sstimac's gallery

[sstimac]

Here is my main invert tank. There is a photo of it elsewhere on the forum, but I will put it here and talk about it a little. It is a 46 gallon bowfront. It is filtered by a fluval 304, I do not use carbon, so have filled the extra space with additional ceramic rings and foam. The prefilter is homemade with filter foam (the stuff for making your own filter cartridges. The lighting is by a 36" Coralife lunar Aqualight with two 96W 6700K lamps. The substrate is two grades of pea gravel and filter sand. The inhabitants are Cherry Shrimp, P. paludosis, Olive Nerite Snail, MTS's, another type of trumpet snail, Red Ramshorns, a type of freshwater clam, and two Otocinclus affinis cats. Some of my plants are: Four Leaf Clover, Madagascar Lace, Rotala Wallichii (sp?), Tiger Lotus, Echinodorus spp., mosses, etc. I do not inject CO2 and I do not use ferts.

[Neonshrimp]

What happened to the photo. It is much smaller than the original you posted Very nice tank though.

[sstimac]

I do not know why it is displaying so small. It is only 50kb smaller than what is allowed when using the attachment function. I am a little disappointed that it is so small. I think the original one that I posted was 600 pixels wide at 72ppi.

[adimeatatime]

Beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing. Pat

[sstimac]

I do not know why it is displaying so small. It is only 50kb smaller than what is allowed when using the attachment function. I am a little disappointed that it is so small. I think the original one that I posted was 600 pixels wide at 72ppi.

I know what I did. I scaled it down without decreasing the bit depth. Sorry, I know for next time now.

[Neonshrimp]

Thanks for letting the rest of us know, please keep the pics coming

[adimeatatime]

You have a really pretty tank. Thanks for sharing!!

[Newjohn]

sstimac
Thank You
For Shraing a photo and information on your tank.

I do not inject CO2 and I do not use ferts.

It just goes to show other Hobbyist,
That you do not have to have all of the "extra stuff"
To have a nice looking tank.

John

[sstimac]

I really could not imagine the amount of work it would take to keep this tank looking nice with CO2 and ferts. Already, I have to spend a fair amount of time pruning and pulling. I was told months ago that I would have algae blooms without CO2 and that my tank would fall apart. This turned out to be untrue. I do not have algae issues. Two months ago, or so, I had a minor hair algae bloom and I pruned the plants that were affected and allowed others to grow larger than I normally would and it disappeared. My tank is now algae free and has been for quite some time. All I do now is very small water changes and I clean the prefilter. I also feed the shrimp about twice a week with various prepared and fresh foods.

I was also told that without CO2 my Madagascar Lace would shrivel up and die. It is actually separating and forming new plants and bulbs. Perhaps the reason I am having success with this setup is because I am patient and others need instant gratification. My Four Leaf Clover Plant is doubling in size every month now, I was told it would also do poorly in this setup because there is no CO2.

[Neonshrimp]

I was also told that without CO2 my Madagascar Lace would shrivel up and die. It is actually separating and forming new plants and bulbs. Perhaps the reason I am having success with this setup is because I am patient and others need instant gratification. My Four Leaf Clover Plant is doubling in size every month now, I was told it would also do poorly in this setup because there is no CO2.

Just shows that some things need to be tried to discover the unexpected results. I also grow my plants without CO2

[southerndesert]

Nice! Looking forward to more.

Cheers, Bill