Diatomaceous earth filter. Photograph by Ben Johnson.
By Ben Johnson
One reality I have learned to live with as a professional aquascaper is brown diatoms. Whether $1,000 or $10,000 is spent on a saltwater aquarium system, an initial but short-lived bloom of golden-brown algae in the beginning stages of the aquarium’s cycle is almost assured to occur. These are known as brown diatoms. In an overly simplistic explanation, these brown diatoms take advantage of the availability of certain nutrients that are abundant before beneficial bacteria grow into the system. The beneficial bacteria eventually out-compete the diatoms for these nutrients as their numbers increase and the tank’s cycle is complete. This is why there is usually a sudden collapse of the diatoms as the populations of good bacteria gain the upper hand.
As you can see in my March 2012 “Adventures in Aquascaping” column, there is one way to combat this pesky growth–a diatomaceous earth filter, or DE filter for short. The DE filter polishes the water, and can lead to a beautiful, crystal clear aquarium for life.
Photograph by Jeffrey Senske, Aquarium Design Group.
Goldfish are arguably the most popular fish for beginners, but few people know how to set up a truly spectacular tank for them. Jeffrey Senske, of Aquarium Design Group, found creating a layout for fancy goldfish to be a particularly daunting task—one he hadn’t succeeded in doing until now.
Given that goldfish are messy eaters and produce large amounts of waste, a primary requirement for any successful tank was that it must be easy to maintain. Another notable feature is that, since goldfish are herbivorous, plants could not be included in the aquarium. Jeffrey found that using sand for the substrate and river rocks for the hardscape created a simple, clean look, that was still easy to clean, to compliment his variety of fancy goldfish. Learn exactly how this tank was set up and designed in the November and December 2011 issues of TFH.
Jeff Senske’s (Aquarium Design Group) 90-gallon rimless aquarium features his signature hardscape-only design. He chose to use wild discus, penguin tetras, and gold tetras. Be sure to check out his articles on how he set up this tank. And here’s a gorgeous video by Jeff of the entire aquascaping process.
The 45-gallon paludarium. Photograph by Bill Brissette.
In order to complete the 45-gallon paludarium, a wide variety of plants, both terrestrial and aquatic, were used. Here is complete list of those plants.
Without strong enough glue, the cork island floated away from the expanded PVC.
I wanted to write a note about using silicone with expanded PVC. Expanded PVC is a great material because of its light weight, easy machinability, and smooth, food-safe surface. Unfortunately, its surface is one of its downfalls as well: While it is readily glued to itself with PVC cement for plumbing, silicone has a hard time sticking to the surface.
After writing the latest installment of ”Adventures in Aquascaping” and setting the tank up for a week of rinsing, the cork island in the center of the tank floated up and away. The silicone had stuck just fine to the cork, but not to the surface of the PVC. At least, it did not stick well enough to overcome the buoyancy of the cork. The other parts of the hardscape seem fine, especially where I used a lot of silicone, and where it is above the waterline. But this was a major setback that could have been avoided.
I would like to experiment with a few glues to be able to tell you the best one for this particular application, but I think an expanding polyurethane foam glue may be more suitable than the silicone in places where it is not visible.
One thing is for sure though, and that is that the porous center of the expanded PVC sheet is far more receptive to bonding than the smooth surface is.
To repair the float-away island, I plan on fully drying the insert and using the random orbital sander to roughen and gouge the surface of the PVC where it will be reglued so the glue has a chance to grab hold. Then, when I return to my rinsing phase, I plan on loading up the submerged cork parts with stone, so that their buoyancy doesn’t defeat the bond prior to planting. Simply adding weight during this phase, will emulate the substrate that will weigh things down once the tank has been planted.
In future projects, I will be sure to really roughen all surfaces that are to be glued, to avoid this problem.
The vector drawing the author used to cut his blank for the plastic insert.
When planning an intricate insert for an aquascaping project, it is especially important to plan ahead. Included here is the author used to cut the plastic insert. Learn more about how he built the insert at http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201106#pg41
Cork bark provides a perfect medium for growing mosses and other plants. Photo by Bill Brissette.
In terms of decoration, most hobbyists tend to use plants, driftwood, live rock, coral, and even a range of plastic items, but Bill Brissette prefers to use something a little different—cork bark. Bill, who is fascinated with environments where land and water meet, has found that cork is the perfect medium for a paludarium because it is lightweight, non-toxic, water-resistant, and easy to work with. Mosses and other low-growing plants readily grow on a cork surface, giving the tank a natural look.
See one of Bill’s first cork creations video below.
And to get tips and tricks to build a cork background for your tank, and to learn about the setup he is creating for red claw crabs check out the newest Adventures in Aquascaping project at http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201105/#pg81.
This video shows the tank, which has just been filled with saltwater for the first time, before filtration has been added to the system. Jeff Turner, of Reef Aquaria Design, Inc. sets up tanks like these on a regular basis.
A unique aquascape created by Jeff Turner of Reef Aquaria Design.
Jeff Turner, the owner of Reef Aquaria Design, is known for creating stunning aquascapes such as the custom 250-gallon living coral reef aquarium he is working on for Adventures in Aquascaping. The S-curve of the aquarium makes it look particularly impressive.
But that is not the only unique setup Jeff has created. In a home in Florida, Jeff created an indoor saltwater pond. This pond has many of the features of a typical reef aquarium—caves made out of live rock, a plethora of reef fish and corals, a sandy substrate, etc. What makes it special is the fact that it can be viewed from above and at all angles. There are red and yellow sponges in the pond, which look even better when viewed from above. It also has mangrove trees that are just starting to grow in their new environment.
What new setups would you like to try at home?
This video was provided by: Jeff Turner of Reef Aquaria Design, Coconut Creek, Florida.
I’d rather spend time enjoying my tanks than cleaning them, so it is important to have an efficient crew of workers in each tank. For planted tanks, I need a crew that will take care of any algae growth and something to ensure that the snail population doesn’t explode.
Keeping a cleanup crew in a planted tank make the aquarist's job easier.
A lot of folks like to use snails for algae control but I’m just not in that habit. Ramshorn and pond snails can breed at tremendous rates and mystery snails can eat leaves, so I gravitated to using various loricariid catfish for algae control. Since pond and ramshorn snails tend to travel on Florida-grown plants, their introduction to a planted tank is almost inevitable. In response, I also developed the habit of adding some type of botia loach that would eat the snails to every tank to keep them in check.
It should be noted that I’m using the term “botia” to represent the group. Many of the fish that were classified in the genus Botia 20 years ago have since been moved into new genera, as the various subgenera have been raised to genus level.
I always try to size the botia to the tank. While clown loaches are still the most popular of the botias, they’re not always the best choice for planted tanks. They get rather large (up to 24 inches) and they can easily uproot plants as they grow. As a consequence, I’ve tended to use some of the smaller species over the years and the yoyo loach B. lohachata has become my favorite of that group. It is attractive and particularly good at snail control, but it grows to 5 inches so it’s still a little large for a lot of tanks.
As times and the availability of species changed over the years, I started adding Amano shrimp Caridinia japonica into my worker mix. Unfortunately, many of the loaches would consider shrimp to be part of their diet, so adding the Amanos complicates the selection of a botia
Fortunately, dwarf botias Yasuhikotakia (Botia) sidthimunki, have become available in the aquarium trade again after a long absence. This beautiful species is one of the best botias for planted aquariums. It is a peaceful, active, diurnal species, so it has a big advantage over many of the other botias which are primarily nocturnal. Y. sidthimunki grows to approximately 2 inches in length and consequently won’t uproot plants or pose any threat to adult shrimp.
The dwarf loach Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki tends not to bother shrimp.
Because the Amano shrimp larvae require a marine phase, their successful reproduction is not going to take place in a planted aquarium and we don’t have to worry about the dwarf loaches eating young shrimp. If you are using red crystal shrimp or any of the other species that reproduce in freshwater and want them to reproduce in your tank, you may not want to add any type of botia.
Amano shrimp consume algae and cannot reproduce successfully in freshwater, so their population will not go out of control.
Recent years have also seen the introduction of a number of interesting snails to the hobby. Of particular interest to planted tank enthusiasts are the various members of the genus Neritina that can live in freshwater. Similar to the Amano shrimp, these species require brackish or marine water for proper larval development and consequently cannot reproduce in the freshwater aquarium. That fact, combined with their appetite for algae, makes them wonderful species to use as workers in planted tanks. The botias will attack them in the same way that they will attack less desirable species, though, and this can present a challenge for the hobbyist.
If you want to use nerites but don’t want to risk population explosions of other snail species, it is important to treat every plant that goes into the tank with aluminum sulphate, potassium permanganate, or some other chemical that will kill not only snails but snail eggs that may be attached to the plants. The aquarist must also remain ever vigilant in case any snails survive this process. Any other snail species must be removed from the tank as soon as the hobbyist realizes that they are present.
