ice tank

[meow91]

I would like to start an ice tank. Clear substrate, white plastic plants, bubble wand. The tank is 30 gal. ,penguin bio wheel 200, heater from wal-mart 100 watt, under gravel filter, white cave. I was thinking about putting in the tank
2 glass cats
4 glassfish
1 oto
ghost shrimp
6 pristella tetra
2 threadfin rainbow fish or 2 moonlight gourami

any suggestions?

[blackwolfXKAV]

you should add more to your schooling groups, like the 2 glass cats
4 glassfish
1 oto
ghost shrimp
6 pristella tetra

glass cats and otos especially.

btw, however nice the glass in tank looks should you happen to come upon it, dont get it, it is very sharp and will cut both you and the fish.

not sure about the gourami's, but if they arent a dwarf variety, i would be catious.

hth, B.W.

[Mgamer20o0]

how about a black and white tank? one of the members here had one.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92379

if you want a clear substrate why not just go bear bottom.

[phaedraeos]

I would like to start an ice tank. Clear substrate, white plastic plants, bubble wand. The tank is 30 gal. ,penguin bio wheel 200, heater from wal-mart 100 watt, under gravel filter, white cave. I was thinking about putting in the tank
2 glass cats
4 glassfish
1 oto
ghost shrimp
6 pristella tetra
2 threadfin rainbow fish or 2 moonlight gourami

any suggestions?

I'd go with:
6 glass cats
6 glass fish (not dyed!)
4 ottos
6 pristella tetra
ghost shrimp

OR you could cut out one of those groups and put in the gourami. The thing to remember with the glass fish is that they can get up to 3" in the aquarium, and they like a lot of swimming room. The glass cats on the other hand, tend to clump up and stay in one spot. I think if you wanted the gourami, the glass fish would be the ones to exclude.

FYI i don't know anything about the rainbow fish, but quick reading has told me they also like to be in larger groups. If you wanted to add those, I'd suggest not having the Gourami as it might view them as competition with those colors and long fins.

[jm1212]

glass catfish need to be kept in groups of at least 6 for them to survive.

IMO you should pick either the glass fish or the glass catfish. it will be better for them both. in fact, why not pick one and do a species tank? a big group of glass catfish or a big school of glass fish would look pretty cool with little ghost shrimp moseying around the bottom.

[wataugachicken]

i think i substrate of pale colored ocean glass (worn down with all smooth edges) would look really neat. a mix of white, pale green, and pale blue. . . would still give that "cold" feeling but give contrast as well.

i would either do a reverse undergravel filter or get rid of it altogether.The RUGF sucks water in and pushes it up through the substrate, which would get all poop and food bits out of the gravel, to be sucked up by the penguin filter. if you run a regular UGF I think the substrate you use could get grimy-looking pretty quickly.

very neat idea.

1 larger group of one kind of fish often has more of a 'wow' factor than just a couple of several kinds.

[daayda3]

This is SUCH a good idea!:eek:

[rodinia]

I think this is a very neat idea. However, to depreciate the comfort of the fish for aesthetic to me seems pretty shallow or just not totally thought through. I'm speaking frankly as you asked for public opinion.
The maintenance to keep the clean look of the clear tank you envision would be greater than that of a more natural looking environment. It seems to me that over a pretty short period of time, the glass would develop the typical slime and grime and just not look as good as the concept would first dictate. It would be like dirty ice. Think of snow a week after the storm.
That said, there should be a middle ground.
Perhaps rather than clear substrate, you could go with a white sand. Poops would be highly visible on the clear substrate. Not to mention, the smoothness of the clear substrate doesn't strike me as terribly bacteria friendly.
the white sand has natural, slight variations of color that would be more aesthetically forgiving to poo.
The sand is also a more "fish friendly" substrate.
I very much agree with the people who expressed the larger school over several smaller schools of fish too.
I also do think that some real plants are highly beneficial to the proper care of fish. Perhaps some floating plants would be favorable to your idea so as not to interfere with the monochromatic scheme of the tank.

Good luck!

[Madcrawdad]

zebra pleco might look cool....if you can find one (better yet, afford one). http://www.worldcichlids.com/fishprofiles/zebpleco.html

[wataugachicken]

nothing in the OP's idea of the tank depreciates the "comfort" of the fish. fish don't care what color something is, or if it is clear stones or opaque gravel. the OP is putting plants and a cave into the tank as hiding places for the fish.

substrate really doesn't need to be bacteria-friendly. plenty of people have bare-bottom tanks with no problems maintaining a cycled tank. most of the bacteria live inside the filters where there is the most gas exchange and therefore the most oxygen. if they can't live on the substrate, they will simply colonize elsewhere. since none of the fish mentioned are bottom-dwellers, the substrate is of even less importance to the fish's comfort. they aren't going to be in contact with it. poop is pretty visible on sand, so i don't see where that would make it better.

plenty of people do not have real plants in their tanks with no ill consequences. many people do not want to invest in the lighting, chemicals, CO2, etc. that are usually needed to maintain plants properly.

as long as the fish have clean water at a proper temperature, quialty filtration, nutritious food, and hiding places in order to reduce stress, they are being kept well. the color scheme of the tank is not something the fish care about.

[rodinia]

wataugachicken, I hope you realize that the individual posted his idea in a public forum, asking for other's opinions.

You may agree or disagree with me but either way negates the premise to which the idea was presented. This isn't a debate.

I am an aesthetic naturalist. I prefer to recreate biotopes. My opinions reflect how I approach keeping fish.

You opinions will inevitably be different as we're different people. That's ok. It's not about us, it's about the asker of the question.

[Star_Rider]

The ony problem I see..it if everything is light/white..the tank would be pretty bright .

this may be uncomfortable for the fish living in the tank.

[lwooters]

As for the glass chunks, my LFS sells large chunks of thick tempered glass, it's very cool and it will not cut you, kinda has a greenish tint but still looks like ice. Might be something worth looking into.

A cool substrate idea would be to go to a junkyard and break some windows (with permission of course!) out of the sides of cars, the pieces that the tempered glass forms look like square little ice cubes. Wash 'em up and you've got a cool looking substrate.

[meow91]

Thank you all for your ideas, weather they agreed or not. I like my idea, and don't think I am shallow. I have had this dream for a long time and am now ready to proceed with it. The zebra pleco is cool. Not sure if I will find one where I live. Any other ideas/ keep replying!
THANKS!

[Kyohti]

I agree that if you're going with 'ice' you should add some cool pastel blue or violet colors in there as well to add a visually 'chilling' effect. Maybe use a mixture of clear or white gravel and bits of translucent pastel blue green and purple sea glass?

And again with the plants, use mostly white, but perhaps toss in one or two pearlescent pastel blue ones for added interest and to add to that frosty feeling.

Finally, having read through some VERY interesting aquarium-scaping books, might I suggest something entirely different? I saw a delightful use of panes of sanded glass. It had much of the soft rounded edges and transleucent, Icey look of sea glass, but it was in whole panes. They had three of them tiered with a 1-inch space between each and all three were cut in a soft jagged pattern like icey mountains. They were braced and sealed together, then a pale blue and purple substrate was added and white plants placed in front of them.

It's a REALLY super neat effect... and some fish actually enjoyed hiding between the 'mountains' as natural cover!

The only difference is they used black lyretail mollies as the fish of choice for a stark contrast.

I also saw another one in this same book that involved red sand, a coated/sealed silver whisks (yes, kitchen whisks!) and a school of zebra danios and sterbai cories. Very art deco... :P

[BucJason]

Get some Albino Cories, the white will go well with your Ice theme, and they'll help keep your white gravel clean .

Look for a little Igloo decoration...not only will it be perfect for the decor it will give the fish a cave.:thm:

Here's an Igloo decoration on EBay, Check it out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fish-Tank-Aquarium-Ornament-Brick-Igloo-BK002_W0QQitemZ220074713453QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphot ohosting

[Kyohti]

Get some Albino Cories, the white will go well with your Ice theme, and they'll help keep your white gravel clean .

Look for a little Igloo decoration...not only will it be perfect for the decor it will give the fish a cave.:thm:

Here's an Igloo decoration on EBay, Check it out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fish-Tank-Aquarium-Ornament-Brick-Igloo-BK002_W0QQitemZ220074713453QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphot ohosting


If it was painted pearlescen white and coated thickly with aquarium sealant, maybe... but the terra cotta color would look very odd with the other colors, if ya ask me. ^.^;;

[SmallFishi]

Meow have you found this stuff for sale, like does it even exist?
I think it sounds like a neat idea if you have it on say your desk or something where you sit really close to it otherwise it probably wouldn't be too eye catching from far away .. lol...
I would love to see pictures when you are done.. :)

[effulgent]

I found a very interesting book on aquarium design this weekend at Half-Price Books:

Aquarium Style: Imaginative Ideas for Creating Dream Homes for Fish (Hardcover) (http://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Style-Imaginative-Creating-Homes/dp/0764152807)

While its fish husbandry skills leave MUCH to be desired ("Use 16-17 Red Tigar Oscars in a medium-sized tank"), they do have very interesting ideas for unique and non-traditional tanks. They've got a lot of great ideas of things to do for an "ice" tank. You might want to check the book out for some ideas.

[meow91]

i found everything but a cave like structure. So I thought a little more about it and decided to get a Titanic replica cave???

[wataugachicken]

it does go with the theme. . . ICEBERG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kinda kitchsy, but also very funny. it should bring a chuckle to anyone who 'gets it'

[gocfella]

I have found that opinions differ among aquarium enthusiasts on this matter of fish comfort in their environment. I feel that the fish should be respected enough to try to replicate their natural environment to some degree at least. Some people think this is ludicrous and seem to consider the fish more as ornaments than life forms. But I guess once they are fed properly and water quality is maintained that is ok. It depends on how much you care about the fishes stress levels, they may survive for years in this environment but will they thrive? I doubt it but some disagree.Admittedly this setup would look really cool on a desk in a minimalist house with starkly contrasting colour scheme (chrome and black/white and black)?? :dance:

[gocfella]

fish don't care what color something is, or if it is clear stones or opaque gravel.

the color scheme of the tank is not something the fish care about.

Not trying to start a fight but I think it is obvious that nobody is qualified to say this. (Maybe an animal behavioural psychologist could hazard a guess!)

[rodinia]

Thank you all for your ideas, weather they agreed or not. I like my idea, and don't think I am shallow. I have had this dream for a long time and am now ready to proceed with it. The zebra pleco is cool. Not sure if I will find one where I live. Any other ideas/ keep replying!
THANKS!

Right on. We can agree or disagree but that's the beauty of asking for opinions.
I never said you were shallow for the record. I said that someone who would forsake the comfort of their fish for aesthetic would be shallow or just not thinking things through. So, for the record, I don't think your shallow and I do apologize if that's how it came across. I'm a very frank gal who often has a foot in her mouth :dive: