# The Green Aquarist



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Not sure if this is the right forum for this... but figured it fit in better here than anywhere else...

With the environment being a big issue these days and popping up in so many conversations I began thinking about home aquariums and how much energy and water they use up. Not to mention the products that we use in them - from the chemical additives to the ornamentation to the live plants - and how these are created and maintained.

So in my thinking I began to wonder if it would be possible to create a 'greener' aquarium - and no, I'm not talking about algae here!







- and what that would entail. Whether it's new products that are on the market, harnessing rain water for use in the tank, etc. I would love to theorize, getting as many people's input as possible, and perhaps eventually draw up an article on this topic if it hasn't been done already.

It would be interesting to see what ideas we come up with as a group, I think, and in the end maybe even try this out!

So let's hear those ideas. I know you all have some!







Also, if you're mentioning an idea, feel free to elaborate. For example, say how you would go about collecting the rain water and how you would transport it into the home.

For the sake of argument, for the time being, we can say this is a freshwater tank and probably on the smaller side (20gal or so?) but if any ideas come up for bigger tanks feel free to mention them!


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## odyssey (May 30, 2006)

maybe use an internal styrofoam background on the inside to insulate the aquarium better, thus reducing the time the heater is on for , on my 30 g with a styrofoam background, the thermostat does not go on at night, whereas the 35g next to it does.

like that sort of thing??


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Any ideas are great, odyssey! But now my question to you is - since styrofoam is so bad for the environment - where did you get it from? Is it a consumer background? Home made? Etc. Possible alternatives?

Just keeping ya thinking.









Also, I was thinking of some categories to class ideas under. Feel free to add any you come up with.

Water source.
Tank cleaning method and water disposal.
Tank. (Literally where it came from, what it's made of, etc.)
Lighting.
Additives. (Dechlorinator, plant ferts, etc.)
Ornaments. (Where they come from, what they're made of, etc.)
Heating.

Remember, the idea here isn't ease of cleaning or care. If it takes a bit of bucket hauling, so be it. And some ideas might be expensive too. But let's see what we can come up with.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Harness solar power, to operate the tank. E.g. solar panels in the back yard, or ruff of the house. Actually, the entire house could be operated this way, and plugging into an outlite would simply be running off of solar power. That would cut the cost of power completely off with large enough panels. Then, you only have to figure out how to use rain water









Or, have the gutters run the water off the house into a storage bin. From there, the tank owner could used this "storage" water for top offs, or water changes. I am not sure the quality of rain in the various different locations around the world, but it the water was quality it would be usable. Of course, you would still have to use treatments to get the ph correct, etc..


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## Guest (Jun 21, 2007)

well for water disposal you could just water your plants with it like all those threads that were made recently.


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## CichlidAddict (Jul 1, 2005)

Eliminate the heater by keeping natives.








I use my tank water to water my lawn.


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## odyssey (May 30, 2006)

Mettle said:


> Any ideas are great, odyssey! But now my question to you is - since styrofoam is so bad for the environment - where did you get it from? Is it a consumer background? Home made? Etc. Possible alternatives?
> 
> Just keeping ya thinking.
> 
> ...


 i see where you are coming from, but this was a load of styrofoam which was going to be trashed at work, a bunch of packaging that the stock didnt need. otherwise i would not have done it. i mean, the money saved on the lower electricity bills still wouldnt cover the cost of styrofoam and other materials etc.
you would need alot of information to show weather you were actually saving money.


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## welsher7 (Jul 29, 2005)

As far as lighting. You could use natural sunlight. I forget what it is called but its a dome, that is like a sky light, is mounted on your roof. Running from the dome you use some kind highly reflective tube or conduit. This reflects the suns natural light down in to your tank. Some folks on the southwest are using this on reef tanks. So it must work pretty well, but you have to receive a lot of sunlight. This kind of lighting wouldn't work here in NE Ohio.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

odyssey said:


> i see where you are coming from, but this was a load of styrofoam which was going to be trashed at work, a bunch of packaging that the stock didnt need. otherwise i would not have done it. i mean, the money saved on the lower electricity bills still wouldnt cover the cost of styrofoam and other materials etc.
> you would need alot of information to show weather you were actually saving money.


It's not about saving money, it's about saving the environment. So by using styrofoam that was meant for other purposes and recrafting/recycling it in a way as to be beneficial and to save energy at the end of the day isn't such a bad thing. After all, it's probably doing more good insulating your tank than it would waiting a few million years to decompose at the dump.


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## boxer (Sep 11, 2003)

use mechanical energy if it's possible for the water overturning in your tank like in a penguin or emperor's filter, there is a bio wheel, just imagine a bigger version of that, that will store energy. It works like a Mill but I doubt the water in our tanks can put enough output to get back anything worthwhile.

also, besides using the water to water the plants, use it for other things like new water for your Bongs but than again who wants to smoke up fish sh*t.


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## SUS (Mar 10, 2007)

boxer said:


> use mechanical energy if it's possible for the water overturning in your tank like in a penguin or emperor's filter, there is a bio wheel, just imagine a bigger version of that, that will store energy. It works like a Mill but I doubt the water in our tanks can put enough output to get back anything worthwhile.
> 
> *also, besides using the water to water the plants, use it for other things like new water for your Bongs but than again who wants to smoke up fish sh*t.*


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## CorGravey (Feb 13, 2007)

CichlidAddict said:


> *Eliminate the heater by keeping natives.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


WTF r u talking about bro?
Indian magic heat chants or something?


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## holmes14 (Apr 15, 2007)

lol he ment like native fish, that dont need the water to be heated

ya know like fish native to your area.... if you still dont understand then i will e-slap you

lol im jk i was confused for a sec there too, but im stoned so thats my excuse


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

CorGrav420 said:


> *Eliminate the heater by keeping natives.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


WTF r u talking about bro?
Indian magic heat chants or something?
[/quote]

He is talking about using native fish to your geographical location. E.g. if you lived in South American, keep Piranhas. If you lived in Georgia, keep a large or small mouth bass, etc.....

Not using magic to heat the tank.


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## Phtstrat (Sep 15, 2004)

As for rainwater collection, this site had some useful information.

Simple things to do would be using fluorescent lighting, even in saltwater tanks, as opposed to HO or incandescent lighting. Good insulation and a heater with an auto shut off.

Obviously, using plants would be an efficient way of keeping the tank water clean as opposed to running redundant filters.

And tank water can be used for tons of stuff, one obvious thing would be watering the plants, the phosphates and nitrates that we don't want in our tank are spectacular for garden plants.


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## CorGravey (Feb 13, 2007)

holmes4 said:


> *Eliminate the heater by keeping natives.*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


WTF r u talking about bro?
Indian magic heat chants or something?
[/quote]

He is talking about using native fish to your geographical location. E.g. if you lived in South American, keep Piranhas. If you lived in Georgia, keep a large or small mouth bass, etc.....

Not using magic to heat the tank.








[/quote]

Wheres the fun in that?? Ill keep a speckled trout tank lol.

trout slamon cohab


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