Low-flow and no-flow Apistogramma biotope tanks

[Bart Hazes]

My interest in Apistogramma, and other fish for that matter, is linked to learning about and trying to recreate the biotopes they live in. Many apistos come from slow flowing small streams, shallow lake margins, and completely stagnant ponds or puddles. I have therefore been running many tanks with zero water current. But now that the weather is cooling I need to add heaters and wanted small pumps to distribute the heat without too much current. My experiences with no-flow tanks and small circulation pumps are in the blog below. Inspired by apistos so I trust relevant to those on this group.
As you will see I do deviate from proper biotope, at least for apistos from dense rainforest biotopes, by heavy use of (floating) plants, but that is because I use them instead of bacterial filters.

You can find the blog at: http://biodives.com/blog/?p=175

 

[rr16]

That was a great read; thanks for sharing. Nice to see the kitchen worktop put to good use! Have you experimented using house plants like Epipremnum or Spathyphyllum?

 

[Bart Hazes]

As a Dutchman I should have house plants but at the moment I don't. My window sills are full of jars with plants, green water, daphnia etc so no space for plants. I could add some aquaponics-style house plants to tanks but the idea behind using house plants is that they can grow rapidly by using atmospheric CO2. I'd rather use true aquatic plants for that purpose in the form of many floating plants. In addition to the standard small floaters I also have a collection of tall water hyacinth growing in tanks (root system makes a great spawning mop) and two tall Echinodorus 'Frans Stoffels' with leafs sticking high above the 10" tall tanks. Over time I'd like to get something more closely resembling the emergent plants you see along pond margins.