Tom's Bucket O' Mud

[coldcazzie]

It's looking really good Tom although at the leech!

 

[lljdma06]

You know, I have all sorts of worms and little critters in my ADA tank. Hydra, little weirdo shrimps things, red worms, white skinny worms, the list goes on... Honestly a leach doesn't surprise me considering you have Paludarium components to your tank.

You need to lose the mulm. Endor, which I haven't dismantled yet, has loads of mulm covering the sand. It's kind of gross-looking. I need to clean out the plants and dismantle the tank already. It's time.

Despite the mulm, I still love this system. Very cool indeed. One of my favorites here.

Liz

 

[BigTom]

Just been for an excellent trip to Outside Inside aquatics, came back with 6 otos (first fish, woo!) and a bunch of plants to fill in the big gap in the middle (and cover up the mulm Liz!) - E. ozelot 'green', C. nevellii/lucens and C. wendtii 'tropica'. Not that cheap, but I have to say the rootstock on the plants is absolutly top notch and I got really good coverage out of them.

They had some really awesome dwarf orange bumblebee cats (Akysis vespa) which I was very tempted by, but going to hold off until the gouramis arrive in a couple of weeks and I can get a feel for how the food chain is going to hold up.

Just spotted a second leech but it vanished into the leaf litter before Icould hook it out. Hope there aren't too many of the blighters.

 

[BigTom]

Yay crypts! How can you not love them. Just taking this to remind myself how it looks before all the leaves fall off

 

[lljdma06]

The leaves do grow back...

 

[BigTom]

Hehe yeah, but there's always that worrying few days when you don't quite believe they will

 

[Verminator89]

The more i look at this, the more i love it. Its hard to imagine its filter-less. And the entire concept wouldnt work if there was a filter i'm assuming, as all the micro-critters wouldnt survive - right?

 

[BigTom]

I think it'd probably be fine with a filter, especially something like a hamburg mattenfilter. The key really is in the large surface area and having plenty of plants and leaflitter to be broken down - and not cleaning it! Having said that, if you plant heavily enough and the plants are growing well then I don't see any need for a filter other than water movement if desired.

 

[nurglespuss]

What a fantastic tank!! I love it!

Is it still going?

 

[Littlemonkey]

What a great idea, Garden water feature in doors. Look forward to more piccy's.

 

[BigTom]

Stuff below the waterline has been filling in nicely with decent crypt and fern growth and some fiddling. This is how the two main viewable sides are looking today, excuse the narrow depth of field, just quick handheld shots.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I love this tank, reminds me of Amano's tanks.

 

[lljdma06]

I think it'd probably be fine with a filter, especially something like a hamburg mattenfilter. The key really is in the large surface area and having plenty of plants and leaflitter to be broken down - and not cleaning it! Having said that, if you plant heavily enough and the plants are growing well then I don't see any need for a filter other than water movement if desired.

This is one of the reasons why I'm ditching the filters in my ADA and will instal another Rio powerhead. My tank is densly planted and the plants are going well.

I really love this system.

 

[BigTom]

Hehe, was having a browse (dangerous!) in one of the LFS in Edinburgh today and spotted 8 Boraras maculatus, which I couldn't quite resist. 2 of them were extremely skinny and are still in hiding, but the remaining six have settled in instantly and are waging epic battles against individual daphnia. Quite hilarious that they're too small to take down a whole one on their own

 

[PDSimon]

haha, sounds good! Look foward to pics