (and my prefered) option is in my living room right in front of two big south-facing windows. I've attached a photo of the spot, the side table is approx 2m long, the tank would sit in the middle with plants either side. My current thought was that the only tank light I would add is a spotlight (maybe AI Prime kinda thing), mounted in the slot between the windows so we can see the fish. The tank will have some sort of painted/stuck on background behind it to stop sunlight getting in that way/hide the windowframes. I would be taking out the sidetable and making sure to reinforce it well, just in case, and adding a new top instead of the fabric that's waterproof, strong, and looks nice.
Here's a photo: the scale is weird, everything looks smaller than it is - the table is 2.1m long (the plants are massive too, some are moving to other parts of the house).
Because the tank would be a blackwater style, I'm not too fussed about a bit of algae, but also I don't want it to be FILLED with algae, and I'm not sure about what the riparium plant growth will be like year-round. My gut says it would be fabulous, but I wanted to check first... I have no experience with tanks and windows, and I wondered if anyone here does I'd love to know the benefits/pitfalls of doing it this way.