---

Notes:

January 21, 2001

This is our primary "show tank", since it is in plain view in the living room.

The substrate is a few handfuls of clay from a local stream, with about 3" of cous-cous size aquarium gravel on top.  There are some Malaysian trumpet snails in the gravel, though I haven't seen as many since we added the Botia.  The hood is a home-made plywood hood that could probably withstand a small nuclear blast.  We bought it years ago from a generous fellow in Baltimore, who shipped it to us for practically nothing.  It has 2 electronic ballasts and can support 4 4' shop lights, but we usually only have 2 on because electricity is so danged expensive in Vermont.  Someday we'll install solar panels on the roof, and I'll grow lush aquatic plants for free.  :-)  There is no water proof barrier between the lights and the water to maximize light transmission, but we have never had a problem with splashing or shorting out.  The inside of the hood is painted shiny white to maximize light reflecting back into the tank.

A few notes on the fish.. SAEs are wonderful fish.  They spend most of the day either perched hansomly on plants or decorations (see pictures below), or wandering around the tank, nibbling along the surfaces of all of the plants.  They do a great job of de-sliming the plants, keeping debris and gook from settling on the leaves.  They hang around with each other and make a great, playful group.  They also jump out of the tank if you give them even a quarter size hole!  Keep all sides of the tank covered with screen or something else to keep them from jumping!  I have found countless shrivelled up SAEs on the floor over the years.

The rainbowfish are sexually mature, and are often seen paired off, shuddering together in the early morning.  I haven't collected any eggs, and probably won't until I give the fish their own tank.  Any eggs they produce now will be gobbled up by the barbs, Botia and other fish.

Most of the plants came from auctions at the Tropical Fish Club of Burlington.

We have low-tech CO₂ generator on the tank.  It consists of a large plastic juice bottle which sits on top of the tank.  We drilled a hole in the cover and inserted a piece of rigid plastic tubing, caulking the rim with silicone.  To that we attached flexible aquarium air line, which feeds into the intake tube of our Aquaclear 500.  Every 3-4 weeks, we refill the juice bottle with a mixture of approximately 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast, and warm water or spoiled fruit juice.  The yeast quickly reproduce and in less than 24 hours, the yeast start producing CO₂ as they ferment the sugar and produce ethanol.  The bubbles of almost pure CO₂ enter the Aquaclear 500, where they are churned by the impellar and mostly dissolved under the sponges.  Some bubbles to escape from the filter, but overall it works well.  The generator lasts around 4 weeks or less in hot weather.

Eventually the bubbling will stop as the yeast die from the toxicity of their own waste products.  A handy brewer could probably rig up something to ferment their own beer or wine and harness the CO₂, but I hesitate to drink the junk that we produce from this contraption.  We know that the plants are probably CO₂ limited, because whenever we re-fill the CO₂ generator, we notice an increase in new plant growth within a few weeks.  If we let the generator die, the grows slows or stops and algae takes over.

A tip for CO₂ generation - always locate your yeast contraption above the tank, and/or install a one-way valve in the airline leading to the tank.  If you don't do one or both of these things, it is quite easy for a siphon to form, which will suck water out of your tank and into the CO₂ generator.  If the CO₂ generator is not perfectly air-tight, or if the hose pops off of the chamber, you could end up with gallons of water on the floor.  One-way valves are key.  I put the chamber above the tank and fasten the tubing to the chamber well, just to be sure.

We don't fertilize the tank often, though we do occasionally through in a few drops of random plant fertilizers.  Sometimes I shove a Tetra fertilizer tab under the madagascar lace plant - it usually responds well with a burst of new growth.  Overall, the tank is suffering from a bit of benign neglect.  The plants don't look spectacular, but even though they're shabby, they keep the water fairly nitrogen-free for the fish, which is great.

The aquaclear 500 may be overkill for this tank.  We don't really need that much biological filtration in such a heavily planted tank, but it was the only filter that would fit over the rim of the hood. We also have a powerhead in the corner of the tank, to provide additional water movement.  With all of the plants, we noticed that the corner opposite from the filter had almost no water flow.  The water near the gravel was several degrees colder than the circulating water.  The powerhead helps keep things moving in the tank.  We also cut a hole in an aquaclear sponge and stuck it on the bottom of the Aquaclear intake tube (this is what the SAE is sitting on in the photo below).  This is to keep the plant material from being sucked into the filter, or from clogging up the tube.  It helps, though it gets clogged itself and needs to be rinsed periodically.

We feed the fish flake food and tetra bits.  They occasionally get steamed or frozen zucchini (for the catfish), shelled green peas, or frozen blood worms.

Here are some photos of the fish.  Click on any photo for a larger view.  These pictures were taken in the fall of 2000:
 

Ancistrus - close up of mouth	Typical view of our ancistrus	Ancistrus resting	Everyone loves an ancistrus belly!
Corydoras - close up of barbels	Corydoras in a favorite resting place	Blue gourami - turning	Blue gourami - profile
Harlequin rasboras	Madagascar lace plant	Angelfish (bred by David Isham, TFCB)	Otocinclus, stuck to glass
Black ruby barb, beaten up by tank mate (notice missing pieces of anal and caudal fins)	Black ruby barb - the bully	Adult SAE (siamese algae eater)	Juvenile SAW, resting (very handsome fish)
Black tetra showing large abdominal tumor (eventually died)	Melanotaenia boesmani, turning	Melanotaenia boesmani

These photos were all taken with our Nikon Cookpix 990 digital camera (scaled down and compressed for the web).  Feel free to write to me for more information or with any comments. Please do not copy or use these photos without contacting me for permission first.  Thanks!