Natural aquariums

Anybody keep "natural" aquariums without filtration? Here's a couple that I recently took down:

5-gal


2-gal bowl

I have read about them but have yet to try it myself yet, yours look nice.
How well did they do? Are they truly stable tanks only needing top offs?

Did a couple with Killifish haven't tried with any other kind of fish. They are really neat though, I personally enjoyed them,

dang ....Awesome tanks

When i come up to Richmond I need to get some pointers ...love the guppy bowl

Fern wrote:

I have read about them but have yet to try it myself yet, yours look nice.
How well did they do? Are they truly stable tanks only needing top offs?

No, they'll accumulate waste and become unstable just like any other, IMO, so I do PWCs on them just like my other tanks. The key is heavy flora and light fauna. The 5-gal had Endler's and shrimp and the bowl just had the one gup, though I could have put a shrimp in there, too.

All the biobugs are in the tank, so it is cycled like any other, but it can only support very light stocking.

I am running a natural tank right now that is only for raising snails for my puffer. It is choked with floating plants and gets only top-offs - it is something of an experiment, and I'm seeing the pH drop, and hardness is going way down too. The snails growing in this tank have paper thin shells and the ones in my other planted tanks have rock hard shells. So, the cure for that is to do PWCs in the snail tank and add calciferous rock to strengthen the shells of the snails (even adding Tums tablets or a cuttle bone), but in fact it is not a bad deal because the puffer can crush up the shell easily when he eats, rather than me having to bust the snail shell myself, which works well for both of us, lol.

Very nice!!

Ok so they are really only good for shrimp or small fish with light stocking. How often do you do pwc's? and of about what percent?
Sounds like it would be perfect for a 10g with rcs only in it.

A 10 gal could hold some small fish PLUS the shrimp, I think. I did 50% PWCs once weekly, which is what I do on all my tanks. I don't think that schedule is necessary but it is what I have done for so many years that it is just habit. Maybe 25% per week, or even every 2 weeks would be fine. The main thing is that the plants are healthy and growing well - then you know they are eating up the nutrients and supplying oxygen to the fish - no water movement required!

being a planted tank dude, I really like those tanks.. is the red plant brzone wedtilli? cryptocoryne? it would be nice if you could tell me the name of the red plant thanks.

Nice they look so natural, nice to keep some shrimps and small fish.. great pic!..

I've been contimplating this for while for some shrimp tanks. They would be just regular 10g tanks. Did you dose any ferts in the tanks? Right now I use both EI and PMDD mixes and would probably carry over one or the other to the "el naturale" tank. Most likely PMDD to be safe to start.

plantedtankdude wrote:

being a planted tank dude, I really like those tanks.. is the red plant brzone wedtilli? cryptocoryne? it would be nice if you could tell me the name of the red plant thanks.

The red plant is actually a lily bulb from Walmart, not sure of the species. There is Cryptocorine in the tank, but it is C. walkeri.

James, I am horrible about dosing! I have all of the stuff on hand for PMDD and sometimes do that, but when I don't mix it up I skip it for a while, or use Flourish. The substrate is Fluorite.

I was trying it in a 10 gal with endlers but had a population explosion in the tank so stuck a small HOB filter on it. Still going after 2 years with no problems other than trying to clean the bottom due to so many plants, I use no ferts in this tank and it is in a bright west window. I get a small amount of BBA from time to time but no other algae in the tank for being in a window.

FishVixen wrote:

I was trying it in a 10 gal with endlers but had a population explosion in the tank so stuck a small HOB filter on it. Still going after 2 years with no problems other than trying to clean the bottom due to so many plants, I use no ferts in this tank and it is in a bright west window. I get a small amount of BBA from time to time but no other algae in the tank for being in a window.

I sure wish I had a bright window where I could put a tank! The nice thing is that if the plants are growing well you won't get algae- the plants consume the excess nutrients and don't give algae a chance.

yes and 10 gal are really odd to calculate light for planted tanks. I usually flood them with 100w CF in a goose neck lamp.

I use desk lamps for my small tanks too, lol. My life sure changed for the better when they came out with the CF bulbs that screw into a regular light fixture!

i use to have a 20 gal that way. the coolest thing about the tank tho was the shrimp.

shrimp die on me within 15 min of putting them in my tanks I have something in the water that I can't figure out. Everything else lives except crays can't keep them either.

I've had strange issues like that as well with Briggs and every now and then shrimp. I always suspect copper but the tests come out negative.

cooper was the first thing I checked and it was 0. Who knows. Must be Va water

I have good luck with shrimps and horrible luck with crays - they do fine until molt, then kaput. I have good hardness in my water but I'm definitely missing something.

I may have to do one of those so I can finally have a place to put some shrimp!!
What size would be best for some cherry shrimp to breed in?

nice what the biggest tank can you do naturally

I've seen one that was a 37 gal back in the 70's you would seen quite a few of them.

I think size wise, it would really depend on your balance of flora and fauna. Just like preventing algae growth, you have to find that perfect balance for a self sustaining tank. I think any size would be possible.

If I can locate some descently priced 10g's (maybe even FOC), I can finish out my shrimp rack with natural setups. That may just work.