COBettaCouple

maybe cutting some black construction paper to fit? you could glue aquarium paper on top of it so that you'd have that to look at when you look in the aquarium, but the thicker black paper behind it might keep a lot of sunlight out. just a thought.

Semantic Drift

"Trophic" refers generally to food or nutrients - so, for example, you have a "trophic level" in a food web, which is how many steps are between the consumer and the producers (the ultimate food source). Terms like "eutrophic," "oligotrophic," and "dystrophic" refer to the concentrations of nutrients (and dissolved oxygen) in water, particularly lake or pond water (faster-running rivers and streams usually do not encounter the same algal problems).

Anyway - eutrophic - "eu" means good (euphony, eulogy, et cetera), "trophic" means "food," so eutrophic water is water with high levels (good levels) or nutrients (food). This leads to algae growth, and an associated decline in dissolved oxygen.

Dystrophic - "dys" means bad (cf. dystopia, dysentery), so dystrophic water is water with low nutrient concentrations, and therefore small amounts of plant life. This occurs after the available nutrients have been consumed by the rapid growth of algae and plants, and as the decomposers (or saprotrophs, if you will) are in the process of disposing of the plant matter. The metabolism of all this dead organic matter produces humus, and the water takes on the brown color and low pH characteristic of dystrophic waters (caused by the presence of humic acid, which also gives compost and rich soil its dark coloration).

Oligotrophic is similar etymologically, but has different connotations - "oligo" means few, so oligotrophic water has very few nutrients, or is otherwise not very suitable to sustain life (it could have an extreme pH, for example, or be highly saline). Keeping a body of water oligitrophic means that very little plant life will be able to grow, and, consequently, little animal life will either - it'll have nothing to eat. Your fish, though, can thrive here because there is little competition for the aliments you hand-feed them.

The happy medium, then, would be a mesotrophic body of water - a mesotrophic body has enough nutrients to support a thick bed of plant life, as well as edible phytoplankton, and has enough food and dissolved oxygen for plenty of fish and invertebrates. It is a fragile balance, though, and a small change could throw a prosperous self-sustaining lake into a vicious eutrophic cycle.

Maybe that was a little long. Phew! Can you tell I'm a bio/ecology major?

COBettaCouple

yikes.. i'm glad i went for something simple like computer programming!

armadillo

Thanks, SemanticDrift. I am a zoology major and they never taught us that! I knew all about the 'eu', 'meso', 'trophic[, etc. latin roots (eukaryots! ), but couldn't for my life tell what the whole word meant. Very clear explanation, thanks! Ooooo, I so want you on my quiz team!

gmann21193

semantic drift.... why oh why cant you sit on my shoulder in biology class!!

armadillo

And in my pub quiz!

Trpimp147

hmmm sounds good. i would put them fish in and see how it goes then once they clean up the tank some put them in the larger tank that you have. use tape and tape a black background on the tank and face that to the window. just and idea if not there are small megnetic tank cleaners y ou can always keep in your tank.

vin

I realize it's a hex tank so it has 6 sides, but since all sides are flat it would work the same way it would on a rectangular tank only you're cutting it to fit 3 sides instead of 1.....Cut it to fit 3 sides and leave 3 sides exposed for viewing.

armadillo

But I guess it's not going to look very pretty. If it's a decorated background (like a picture of something), it may appear quite disjointed. Not that it's critical, but I see how having a hex might be slightly less suitable for a background than regular tanks. But it's just esthaetics, really.

vin

I've actually seen it done and it doesn't look that bad...They have a snake display in a hex at one of the LFS's....That's where I got the idea from....I guess you have to judge what's more important....

armadillo

Cool. Sounds like it works.