Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: low $, low tech aquaria
From: EBUDDINGTON@eagle.wesleyan.edu (ERIC R. BUDDINGTON)
Date: 8 Jan 93 18:18:32 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Wesleyan University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20In-Reply-To: jwinter@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu's message of Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:18:52 GMTLines: 57

In <C0IMJH.IIB@news.cso.uiuc.edu> jwinter@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:

> I invite other people who have successful "low tech" setups to respond.
> I don't wisch to offend people who use lots of equipment, only to encourage
> those with smaller budgets such as my own to try fishkeeping. 

	I have had a 30g freshwater tank for about 5 years, and 
it has been both freshwater and marine at different times.
	I started out in high school with freshwater. My setup
consisted of an undergravel filter powered by an air pump, an
inch of store-bought gravel, a hood and light, and some cheap
goldfish. I gradually added to the tank various things that I
collected from local streams and ponds - small trout, minnows,
crayfish, pond plants, rocks, etc. Some lived, some died (the
crayfish, for example, emigrated to the living room and died of
dehydration), and some ate the others. I used no chemicals in my
tank except when trying to treat illnesses (usually unsuccessfully).
	I later switched to saltwater, to take advantage of the
greater diversity of marine life. I returned the contents of my
tank to streams and ponds, cleaned the tank, and set it back up
exactly the same, except for Instant Ocean in the water and
crushed coral mixed in with the gravel. I drove down to the shore
(about an hour's drive), and collected what I could using a
dipnet, a 4'x6' seine, and buckets. This included baby crabs,
iridescent blue worms, clams, sticklebacks, other minnows, small
sea anemones, snails, seaweed, and something that I can only
guess was a small sponge. Everything went into the aquarium, and
lived happily, except for the sticlebacks, which died and were
eaten by the crab (apparently sticlebacks only eat the fry of
other fish). I soon found out that seawater is teeming with
larvae, as tiny animals kept showing up that I was _sure_ I
hadn't brought back (mostly sea anamones, I think).
	 When I headed off to college, I threw my marine plants
and animals back in the ocean, got new gravel, and set up in my
dorm room - basically the same setup I started with. I was unable
to catch much - only some plants, several tadpoles, and a
foot-long goldfish from a local park (it's amazing how big they
grow around here).
	This year, I have small (but growing) sunfish and other
minnows and some pond plants. I had a trout(?) minnow which died,
and an eel which tried to migrate to the Sargasso Sea, but only
got as far as the floor before she died. Snails have just
appeared, and although I've often heard that they cause problems,
I'm going to let them stay.
	My tank is non-sterile, somewhat algae-ridden at times,
largely chemical-free, and contains only native plants and
animals (native to CT, not to the tank :^). The only mantainance
I do is scraping the algae off the front and sides of the tank,
and feeding the fish occasionally, as they don't seem to have the
smarts to eat debris in the gravel (and there's plenty there!).
	I've spent about $100 total on this setup over its
lifetime, and I am very happy with the simplicity of the setup.

	I'm thinking of trying an unfiltered tank next year -
anyone have experience with that sort of thing?

-Eric
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria