South American Blackwater Biotope Build

[Veloth]

[FONT=&quot]I would like to setup a 75g as a South American Blackwater Stream with as many Neon Tetras as I can safely put in the tank along with some Peppered Corydoras. Does anyone here have this style of setup? From what I’ve read I need to have “subdued lighting” whatever that means. My well water has a Ph of 6 or less (my test kit doesn’t read below 6) and very soft. I plan on having some plants like Swords and Vallisneria and a lot of wood. This is the equipment that I have available to use:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Filtration – 1- Marineland C-360[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Light – 4 x 54watt T-5 (Currently running two bulbs)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Substrate- Black Eco[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There’s a lot of driftwood readily available. (I live near a large lake and several rivers)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I plan on using Oak leaves as the leaf liter on the bottom of the tank.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]How many Neons can I have?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What is subdued lighting?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What else do I need?[/FONT]

 

[wolf13]

I keep a blackwater biotope tank. I strongly reccomend doing as much research as you can on it if you want to try and be authentic. Youtube has some incredible vidios of blackwater species in their native habitat.

Subdued lighting is a combination of things. first off is the lighting itself. try to stick to low or medium wattages. A lot of blackwater species tend to be shy around bright light, especially apistos and plecos. The second part is the black water itself, which helps diffuse light. the third part is shadows. Floating plants, large leaves and driftwood all work to create shadows and will help keep them calm.

for plants i strongly reccomend doing a lot of research, http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php is a grat place to start. if sticking to biotope plants, you won't have mosses or ferns to work with since it seems no SA species are really in the aquarium trade, but you have a massive amount of floating plants. Also common species are swords, milfoils, temple plants and bacopa. if your not using CO2, you'll want to do a lot of research on species; as well as avoiding high light requirements.

I also reccomend adding another filter. with the leaves you have a lot of decaying biomatter and it tends to be pretty dirty. I use canisters on mine, and they make a great place to stash peat in a very fine mesh bag for the blackwater. Winter is the time to be collecting oak leaves, you want dead ones. Red oak tends to be popular and what i have used since they stay on the tree through the winter. never use green leaves, so collect for the year. the good news is they decay fairly slowly in the tank.

I avoided using local driftwood. the surface water around here is not the cleanest (heavy ag and urban areas).

 

[Veloth]

Thanks for the quick reply. Did you have problems with the setup or just wanted a change. I would like to be as authentic as possible. I have several pieces of local wood already in use with no problems. Now that I think about it Oak would not be very authentic so I guess I'll use something else. Another filter is not a problem, I've got a mag 350 lying around somewhere. Off on the www I go to read.

 

[Star_Rider]

you may have some issues finding wood that is from south america to set up a biotope tank.
but you may find some online somewhere.

 

[wolf13]

problem is there isn't a lot of authentic leaf litter options for most people. oak is pretty good though because of its tannin content, and if you shred it a little you'll never notice. when i started, i almost immediatly went with the biotope and still have it. I had some casualties a few weeks ago (unknown cause, everything now seems fine) so am redoing the stocking and planting but am still keeping the blackwater and some species.

As cool as it would be to have real south american wood, I think it is a lot less important hen the fish and animals

 

[jpappy789]

I was under the impression that true blackwater SA setups had few to no plants...mainly driftwood and rocks.

 

[Veloth]

I have just started my research but I have seen several plants listed on different sites. I have watched several videos taken of the Neons in the wild and never saw a rock and of the sites I've visited none have mentioned rocks.

 

[jpappy789]

Ok, well mainly driftwood from what I've heard. I guess it really depends on the specific river/region you're trying to recreate...

 

[jm1212]

50 neons and 18 corydoras will fit in that tank easily. plus, you may want to add some hatchetfish for the top of the tank since neons are really mid-bottom dwellers

 

[Veloth]

Ok, well mainly driftwood from what I've heard. I guess it really depends on the specific river/region you're trying to recreate...

I was not disagreeing I simple repeated what I've seen so far. You have far more experience than I have.

50 neons and 18 corydoras will fit in that tank easily. plus, you may want to add some hatchetfish for the top of the tank since neons are really mid-bottom dwellers

I was thinking of about just Tetras(100) and corydoras (8)