Hi all, my first post after reading around a while. I really like the idea of having an aquarium but some things are giving me pause. I wonder if you experienced folks might give me your thoughts on a few things.

1. bubbles....I watched a lot of aquariums on youtube. In a lot of them, the rush of bubbles up from the bottom dominated the view, much more than the fish. My imagined picture of fish swimming back and forth gracefully and relaxed is a bit shattered with this distracting backdrop. Some aquariums had the bubbles coming up from all over the bottom (bed?) of the tank, while some have them contained in a couple tubes back in the corners, which I presume one could hide. Anything wrong with using the tubes?

2. work.....seems like a lot of work but really I don't mind changing water every 2 weeks. Is there a lot more work on top of that once it's built and you get used to it?

3. design......I want to do something unusual I think. I want to watch the fluid motion of a school of fish. So I'm thinking of 9 serpea tetras (smoothest swimming fish I found in the shop) in a big 75 gallon tank, with a couple fish or snails to help clean the tank and a couple pairs of pretty, colorful fish. My thought is the tetras will have lots of room to swim back and forth, unlike their random motion in the small tanks in the store. Anything wrong with my plan?

Thanks very much for your help.

Jim

It's great that you're thinking about things before hopping right in!

1. The bubbles...I personally really dislike the bubbles too. I don't know as much about large tanks like the one you're considering, but i believe that as long as there's something breaking the surface of the water (usually from the filter output) that will oxygenate the water enough that you don't need airstones or bubble wands.

2. Two weeks is a bit of a stretch, but with how low stocking your planning (sounds like ~9 serapes, I'm guessing either 3+ otos or a siamese algae eater (these might not be necessary), and a pair of rams or kribs would look very nice) the maintenance wouldn't be too bad. I really really recommend getting live plants, the fish love them, you'll love them (ok, maybe that's a stretch, but they look really nice) and watching them grow and move in the water is really relaxing.

3. As I said in the answer above, that sounds like rather low stocking. That's NOT a bad thing, it's just your tank might look empty. Plants, rocks, driftwood- all of those are great space fillers though.
And as much as I might not always agree with the design, and there's a LOT of how to pics in this thread, might be helpful, this is probably one of the most distinct tanks on here, that I've seen. Warning- EXTREMELY picture heavy. (and the good stuff starts at 90% down on the first page, and near the top of page 2) U R B A N AQUASCAPING - 300L Planted LowTech

Hope I didn't ramble on too much! Also, anyone else feel free to chime in? :D

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Lead me not to temptation...I can make it there myself just fine, thank you

Welcome!

Why such a low number fish for a 75g? If you want that fluid motion get 30-40 of the Tetras.

Good luck!

Kehy, thanks for the link. Boy that really shows that this could get as involved as my RC airplane hobby. Just wanted to fly and ended up spending weeks custom building things.

I do note that there are no bubbles in his tank that I can see. Does there mean there is another way? I didn't quite understand your references about breaking the water, I am even more of a beginner than you think I am. Thanks for the help!

JRman83, well I don't know what I'm doing but if you read that article, it says fish are stressed out when too crowded. But mostly, I just want the fish to space ratio to be more like the ocean. I think the tetras (or whatever I end up with) will swim more as a school if they have a nice long cruise before reversing. I may get more fish, but that's the main thing I'm interested in so will just experiment with that. Maybe I should get a bigger flock, but a shop guy said if it's a big flock they'll break into two flocks.

Thanks much....
Jim

As far as water changes go I have not done a WC in months. Keep in mind that I have a lot of live plants in my tank which makes a difference. There are some people who never change their water and only top off their tanks.
As for you not understanding about the water on the surface being aerated, basically if the surface of your tank shows movement and is not constantly "flat" then there is aeration happening. I also saw that you mentioned tubes in the back corners of some tanks with bubbles coming from them. In most cases this is part of an under gravel filter system, not just for decoration.
Aquariums are a great hobby to get into and can be very fulfilling, but they do require maintenance. I hope you decide to get an aquarium.

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75 Gallon Planted

Hi!

1)bubbles- I dislike bubbles too.All my tanks house bettas and as you may know,betta fish dont care for the agitation of the tank either.So yes there is another way.

2)work-Im a fan of doing the work for it myself.Its not a whole awful lot to be quite honest.My tanks are pretty heavily planted and all I do is a weekly 50% waterchange on them,which is just the removal and readdition of water.and a trim on the plants to keep them looking nice.

3)Design-However with such a low stocking you can go with less water removal if you add the plants.I would still personally do weekly though.Also such a small school I feel would be a bit nervous in such a large space,so up that number a bit.I like little bushynose plecos.I have two of them and they are awesome little things,IMO.

I think whatever you decide,you can make an awesome tank!

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Bubbles are totally unnecessary - some people like them, so they set them up. I hate them, and haven't any in a tank for years.

The water has to move, but it can do so from a filter, with only the waving of the plants to give that away. For the type of tank you're imagining, the more current the better. Most of our aquariums have next to no current, and that ends schooling for a lot of species - Corys, a lot of tetras and barbs and such won't run in schools unless they have the illusion there's somewhere to go. In a still tank, they settle into energy conservation as still water means they're trapped in a dry season pool (in their wiring) .

Serpae are good, but bottom oriented. Up higher, a school of rummy noses or the like might be good. Silver bodies mean sunlight's the camouflage - the fish hide in the splash and shimmer of the open, surface water. Darker coloured fish use shadows and cover. The camouflage will tell you which fish run in schools, and which stay close to safety.
The larger the group, the better the schooling. It's never perfect in an aquarium because it literally hits a wall. With small fish in big tanks though, it can work.
Weekly water changes though - 25%.

Hello Jim, and welcome to the hobby. It can be as maintenance-free or as geeky-involved as you want it to be! Now, on to your questions...

1. Bubbles do a great job at breaking the surface tension of the water surface for better gas exchange. It's a lot of water chemistry techno-babble, but what it translates into is that if you have live plants (which I strongly suggest you look into), the bubbles will help get the plants more CO2. The "tubes" you see in many aquarium setups are actually for what are called under-gravel filters (or UGFs for short). UGFs are air-driven and work by having a plate underneath the gravel with slots in it. The bubbles in the tubes, by a method called convection, pull water up the tubes. By this action, water is pulled down through the substrate (gravel or whatever you put as "dirt" in the bottom of your tank"), where it is biologically filtered, and up and out of the tubes. Carbon inserts are usually attached to the outlets of the tubes (near the top of the tank) to help chemically filter the water as well. UGFs are cheap and VERY effective, however they necessitate 6 month to 1 year overhauls of the tank to clean the bottom plate.

2. When your tank is established with fish (and hopefully live plants), it's just the water change and the occasional filter media replacement that you have to worry about. The water changes in non-planted tanks require you to vacuum the gravel, but in a planted tank not only do you not have to vacuum the gravel (the plants thrive better in dirty substrate), but you don't need to change the water as much (as stated above). Plants leech minerals and impurities out of your tank water through their leaves, and also consume nitrate, which is the end product from your fish generating waste through poo and uneaten food, etc. So in essence, live plants act as a HUGE carbon filter in your tank. With enough plants, you don't even need carbon in your filter.

3. Keep in mind most "schooling" fish in the pet stores are actually "shoaling" fish. Schooling is where they all swim around in the same direction, while shoaling means they stick together in a loose group but don't school. In addition, if the fish don't feel threatened, they won't shoal or school. So if you want your fish to be happy, then don't expect them to school or shoal. However, if you want that effect, then scare the @#$Y& out of them with a big scary fish. Zebra danios are good at schooling in the true definition of the word, plus they are fast swimmers and are more aggressive than tetras. Lastly, the bigger the group, the better they will shoal or school. So a tank with, say, 20 serpaes will shoal better than a tank with 9. Throw a set of big fish in there like kribs or rams as mentioned above, and you've got the "big scary fish" (though, rams and kribs are about as truly frightening as a cow).

As far as the cleanup crew, here is what I would do: #1, get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails. MTS are commonly looked down on as pest snails, but they are cool and sought after by hobbyists because they actually burrow down into the substrate (up to 1" deep) and clean the substrate for you. They'll be infesting your tank, but most of the time the only thing you'll see is the substrate moving from time to time. #2, look into multiple species of bottom dwellers. Shrimp, crabs, a pleco or two (preferably bushynose, since they don't get more than 4" long), a school of otocyclus or corydoras catfish, or a loach or two will help you take care of any algae or waste. Keep in mind different species eat different types of algae.

Hope this helps! And let us know about any additional questions...

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Everything that navigator black just said is exactly what I would have said. +1.

Oxygen bubbles and surface movement both off-gas CO2. They don't help it; they prevent it from remaining in the water. For panted tanks, healthy, established plants provide oxygen in and of themselves. You want *underwater* current to keep nutrients in the water evenly distributed and constantly in contact with the plants. If you want a planted tank and don't like algae, the first step is to get rid of the bubble wants/stones and get the lighting right...

The you'll need to provide your tank with correct lighting for plants, which is NOT the same thing as buying "daylight" 6500k color spectrum off-the-shelf light bulbs that are for home use. Also avoid the mistake of providing too much light to the tank. Read up on planted aquarium websites for information on how to calculate this easily and quickly.

1. CO2 gasses out of the water only when CO2 concentrations exceed natural levels (about 3ppm or so), such as when you inject CO2 up to 30ppm artificially. In a non-injected-CO2 tank, when the lights are on, plants consume the natural ~3ppm CO2 in the water, lowering the concentration. In that case, gas exchange at the surface actually works to get the CO2 concentration in the water back to natural levels, and surface agitation by a bubbler in a non-injected-CO2 tank helps that gas exchange to keep CO2 levels as close to the natural level as possible. HOWEVER, at night the inverse is true. When the lights are off plants no longer conduct photosynthesis, and therefore do not consume CO2 and emit O2. Instead, they metabolize the sugars they generate during their photoperiod and in doing so consume O2 and generate CO2, hence why many people who inject CO2 into their tanks invest in a soleniod to turn the CO2 off at night - the elevated levels in conjunction with the plants generating CO2 can cause anoxia and kill any critters in the tank.

Sources:
http://www.hallman.org/plant/huebert.html
Diane Walstad, "The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium"

2. As stated above, only when the lights are on.

3. Current always helps, I suppose, but I don't think it's necessary. Simple things like convection around the heater or the presence of a power filter do plenty to stir up the water, but others on here (consult beaslbob) don't use any current-generating devices at all.

4. True, 6500K fluorescent tube lights generate quite a broad spectrum of light, and some is not fully utilized by plants (outside the PAR range). However, there are many on this forum that have had great success in their planted tanks with said lighting. There are also many websites dedicated to the effectiveness and use of 6500K "daylight bulbs" in things like hydroponics and aquaria. I'm not saying daylight bulbs are the way to go (I use a mix of 6700K and 5500K T5HO lighting units), but they are a cheap solution.

Sources:
SHO, CFL Aquarium Lights, Compact Fluorescent; Hydroponics Lighting, Lamps, Bulbs
Aquarium lighting

I'm not trying to put you down, I'm just correcting what I think you might have misunderstood in your research. I could be just as wrong though, we are only stating opinions, after all. Cheers!

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!