If it aint 200 gallons or bigger you better park it!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
We're a very long way from completing the fish room. We can now close up the front of our build.

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Electrical has to be completed, then another inspection. After that, the drywall goes up. We have a major build going on around the tank. Setting up the tank will be the last thing that gets done, so don't hold your breath...it's going to be quite a while yet.

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Wish I could contribute, but my largest tank (that I *just* got) is 120 gallon.

Awesome thread, though! Lovely, lovely tanks and photos! <3
 
vfc;4602802; said:
I do find this thread a bit amusing. In addition to my indoor tanks, I have an ~100ft x 10ft creek running through my back yard. The creek is stocked with bluegills, catfish, and suckers. I have constructed retaining walls with open cinder blocks to provide numerous caves for the fish to hide. I feed more food to the outside fish than I do to the inside ones.

What I find amusing is the reference to the "mega" sized tanks over 200G in this thread and how small these tanks are in comparison to a natural environment.

I can envision placing a relatively "tiny" 400G tank in my creek with just a couple inches of the frame sticking out above the water line and how cramped it would be for a group of fish to be stuck in there. To make a bad situation worse, they would have to swim in the same urine saturated water for a week before half of it was replaced with fresh water.

I enjoy watching my outdoor fish swim full speed in a 100ft plus creek in fresh running water. I feel sorry for my indoor guys and have started moving to smaller fish because my 125-150G tanks are just way too small.
Click to expand...

First I would like to say that this is a great and entertaining thread and there are some really nice tanks here. And second, sorry for the long post below.

I know this is a somewhat old post in this tread but I feel it is worth bringing up.

I know most people on MFK are passionate about there fish and do a dam good job of caring for them in these "urine boxes" as it was put by another member in this thread. What I wanted to do is ask all of you a few questions.
What does nature have that we don't have in our aquariums? Is there a way to make our aquariums more like the real thing? Is there a way to fill these gaps?
I know many of you have the wheels turning. This member has given an eye opening opportunity for me to point out. We can make our systems very close to the real thing, other than the sheer size of nature of course.

How? you might ask. It astonishes me that the "natural" approach to filtering is not used more often. I can not really point fingers, as up until about 2 years ago I did not truly understand the entire concept myself. And through experimenting over this time I have found what most are missing from there filtering methods to match nature as close as possible.

Most here are very familiar with the nitrogen cycle. Cant really be a responsible fish keeper without knowing this cycle though and though. The problem is that most people end it with the bacteria and do water changes as a way of "cheating" (used very loosely) the cycle. If you are ending with bacteria filtration, than you are only using half of natures filtering ability.

Plants are the other half to the nitrogen cycle. Plants and bacteria work hand in hand. I have been experimenting with plants for some time and now have been playing around with algae and am nothing short of amazed as to the benefits from plant filters.

I know many will say that water changes are NEEDED to replenish nutrients. All I can say is that this is far form the truth. You do need to replenish nutrients I agree there, but water changes are waistful and are NOT needed.

Do you see people with man made ponds in there yards doing water changes? Do you think people with 5000g ponds do 1000g+ water changes weekly? It becomes more obvious as to how impractical and waistful water changes are when you start looking at larger systems.

Plants can complete the filtering cycle and eliminate the need for regular water changes. You will have evaporation and will need to add water on a regular basis anyway, so that is were you would be introducing new nutrients into the system.

I am not going to go into detail on a plant setup as the point is not to hijack this thread but instead, get the idea out for other to chew on. I have several tanks of different sizes and I do not do water changes anymore on any of the tanks setup with plant filtration on the system and the water quality on those tanks are the best I have ever seen. You can match nature, as long as you match nature.

All I ask, is for you to research plant filtering and experiment and see for yourself. Plant filters have to be designed to the size of a specific size aquarium and its inhabitants the same way you would choose any filter. You would not expect a tiny hang on the back filter to be adequate for a 220g tank so you should also not expect a couple lucky bamboo or mangrove shoots to do much either. But there are reasonable ways to get enough plants on a system to make a big differences, especially with algae.
 
earthstudent;4849031; said:
First I would like to say that this is a great and entertaining thread and there are some really nice tanks here. And second, sorry for the long post below.

I know this is a somewhat old post in this tread but I feel it is worth bringing up.

I know most people on MFK are passionate about there fish and do a dam good job of caring for them in these "urine boxes" as it was put by another member in this thread. What I wanted to do is ask all of you a few questions.
What does nature have that we don't have in our aquariums? Is there a way to make our aquariums more like the real thing? Is there a way to fill these gaps?
I know many of you have the wheels turning. This member has given an eye opening opportunity for me to point out. We can make our systems very close to the real thing, other than the sheer size of nature of course.

How? you might ask. It astonishes me that the "natural" approach to filtering is not used more often. I can not really point fingers, as up until about 2 years ago I did not truly understand the entire concept myself. And through experimenting over this time I have found what most are missing from there filtering methods to match nature as close as possible.

Most here are very familiar with the nitrogen cycle. Cant really be a responsible fish keeper without knowing this cycle though and though. The problem is that most people end it with the bacteria and do water changes as a way of "cheating" (used very loosely) the cycle. If you are ending with bacteria filtration, than you are only using half of natures filtering ability.

Plants are the other half to the nitrogen cycle. Plants and bacteria work hand in hand. I have been experimenting with plants for some time and now have been playing around with algae and am nothing short of amazed as to the benefits from plant filters.

I know many will say that water changes are NEEDED to replenish nutrients. All I can say is that this is far form the truth. You do need to replenish nutrients I agree there, but water changes are waistful and are NOT needed.

Do you see people with man made ponds in there yards doing water changes? Do you think people with 5000g ponds do 1000g+ water changes weekly? It becomes more obvious as to how impractical and waistful water changes are when you start looking at larger systems.

Plants can complete the filtering cycle and eliminate the need for regular water changes. You will have evaporation and will need to add water on a regular basis anyway, so that is were you would be introducing new nutrients into the system.

I am not going to go into detail on a plant setup as the point is not to hijack this thread but instead, get the idea out for other to chew on. I have several tanks of different sizes and I do not do water changes anymore on any of the tanks setup with plant filtration on the system and the water quality on those tanks are the best I have ever seen. You can match nature, as long as you match nature.

All I ask, is for you to research plant filtering and experiment and see for yourself. Plant filters have to be designed to the size of a specific size aquarium and its inhabitants the same way you would choose any filter. You would not expect a tiny hang on the back filter to be adequate for a 220g tank so you should also not expect a couple lucky bamboo or mangrove shoots to do much either. But there are reasonable ways to get enough plants on a system to make a big differences, especially with algae.
Click to expand...


I must say planted filtration has definetly been on my brain lately. I for sure plan on experimenting in the future with it! :D

And let's keep this thread alive people! Chant with me "More Monster Tanks! More Monster Tanks! More Monster Tanks!" :clap
 
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