Saturday, September 17, 2016

Third time, three aquaria in two years...

If you want a planted tank, in an attempt to create a natural environment in your aquarium, you will encounter an argument in the hobby about whether or not to do a hi-tech tank, with intense lighting and CO2 injection. I don't believe there is an argument in reality, it's all a matter of what you like, and what trade-offs you like.

A "natural" aquarium is an aquarium proper

To make it simple: in a natural tank, you will be limited to "easy" plants, that are not too fussy about low levels of CO2 uptake, and also emergent plants are good, because they can take up CO2 from the air (and produce Oxygen under water). In a hi-tech tank with CO2-injection, you can achieve a greater variety of plants, including species that require more intense lighting, and those which need the extra CO2, because otherwise they would be out-competed by other plants.

When I grew up, I had the books of Dutch authors Heijmans and Thijsse, which advocated aquaria as a way to study the life in your local waters on a smaller scale, and the emphasis was very much "ecological" in nature: understanding the natural system, and the interactions of plants and fish, and all other water critters. There is a site inspired by this tradition, The Egological Aquarium.

Since I've been living in the US, I was always amazed to hear this referred to as the Dutch Aquarium, but in a further, more cultured evolution, it has also been popularized as simply the natural aquarium, and one of the big names is the Japanese Aquarist Takashi Amano. And there have been interesting contributions from Germany, including by a company called Dupla, and these days from Dennerle. These days Diana Walstad and Matt Owens are the proponents of this more natural way of keeping an aquarium, in which re-creating a natural balance on a small scale is the central focus.

Even Diana Walstad, who currently is one of the leading proponents of natural aquariums in the US, is not against "tech" per se, but her preference is trying to establish a balance between plants and fish with minimal help. She will however use an internal filter for water flow, and strongly recommends UV sterilization - which in my view isn't "not natural" because in nature waters are getting UV irradiation from the sun. She evidently does not like the high-lighting and CO2 injection, which in my view could be argued the same way to be as natural as anything else about an aquarium. In short, it's all in the eyes of the beholder.
What does matter is the distinction: between a fish tank and an aquarium.

  • A fish tank is a tank with water for the purpose of displaying fish, and usually kept under control by artificial means, without regard to the natural environment, including chemical filtration, etc. Mostly, that's what the pet stores cater to these days.
  • An aquarium proper is an effort to recreate a "natural" environment on a small scale. Studying the ecological processes becomes the central focus, including the interactions between plants and fish, filtration (mostly mechanical and biological, not chemical), lighting, CO2, UV. The focus becomes on life processes, water parameters, and the food chain. It can be "low tech," but not necessarily, it will seek to approximate natural conditions, and strive for biological balance.

The Walstad Method

For some documentation on the Walstad method, begin with her book: Diana Walstad - The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium

Next, listen to these interviews with Diana:
Next, here is even more about the Walstad Method
Beyond that, it's all about common sense and observation.

Matt Owens and the food chain

Matt Owens in his book An alternative aquarium: A robust habitat focuses as much on the overall ecological equilibrium between plants and fish, but adds a strong focus on the food chain, and recommends that you start your own refugium to in effect breed live food for your main aquariums.

Two years on: Third Time Aquarist has Three Aquaiums

Between all this reading, since I restarted my hobby two years ago with a single 5 gallon tank with a betta, and since then it has grown into a collection of three aquariums:

  • My original 5 gallon Aqueon Cue, since all pimped out with better lighting, and a ATI sponge filter. Now it serves as a refugium to grow inverts for food in my main tank, many are barely visible, but the tubifex come out in droves when you feed them wilted lettuce (that's also the way to catch them), and the scuds (gammarus) are very observable. Here are the species included:
    • Tubifex (note that by being in a refugium without fish, they cannot carry fish pathogens)
    • Gammarus
    • Copepods 
    • Daphnia
    • Planaria
    • Rotifers
    • Ostracods
  • My main. 29 gallon tank
  • And a 10 gallon shrimp tank, which also houses other inverts.
Here are some recent pictures:

5 Gallon Aqueon Cue - invert refugium, with Dracaena

10G Shrimp tank with Dracaena growing out


10 G Shrimp tank with Dracaena
Main tank, 29G, neons, rasboras, aneas cories, pygmy cories, otocinclus, amanos, MTS 



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