14 gallon cube freshwater ideas

[BanjoCatfish]

But I do want to create a good ecosystem that has not too much maintenance if possible.

Hi! Welcome to the world of freshwater planted aquariums! So if you're wanting to learn about setting up a minimal maintenance planted tank I recommend binge watching videos from a youtube account called Father Fish -----> https://www.youtube.com/ F fatherfish
He's an older gentleman, I think he's around 82 now and he's been keeping aquariums for about 70 years. I believe he owns his own LFS where he's got over 400 planted tanks setup and they tend to be low maintenance, going so far as to have some that require a water change only once a year. He uses what might be described in the world of freshwater planted aquariums as a "Modified Walstad Method". The "Walstad Method" is taken from a book titled "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium; A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist" written by Diana Walstad. It is an excellent book which dives into a scientific understanding of what goes on in a planted tank and I highly recommend it. Diana Walstad was trained as a microbiologist and has worked as a cell biologist for the government. The older gentleman takes the work that Diana did and, in his opinion, improves upon it, for example Diana uses gravel as a topper for the substrate where as Father Fish hates gravel and recommends sand as a topper for the dirt. He also recommends supplementing the dirt substrate with other things to help the plants out. This article will give you a taste of what the Walstad Method is all about and can help jump start your education in this area:

15.8. Walstad Aquarium - Aquarium Science

Diana Walstad wrote the “bible” on “low tech” planted tanks. Her book is called “The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium”. If one wants to know this topic in depth from a true expert, I heartily recommend this book (I think I’ve probably read it about five times!). She is the ONLY aquarium book...

aquariumscience.org

Welcome

 

[BanjoCatfish]

oops, that youtube link didn't work, the forum interpreted the @ symbol to mean one of it's own users. Just search for "Father Fish" on youtube and you'll find it, he's an older gentleman, can't miss him.

 

[Finthusiast]

Hey thanks so much for the direction I have had much help from the members here and glad I found this site! duanes has been a huge influence into most of what I already know from previous years of asking questions here. I will definitely look into the links you shared and will only ask things that I do not fully understand yet to get more personal insights thanks to all you guys for being so helpful and may we all live long and prosper!

Side note, I want to take some influence from here and try my hand at raising some actual monster fish are there any monsterlike fish that are small enough to be comfortable in a tank this size? Of coarse this will be som time down the road as I am interested in starting with community fish until I get a better grasp on how to care for more advanced species

 

[BanjoCatfish]

... and will only ask things that I do not fully understand yet to get more personal insights

Don't be fearful Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like!

And as far as tiny monsters that will fit in a 14 gallon, I can't think of any right now, maybe a betta fish? You could get a Plakat betta, they can be colorful. Or a halfmoon betta, or a crown tail betta, I like those. A bright red betta against all those green plants might look really good and I know a betta would love to have a roomy 14 gallon to live in. There is a betta color pattern called "Koi" because it resembles a Koi fish in some respects, a Koi pattern betta with a lot of bright red and a little bit of blue and white would look really good in a planted tank. They also have mustard yellow and blue patterned ones. Oh, you could do a betta sorority, that's where you have just female bettas in the tank. Just be careful if add a male betta in with females as the females tend to be fin nippers and might even kill the male by not leaving it alone. And if you do a betta soririty with only females just becarful to actuall get ones labeled "female" because male Plakat bettas tend to look similar to female bettas due to their shorter fins. Have fun and enjoy the hobby

 

[BanjoCatfish]

Oh, I just thought of this, you could get a betta of whatever color you want, like bright red or yellow and blue, and then in addition to that see if you can't find some freshwater shrimp with similar colors so the shrimp and the betta match! I think that would be cool! Maybe start with the betta and make sure it stays alive for a month or so to ensure that the tank is stable before adding shrimp since they can get expensive.

 

[Finthusiast]

Thanks for the info! I will spend some time checking out that article and father fish vids and keep posted here on any decisions to get second opinions on what will work out

 

[Iwhoopedbatman]

Oh, I just thought of this, you could get a betta of whatever color you want, like bright red or yellow and blue, and then in addition to that see if you can't find some freshwater shrimp with similar colors so the shrimp and the betta match! I think that would be cool! Maybe start with the betta and make sure it stays alive for a month or so to ensure that the tank is stable before adding shrimp since they can get expensive.

My betta I have right now killed all the shrimp in his tank, but the betta that was in there before had allowed a huge colony to grow. It's fish to fish on that mix ime.

 

[Iwhoopedbatman]

Father Fish and the Walstad method can work, but they also 'understock' their tanks. If you want more than a couple tiny fish in a 14 gallon, you'll need to utilize a filter. Those types of tanks are fun to build, but they take a lot of patience to stabilize and they're more about the 'ecosystem' than the fish. If your interest is the fish, you can still do all those things (potting soil, deep substrate bed, tons and tons of plants), but you'd want to still keep a filter going and be prepared to do water changes as the plants won't keep up with a fully stocked tank. Father Fish also preaches that nitrates are not toxic at levels under 300 ppm, which is a controversial opinion to say the least, so be sure to research that method extensively before jumping in as you may find you need to tweak it to serve your needs.

 

[Finthusiast]

So if you're wanting to learn about setting up a minimal maintenance planted tank I recommend binge watching videos from a youtube account called Father Fish

Thank you for this direction!

 

[BanjoCatfish]

Thank you for this direction!

You're very welcome