An odd but pleasing project

GaryE · Jul 25, 2022

Years ago, I took a 3 foot/1 metre breeder tank and put a piece if glass across the back, a little over half the height of the tank, and cutting off about 20% of the tank volume. I ran it for a while, and liked the results.
I brought it back out a few months ago, as my new house has actual windows where I keep the fish. I blocked off the lower half of a window with styrofoam (it's a garage) and set the tank so it gets a few hours of direct sun per day. I filled the back compartment with soaked peat (I no longer buy it for ecological reasons, but I still had a huge bundle from my careless days). I capped it with playground sand, and also used the fine sand for the foreground section.
Then the fun started. The back area works as a bog. I have Coreopsis roseus cultivars (pink flowers), a largely dead lily I found in a clearance at walmart (it has tripled in size and flowered (red) as a bog plant, tropical polka dot plants, Yellow tickweed Coreopsis, Bacopa, Ludwigia, hair grass, Bolbitis and Anubias. The fish are poliaki killifish.
It'll take a year to see how it works longterm, but for now, it's great fun.

outofwater · Jul 25, 2022

This looks so cool. Thanks for sharing.

jesusjones · Jul 25, 2022

I really like how it makes the background look and the fact its functional. It is like a self feeding planter and a water changeless tank potentially? If you get the right anaerobics going in the deep substrate, maybe.

I'm gonna need to start looking for scrap glass to cut up

Alice B · Jul 25, 2022

Big Boy Fish · Jul 25, 2022

Noice stuff

GaryE · Jul 25, 2022

jesusjones said:
I really like how it makes the background look and the fact its functional. It is like a self feeding planter and a water changeless tank potentially? If you get the right anaerobics going in the deep substrate, maybe.

I'm gonna need to start looking for scrap glass to cut up

In my experience (only 55 years worth) the water changeless tank is a myth. I change 30% weekly, without fail. I need to add minerals, remove wastes and maintain the balances. If I stop water changing, I have a neglected tank that may linger if the fish population is low.
Water changeless tanks were what I was taught to run when I was a kid, and into my twenties. The balanced aquarium myths were mainstream then, and there was an almost magical belief in old water. Once I 'ditched' that, the change and improvement in my tanks was almost instant. I won't be chasing that mistake again. Been there, done that.