ice tank

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
thanks

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!
 
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
 
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-Aquar...mZ220074713453QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting


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. ^.^;;
 
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.. :)
 
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)

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