# Biotope:Amazon. Lighting 1/2 the tank?



## sayn3ver (Sep 1, 2006)

Well, i am driven now do do all the research i can as i save and plan.

I am looking to step up to a 125g(roughly). 6ft long.

I am looking to create an amazon basin, rainy season flooded biotope for eventually a small group of south american puffers and a smallish school of oto catfish.

My question is, more like i am hoping to see if anyone has a picture of or has done it, is screw with the lighting. In the amazon, the river, especially smaller segments, black water areas, flooded areas, have mixed lighting.

I want to create a darker, murkier feeling, while having patches of intense light(or 3/4 or 1/2 or 1/4 of the tank) depending. Is this reasonable? Everyone has seen pictures of the coffee colored water slithering through the jungle, or overgrown river banks.

My goal is to use maybe 3 plant speices if possible...low light/low tech tank. I am looking at brazilian pennywort, and hopefully there is a moss from the amazon region. for the third, it would need to be someting thick, large, and would grow in low light, and i do not have any experience with amazon swords.

Am i crazy?


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## KarenL (Apr 1, 2005)

I have an augustifolia sword which has grown well, though not fast, in a fairly low light tank. My tank is a 29 gallon, 18 inch tall tank, with 2 23 watt cold flourescent spiral mounted horizontally over it. I also have an osiris sword, which demanded that I upgrade my light. For that, I just spot lit it, with a flourescent tube laid on the tank stand, by the end of the tank with the sword.

You could probably do it using a custom canopy, with one tube and a couple of vertical sockets for spiral flourescents.

I think it sounds neat, and it is very similar to something I would like to do someday,when I have the time to research it thoroughly. Good luck!


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## ox777 (Mar 20, 2006)

hmm, I like this idea a lot.

I know you're trying to keep things simple and inexpensive, but if you did eventually light the whole tank, you could get some surface plants that block alot of it, giving you that filtered light with dark shadows.


On the otherhand, I have a friend who has a half lit tank. I don't have any pictures of it, and it's a Lake Malawi African cichlid tank, but he's able to grow some plants.

I myself am planning a half lit tanganyikan tank. All I want is a thick column of vals on side, the other side is mainly rocks. While I have no experience with the concept, I think it will work well. I think of it almost as two tanks, or a tank and sump system, all integrated in one box. Even though there will be no actual dividers, the parts that don't have plants could harbor more aquatic life that would provide c02 and other nutrients.


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## wicked1 (Aug 2, 2006)

I have a 210 setup w/ lights and plants on one 1/2 and just a dim light and driftwood and caves and such in the 2nd half. 
The lighted 1/2 has a 175 watt halide and 65 watt CF 
The dim 1/2 has dim 10 year old 18'' normal output aquarium bulb. It just goes on in the evenings.
the tank layout goes.. [...dim....CF..Halide.]

the fish love it (all new world cichlids)


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## swannee (May 22, 2005)

This might help a little, or not :icon_roll | Welcome To...


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

There's a lot of info here about certain biotopes: Biotope Aquariums

Check out the Country Data Base there.


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## seastar0328 (Apr 3, 2004)

I have a biotope for my a. cacs. If you need some plant recommendations which are native to the amazon, these are what I have in my tank and I have had success with growing them at lower light levels, though growth is slower and not as robust, it's still beautiful. 

Amazon swords, peruvian ludwiga, brazilian pennywort, jungle vals, and lots of cabomba.


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## sayn3ver (Sep 1, 2006)

swannee said:


> This might help a little, or not :icon_roll | Welcome To...


thanks for the link, although the eye rolls werent really necessary. :icon_roll 

I have never been to that site, althought i am registered on almost every other aquarium related website that i've come across. 

And really, i was just curious to see if anyone else has only lit 1/2 tank, etc...since the majority on here use light outputs equivalent of our own sun.:hihi:


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## MACody (Feb 12, 2004)

sayn3ver said:


> Well, i am driven now do do all the research i can as i save and plan.
> 
> I am looking to step up to a 125g(roughly). 6ft long.
> 
> ...


I am very interested on how that project is turning out. I just move the lights to one side on my 180 and all the driftwood to the darkness to steal your thought. I love it.


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## whitepine (Apr 13, 2004)

I have a river tank that has more light over one half of the tank(whole tank is lite)... where most of the plants are. I used cheap florescent lights from hd. Works pretty good. Most of the plants are lower light. here's a link for the tank.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8819

One set of lights are being overdriven and only cover half of the tank. I will try and get you a picture of the lights. 

Cheers, Whitepine


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

Here's a similar idea.......

Here's more Info on it:

More Info......




.


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## MACody (Feb 12, 2004)

whitepine said:


> I have a river tank that has more light over one half of the tank(whole tank is lite)... where most of the plants are. I used cheap florescent lights from hd. Works pretty good. Most of the plants are lower light. here's a link for the tank.
> 
> Planet Catfish Forums - View topic - River tank
> 
> ...


Thanks for showing me that tank man. I currently have west african river fish with a couple of rainbow interlopers that will be removed if I can ever catch them without harming them.


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## sayn3ver (Sep 1, 2006)

well, i have somewhat shifted gears but may be shifting again.

I copped out on the large tank. I just couldnt afford it as a college student. I did manage however, to score a 75g off of my boss for college budget cheap(free 20g long for free aswell).

I was planning on going high light, pressurized c02, yadda yadda...but i just did quite a bit of reading over at barrreport.com about the DW natural tanks and how with minimal weekly dosing, can achieve quite the tank without c02.

Non CO2 tanks

This has spiked my interest, as i'd like to be able to grow a rareity of plants, well, with as little algae as possible. Lower light is also nice on the electric bill. My only concern is with water quality in respect to the fish i want to keep(the south american puffers). Pufferfish require really clean water parameters(more so than other scaled fish, not saying that other fish do not require good water parameters, but the scaless puffers are more sensitive).

But without weekly water changes(as recommended by puffer keepers) i am afraid the amount of dissolved solids build up in the water would become too muchm considering the messy nature of these predators.


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