# Blackwater Biotope



## JoeDizzleMPLS

Decided to focus on plants in my other tanks and changed this tank (75 gallon) up to what I really wanted to do, which was a blackwater biotope. I still have a ways to go with my lighting project and some other ideas I have to make this really look like a river bank, but the hardscape is pretty much done so I thought I'd post a pic. I took a couple shots from straight on last night, but there was a reflection that bugged me, so I'll try to get some better ones tonight.


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## TheCableGuy

Me likey!!


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## balluupnetme

^^x2 BEAUTIFUL


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## I Can Mate

very nice joe! i always wanted to try it to my rhom tank too but i just invested too much for the planted tank part that i might just do that to a 40b


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## BRUNER247

Always awesome Joe! That should be your new username awesomeJoeMPLS


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## jp80911

how often do you think you need to replace those leaves?

looks great by the way.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Thanks for the compliments guys.

It kinda depends, but I can just add more whenever. The leaves just kinda break down over time, the small pieces get sucked up easily with the Python. I'll probably have to add a few more once a month or so.


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## PaYaRa_12

Very very nice tank, good for piranhas, little amazon.=)


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## impalass

All your tanks are inspirational.


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## Sacrifice

Great looking tank. Some of those branches in there look green...what's going to happen to them over the next couple of months. They won't release anything harmful in your tank will they?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Sacrifice said:


> Great looking tank. Some of those branches in there look green...what's going to happen to them over the next couple of months. They won't release anything harmful in your tank will they?


They're definitely not green, the lighter colored branches are from bigger branches that fell off of some old oak trees at my grandparent's farm quite a ways back. They were really dry when I found them, I boiled and soaked them for a few days so I could peel the bark off.


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## Sacrifice

Cool so it sounds like you prepared them a little first. I just noticed that the bark was taken off of them. Very cool looking tank.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Sacrifice said:


> Cool so it sounds like you prepared them a little first. I just noticed that the bark was taken off of them. Very cool looking tank.


Yeah, it was an absolute pain to do... Three days of soaking and peeling. It took a couple hours to scrape all the gunk out from underneath my fingernails and my fingers still hurt. I could have used a knife or something, but I didn't want tool marks all over the branches.

I had wanted to do blackwater from the beginning but I kept getting pulled towards a planted setup, I finally decided that 2 planted tanks was enough for now and I would set this one up to look exactly how I wanted and have very little maintenance. I'm pretty happy with it... it took a while to get the scape right because I wanted it to look full of driftwood while still allowing plenty of swimming room for my rhom.


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## Sacrifice

Everything looks good, the leaves would concern me a bit. While they give a very realistic look I'd be afraid of them rotting and causing a ton of debris to float in the tank. Very realistic looking tank. Is the rhom in there yet?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

They don't rot, they're dried leaves, they just fall apart and the small pieces sit on the bottom and come right out with a vac. Totally safe to use, I boiled them first to be sure.

My rhom is in there, it's hard to see him in the pic cuz it's so dark


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## Sacrifice

Seems like you thought about just about everything.


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## Lifer374

For your Rhombeus?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Lifer374 said:


> For your Rhombeus?


Yup... got sick of scaping this tank and figure I can stick with this and give the tank some stability.

I actually prefer this look over planted, I'm a fan of natural looking setups. I still really like planted tanks, I can get my fix with the other tanks tho.


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## CuzIsaidSo

i luv it Joe...


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

CuzIsaidSo said:


> i luv it Joe...


Thanks man









I had rigged up some DIY moonlights for this tank and put them on last night, but it looked a bit too bulky over the tank, so it's back to the drawing board.


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## rhom15

that's the fun part in this hobby tearing down and rebuilding by the way cool setup can't wait for more pics need to get off my butt and learn how to post pics


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

rhom15 said:


> that's the fun part in this hobby tearing down and rebuilding by the way cool setup can't wait for more pics need to get off my butt and learn how to post pics


I love coming up with new scapes, but I think I'm gonna stick with this one for a while. I am building a new stand for this tank and setting up my plumbing and equipment the right way this time, I pulled the wet/dry out of storage and did all the plumbing while the tank was running because I had an emergency situation after a filter died on me. Because of the situation, I had to hurry everything along and cut a lot of corners, the stand also got really beat up during the move, so getting these things fixed will help me to enjoy the tank more.

If you need help with posting pics, send me a PM and we'll get it figured out.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Ok, here's a FTS from straight on. Sorry for the delay, I've been busy this week. Click the picture for better quality...


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## Guest

Looking good Joe


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## PaYaRa_12

Very nice tank do you have pic of the fish ?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

PaYaRa_12 said:


> Very nice tank do you have pic of the fish ?


I haven't really gotten any good shots lately, but here's a thread from a few months ago...

http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?/topic/191173-rhom-is-finally-settling-in/page__p__2548831__fromsearch__1&#entry2548831


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## PaYaRa_12

That is a beautiful fish i love the eye.Hope you make new photos.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Thanks, I'll definitely get some more pics taken, I just haven't been picking up the camera near as much as I'd like to lately.


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## jp80911

Joe, won't a single light source high above the tank make it look more like a river bank?
I have noticed on my manueli tank when I have the only room light on (single spiral bulb high up on the ceiling) looks more natural as compare to when I have the tank light (also a single CF bulb similar to those spiral bulbs) on right above the tank.
it looks kind like this


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

The lighting is a work in progress, I actually have something I'm working on right now that will put the light higher up, I finished my first version the other day with a fluorescent spotlight and LED moonlights, but it looked too bulky over the tank so I am back to the drawing board now.

Those clip on lamps are just temporary, I took down the hanging fixture and wanted something to light the tank while I worked on something else. They actually make the tank look pretty good, there's a shimmering effect in person, but if I really wanted something like the pic you posted, I'm guessing I'd have to look at a single metal halide or something.


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## jp80911

the distance from light source to tank isn't huge, a single metal halide may be too powerful to over fill the tank. 
since you are not growing any plants on the tank you don't need anything that powerful, regular CF bulbs or one of those spiral bulb should work fine.
personally I would just try to hang different type of bulbs you want to use above the tank and see which one gives you the best result before you start building any fixtures.
maybe something like these will work as well.
http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Fluorescent-Lighting/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgfZare3/R-100655356/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Fluorescent-Lighting/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgfZare3/R-100655283/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

I've already gotten something I like with a single spiral bulb suspended over the tank, it just didn't have the crazy shimmering effect that halides are known for...






I like that fixture in the second link, the thing I'm having to deal with is the fact that the tank is in our bedroom, so I can't have something too bright that lights up the entire room.


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## jp80911

this is what my tank looks like when just the room light on, I think it's a 40W or possible lower power spiral light. not sure how you like it.
either way maybe you can make a tall canopy to cover the light so it won't light up the whole room. I think the trick is that you'll have to figure out if there's a way you can make the overly tall canopy look less ugly.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=qkCqCu2ujzs


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

That's basically what I got from holding the spotlight with fluorescent spiral bulb a couple feet above the tank... I really don't want a canopy on this tank, but if I can find a fixture that concentrates the light to the area of the tank without much spill-over, I think I'll be in business.


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## jp80911

maybe some dome shape housing to create a spot light effect, but with it being few feet up in the air, it'll still light up a pretty big area. It'll be hard to find a fixture to do that due to the light source, you will need the help of some focusing/collimating lenses to help limit the divergent of the light. 
what about some narrow angle LEDs? don't need high power output. if you have LED flashlight you can try to see if it works. depends on the output angle, maybe place multiple ones over the tank.


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