Thread: Freshwater Aquariums

So over a year ago I became enticed with the idea of building a vivarium, specifically a paludarium. I planned out how I was going to set up my tank, what plants I wanted in the tank and what animals I wanted. The farthest I got into this project was almost completing the initial setup. I then got distracted and never returned to the project.
This Saturday I received from a friend a 55 gallon tank, stand, filter, heater, internals components (rocks, plants) and fish for the price of a case of beer. After getting this aquarium back home and setting it up I became motivated to once again tackle my original project. I have decided that it would be a good idea to abandon the idea of a paludarium though, due to the fact that I have never actually attempted this before and trying to build a vivarium with fully submerged plants, marsh plants, unsubmerged plants, fish and frogs just might be a little to ambitious for my first go-round. So I am going to build an aquarium with live plants instead.
My reason for posting this is I am looking for ideas on ways to set up my aquarium and I figured maybe someone here might have a similar interest and could help point me at a website with some good information.
Heres an example of what I am hoping to achieve.

I had no fucking idea that kind of thing even existed. That's amazing.

Are they a humongous pain in the ass to clean?

My vivarium is the La Jolla tide pools (I don't know the people in the photo):

Originally Posted by Shiftie

This Saturday I received from a friend a 55 gallon tank, stand, filter, heater, internals components (rocks, plants) and fish for the price of a case of beer.

Where can I find myself some friends like these?

I have no idea about the vivarium, but that's seriously awesome and you need to find one of these fishes to stick in it.

Originally Posted by Kristian

Are they a humongous pain in the ass to clean?

It's as difficult to clean and maintain as are regular plants you must take care of, and cleaning of a regular (dull, boring, full of fake plants) aquarium. That being said, you have to regularly check the water chemistry and maintain it at whatever the requirements for your plants and fish are, if you do that and your tank is set up correctly algae shouldn't be a problem, you have to do regular partial water changes, you have to regularly vacuum any exposed gravel and substrate, you have to prune and trim your plants of any dead or dieing parts and keep the plants in check so they don't over grow, plus you have to feed your fish and plants. It can be a lot of work, but it's more like a chore; mostly something that you have to pay attention to all the time but and can address on a weekly basis.

Originally Posted by August

Where can I find myself some friends like these?

I got lucky. The guy isn't really even a close friend. He happens to be moving across county and is going to be taking his time doing it, while stopping at several places for a few days each. So he doesn't want to try and transport the aquarium and fish for this trip. He wanted to give it to his girlfriend but she said she didn't want the responsibility of taking care of it. He just happen to know about my original project that I started and my interest in aquariums. When I was first talking to him about it he never said anything about a price. I figured he was just holding out talking about that until he could get me interested enough. I finally asked him how much he wanted (expecting to hear something along the lines of 100-200 [that is what I would have asked for]), he said he didn't care about money and to just get him a case of beer. So I spent 30 bucks (threw in a craft brew as well) and walked away with the goods!

Originally Posted by Shiftie

My reason for posting this is I am looking for ideas on ways to set up my aquarium and I figured maybe someone here might have a similar interest and could help point me at a website with some good information.

Try searching using the key word "aquascaping." You will probably find what your looking for.
Something like this perhaps?

Why did you just reply to yourself?

It's funny, it still makes me laugh.

heheha.. as you told yourself, you should search for a community of fresh water tank owners. like... http://www.aquariumowner.com/

My brother takes care of a hand full of large tanks, tanks at doctors office, red lobsters, the strip clubs, it is one of his day jobs. He also has a 120gl salt water in the dining room. They are a chore to keep clean and running. He lost most of the life in it when the house's AC went out last summer, and he left the lights on, basically boiled it.. He lost a bunch of fish, all but one clown fish, all the crabs, all the large snails, 2 starfish that were over a foot across, all the anemone and all but 5 of the small inverts are all gone. The worm population skyrocketed at that time they cleaned up the bodies really fast. I swear the worms were eating one of the starfish while it was still alive during its last days. During the death throws of the tank, one of the medium snails laid hundreds of eggs, now there are dozens of peas size ones. The tank is starting to recover, the fish he added last week are still alive, the anemone added a month ago are still alive.

You really need to research what kind of life you want to keep before jumping in feet first. I like your idea of a plant aquarium, you could aim a little higher, get a frog or snails. If you cant keep snails alive, then you shouldn't try anything higher in life form. You dont want to start any tank with life in it for the first month. and FFS never use bleach to clean your tank.

Well that was fucking depressing.

Though one day I would like to build a salt tank, I just can't bring myself to do that know. I image a tank the size your brother has, after a loss that you desribed, easily cost him around 3g's. That, is one hell of an "oh shit."
I am looking to just start off with plants and designing my tank first and foremost. After I have the tank up and running, designed to my liking and plants growing nice and healthy, then I will think about putting in some serious fish. While the tank is growing though, the only other life forms other then the plants will be some algae eaters (couple fish and probably around 10 shrimp or so). I want to stay away from snails for now because of my inexperience. The last thing I want to do is be struggling to grow healthy plants, maintain algae levels and then have to deal with a potential snail outbreak.