Aquariums in my office

[Green Baron]

Vic,
I think it will do fine as I close the blind all the time except on weekends at the old location. We'll see how it fare in a few weeks.

[Salamastre]

Gan, beautifull tanks, an inspiration! I love your echinodorus, and the moss tanks is a joy to watch.

When you say low temp, how low is it?

My cubicle is back to back with the server room, which is kept at 21.3ºC, and my cubicle is always close in temperature, i'd love to have a very low maintenance small tank.

I see you like cactus also. This sunday I built an extra shelf by the window to start ptopagating some cactii and succulents. In my wedding in March we will give guests custom made small ceramic pots with a live rare cactus as a gift.

This is an aquatic forum, but if you as interested in cactii as you are in aquaria, I could send you plantlets or seeds from some rare species. At the time I have Lophophora williamsii seeds, which may or may not be legal where you live, but are OK with the law here. I live in the land of the cactii.

[Green Baron]

Fernando,
I love that Echinodorus too. I have always wanted to grown them this way. The 2ft moss tank is starting to look like a jungle as the Giant Taiwan Moss has grown very thick and big. The biggest frond I have is about 7" long and 4.5" wide ! I will have to rescape the tank in a month or two.

By low temperature, I am talking about 24~25C. the average tank temperature in Singapore without any form of cooling is 28~29C

Actually I am more of a plant than fish person. I have been growing all sorts of plants since I was a kid. I started planted aquarium after I moved to an apartment which does not have space for me to grow terrestrial plants. I keep a few species of cactus in office and at home but I am no expert in cactus. I would love to try other species of cactus. I will pm you my mailing address. PM me if you are interested in any species of mosses .

[RonWill]

Gan,
I like low maintenance but curious me wants to know why you have a white sheet (paper?) draping over the tank.


It appears that there are two sets of lighting so is there a fan to dissipate the heat?

BTW, I think it's a Godsend that you're allowed to set up tanks at work!

[ruyle]

Gan,
I like low maintenance but curious me wants to know why you have a white sheet (paper?) draping over the tank.

Ronnie, that's easy, it signifies that everything is alive in the tank. If
something has died, you will notice a black sheet of paper draped over
the lights... Actually, I thought it was to reduce glare out into the
room.

Bill

[Green Baron]

Ronnie,
The sheet of paper was meant to cut off the glare when I am photographing the tank. Not meant to be there permanently. Thanks for pointing it out. I will remove it off tomorrow.

Yes, there are 2 sets of 15W FL light. I started with one 15W light but the mosses were growing very slow so I added another 15W. I didn't use a fan as the water temperature is already low, around 24~25C.

Yes, I am know I am very lucky to be allowed to keep the tanks. I try to keep a low profile but everybody seems to know about about the tanks and drop by to admire the tanks.

Two most common questions I get are :

Q - How do you keep the water so clear and clean ? How often do you change the water ?
A - By having low bio-load and lots of plants. I change water (1/3) every one or two months but sometimes more often as I want to mosses to grow well.

Q - How do you keep the plants so healthy.
A - Low water temperature, having the right combination of plants and fishes and having very low bio-load. I keep mainly Boraras, Platies and shrimps (Cherry, Yamato and Malayan) in the tanks.