[John58ford]

Some of you may recognize me from another forum where I'm pretty active. I love DIY, fabrication, and trying to stretch natural limits. I'm here to learn more, and improve.

Here's a shot of my rack of display tanks, there are a few others spread around the house, but this is where I focus most of my energy. I don't fertilize traditionally. The only things I have been adding to these are potassium bi-carbonate, calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate to buffer up my crazy soft, un-chlorinated tap water. I've been trying to keep my gH near 6 degrees and my Kh4-5 degrees this way.

Anyhow, that's me, I'll see you all around, thanks for welcoming me in.

 

[deeda]

Welcome to TPT and very nice set up!!

 

[Scully]

Awesome looking tanks, is the one on the top right a terrarium? Any closer shots/more info on it?

 

[John58ford]

Awesome looking tanks, is the one on the top right a terrarium? Any closer shots/more info on it?

That one is a terrarium, it's very basic now though. Divided diagonally across the bottom so it holds ~5 gallons. Filtered by a quiet flow e3 that was modified with an oversized sponge pre-filter and stuffed with ceramic rings. The sponge carries the load usually and I poach the rings to seed fry tanks as required. Originally I had the dry side as a diy bio active with a river bank/trickle from the wetside but I lost endler fry over the sides and abandoned it pretty quickly due to difficulty retrieving/cleaning. Now the dry side is a basic disposable bark until I re-imagine it all.
I don't have any of the pictures of the original configuration on my phone but it did look much cooler.


Currently the northwestern garter I designed it for lives in there, I don't grow fry out in it anymore and am using it as a retirement home for a 4 year old guppy with serious aggression issues. He's a straight tetra killer. The filter carries the load no issues though since in development stages I made sure it could carry the load from snake droppings if required. The guppy seems happy with allot of side to side swimming room, despite the shallow depth. And the snake has had no interest in eating fish for over a year now. The guppy cleans him while he soaks though.

Version 2 of this tank will have another attempt at a waterfall, and will be much more nano fish capable. I really didn't know what I was doing with V1.

 

[Scully]

I can kind of picture what you're descibing, I've definitely had similar ideas but never tried any. It's a cool setup, although snakes terrify me. I was moving a wood pile earlier this summer and there were so many garters in it. Every like 10th log I'd pick up there'd be one and every time it would make me jump.

I really like all the stones in the tank, looks really zen. Maybe for the next version you could create a more solid transition with big rocks or a custom 3d background sort of thing. That way you have a more defined/safe tank space, while still being able to keep a garter friendly area out of the water. Then replace that sponge filter with a fountain pump with a sponge prefilter and have that feed into a tube that creates the waterfall.

 

[noraaustin72]

Hey welcome to the forum.