Nature works well when we let it and we work with it. In my old tanks I had terrestrial plants growing out the back. I put them in rubber tubing to allow the roots to survive my silver dollars. Geo's kept the sand fluffed, and with some aqautic plats deep in the drift wood everything balanced. The plants sucked out so many nitrates that I almost never had to change the water. I would test it weekly and always had great numbers.
My natural style tanks and biotopes thread
- Thread starter Stanzzzz7
- Start date
I came to have this mind set too, but by mistake. When I was living in south Jersey, the water was so bad that every time I would do a water change (with or without prime) my fish would get sick and/or die. I went through so many beautiful fish and I could not figure it out until I basically gave up and let the tank sit with no water changes for over month. My fish looked amazing and were behaving like they should. It was heavily planted and not heavily stocked so my parameters were all 0. As a result I started doing this as a practice. Allowing nature to take it's course. Only doing water changes infrequently to remove the hormones out of the water that people say can cause problem. And for those changes I used RO water from my job. Never had another problem
there is no other Riv tank on the internet that looks as good as yours.
amazing job mate.
amazing job mate.
Honestly brother, you’re eye for the completely naturalistic displays is unmatched. Nothing at all manufactured about your setups. 100% from plants to the fish. Pure nature without any of the setup being idealized.
Bravo. Thanks for sharing and being an inspiration to so many members here.
Bravo. Thanks for sharing and being an inspiration to so many members here.
Thank you all for the really nice comments guys. Really appreciate it.
Robin, you know I'm a huge fan of all your set ups too.
As it is for you, setting up the scape is probably my favourite aspect of the hobby.
I do collect most of the wood myself. I just grab suitable hard wood branches when I'm out and about in the woods.
I recently dug up a large honeysuckle from my garden, complete with root system. I've cut the main cluster of root ball off and left it to the elements to completely die and dry out.
I will be able to use it soon. This is the sort of thing I do for tank decor.
I don't spend any money setting up a scape unless I need a few plants.
I often think collected woods can look a bit more natural looking than some of the shop bought bog woods.
Thanks again for the nice remarks.
Robin, you know I'm a huge fan of all your set ups too.
As it is for you, setting up the scape is probably my favourite aspect of the hobby.
I do collect most of the wood myself. I just grab suitable hard wood branches when I'm out and about in the woods.
I recently dug up a large honeysuckle from my garden, complete with root system. I've cut the main cluster of root ball off and left it to the elements to completely die and dry out.
I will be able to use it soon. This is the sort of thing I do for tank decor.
I don't spend any money setting up a scape unless I need a few plants.
I often think collected woods can look a bit more natural looking than some of the shop bought bog woods.
Thanks again for the nice remarks.
It's been a while so thought I'd post a picture of my tank.
Thanks Adam.
I've got another tank but not much happening with it at the moment. It's my 4foot and it literally has 2 amano shrimp in there. I've been back and forth on what I want to do with it.
I've been looking into dart frogs for awhile now and my long term plan is building a 7x2x3 terrarium.
However that side of the hobby is new to me so I may try what I want to do on a smaller scale first. So I think this is where I will use the 4foot.
I still have the lotus lily. The thing grows so fast it takes over at times. I give it a crop right off occasionally and let it start again.
