36 gallon black water Amazon biotope build.

[Venom_]

Finally after weeks of researching, I'm finally setting up my black water amazon biotope in my 36 gallon bow front! I love the looks of black water tanks.

My tank has a hood with a single T8 fixture. Im planning on upgrading my lighting to a dual T5 fixture to grow some floating plants.

I started off by buying some sand.



This sand is fine and smooth, but did not cloud the water like i expected.

Then i spray painted my aquarium with Rust-Oleum Flexidip



It came out pretty good oh yea and i got piece of root wood for 16 dollars!

[Venom_]

Got an aquaclear 50 for 33 bucks at petsmart! And about to get another one for the same price today !

Then after that great deal I built a stand about 3 and half feet high with a nice glossy black coat but still haven't made the doors for it:/

[Venom_]

I got to more pieces of root wood and got an Aqueon pro 150w heater for only 20 bucks score! It blends in so well.

Ordered some Indian almond leaves and I did not expect them to be so huge.
but they still look nice

[Supergummy]

What are you going to put in it ?

[Venom_]

Finally I filled up the tank yesterday with some RO water to replicate the Gh of the Amazons black waters.
My aquascape noooo!!!!!
Not even 24 hours have past and the water already has tannins!yay!

Filling up the rest of the tank today, but how much tap water should I add 5%,10%, 15%, 20%? and should I not run carbon, because don't they remove tannins?

[Autumnsky]

Do you have any updates? What kind of fish? Any new FTS?

[brennae]

Yea Carbon will remove all your tannins. Looks very nice. I'm curious about an update as well.

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[PNWaquarist]

If you have both peat and carbon in your filter, your water will still get a little of the dingy peat color (but obviously not as much as without the carbon). The carbon will keep the peat from changing your tank pH all that much.

Cool setup and it sounds like you got some nice deals.

[Venom_]

Lol I forgot about this thread but everything is going great! I haven't used carbon on this tank only the sponge, bio media and about 6 tbs of peat moss in a filter media bag.

My stock is:
6 neon tetras
7 black neon tetras
3 apistogramma sold to me as A. Viejita

I also have 3 amazon swords

This is the first month of my tankit looked a little boring haha.

3rd month

And the 4th month/present
I added a t5 HO lamp for some more color and so I can grow swords

With swords and new aqua scape

Here are some more pics

[Venom_]

I want to get rid of all my tetras and get 2 schools of black wing hatchetfish and cardinal tetras so that it can be a Orinoco river basin biotope .

I also have only one problem and that is my male apsitogramma he is so aggressive and always chases the females away. The females are always hiding from him,what should I do about that?

Any questions or suggestions feel free to ask and say!

[brennae]

Very nice set up!

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[PNWaquarist]

That is cool.

Do your Black Neons hang out mostly in the top half of the tank?

[Fishperson]

This looks super cool!

You could rearrange the driftwood so they will establish new territories.

[Venom_]

Thanks guys! The black neons like to hang out at the top mostly and I have tried countless time rearranging the leaves and driftwood but nothing seems to change the aggressive behavior of my apisto....

[PNWaquarist]

Originally Posted by Venom_

Thanks guys! The black neons like to hang out at the top mostly

Thanks for the info. I'm looking for top-dwellers in my South American-ish 29 gallon. (Also considering hatchets.)

[Venom_]

Originally Posted by PNWaquarist

Thanks for the info. I'm looking for top-dwellers in my South American-ish 29 gallon. (Also considering hatchets.)

Yea they are super peaceful towards each other and are way better than regular neons IMO.