Jim

OK guys,
I apologize for being gone most of the last month, work's been crazy, and I will also now admit I've been holding off on showing you all this until it had sat for a while. Now I am going to try my best to make you all hate me...hehehe.

So around christmas I went thru a bit of a small nightmare building a new 48 gallon column tank. I got things straightened out, and as you can see, its going beautiful:



Oh, and meet Glitch, possibly the weirdest little angel I've ever owned, and rapidly becoming my favorite:



So the new angelfish tank is running great, I had a small disaster; my daughter's betta tank (a 2.5 gallon Wal-Mart special) totally crashed. She had a snail, and it had apparently died a few days earlier. Anyway, I got the male and female betta into the new column tank before they died, and they're OK now. The little tank I tossed.
At the same time I was starting to have a couple mistakes I had made on the bowfront come back to bite me in the butt, so I sat and looked at them:



And I tought about it, and said to myself... "Self, why do you need 2 Amazon tanks now? Why not rebuild the bowfront, plan it carefully, correct the mistakes, and convert it into the ultimate betta lair?"
And then I started giggling like a madman... hehehehehehe

So, after much planning, research, and hunting 4 counties in Central Florida for the perfect driftwood and plants (some of which are not regional, but fully compatible), here it is, my new betta Swamp Tank:







I've tried for a sort of wild shaggy swampy look, while at the same time planning ahead for plant growth and expansion, etc. And in this case it's definitly more plants and inverts than fish.
This is what's in it:

Fish
6 female Bettas
1 Pearl Gourami
1 Siamese Algea eater (yes...SIAMESE!!)

Inverts:
10 Japanese Amano Shrimp
5 Ghost Shrimp
2 Crystal Cherry Shrimp
2 Siamese Flower Shrimp
1 small Gold Inca Snail

Plants:
Java Moss
Riccia
Nova Ozolot Swordplant
Broadleaf Swordplant
Double Red Rubian Swordplant
Pygmy Chain Swordplant
Lucian Crypt
Rose, Bronze, & Red Wendtii Crypt
Jungle Val
Corkscrew Val
Brizialian pennywort
Banana plant
Willow Leaf Hygrophila
and an absolutly amazing Crinum calamistratun
(the REALLY weird green plant on the left side under the driftwood)

BoSox Fan7

Nice tank!!!!!!

AggieYen

Oh.. my... goodness. I am speechless. Your tanks are so beautiful I'm embarrassed about my own!! (Although there isn't that much I can do with a 5 gallon). I salute you, Jim!

JVzer0

What did you do with the fish that used to be in the bowfront (the tetras)?

Narcicius

Nice tanks, I respect your passion for this hobby, and I'm really trying to get into aquascaping, you're just more inspiration and motivation to keep my progress in this hobby alive, and nice evil laugh on the betta lair, but only one pearl you should be ashamed.

Mike

Wow Jim - those are some nice lookin tanks.

Jim

The tetras now live in a co-workers 85 gallon and are doing great!

Jim

I know pearls should be in a group, and i started with 4, but this one, even though he's the most colorful, was also picking on the others. He seems to be better now alone, so we'll see how it goes.

Narcicius

Males usually have to have two females apeice, and its normal for them to pester females. If you don't appreciate that behavior you can just get females, at the loss of a little color. Watch the male because he might be more aggressive towards the other fish.

Allie

Great idea!! It looks awesome!! All your tanks do.

COBettaCouple

The tanks look beautiful!

travie

Wow! I'm jealous of your tanks. I wish I could get my 29g to look even remotely that good.

Jim

Hmmm, I really wanted this Gourami because he was just unbelievably bright and colorful compared to all the others in the tank... he definitly screamed I AM MALE!!! But thinking about it now, I'm not sure if the others were female, or just duller colored males. That might explain this ones behaviour, he would definitly have been the alpha male. I hadn't considered that... thanks.
I'll have to go buy 2 that are definitly female and see what happens. If they behave (more or less) then cool, if not then 2 LFS's near here are good about taking back fish if I have a problem with them.

Oh, and so far he's just ignored the bettas.

susitna-flower

Jim your tanks are lovely, I am GREEN with envy!

Are you using any CO2?

Last night on craigs list I found a 75g tank with CO2 set up all for $550...That included lights, stand, and a 300 aquaclear filter. Not that I can afford it, but it did get me thinking, maybe it is time to move up to a real planted tank.......

MissMTS

I am so jealous! Your tanks make me want to completely redo my own. I just started working with live pants in one of my tanks and now I want to put them in every single one! Congrats on your tanks. They are amazing!

MagpieTear

Wow!


can't think of anything else to say, but wow... That's awesome

Narcicius

I know I've already said this but WOW, where did you get the wood for your long tank?

Jim

there's a place near here in New Tampa called "Catch the Drift" (naturally...lol). I haven't been there, but a couple stores in Tampa are stocking their pieces. They're somewhat expensive (the pieces you're asking about were $40.00 & $50.00), but they're nice and dry, and definitly the weirdest, most beautifully twisted pieces you could ask for.

Butterfly

Well you succeeded!!! Gorgeous tanks. Thanks for sharing them.
Carol

MrWaxhead

Hey hey Jim, your tanks look fantastic. I really like the depth the wood creates with the reds in behind them. Great job, your fish look like they are going to be happy.

You had also asked about your riccia in another post, the only key I found with riccia was lights which you have ample of and c02. I found riccia in my case has always done the following.

Low light no c02, MELTED.
High light no c02, did grow much unless I floated it, and it barely pearled.
high light with c02, grew like a weed and pearled like a fountain drink.

Again great job your tank is very nice.

lyndatu

Your tanks are too good! How did you create that underwater masterpiece? Simply superb!

I'm sure your fish will like it. Sorry about the betta tank though. Pity the snail, but it's a good thing you save the 2 bettas.

Good luck!

Jim

I'm going to steal a quote from MrWaxHead on this one:

"Trial and error... mostly error!!!"

Blub

angelfish220

Bu... Bu... Bu.. Why Cant I do that?

Jim

You can. It takes a lot of time, patience and $$$. And probably the most important, and insane amount of reading!
I am going to write something for the online magazine about how I got this to work; I'm just not sure how I'm going to tackle it yet. I'm not an expert by any means, but I've learned a lot (mostly the hard way...lol), and now that I'm sort of getting the hang of bio-tropes and garden tanks, I'd love to share what I've learned with everyone.

I also made a couple changes. The Riccia wasn't doing good, so I took it out and replaced it with Java Moss. There's still some floating around the top of the tank, i may use it later. I added another Banana plant; both of which have grown leaves that are stretching to almost the top of the tank! I also added 4 Aponogeton crispus, a sort of weird thing that should fit well. I have to work a few hours this morning, when I get home I'll post pics.

lastly, I finally found a RedSea CO2 Pro kit. It's the regulator kit to use 20 or 24 oz. "paintball" CO2 canisters. No more yeast fermentors, this is much more stable, and as soon as I can get one, I'll be able to attach a timer to shut it down at night!