/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.296540]

So, who got around to make one of these?

[Anonymous No.296541]

>>296540

[Anonymous No.296543]

>>296541

[Anonymous No.296545]

>>296543

[Anonymous No.297125]

Fuckin beautiful.

... OP is not a fag

[Anonymous No.297187]

>>296540
Wow these are amazing! I want to make one!

[Anonymous No.297256]

>>296540
Yes please show me how to make these glorious tanks!

[Anonymous No.297261]

It's called ADA (aqua design amano), beautiful and not too easy..

[Anonymous No.297269]

>>297261

Is it easier if you don't include fish? I understand that the plants and water would need to be maintained, but without fish pooping everywhere it seems like it would be more easygoing. Gardening vs. pet keeping?

[Anonymous No.297277]

>>296541
UnderwaterSlender-aquaman.

[Anonymous No.297287]

>>297269
The fish can be a valuable part of the eco system to keep the tank healthy.

Unless you are using fake plants (and then really whats the point) the fish will provide fertalizer and carbon dioxide for the plants while the plants provide the fish and water more oxygen.

Fish will also help control the algae population keeping the inside of the glass and the water clear.

Doing this without fish might sound easier but in the long run it would be harder to keep the eco system balanced.

[Anonymous No.297297]

>>297287

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity Anon!

[Anonymous No.297314]

So how do we get started making one of these things? Also do we need a filtration system?

[Anonymous No.297325]

>>297314
I have had a 40 gallon fish tank for a year and a half now and have seen some shit while figuring it all out.

Most people who know about this sort of thing hate to give advice for some reason.

Now I am no expert but I will tell you what I know.

Firstly start with a small tank maybe 20 gallons not too much bigger to start.

Get sandy substrate and poke very small holes in one side of the bag (small enough that the substrate wont come out) and cut open the other side, rinse it as well as you can. After the rinse put it in the bottom of the tank...placement doesn't matter yet just make an even layer.

take the rocks you want and boil them for a while to remove any bacteria and chemicals that they may have. The reason for this is that the ecosystem especially during the cycling process is very delicate. When the rocks have been boiled put them in the tank spread out.

Fill up a bucket (floor cleaning buckets are usually 4-5 gallons) that you will only use for tank water and add a water conditioning agent to remove chlorine and chloramine (follow the dosage directions. Let it sit for a while, usually until the residue at the surface disappears and then add the water. (treating the water before it goes in the tank now isn't important but it will be later with plants and fish in it).

cont.

[Anonymous No.297327]

>>297325
When you have all of the fill the tank to the top with chlorine treated water.

Get a bottle of fish tank bacteria that is suitable for the type of fish you will have.

Add the indicated amount into the tank.

as far as filters go you will need one to keep the tank clean, any tank that relies on water changes alone to filter will have a weaker eco system that fluctuates greatly on water changes.

I like water fall filters personally even though they are generally used on bigger tanks. The downside here is that they use suction tubes which will be visible in the tank but you can usually situate them in the corner as long as you get a lid that has a opening at the back the whole length of the tank.

Inside the filter system you will need filter media which here should be basically a filter sponge that you shouldnt replace until its falling apart, a carbon filter bag and optionally a filter enhancer bag which is basically just a bag filled with a sort of rock that encourages bacteria growth without actually being a filter.

cont.

[Anonymous No.297328]

>>297327
The tank water will eventually become cloudy after several days or weeks. This is a sign of algae bloom which is part of the tanks natural cycle.

The next stage is also waiting.

Eventually the water will clear itself up and should have a stable bacteria system in the water.

You will now want to do water testing with a kit from a pet store. A safe PH level to aim for is 7 which is completely neutral. Any plant or fish except rare and hard to keep fish and plants can live perfectly fine at a Ph of 7 though most prefer slightly more acidic or alkaline conditions.

Most cities with treated water have a Ph of 8 which will be fine even for fish that would like it lower. Any pet store in your city that sells fish breed them with city water so it wont be a shock.

cont.

[Anonymous No.297329]

34 year old male who has had kept an aquarium since the age of 5. first of all this is not the most beautiful aquarium so i am confused by the comments. yes it helps to have fish and why would you want this without fish. seriously wtf. growing the plants is easy. just have good lighting. natural or spend alot on the appropriate florescent bulbs. the hardest part of all of this is having great filtration to maintain good water chemistry and clarity.

[Anonymous No.297334]

>>297328
You also want to test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Basically you want these to all be at 0 if you can manage it.

Any decaying matter (dying plants, left over food, fish poop) create ammonia. Having plants to using some of the decaying matter will reduce the amount of ammonia produced but not significantly. Ammonia is toxic to fish and will burn plant life. The bacteria colony in the tank (mainly living in the filter) will eat the ammonia and turn it into nitrites. Nitrites are actually more toxic than ammonia but when exposed to oxygen over time they become nitrates which are still toxic but barely so. The nitrates will stay in the water until cycled through regular water changes to fill the tank.

cont.

[Anonymous No.297336]

>>297329
Its not just a fish tank, its like bonsai. The idea is to create a reduced image of something else. That first tank there is a tree on a hill with a dirt path leading through it. It is not just about keeping a pretty tank but making art.

[Anonymous No.297343]

>>297334
as you test the water if your ammonia is high and there is a level of nitrites reduce the waste coming into the tank (less food move some fish to another tank etc) this is because there is bacteria working on removing the ammonia but there is too much for them to handle.

If there is ammonia and no nitrites your tank cycle didn't work and there is no real bacteria system in the tank. Try cycling it again.

If you have nitrites that wont go down it is because there is not enough oxygen in the tank. This is usually because there are too many nitrates in which case you just need to do some heavy water changes to cycle out the old water with nitrates in it. Eventually the levels will balance to manageable levels.

We do all this before adding plants and fish because we usually have high levels of the toxic chemicals at this point.

cont.

[Anonymous No.297347]

>>297336
allow me to explain then, they have a piece of wood that happens to look like a bonsai tree. that piece of wood is completely and totally dead. they have convinced another plant to take root on it. i believe that plant is commonly called java moss. plant names vary alot regionally. there are no such under ground trees in existence. they may have even wrapped this moss around dead piece of wood with floral wire. but now that you explain the concept i see the attraction but if you have kept fish for as long as i have you realize that its so fake.

[Anonymous No.297351]

>>297343
once the tank has an established bacteria culture you can add the plants. I would bother placing them yet just spread them out and let their root systems grow.

You can get aquatic fertilizers to help your plants grow.

After the plants have adapted to the tank remove the dying ones and prune the ones worth keeping.

Now you can start to sculpt. Set up the tank as you like. There are tools for this but I prefer to just reach into the tank.

Before you go into the water with tools or hand make sure you clean your hands arms and tools well with tap water and no soap. You can even siphon some water from the tank while cleaning the substrate and was in that as it will keep the small amounts of chloramine that would be on you out of the tank.

When everything looks as you want it let the tank sit for a few days or a week and keep checking the water to make sure nothing changes in the water quality.

cont.

[Anonymous No.297354]

Of course it is but what you are looking at isnt supposed to be a fish tank. You need to look at it like a painting, its a field with a tree on a knoll.

To me its the only way to keep a tank. Its harder and more rewarding than just keeping fish.

[Anonymous No.297356]

bumping for potential project

[Anonymous No.297362]

>>297351
Now you can add the fish, keep in mind this is supposed to be a small tank so keep small fish. maybe 1 or 2 small groups of schooling fish that are rated as community fish. You want the fish here to be part of the eco system and/or part of the attraction not the whole attraction of this tank.

The rest is balancing the amount of food you give the fish. A rule of thumb is drop in a certain amount and set a 5 minute timer. If its not all gone in the time limit scoop the rest out and put in less next time. Some people feed that amount once a day some do it twice. The important thing is to watch the water levels. if ammonia starts to raise more than one color grade on the water test chart there is too much food being put into the tank so dial it back.

Another thing to note is fish will always eat food if it is around even if they aren't hungry so don't use that as an indicator. If unsure less food is better than too much. You will start to see abnormal signs of aggression in fish if they are under fed and they will also start destroying the plants while eating them rather than the minor nibbling they will some times do.

[Anonymous No.297374]

>>297362
Don't worry about getting the tank perfect on your first try because one of the ways to keep fish happy and healthy is to periodically change the tank layout. Fish territory is usually pretty fluid but they still use landmarks in the tank to stake a claim even temporarily. A new set up even with the same stuff inside will keep things fresh and keep community fish happy and docile.

I prefer to do my re arranging during a weekly clean of the tank where I vacuum the substrate to remove excess decaying matter because the water level will be lower than normal and it will be easier to move everything around.

When cleaning the filter I take one of the 3 pieces of filter media and just rinse it in the water i siphoned from the tank, this clears out the gunk but doesn't kill the bacteria inside them. I only do 1 of the 3 a week because there is still some bacteria loss when doing it this way and cleaning all 3 at once can cause the bacteria colony to fail and have your tank cycle itself again which is dangerous for the fish.

The plant fertilizers and tank bacteria bottles will tell you the weekly dosage to add to the tank. While adding bacteria isn't required with a healthy tank it is wise to do because it will replenish any lost bacteria due to spiked imbalances and due to the fact that you can't over fill the tank with bacteria as they will just die out if there isn't enough ammonia to sustain them.

That is pretty much all I know about this. It is a lot to take in and requires practice but that can all be done while setting up the tank originally.

This can be done without fish but as I said early they are a powerful part of a tank ecosystem plus I like the surrealist idea of a landscape with fish flying in the sky.

[Anonymous No.297383]

>>297354
i like most of the advice given in this thread but I would advise most to start out with 30 or 40 gallon used tank off a craiglist or whatever. just reseal it when you get it home. the more water volume you are working with the less work it will be in the long run. however more water ultimately means more money but if you get a 10 or 20 gallon tank you will have trouble with water quality if you add alot of fish. I just responded because its not harder than just keeping fish. people into the fish go for breading freshwater fish, brackish water fish, then saltwater fish, then breading salt water fish or really large predator fish, ponds, breading koi, breading parana, etc. i could make the first tank pictured in about two hours. people spend years breading fish with certain color traits etc.

[Anonymous No.297388]

>>297383
>>297374
Thanks for the tips and advice guys.

[Anonymous No.297395]

>>297388
your welcome. other adnons advice is very sound for a beginners. i will say being obviously an older adnon that many believe that the bacteria thing is just consumerist at work but it doesnt cost that much to be on the safe side.

[Anonymous No.297398]

>>297395
You sound wise as fuck, if you'll pardon my french.

I've never had the urge to start an aquarium before reading this thread. Thank you, anon, for your time.

[Anonymous No.297411]

>>297398
thanks you for using french.

please think of it as a fair sized commitment time wise. but its very fun and peaceful hobby. it sucks the first time you had a fish for years and it dies. im glad to contribute back to the community and will check back on the thread later

[Anonymous No.297426]

>>297395
in essence water cycling (which you do anyway) can clear up ammonia nitrites and nitrates but the bacteria is really cheap when you consider how little you use to start a tank and maintain it if you chose to do that. The real price gouging is the crappy accessories those stores sell. Best to stay away from that tacky crap.

[Anonymous No.297428]

i wonder if i have any pictures of the biodome my dad and i made last year...
ill report back if i can find them

[Anonymous No.297431]

found em!

sorry if they seem irrelevant to the thread. i felt it was relevant just because of the design of the one in OPs pic.

[Anonymous No.297434]

we never took pictures of the finished thing, oddly enough.

they were for some geckos we were breeding.

the whole bottom was painted a gark green and then filled with lots of moss and water and stuff, kind of like a swamp floor.

the tank was out in our back yard and after a month of being out, some neighborhood cats broke in and ate a gecko, one got away, one died and we set the last one free.

[Dr Faget !YgQRHAJqRA No.297449]

Is it realistic to expect to keep that water that crystal clear everyday? Or are these photos 'posed' if you know what I mean

[Anonymous No.297474]

>>297449
Its realistic once the ecosystem is balanced and you ave tweaked the food input.

A light siphoning and ~25% water change a week will keep the water crystal clear.

Also look into a simple water vinegar and dish soap recipe for a cleaner for the outside glass, it gets dirty normally causing everything to look dirtier and any water drips during cleaning will dry up leaving a small trail of salt when the water is gone. (even fresh water tanks use small amounts of salt for tank preparation).

tl;dr proper tank set up and light weekly cleaning = yes

[Anonymous No.297536]

My brother has a 50/55gal tank in the basement, I now wish I had a place to set this up.. it is beautiful...

[Anonymous No.297537]

I guess this would belong more to /an/, but how confused would the fish be if the background was brilliant white, or even some diffused white light? My parents had aquariums when I was a child, but they were always bit dark and murky, I guess because the dark background (pic related)

[Anonymous No.297563]

>>297537
Oh man if you haven't asked /an/ yet please don't.

They will be very cruel with this kind of question because they are wierdos.

Any sort of background, be it prints for the back or artificial tank inserts are considered tacky and they will berate you for asking.

I usually keep my tanks in places where they can be seen from all sides to i have just clear glass and set up the plants and substrate to look good from either side.

If you want a background I recommend artificial coral that you can plant live coral plants on. These are much more difficult to take care of but they are basically the only artificial insert that /an/ approves of.

Aside from that if you want some sort of background and wanted to put the tank against a wall you could use a large rock feature and plants as a back wall.

[Anonymous No.297564]

>>297537
Also, while most of the light in a tank is from the lid light, having the back unblocked by features or prints allows more light into the tank from outside sources even if its up near a wall.

If you are using a freshwater tank you will want to get as much light as is reasonable to get the colors in the fish to show. Freshwater fish are very dull compared to salt water.

[Anonymous No.297590]

>>297474
How often would you change the tank water entirely?

[Anonymous No.297593]

this thread was so educational! :)

Thank you to the anon who posted the novel on how to do this. I've saved all the information and plan to try this someday.

[Anonymous No.297597]

All of these tanks are high tech setups. These require a strict fertilizer regimen along with CO2 injection and weekly large water changes. This is a lot for a beginner to take on. Your best bet is to start with a natural planted tank. Also known as the walstad method.

Check out a book titled the ecology of the planted aquarium.

[Anonymous No.297617]

How much work is it to build a tank yourself?

[Anonymous No.297626]

>>297617
not that much, I did it before because I got the glass for free. If you don't, it's probably not worth it and hence it's cheaper to buy a tank.

[Anonymous No.297642]

question op. I've tried using live plants on a few occasions, but unfortunately there were snail eggs on them and my tank became infested with them. how can I prevent this? Is it common with live plants?

[Anonymous No.297693]

Are these loud?

[Anonymous No.297700]

>>297693
They can be, depending on how it is set up.

The filtering and aeration systems can be placed somewhere they can be insulated for sound so you can completely remove the noise or reduce it to a more tolerable level.

Note that for photos people tend to remove these systems so the water is calm in the pics.

[Anonymous No.297766]

>>297700
so do these plants need to be "pruned" similar to a bonsai? This is absolutely fascinating. thanks for the awesome thread op. made my weekend.

[Anonymous No.297792]

>>297766
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gps2yppF5rQ

Also watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZDexLMZFrU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQIPYkQD_Hs&feature=relmfu

[Anonymous No.297796]

Its funny because I remember having an aquarium as atalented /diy/er it's all moss, algae and snails, you'll have a constant hum in the room and then your fish die.

So look into the sound and maintenance before you start.

[Anonymous No.297799]

wordfilters are fun.

[Anonymous No.297986]

These are very striking, but these would be a pain in the dick to clean. Algae will grow and that's a pain and any algae eating fish will just devour the plants as well as any type of scavenger fish.

Granted though for any really hobbyist, it wouldn't be any harder to maintain than a salt water tank.

[Anonymous No.298018]

I currently have a iwagumi style aquascape set up in my 120 x 30 x 45 cm tank. 182 litres, been studying this up for some time now. any questions please feel free to ask. pic related

[Anonymous No.298168]

>>298018
Could you share any recourses on the layout / iwagumi style?

[Anonymous No.298186]

>>298018
Could you share any resources or books on the layout / iwagumi style?

[Anonymous No.298188]

>>297799
>>298186
>4chan
>Sage
pick one, faggots.

also, nice thread. screencap'd

[Anonymous No.298189]

>>298188
Polite sage.

[Anonymous No.298612]

>>296540
Holy shit these are fucking awesome. gotta try one out. anyone got any more sources/books ect?

[Anonymous No.298711]

>>296541
HOLY FUCK WANT

SO MUCH

please

[Anonymous No.298848]

nice

[Anonymous No.298974]

>>297347

I just wanna jump in, and say its a matter of taste. This is a kind of art, its not specifically keeping fish. Its as a different anon said the recreation of something just smaller sized.

And no, just growing plants isnt easy. Creating a bonsai especially takes years and years of dedication and practice, and failed attempts, if offcourse you want to make a great one. In tanks like this fish would be considered a bonus, or sometimes even too much from my point of wiev.

And definetly these are amazing works, probaly not as suitable for fish keeping, but a great sight.

[Anonymous No.299005]

>>296540
Op I lost my pics a long time ago but i had a nice tank with an all moss floor.
It was sold as tiawan moss but very like christmas moss.

I had a small tank at 8 gallons, I then had a base of epiweb instead of gravel. This allowed the moss an area to attach too.

[Anonymous No.299006]

>>299005
The moss was held in place with gutter gaurd. a small semi flexiable type of netting for your gutters.
It took a good few months to grow in but looked real nice.

My main tips would be
:Dont use any chemical filtration. it is not needed.

:The entire tank will become colanised with bacteria which will process the waist in the tank.
the filter is just an area to have a pad to recove the bulk of the rubbish, and house some media with a high surface rate.
Scrubbies as they got called are great for this
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj85/placer_mines/Nylonpotscrubberscopy.jpg

be sure they are plastic with no added shit.

You might be tempted into a complex and expensive set up but for the first time keep it simple

Low to med light

http://www.rexgrigg.com/mlt.html

the watt per gallon rule only applies to large tanks under t8 bulbs so forget it.

For the above tnk i would
get/make plastic dividers as the sand will blend with the gravel.

Glue them in place with silicon and add my substrate
inert sand (playsand is good and cheap)

It looks like some kind of plant gravel like ada amazonia. This stuff is kinda like mulch, releasing the good shit the plants need.

[Anonymous No.299007]

>>299006
Boil any drift wood to reduce tannings. while harmless it will discolour the water.

Also any stones should be checked with vinigar.
If the rock bubbles it will break down in the tank and raise the hardness of the water.

This shit gets important if you decide to piss around with co2

On that note co2 is the main limiter in plant growth.
Injecting co2 can and will increase the growth rate by up to X7.
To the point the water becomes saturated with o2 causing something called pearling. Look it up on youtube its an impressive site.

But as i said keep it simple for your first tank.
Now the plants here look like Christmas moss and micro swords or dwarf hair grass.
Both are slow growers so when the tank is set up and running a few things will happen.

[Anonymous No.299008]

>>299007
1. algea lots of it. You will want some kind of stem plant for your first few months to suck up the excess goodies the plants cant use because the plant mass is to small.
any stem plant should do the business.

2. the algea should go down by a large amount when the stems take off

3. you start removing the stem plants a little at a time as the moss/ grass grows in and the tank becomes stable

4. you enjoy trimming your tank and live happy ever after.

I typed this out using the little box so i hope it makes sense.

If you want any more info on

Drystarting your lawn or anything else ill be around this thread.

[Anonymous No.299545]

>>299008

So I'm curious, does that water you add during each changing need to be treated with the additives? Is there a favored water? I.e., tap, distilled, RO? Do you need to supplement distilled, and RO since the minerals and micro nutrients are gone?

[Danefriend !axFI/joACc No.299616]

Saw this thread and decided to try out a small aquascaping project.

I already have the tank, but need a new pump, heater and Co2 diffuser. It is a 54 litre tank, so I won't be doing anything huge, but a nice starter project.

For plants I will be using limnophila aquatica and eleocharis parvula and that is it. They will be seperated in each corner with a few stones seperating them. I made a rough sketch in Paint, so if you think it looks shit, I can only agree. The upper right corner, with the limnophilas, will be a raised level as I will look into the tank from bottom left to upper right. I will try to keep the limnophila as tall single stems of around 10 inches max.

The sand around the "grass" will hopefully create an island effect, even if it is just an inch. The grass itself will be trimmed when it reaches a height of more than two inches. I am hoping the grass will turn out as a bright green and release a lot of oxygen.
For gravel I will be using Akvastabil Merkur Black Gravel. Already have a bag laying about and I think it will compliment my shrimps.

As for shrimps.. They will probably be added once I have everything up and running and not straight from the beginning. As shrimps are new to me I have decided to use Red Cherry Shrimps. The word on the block is that they seem to be quite forgiving in terms of living conditions. To compliment them I will also throw in a couple of Yellow Shrimp, which have the same needs as the RCS.

Furthermore I might also put in ten neon tetras just so the aquarium doesn't seem totally deserted at first glance, and the notice of the first shrim will be an "uuuhhhh!" factor.

What do you think? Critique is very welcome. I am still not sure whether I will be using fertilizer or chemicals in order to remain the pH values etc. So any input on would be nice

[Anonymous No.299743]

Reading through the thread as I'm interested as well, but I do not see the question I have in mind.

How big should I go if I wish to create a self-sustaining cycle, with minimal cleaning and caring besides bacteria supplements and feeding the fish?

[Anonymous No.300157]

>>299743
55 gallons is to me what most people should start with. not a self sustaining cycle. you will have to spend 5 minutes a day fucking with it and 2 hours a month changing water cleaning etc. get a used tank for your first tank.

[Anonymous No.300204]

>>299545
Dont use ro/ distilled water

It has no minerals in it, this will cause large ph swings in the tank

[Anonymous No.300208]

>>299616
Sounds good but look into fishles cycling

Shrimp are pretty easy to kill if your tank is not stable.

The neons will eat the shrimp young but if you provide hiding places enough will survive.

[Danefriend !axFI/joACc No.300229]

>>300208
I don't really mind them eating the shrimp fry as I don't want a huge amount of them and overrunning the tank

Of course if I don't get any new shrimps I'll take the neon fish over in another tank

[Anonymous No.300230]

>>297261

challenge accepted.