Ten Gallon B

The "Tiki" Tank

This system began just beneath my first ten gallon--quite literally! As you can see to your right, my stand is equipped to hold two tanks. I bought it at a large pet franchise and I believe it's designed to be used in fish stores because the bottom stand is right at foot level.

That didn't stop me, however! This tank was originally designed to be a "shark" tank with five tiger barbs and a rainbow shark, hence the tiki face cave. But I saw an angelfish at the LFS (live fish store, one of the many aquarist acronyms that you'll soon get to know) and bought it. The angelfish is still with me, as is every single fish who ever resided in this "B" bottom tank, excluding a common pleco who simply wasted away and became a meal for ghost shrimps.

A quick aside. I've nicknamed the angelfish "the slut" because it is one of the most active and crazy fish during feeding time. Her big red cichlid eyes will follow me around the room as I walk around, and when I get close she'll dart back and forth madly in front of the glass to be fed. She's come a long way since being released from her store-bought bag. She hid in the tiki head for a week and refused to eat anything. Finally, and slowly, she came around, and like any good, er, well... slut, you can't keep her down!

The substrate is a much thinner level of natural colored gravel. You can almost compare my first timer mistakes in the photo above with my top tank to the newer bottom tank. Thinner gravel is always better unless you intend to keep live plants or have an undergravel filter. Reason for this is due to bacterial buildup... it's good and necessary to have some gravel for the nitrobacters (unless you have a biowheel when it's probably not necessary), but too much gravel allows too much food to rot and go to waste and foul the water, which leads to stress and ultimately disease.

The piece of driftwood is something I've had for more than a decade. It was originally an iguana's piece of wood, and then it was a decoration collecting dust for 5-7 years. Then I took it and cleaned it and put it in my land hermit crab tank. After that, it went into the kettle for nearly 2 days of boiling. Boiling waterlogs the wood and also kills any bacteria, parasites, insects, whatever, that may be in the wood. Boiling is an absolute must for wood because you never know what could be inside.

Driftwood may also tan your water if you haven't boiled it enough. Check out my article here if you'd like to learn more about tannins.

The tiki head was a ceramic cup belonging to Leah, my fiancee. We smashed out the bottom with a hammer and boom, it became a cave. The cup's lip was way too narrow and difficult to clean, so it's much better as a fish cave than a drinking cup.

The two plants are fake. I really like the red lily plant with the long floating leaves. In fact, I liked this plant so much it covers almost half the back of my 55 gallon tank.

I have a bubble wand buried in the gravel at the back. The curtain of bubbles looks great against the silver mirrored backdrop.

Filtration is a Penguin mini-biowheel, same as the tank above it.

The very first occupants of this tank were the angelfish, 2 bala sharks, and the doomed common pleco. At that point I had decided I would be seriously upgrading and could begin with some larger fish that would never do well in a ten gallon.

Following them came 4 baby kribensis cichlids. When these grow up, they become some of the most brilliantly and multicolored fish in the freshwater market. Unfortunately, they take a while to color and grow. They'll eventually pair off and I'll remove and trade back the unpaired two to the fish store. They're easy breeders and will actually "blow" their eggs to the top and sides of a cave. Cichlids make great parents and a cloud of tiny fry will actually follow the two parents around the tank.

The kribs are still in the tank and little has changed. On a whim, I bought a green spotted puffer, and that too shares the tank. Puffers are hostile fish and will tear apart most peaceful and even some semi-aggressive co-inhabitants. However, the puffer is the one who is bullied by the largest krib.

Traditional thought on the matter of many puffer species is that they need brackish water to thrive. I've looked into puffers a lot and have found some mixed info. I will post more about this in a later article or in the species index.

I have mixed feelings about this tank in its current state. Leah hates the kribs because they are colorless and mean, and I'm starting to get tired of them too. It's been months and months since I purchased them, and only two have gotten big, and none of them exhibit any real color yet. The puffer is the showpiece fish. It comes to the glass to beg for food, and the helicopter-like motions of its fins are really fun to watch, as are its eyes which move like a clockwork doll's.

I love the aquascaping with the wood and tiki, and that's what keeps me attached to its current setting. Kribs are hard to come by, at least here in Asheville, NC, and getting them for two dollars apiece when they were babies was a great deal.

If I had it to do over, I would have skimped on the hood and fluorescent light as well as the expensive Marineland filter and just made this tank a Q-tank. Right now this would be the easiest "traditional" tank to disassemble. I could make it a Q-tank, or a mini-reef system.

Of course, the tank being so close to the floor makes it only ideal for a Q-tank.