Here is a preview of my South American Blackwater Biotope aquarium. I worked on getting this tank setup for a month before adding fish. For several years this tank held a large black piranha and I've since traded him in and moved homes. I've always wanted to have a S/A black water aquarium with catfish, severums and silver dollars and tetras. I've been inspired by mongabay.com as well as other setups I've seen around the net. There WILL NOT be any plants to speak of in this tank. It just doesn't satisfy the Biotope. The main idea of this tank is to replicate a river bank snag close to the short side of a bend in the river or stream. I've produced a high amount of current to help satisfy that criteria. Any comments/suggestions please feel free to give your input. Stats: 120 gal A.G.A. 2x2x4 filtration: homemade sump 20L w/ bioballs magdrive 1200 HOB overflow hardscape: driftwood, rounded stones, sticks, almond leaves substrate: mix of multi purpose sand, playsand, and couple handfulls of mixed natural gravel projected fish stock: 5 spotted silver dollars 4 severums 7 BN plecos 1 L075 pleco 1 adonis pleco ( juvenile 3") 1 rhino pleco ( 6") 1 striped rapheal 1 spotted rapheal 1 megalodoras irwini 1 pseudodoras niger 1 hoplosternum thoracatum couple random others... Full tank shot Left hand side Right hand side p.s. I'll try and get some better pics up soon.
Really nice. Must have taken awhile to get all of that driftwood twisted in and fitting well. I like it. Gareth
thanks folks... I'll try to get some pics when I have an hour to spare. The wood wasnt' too bad to work with. The big stuff went in first. I knew how I wanted it to look on the bottom. Up on top, the pieces just fell into place. After that I just randomly added some small pieces on the riverbed and I move the branches around a lot. the water parameters (I'm guessing based on an old test done weeks ago) nitrate: 0 ph: appx. 6.0 (gonna retest this) (comes out of the tap at 7.4) ammonia: 0 kh: 1 gh: 4 (may be higher)
Hi Chadly, Very nice arrange of the driftwood. roud: The only thing I would change with this setup is the color of the two big white stone. Looking at your setup I feel that my eyes too much being drawn down to these stones, in a way the color is a bit disturbing, getting to much attention. After my opinion they make to big contrast into this most attractive setup of an Blackwater Biotope. Look forward to see updating, biotopes are always interesting. And please, don’t be afraid to put in some more leaves.
thanks for the comments all. I have moved some wood around a little on the right side, which I think looks better. I chose the stones because they replicate what I've seen in pictures of real life biotope pictures. The color may not be right and what I'd like to do is get some real black/brown algea growing on them. I do have more leaves, the leaves are ketapang/katappa/indian almond leaves... Here's my inspiration (Tropical Rainforest Conservation - mongabay.com) Amazon stream biotope aquarium, a freshwater habitat in Peru
As well as I can see, it's coming along nicely. Interesting read too. When do you expect to stock the biotope?
can you post a sump photo? use a co2? Acidifying uses natural? as pinecones and alder leaves katappa or oak?
I've been slowly stocking the fish over the month of january. elmagico82, I'll get a sump photo soon... I dont' use co2 because there are no plants! I use peat, wood and katappa leaves to acidify the water. new pics:
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