FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Where did you get your DW?
Trying to build something, a babbling post and catching up.
- Thread starter czcz
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
elwaine
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 174
That is an amazing biosphere. I love the mist rising above the water and the serene, yet complex and mysterious water world beneath the surface. A 15 - 20 minute drive from my house takes you to a number of natural ponds and bogs with just that appearance in the early AM. I'm often tempted to take some wild guppies and plants from those pools but hate to disturb what nature has placed there... so i never raided any of them.
Your 1st bubble nest. Nothing speaks more highly of a balanced ecosystem than breeding. (Except for humans of of course. They will breed under any conditions.)
Your 1st bubble nest. Nothing speaks more highly of a balanced ecosystem than breeding. (Except for humans of of course. They will breed under any conditions.)
Thats really nice. For what its worth, I've been out with folks from this hobby and our consensus was not to take wood and rocks from nature, but we totally pinched off a little emersed growth like we were animals who craved delicious plan... oh, yeah.
You know, they say fish will also breed as a save the species instinct when in terrible conditions...
You know, they say fish will also breed as a save the species instinct when in terrible conditions...
Here's a couple ginormous (but still phone quality) pics of my awesome green dust/spot algae on the wood. Again not worried about it except as a symptom while trying to figure out my tank. Sorry -- did not realize until now how large the earlier images were. This one is as big as those were, though, because I'm showing this post to the tank to show the algae I am not afraid and that it will be defeated.
elwaine
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 174
GSA can be a pain in (on) the glass. But on DW, it adds character and realism, IMHO.
Jchillin
Aquarium Advice Addict
I prepared myself for reading your rantings by rigging a coffee urn with a pneumatic dispenser (hate having to get up during a good story).
After reading through your posts and viewing the pics (nice touch to continue posting pics with the palm cam) and I came to the following conclusion:
Of all the planted folks I know, you one of the few that continuously push the aquatic/botanic envelope toward areas I could not even begin to imagine (and I have an extraordinary imagination).
I have no suggestions as what you've done and accomplished is out of my league. I will say this though, I like this even more than I did your previous permutations.
Question: Will you return to "normal" planted aquaria so I can learn a bit more about that?
After reading through your posts and viewing the pics (nice touch to continue posting pics with the palm cam) and I came to the following conclusion:
Of all the planted folks I know, you one of the few that continuously push the aquatic/botanic envelope toward areas I could not even begin to imagine (and I have an extraordinary imagination).
I have no suggestions as what you've done and accomplished is out of my league. I will say this though, I like this even more than I did your previous permutations.
Question: Will you return to "normal" planted aquaria so I can learn a bit more about that?
<3 Thanks for the kind words, Bill. And you're right, Larry.
Its my favorite tank of mine too. For a bit I wished I had held out for a 40 breeder to cross my path, but I've really fallen hard for this tank. I miss having a fuge though and even pulled my old Pemco metal framed tank out this weekend. (After reading about elwaine's sweet 24" tank plans!) I had forgotten how pretty that tank is. But its not time, and adding a sump to this tank (which would be great, even if just for maintaining water height) may or may not happen. You may remember but I've already drilled one established running tank... I think I might have used all my good juju on that one and be SOL if trying it again. Maybe I should sacrifice a few plants...
A buddy came by last night and made the great point that he likes this tank isn't as tech-ish as the old ones. It was an interesting insight: I think for a while there I fell too hard into method and lost the forest. Or something.
I may need to set up a grow out/goofy idea/plant only tank just to keep my hands out of this one and follow Glen's advice, though
Anyway, <3
Oh, and J, comeon, you grew L. brevipes and H. zosterfolia and ET vs Plecos on blue gravel. Get back to learning some folk and driving the bus in the plants forum! We need you!
Its my favorite tank of mine too. For a bit I wished I had held out for a 40 breeder to cross my path, but I've really fallen hard for this tank. I miss having a fuge though and even pulled my old Pemco metal framed tank out this weekend. (After reading about elwaine's sweet 24" tank plans!) I had forgotten how pretty that tank is. But its not time, and adding a sump to this tank (which would be great, even if just for maintaining water height) may or may not happen. You may remember but I've already drilled one established running tank... I think I might have used all my good juju on that one and be SOL if trying it again. Maybe I should sacrifice a few plants...
A buddy came by last night and made the great point that he likes this tank isn't as tech-ish as the old ones. It was an interesting insight: I think for a while there I fell too hard into method and lost the forest. Or something.
I may need to set up a grow out/goofy idea/plant only tank just to keep my hands out of this one and follow Glen's advice, though
Anyway, <3
Oh, and J, comeon, you grew L. brevipes and H. zosterfolia and ET vs Plecos on blue gravel. Get back to learning some folk and driving the bus in the plants forum! We need you!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm definitely not going to use a real time webcam (for a variety of reasons), but I'd really like to start learning something about cameras and photography and so am thinking of using this broken camera as an excuse to invest in a camera I can perhaps be more interested and progress with, especially for macros. But in looking at Linux/gphoto compatible cameras (I think I recall you being a Linux person), I've become intrigued with the idea of doing something with time lapse photography, so I could see, say, a video of the tank during a photoperiod or three months or whatever taken at say two frames a minute then played back at whatever frames per minute to keep the video interesting, and it should be relatively easy to cron a job to dump these images into daily directories onto a web server, then write something that wraps every image in a directory into a chronological slideshow that, if you were so interested, could use for a neat time lapse of any given day or days. It could be really cool and time lapse videos of plants growing are always neat.
I do not know yet where I could place such a camera while maintaining a level of comfort for myself and guests (I find the idea of explaining that they may be captured on film for public consumption if they happen to sit near the tank, and so may want to watch their actions, terrible) as well as keeping all the nice viewing angles at my place to the tank, as well as how to transition a time lapse when I decide I want to use the camera for other stuff for more than a day or vacation or visit, but I think these things will be minor to work out once I start setting it up.
Of course this may be another one of those things I should have kept in my head, since I'm backed up on tons of work and a couple things with this hobby I kept telling myself I would bang out in a weekend and I'm forgetting someth... oh, yeah, life, but still I find myself on AA posting about my tank, so, we'll see
I do not know yet where I could place such a camera while maintaining a level of comfort for myself and guests (I find the idea of explaining that they may be captured on film for public consumption if they happen to sit near the tank, and so may want to watch their actions, terrible) as well as keeping all the nice viewing angles at my place to the tank, as well as how to transition a time lapse when I decide I want to use the camera for other stuff for more than a day or vacation or visit, but I think these things will be minor to work out once I start setting it up.
Of course this may be another one of those things I should have kept in my head, since I'm backed up on tons of work and a couple things with this hobby I kept telling myself I would bang out in a weekend and I'm forgetting someth... oh, yeah, life, but still I find myself on AA posting about my tank, so, we'll see
Last edited:
elwaine
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 174
That's the easy part... picture files and slide shows and videos. The difficult part will be twofold: keeping the camera in place for weeks and maybe months; and keeping the lighting relatively the same in each shot. The lighting doesn't have to be identical. There are ways to compensate for lighting variability as long as it isn't way off from frame to frame. And if you move the camera, and then reposition it, there are ways to compensate for that too. Keep in mind that it is better to include a little extra in your frames to compensate for the latter post image processing. Also put a little sign on the camera that says "Do Not Touch." That may keep your friend's from moving it as they attempt to see what it is that you are doing. And who knows? If your lucky, the sign may even keep you from moving the camera.
I used to do a fair amount of astro-photography and I think I still have a lot of image processing software (but it's on an old PC and now I use Macs). Anyway, if you're able to get time lapse images I'll be happy to help in the processing.
So after finally getting around to measuring this tank, it turns out I got a 40 breeder afterall!
I'm not going to show you submerged stuff because I am recovering from some ugliness after a lack of heating disaster and it encourages me to stop messing with the submerged part, but we'll talk about that later. I also ended up pulling the soap beds except for the one attached to the back frame: I am going to let stuff grow up out of the tank instead of down behind the tank. In the meantime here's pics of some emergent stuff while playing with my new camera. Lots of you have seen these plants emergent before, but its this tank's first couple good stems so maybe you'll still like :
Bacopa australlis
Ranunculus inundatus
Poaceae sp. / "Purple Bamboo" (misidentified earlier as a Polygonum sp as thats what I used to know it as):
I'm not going to show you submerged stuff because I am recovering from some ugliness after a lack of heating disaster and it encourages me to stop messing with the submerged part, but we'll talk about that later. I also ended up pulling the soap beds except for the one attached to the back frame: I am going to let stuff grow up out of the tank instead of down behind the tank. In the meantime here's pics of some emergent stuff while playing with my new camera. Lots of you have seen these plants emergent before, but its this tank's first couple good stems so maybe you'll still like
:
Bacopa australlis
Ranunculus inundatus
Poaceae sp. / "Purple Bamboo" (misidentified earlier as a Polygonum sp as thats what I used to know it as):
I ended up removing the emergent pots and let the back wild. It looks cool. Eventually I will probably drain the tank a little more and let all of this go emergent, but I hold back because the Paradise Fish (Gourami?) and loaches like it back here so much.
The Mexican Orchid. I broke off one of the leaves when removing the pots then the other went weak, so pulled it off like I was an animal walking by :
Sites say its normal for old leaves to go yellow but I don't know... these spots are worrisome to me. The roots go down into the water.
A few closeups of different Bromeliad Tillandsia sp.
The Mexican Orchid. I broke off one of the leaves when removing the pots then the other went weak, so pulled it off like I was an animal walking by
:
Sites say its normal for old leaves to go yellow but I don't know... these spots are worrisome to me. The roots go down into the water.
A few closeups of different Bromeliad Tillandsia sp.
Check out the purple that's coming through from this one:
A closeup of some weird algae (not BGA) that actually grows above water. (Notice the wood draws water up... natural stuff is cool.)
Here's the mister just cause more than one person PM'd about it. It's just a Vicks Humidifier -- the one that said "Mist You Can See!" -- a few reduction fittings from the hardware store, and the old (dirty) flex tube from my old sump. I didn't glue the fittings or anything and figured I could still use the stock cover if I ever actually wanted a humidifier later. The plastic zip lock bag just helps seal the first (biggest) reduction fitting to the non standard (metric?) opening of the humidifier. It holds like 1.5-2 gallons of water and I only need to refill it weekly with a current schedule of 15 minutes on half hour off from ~7:30am to ~6:30pm, save for 12pm-1pm, when it runs for an hour straight. I could probably go 10 days between refills.
A closeup of some weird algae (not BGA) that actually grows above water. (Notice the wood draws water up... natural stuff is cool.)
Here's the mister just cause more than one person PM'd about it. It's just a Vicks Humidifier -- the one that said "Mist You Can See!" -- a few reduction fittings from the hardware store, and the old (dirty) flex tube from my old sump. I didn't glue the fittings or anything and figured I could still use the stock cover if I ever actually wanted a humidifier later. The plastic zip lock bag just helps seal the first (biggest) reduction fitting to the non standard (metric?) opening of the humidifier. It holds like 1.5-2 gallons of water and I only need to refill it weekly with a current schedule of 15 minutes on half hour off from ~7:30am to ~6:30pm, save for 12pm-1pm, when it runs for an hour straight. I could probably go 10 days between refills.
elwaine
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 174
That's one heck of a tropical jungle you're growing... very nice indeed. And I love the mister. I wondered how you did that.
I'm not sure if the Mexican orchids are like the more common orchid varieties, but as a rule, orchids, being epiphytes - as you know - don't do well with their roots being wet continuously. The roots need to dry out between good soakings... at least the ones I grow do. (Hmmm... let me amend that to "at least the ones I try to grow do.") Don't know what the spots are, but if the yellowing is a sign of old age in the leaf, maybe they're age spots
Couldn't help peaking below the water. What ever malady befell your tank doesn't seem to have affected the HM. A very hard and easy to grow plant (as I'm finding out).
I'm not sure if the Mexican orchids are like the more common orchid varieties, but as a rule, orchids, being epiphytes - as you know - don't do well with their roots being wet continuously. The roots need to dry out between good soakings... at least the ones I grow do. (Hmmm... let me amend that to "at least the ones I try to grow do.") Don't know what the spots are, but if the yellowing is a sign of old age in the leaf, maybe they're age spots
Couldn't help peaking below the water. What ever malady befell your tank doesn't seem to have affected the HM. A very hard and easy to grow plant (as I'm finding out).
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Everytime I look at these new pics, it makes me want to do this more and more.
mike47517
Aquarium Advice Addict
same hereEverytime I look at these new pics, it makes me want to do this more and more.
Zagz
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your progress is really fascinating. I am tempted to try something similar. I have 3 empty tanks.
Zagz, Mike, and Bomb: Do it!!!
elwaine, I don't know much about orchids at all and at first led the roots to an emergent pot with bits of bark that wicked the water up, but the old (now gone) leaves of one of the bulbs still went yellow, so I hope this is all normal, too. I was hoping even if those conditions were bad it would just send out new roots along the bark or something. I'm taking your advice and propping it up more using a couple bits of wood and then sticking as many roots as I can into some Subwassertang. Let's see how that goes... worst case maybe I'll try growing and trimming rice or something instead!
The disaster was losing some (all?) my Scarlett Badis/Dario dario after the temp could not have been more than 65 for aboufour or five days, which was entirely my fault. I did see a female the other day and have hope there's more. The other fish made it. So I have some thread algae that I suspect originated in part from that but its already dying back without adjusting anything. I also have brown algae on the glass and some green spot and what might be green dust, but its all relatively minor. The tank is dark again but I'll take a pic in the AM before work tomorrow or the next few days so you guys can check it out.
elwaine, I don't know much about orchids at all and at first led the roots to an emergent pot with bits of bark that wicked the water up, but the old (now gone) leaves of one of the bulbs still went yellow, so I hope this is all normal, too. I was hoping even if those conditions were bad it would just send out new roots along the bark or something. I'm taking your advice and propping it up more using a couple bits of wood and then sticking as many roots as I can into some Subwassertang. Let's see how that goes... worst case maybe I'll try growing and trimming rice or something instead!
The disaster was losing some (all?) my Scarlett Badis/Dario dario after the temp could not have been more than 65 for aboufour or five days, which was entirely my fault. I did see a female the other day and have hope there's more. The other fish made it. So I have some thread algae that I suspect originated in part from that but its already dying back without adjusting anything. I also have brown algae on the glass and some green spot and what might be green dust, but its all relatively minor. The tank is dark again but I'll take a pic in the AM before work tomorrow or the next few days so you guys can check it out.
Similar threads
