Freshwater River Ecosystem

[VariableEnigma]

I think I want to use a 20 gallon long that I have in my basement to create an aquarium that closely resembles the ecosystem of a river that runs by my house. I think this follows my interests better than the typical "fish tank" does. I've done something similar before in a standard 10 gallon tank, but this will be much more interesting, even if I'm still only using a 20 gallon (I'll be able to have fish).

The specific habitat I'm looking at is a little area in the forest that's been dammed, and it looks a bit like a small pond. The water flows more slowly than the rest of the river, and it doesn't get very much sun. It's sandy and rocky and doesn't have many plants. I have caught three species of fish there before. One is a 1 inch long minnow-like fish, another is a 2 inch algae eater, and the last is a 3 inch sunfish. I have also caught crayfish, and hundreds of species of microorganisms.

I haven't put too much thought into it yet (but I won't be able to mobilize until spring anyway), so I wanted to brainstorm a bit. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for me? Thanks in advace.

Amanda
a biology geek

 

[czcz]

Neat project. Maybe cross reference mentioned fish with profiles, to check adult size and potential issues.

 

[fambrough]

That sounds like huge fun. You might start off by testing the water chemistry and temperature in a few places in and round your source area. Using collected materials should help you match those parameters (leaf and plant debris, sediment, "substrate," specimens, etc.). In any closed system you will still have to be concerned about nutrient/waste export. From having seen similar systems at nature centers in local parks, the normal choices of filtration and flow are probably fine.

What are those tanks called that are partially submerged and partially terrestrial? One of those would be neat.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Guest]

Let me be the first to say, Welcome to Aquarium Advice! I hope you enjoy your stay here with many more posts to come!
-Stewie

 

[savga]

What are those tanks called that are partially submerged and partially terrestrial? One of those would be neat.

I think you mean a palludarium? That would be a great idea. I'm sure you could find some examples on the net.

 

[VariableEnigma]

I'm really excited. I've been checking out some even larger tanks on ebay, which would make the vivarium (another term for a half terrestrial aquarium) more possible.

I plan to capture and identify fish as soon as possible. I might even grab my waders and go out there in the cold, cold weather to do so. I'm also going to get water samples and test them What should I test? I have the basic pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite tests, but no others as of yet.

 

[JohnPaul]

Other tests worth noting: gH and kH, and maybe phosphates. And, of course, temperature!

 

[fambrough]

Yes, palludarium. That's the term I was looking for. Vivarium is a new one on me, thanks.

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but what are the filter options for these? Seems like the water level would be too low for a HOB, although rigging some type of waterfall from a HOB would be neat, if noisy.

And ditto what John Paul said about the tests. Als0, in woody NE wetlands you're going to find several species of salamanders. Some might be too large for an aquarium, I really do not know. I would definitely check the wet ponds at night with a flash light a week or two after everything finally thaws.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[VariableEnigma]

WOW! I just won a 45 gallon aquarium with a stand on eBay. I'll be picking it up next week when I have spring break. I'm SO EXCITED!

Anyway. This will make my whole river ecosystem about 50 times better. The problem is that I amd going to need some stuff. I will need a filtering system, a hood, and a light. And I need suggestions.

As always, thanks in advance

 

[smidget]

This is such a cool project! I work for a conservation authority and we were thinking of doing the same thing only re-creating a riffle instead of a pond. We were interested in looking at the benthic invertebrates and perhaps some species at risk.

I'm curious to know what fish you find in your river and are considering putting in your tank.

You'll have to let us know how you make out, pictures would be cool too

Good luck,

Another biology geek

 

[BASSNMAN]

I remembver reading about some companies that were recreating trout streams in hotels and office buildings. There was one in Montana in a fly tying shop that used the hatching insects to match their flies.

 

[VariableEnigma]

That's neat! I did an internship a few years ago studying benthic invertebrates for my state department of environmental protection. It was interesting, but it got a little "buggy" to me.

That's one thing I'm a little worried about in my tank- escaping buggy things. I mean, bugs are cool when they're contained, but I admit, I get kinda weird when they're crawling or flying around.

Anyway, I'll definately continue posting as I learn more about the ecosystem. I know I will have questions- mostly about testing, recreating water conditions, and hardware. I think I'm going to do my first water tests and identifications and things this week at some point.

 

[VariableEnigma]

Okay, here we are, I'm posting some of my questions now. Again, a recap of the type of environment I will be setting up: There is a little dammed pond on a river near my house that is home to a few types of fish, crayfish, and lots of other animals. I live in New England, so it is cold water. The substrate is sandy and the area is rocky. The site doesn't receive much sunlight, as it is in the woods. There are not very many plants there. I am setting up a 45 gallon aquarium and stock it with natives, so I need to mimic this environment. I want to have a pretty open aquarium with sand on the bottom and rocks on the sides. I'm not sure it will be part land at this point, though. I don't want this to get too complicated.

Here are my questions:

I am going to need a filtering system. I want the system to keep the water in balance while aiding the biological filtration that should naturally occur. What should I use, and why?

I will also need lighting. The tank does not have a hood or a light right now.

I should attempt to recreate the current. It is not very strong in the pondlike part, though.

The tank will need to be heated in the summer and cooled in the winter. I have a small heater that will probably be sufficent, but how should I go about cooling the water?

Once I test the water, I will post the parameters here. I will need to know how to keep them balanced at those levels.

As soon as I have identified as many animals as I can, I will post them here. I'm wondering how best to feed them. Hopefully I will be able to set up a breeding population of whatever gets eaten so that I will have my own food chain.

Thank you for reading! Any suggestions are welcome

 

[Felf]

you can try this idea for a river-like current with some really weak powerheads

http://www.loaches.com/river_tank.html

or you could always get 1 or 2 HOBs and put them on one side of the tank with a small ramp but it wouldnt be as cool. i think if you got a good canister filter and somehow connected the output to the intakes of the powerheads (with the setup in the link) it'd work out nicely. hmm cooling eh? i'm still trying to figure that one out myself it's always warm here but almost every option is an expensive one unless you're using a fan to aid evaporation like i plan to do. since heating isnt a problem, put the tank in the coolest part of the house (ie basement) and hopefully that'll help; the heater should have no problem keeping the temperature stable. sorry i couldnt answer your other questions.

 

[smidget]

I'll leave the other questions to someone else but as for the feeding part you'll need to (as you've said) id what you have first and then figure it out.

I think you may have to have some benthic inverts but like you said, once they mature you don't want them flying around in your house! Maybe some sort of screen would help if you go that route.

Since it's a pond-like ecosystem you may be able to use zooplankton such as daphnia or copepods as a food source.

On a totally different note and out of curiosity, do you have mudpuppies in that area?

 

[Blucat]

If anybody has or knows of a half filled aquarium with tropical fish in it, can you post some pictures or links to pictures? I would love to see

 

[czcz]

re filtration & current:

If you adapt the river tank article (linked by Felf) with HOBs, you can somewhat recreate a river leading into a pond by adding a divider on one side. Example:

|               hob in         hob out |
|  pond    |                              |
|_________|____________________|
        divider                       tank wall

As with the article, you can run tubing under the substrate so in and out of HOB are far away. Here's a pic of my intake (clear pvs and strainer; pvc elbow on top is for another project):

An alternative to this is a canister or sump/fuge (could house food breeding population) replacing the HOB with same river concept. Best choice will depend on how much GPH is needed through river section, budget, and willingness to DIY.

re light:

Since its rocks and sand with shaded sunlight,, I wouldn't worry to much. Whatever works. If the enviornment has floating plants and you plan to do the same in the tank, the proximity of lights means you don't have to care too about wpg.

re cooling:

You could use a chiller but placing the tank in the coolest part of the home as mentioned would be best option imo.

HTH

re pics & howtos for paludarium:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/paludarium/paludarium.html
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/vivarium/vivarium.html

 

[Biotoper]

I also live in New England and have seen several aquariums around that replicated NE ponds/streams/etc, and I've thought about doing something similiar. Some of these actually used no filtration equipment to go totally natural, but they generally look a lot scummier than most tropical aquarists like. The cool think about such a tank is you can collect everything (substrate, water, decorations, of course livestock) locally so you know you truly matching everything to the biotope. Here's my advice, what it's worth:

1. Filter - I wouldn't do the powerhead/pvc method designed for fast-flowing stream aquaria. A HOB would be the easiest, but I'd probably spend a little more and use a canister to hide the equipment, and much easier to have input/output on different end than with a HOB. In the canister, for filter media, I'd actually forget the product stuff and try out different grades of sand/gravel from the local stream in the media baskets.

2. Temp control - I personally would not use a heater or chiller. As long as the room it's in doesn't become an oven in the summer (or you crank the heating in winter), you should be fine. You might want to talk to someone who's kept cold-water fish for long term, but IMO trying to replicate seasonal temperature changes in an aquarium is a bad idea. I would expect fish from a shallow temperate stream will do fine with the normal fluctuations you might see in room temp. You could try out a fan a cheap way to keep it cool during summer.

3. Lights - if no plants, it doesn't matter much. Some of the natural tanks I've seen just use natural sunlight. You'll get a lot of algae growth on the glass, but you can reduce this by covering/painting the backglass. You get the benefit of truly matching the light cycle of the stream. Of course, the tank will be pretty dark in the winter.

4. Water testing the river - a good idea. As I noted above, I would use water from the stream for the tank. No need to match tap pH/hardness to stream, no chlorine, full of microorganisms.

5. Paludarium - it a lot of work to set up. As a middleground, you could find a nice largish rock from the stream that has collected some moss and soil on the surface and place it in the tank, making sure the surface is above the waterline. You could plant it with some native plants like touch-me-nots (they're annual though). That probably won't be enough land for salamanders. Also, to control bugs, a sticky fly-trap hung over the tank should help.