Well I had forgotten this project for more than a year but now I think that I am going to pick it up again. The tank is still sitting in the basement and I will need to re-seal it. I have heard others suggest that old Metaframe tanks should be completely disassembled and put back together for the best seal, but I intend to just re-seal with thick seams from the inside of the tank.
To go with the idea of the vintage tank I want to try to use some sort of vintage decoration. I might do well enough looking around on the shelves of strange things at Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul's for an old ceramic cookie jar or something like that, or I could also shop around online. A Google search for vintage + aquarium + decoration returns quite a few results. Check out this seller's page...
GoAntiques: Do you remember this?
Lots of old homely and gawdy ceramic pieces...perfect!
I have a good general idea for plants in mind. I want to include several largish specimen plants, mainly swords and crypts, and groups of smaller crypts for the foreground and midground. I intend to plant enverything in tank planters. Here is a shot of a Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia potted up in a tank planter.
Those C. pontederiifolia root real nice in the planters.
I heard that some of those more unusual hybrid swords from Europe are becoming available here. I might try looking around for some of those.
I don't know yet whether this will be a low-tech or CO2-injected setup. I am leaning more toward using CO2 because I would like to get it growing in and vigorous more quickly.
To go with the idea of the vintage tank I want to try to use some sort of vintage decoration. I might do well enough looking around on the shelves of strange things at Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul's for an old ceramic cookie jar or something like that, or I could also shop around online. A Google search for vintage + aquarium + decoration returns quite a few results. Check out this seller's page...
GoAntiques: Do you remember this?
Lots of old homely and gawdy ceramic pieces...perfect!
I have a good general idea for plants in mind. I want to include several largish specimen plants, mainly swords and crypts, and groups of smaller crypts for the foreground and midground. I intend to plant enverything in tank planters. Here is a shot of a Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia potted up in a tank planter.
Those C. pontederiifolia root real nice in the planters.
I heard that some of those more unusual hybrid swords from Europe are becoming available here. I might try looking around for some of those.
I don't know yet whether this will be a low-tech or CO2-injected setup. I am leaning more toward using CO2 because I would like to get it growing in and vigorous more quickly.