Wy Renegade's 20L Bog Tank

[Borderlesscott]

Great blog, great tank - really enjoyed reading through this, love to see different things about my hobby and your tank is totally unique.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Thanks folks for the replies, sorry I'm a little slow, but things have been hectic will school starting up.

Wow, that looks pretty amazing! You got some great plant growth going on there.

--Adeeb

Thanks, they've done well. I pulled about 30 starts out last spring and gave them to a buddy, but the tank is still over run.

Pretty Sweet ....... beautiful tank!!!

Thank you.

Wow.

After almost 30 years in the hobby not much leaves me speechless. Nothin' against any number of great lookin' tanks out there; guess I'm just a little jaded. Just read from pg. 1 to the end. I was lookin' for inspiration for something like this, found it. All the more impressive to me since it's natives.

Coupla quick questions. I'm assuming the tank is at room temp. Don't see a heater and ya mentioned a mesh cover. Where does the temperature run on average?

Did you ever change the lighting? You stated at the beginning ya had one striplight? What wavelength and how many amps? How much ambient light does the tank receive?

Again, stunning tank!

WYite

Thank you, happy to know that I impressed/inspired someone! You've impressed me if you made it all the way from page one. It has been a very interesting project, but holds my interest because of how easy/simple it is. You are correct, there is no heater, so the tank is usually right around room temp. I prefer my classroom a littler cooler, so its usually between 72 and 76 degrees F. I've never changed the lighting, still using the two strip lights, one with two bulbs. So the tank gets light from three 24" 20W flourescent bulbs. One is a daylight bulb, and the other two are the plant-gro bulbs. Ambient lighting is provided by florescent fixtures in the classroom, but doesn't really amount to much.

Great blog, great tank - really enjoyed reading through this, love to see different things about my hobby and your tank is totally unique.

Thank you very much - glad you enjoyed it. It has been a interesting journey, one I'm happy to share.

 

[Wyomingite]

...
Thank you, happy to know that I impressed/inspired someone! You've impressed me if you made it all the way from page one. It has been a very interesting project, but holds my interest because of how easy/simple it is. You are correct, there is no heater, so the tank is usually right around room temp. I prefer my classroom a littler cooler, so its usually between 72 and 76 degrees F. I've never changed the lighting, still using the two strip lights, one with two bulbs. So the tank gets light from three 24" 20W flourescent bulbs. One is a daylight bulb, and the other two are the plant-gro bulbs. Ambient lighting is provided by florescent fixtures in the classroom, but doesn't really amount to much...

Thanks. Lighting would be no problem then, but the temp may prelude me from mimicing the set-up. My fish room runs at 80°. Afraid that may be a little warm for natives. Don't know yet, I'd really like to try.

BTW, if ya were lookin' for an amphibian, the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata) is native and only hits 'bout an inch and a half. Always called 'em spring peepers growin' up here, even though they're not the same species as the "true" spring peeper from the eastern U.S. They're cute little frogs.

WYite

 

[Wy Renegade]

Thanks. Lighting would be no problem then, but the temp may prelude me from mimicing the set-up. My fish room runs at 80°. Afraid that may be a little warm for natives. Don't know yet, I'd really like to try.

BTW, if ya were lookin' for an amphibian, the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata) is native and only hits 'bout an inch and a half. Always called 'em spring peepers growin' up here, even though they're not the same species as the "true" spring peeper from the eastern U.S. They're cute little frogs.

WYite

It might, but I think that you will just have to be a little more selective in the natives you attempt. With an 80° temp, I would limit myself to organisms collected from ponds, rather than those found in rivers and streams. Certainly damselflies and dragonflies for example should be able to tolerate that temperature without issue. Fish might be a little tougher, but if you can find the natives, I would think it can be done.

I've decided that this tank is pretty small for larger critters, so I'm avoiding most of that in this tank. I've got chorus frogs in my 30gal Paludarium, which is set-up with a similar design, but some nice improvements in my opinion.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f72/wy-renegades-30gal-paludarium-192117.html

 

[Umbra]

This is awesome! I'm actually doing something similar (I'll start a thread when I have everything in place) but doing it on a smaller scale as a coffee table centerpiece and not using an aquarium either. I've already got some different species of locally collected leeches (including the sanguivorous Macrobdella decora!), snails, scuds and planaria but I'm hesistant to use insect larvae or anything that could potentially leave the water and fly around the room as it will be an open top project. Was considering adding some ostracods and branchipods as well, and maybe a few fairy shrimp. Daphnia, rotifers, Hydra etc. might also be options. Your project is a definite inspiration to me and I hope mine turns out half as well as yours!

 

[Wy Renegade]

This is awesome! I'm actually doing something similar (I'll start a thread when I have everything in place) but doing it on a smaller scale as a coffee table centerpiece and not using an aquarium either. I've already got some different species of locally collected leeches (including the sanguivorous Macrobdella decora!), snails, scuds and planaria but I'm hesistant to use insect larvae or anything that could potentially leave the water and fly around the room as it will be an open top project. Was considering adding some ostracods and branchipods as well, and maybe a few fairy shrimp. Daphnia, rotifers, Hydra etc. might also be options. Your project is a definite inspiration to me and I hope mine turns out half as well as yours!

Sounds cool, I'll look forward to seeing your thread. Definitely if you don't want things flying around your house and you're going lidless, avoid the insects; most of them can and do fly. I'm sure that yours will end up being unique and rewarding in its own right! Be sure and keep me posted.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Well I haven't updated this thread for awhile, so figured it was about time. Not a whole lot has changed, I did add some type of small reed to the tank last spring that seems to be doing pretty well so far, but it died off in the 30gal paludarium, so not sure how it will do in the long run. We added some more insect nymphs again this fall, but nothing unique, so I didn't snap any pictures yet. We'll have to see if I see anything running around the tank at any point. So for this time, just a couple of simple shots.

First one is one of the rocks sticking up amonst all the Forget-Me-Nots;

And the second is the obligatory FTS (the new reed is right on the edge of the bank);

 

[bud29]

Lookin' good