Project summer 2009

Outdoor notech tanks

I am staying in Denmark for the summer, and have access to a garden and some of my old tanks from when I was a kid. So I decided to make a little project with two outdoor notech tanks.

Here is a series of pictures from the building of the project. I will be adding more pictures as the tanks develop during the summer.

24/7-2009: Building the stand.

24/7-2009: Putting some wooden plates to cover the fronts and sides.

25/7-2009: And some black paint to make it look good.

25/7-2009: The tanks is in place. The left tank is 100 liters and the right tank 60 liters.

25/7-2009: As soil I have used 5-10 millimeter clay. In the 100 liters tank red clay with 2 tsp. Rexolin (trace elements) and in the 60 liters tank blue clay and 1 tsp. Rexolin.

25/7-2009: On top the clay and trace elements 10-20 millimeters peat.

25/7-2009: Last 40-70 millimeters sand and fine gravel.

25/7-2009: And some water.

3/8-2009: Finally some plants.

6/8-2009: Young Macropodus opercularis in the 100 liters tank.

7/8-2009: Morning sun in the tanks.

100 liters content:
Fauna: 10 Macropodus opercularis, 5 Poecilia reticulata and 10 Melanoides tuberculata.
Flora: Ceratophyllum demersum, Echinodorus osiris, Echinodorus uruguayensis, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Myriophyllum aquaticum and Vallisneria americana

60 liters content:
Fauna: 5 Poecilia reticulata, 10 Neocaridina denticulata sinensis var. Red and 10 Melanoides tuberculata.
Flora: Ceratophyllum demersum, Echinodorus argentinensis, Hydrocotyle vulgaris and Vallisneria americana

9/8-2009: The temperature has reached 26-27 °C during the last two days.

13/8-2009: The morning temperature was 17-18 °C and in the evening 20-21 °C.

18/8-2009: Another morning sun photo.

18/8-2009: Macropodus opercularis.

18/8-2009: Echinodorus argentinensis.

18/8-2009: A big frog is staying between the two tanks.

25/8-2009: Echinodorus argentinensis flower.

13/9-2009: The water temperature is down to 12 °C during night, but the plant is still growing new leaves and inflorescences.

13/9-2009: New inflorescence.

26/8-2009: Two big frogs in the small tank. I got tired of the frogs, and placed some net around the tanks to keep them out.

13/9-2009: Macropodus opercularis.

13/9-2009: Night temperature 12 °C. Day temperature 15-16 °C.

13/9-2009: Last picture. Today most of the fish and plants has been moved inside.
Only a pair of Macropodus opercularis is left in the big tank to test their temperature tolerance.