Aquarium Lighting

After a visit to my cousins house recently and hearing my Mother exclaim "Wow, you can really see the fish in his tank!" it made me think how my aquarium lights were lacking in brightness. Then again, I had been going for a faux blackwater style setup awhile back and have become a bit bored with that at the moment. So, I came across an interesting little post while surfing the net about some great cheap aquarium light bulbs at... Walmart of all places. I couldn't help but check out these bulbs at my local Walmart, and well... I'll let you be the bulb judge here (you may be just as shocked as I was!).

Current Aquarium Lighting.
Two of IKEA's G4 12V LED's (these bulbs do not last long!), possibly comparable to these...

Started off with this Aquarium Lighting.
Two, 25W Blue Incandescent Aquarium Bulbs...

Second choice to lighting my Aquarium in the past.
A Single Fluorescent Tube (light bulb came with that unit)...

My most recent light venture.
Two of Walmart's, 10W Aquarium Bulbs (these may be comparable to Aqueon's Colormax)...

Yes, I do realize that these photo's may look like I had went from a dirty looking aquarium to a clean aquarium but it's honestly just the difference that lighting can make.

Recent Aquarium Setup - Part 1

I decided to create a blackwater style aquarium however, it's not a true biotope and I think it looks nice for fall time which is really just around the corner. I put only my male guppies in this tank to separate them from my females and also because their colors looked nice with the foliage. I am considering buying a few tetra's to add to this setup (won't say which ones yet, it'll be a surprise!).

Click to Enlarge

To achieve this look was pretty cheap, I bought a 25lb bag of black gravel (Petco) however, I think half the bag would've been a decent amount of substrate for my 10gal as this looks a bit much for my personal preference. On the plus side, I want to get rid of the black and white gravel in my other 10gal, so when I get around to cleaning that tank then I'll probably remove half the substrate from my new tank into that one (helps prevent new tank syndrome as well).

I found a 5ft faux maple leaf garland and a faux oak bouquet at the Dollar Tree. I rinsed these as their was a small amount of dye that washed off from them. I then placed the maple garland at the bottom of the tank, poured my gravel on top and pulled up a few of the maple leaves out from the gravel. As a side note, if you cut the stem off from the leaf it does not float on top the water but rather sinks to the bottom. I then had some smooth black substrate stones (Petco) and placed a handful or two of those around the top of the gravel to help break up the overly gravel look it was giving off in the tank.

The piece of Mopani driftwood in my tank I have had for awhile now which I also got from the pet store. I had originally planned to find some dry branches to clean and put into the tank but haven't got around to that yet. I cut the stems off of my oak leaf bouquet, only leaving 2 stems attached to the original base, then I lightly pushed and arranged the stems into the gravel behind the Mopani.

I did buy a new aquarium heater which claims to heat up to 20 gallons, it's fully submersible and is made by Aqueon (I will do a review of this at some point). Once I get the temperature set properly in this tank I'll move it from the side of the tank to the back. I also bought a new filter cartridge for my 20gal Aqueon filter because I only had the medium sized cartridges and needed large ones for this model.

I cut open a brown paper Pollo bag which I had on hand and used it as my background, and I think it turned out better than I was expecting. However, I'm thinking of switching out the paper bag with a black trash bag. The black background will allow better viewing so that the filter intake tube and my new tank heater won't look as visible.

The green breeding grass (Petco) floating on top the water was just intended to be temporary to help the guppies feel more at ease since I took it out of my other tank setup. Also the lighting is from an aquarium hood (Petco) which I had previously as I haven't setup the other light fixture (IKEA) for this tank yet, once its changed the water won't look as bright white but more yellow in color.

That's it for my new setup, let me know your thoughts or comments.

Blackwater Aquarium - Get the Look

Blackwater aquariums are not your typical looking tank as they generally have dark tea colored water, low lighting and generally have a lack in plant life. Below you'll find a few simple ways I came up with to create an aquarium that looks like or is a blackwater biotope type of aquarium.

Lighting

In a blackwater aquarium it can often be a daunting task for live plants to survive in this type of environment as it usually has low light levels. Generally blackwater biotopes have soft water and plants possibly wouldn't thrive beneath the water. I'd recommend choosing bulbs that give off more yellow lighting in this type of aquarium and have a low wattage which will make the tank a bit more dim than bright. However, in a true blackwater biotope it is possible to use other types of lighting although I personally don't like white light blazing through this type of biotope. It is common for blackwater aquariums to be so dimly lit that it is often difficult to view the fish in the aquarium.

Plants

Due to the low light levels and low pH in a blackwater biotope most plants aren't going to thrive too well here. In my opinion you may be better off using fake plants if any at all (choose green plants that have a yellow or red tone given to them as these may look best). For a more natural approach use live or fake plants that sit/float near the surface of the water for the best success rate for live plants or the most natural looking blackwater aquarium.

Decor

The most typical decor found in a blackwater aquarium is often some type of wood and for good reason since it can help lower pH which is needed for true blackwater environments. The incorporation of stones/rocks/etc can be used as well. Blackwater environments will generally have a black background or one that is a bit burnish in color (think of deep orange and red colors that occur in autumn). The substrate may be covered in autumn colored leaves (real or fake) such as oak. Gravel substrate is generally black or a natural color although it's probably more common in a true blackwater environment to find natural colored sand or black colored soil. Keep in mind that a white substrate will probably appear more yellowish in a true blackwater type of environment and by using a black colored background it will help create more depth to the tank itself.

Water Quality

There are chemicals on the market which can help to lower the pH in an aquarium if your pH is not on the soft side (a pH lower than 7.0 is acidic and considered to be soft water) for a true blackwater environment. Blackwater in nature can be as low as a 3.0 pH although in an aquarium this may become a bit too unstable for brackish fish. There are also natural methods which can be used to help lower pH such as alder cones, bogwood, peat, almond leaves, etc. If your aquarium is not a true blackwater aquarium use older aquarium driftwood, low watt yellow lighting and some peat extracts which can help your water look more yellow in color without possibly altering it to the extremes of a pH below 7.0. Blackwater environments generally have slow moving water so you'll probably want to avoid using forceful powerhead filters.
Water Temperature
Upon doing some reaseach (although I am not totally certain how accurate this blackwater reading is) I found that an average blackwater temperature is possibly around 82.7°F but ranges from 76.3°F to 89°F.

Additional Tips

Keep in mind that the use of carbon can tend to remove certain chemicals from your water and remove the coloration from your blackwater biotope. Here's a little inspo link I found online to someone who created their own blackwater biotope.