Tonina Style planted aquariums is a new style of aquatic gardening which we have been studying for a little while now. The concept of “Tonina Style” is sort of a “Super Dutch” approach to growing certain aquatic plants, especially the Eriocaulon, Tonina and Syngonanthus species which are collectively known as Star Plants or Hoshi-kusa (Japanese for “star plant”). The video above displays an ideal Tonina Style freshwater aquarium using many plants with fine leaves: You’ll find very few plants that have otherwise “normal” leaves such as Ludwigia, Hygrophyla or Rotala, these are mostly absent. Tonina style and star plants can grow under a range of conditions but they truly look their best when cultured under stong light and CO2, good water flow, regular dosing and especially soft water with low general and carbonate hardnesses. Aquascaperz will be keeping Tonina Style planted tanks as a major component of our coverage of the planted aquarium community, continue reading to learn more about the aquarium above.
So if you hadn’t seen these yet on the USA ADA site or in AquaJournal we highly suggest you take a look, or if you had maybe take a closer one and consider a glass (yes we said glass) cabinet for you next aquarium stand. As always Amano’s team at NAG are producing new and innovative products that frankly, sometimes just blow our minds. With all the copy cat ADA companies on the market we think they are going to have a tough time mimicking this original. Also we hear that these may be available some time soon from www.ADGshop.com so give them an email if your itching for a stand that will probably look better then your current aquarium. Check out the detailed images of the available sizes (Mini S, Mini M and 60cm) after the page break. Read the rest of this entry »
Giesemann has launched their IQ Nano aquarium to the masses over in Europe. The Giesemann IQ Nano Aquarium is your typical aquarium size coming in at 400 x 400 x 400mm (15.74″ x 15.74″ x 15.74″) and holding roughly about 17 gallons of salt or fresh water. The base price is €999 ($1401) and will get you the aquarium, a stand available in 3 different color schemes, connections for a sump system (but let’s remember you don’t get the sump with the base package) and a 4 x 8 watt T5 light. You could of course upgrade to a marine package that includes a Deltec MCE300 for the included sump, a feed pump and sump connectors. That marine package will run an extra €369 ($517). Ouch. That’s not all. You can upgrade the lighting system with their “Light Package”. The lighting package upgrades the included 4×8 watt T5 up to a 70 watt metal halide with 2 x8 watt T5s. We aren’t sure why Giesemann decided to put a Metal Halide over only 17 gallons of water, that is just asking for the water to boil. That’s way to much heat and in our opinion they should have stuck with LEDs.
Here’s a look at a fantastic emersed culture riparium featuring some beautiful Cryptocoryne specimens. Ripariums are a growing branch of the planted aquarium hobby that we’ll be following closely here at Aquascaperz in which aquatic/marginal plants are kept in an aquarium with circulating water that covers just their roots and the substrate in which they are planted, while their stems, leaves, and flowers are allowed to grow in an emersed state requiring relatively minimal lighting. They provide nearly perfect conditions for emersed culture of Cryptocoryne spp. and other aquatic plants and the circulating water supply also allows for the addition of fish and diverse aquatic life. As you can see in the video, these Crypts and various other species are in absolutely spectacular condition and display extremely robust, lustrous emersed foliage and inflorescences. Thanks go to Simon Check (aka Supasi at www.supasi.wordpress.com, www.fishkeepers.co.nz) for the incredible video of his setup.
While Fluval isn’t about to rest and sit on its laurels, they aren’t a stranger to releasing new products with the impending release of their new G series filter. However, you might have forgotten about the Fluval Edge Aquarium that was released a few months ago that has started to drop to local fish stores in the United States. The aquarium kit can either be used for freshwater or saltwater and although the vast majority of these new aquariums would be used for freshwater there isn’t any reason to think that you can’t do saltwater either. These retail for around $150 and only seem to be available at local fish stores at the moment as we haven’t found them to be at any online retailer.
We don’t pay much attention to new strains of the common guppy but we very excited about being simultaneously introduced to 4 new strains of a different guppy species, Micropoeacilia parae. German freshwater fish specialist Aquarium Glaser recently received a bacth of M. parae from an Asian breeder who has developed the four new color strains of this species which has been considered challenging to sustain in captivity over the long term. Three of the strains are color variations of a dark edged, horizoantally banded pattern on the flank which comes in blue, yellow and red/orange. The fourth strain has a dark spot on the caudal peduncle and a series of dark vertical stripes with a reddish background color. Like the endlers and the pictas before it, females of M. parae are mostly bland in color. No word on these fish hitting US shores yet but we’ll be keeping our otoliths close to the ground in case we are within a fedex shot of getting some Micropoecilia parae ourselves. Do yourself a favor and follow the break for large detailed images of all four strains.
They are not from Romania, they don’t suck blood from your neck or turn to stone in daylight, but they do seem to be just as rare as vampires. Only coming from one remote area in Northern Burma between Mogaung and Tanai you’re not likely to see these fish often. Although Aquascaperz has spotted some in Malaysian and Southern Californian fish markets, so that might mean we are about to see more of this fish in the near future. Sharing some similarities to the Count, these little fish are packing a nice set of fangs but are lacking the ability to spawn bat wings and live like an immortal, we still think Ichthyologist Dr Ralf Britz got it right when naming them. Also a close relative to its cousin the Zebra Danio (Brachydanio rerio), but its body is 44 bones shy and mostly made up of cartilage. With the Dracula Danio being only a little larger than a half inch fully grown I think we can all sleep soundly despite its scary name.
Incase you missed it Aquatic Plant Central has announced their first annual Tank of the Year Aquascaping contest 2010, inspired by their ever popular Tank of the Month feature. This is a great opportunity to hone your aquascaping skills, share them with the APC community and have them critiqued by an expert panel of judges.
Please click on the image to get more in depth information on how to enter and the rules.
Tonina Style planted aquariums is a new style of aquatic gardening which we have been studying for a little while now. The concept of “Tonina Style” is sort of a “Super Dutch” approach to growing certain aquatic plants, especially the Eriocaulon, Tonina and Syngonanthus species which are collectively known as Star Plants or Hoshi-kusa (Japanese for “star plant”). The video above displays an ideal Tonina Style freshwater aquarium using many plants with fine leaves: You’ll find very few plants that have otherwise “normal” leaves such as Ludwigia, Hygrophyla or Rotala, these are mostly absent. Tonina style and star plants can grow under a range of conditions but they truly look their best when cultured under stong light and CO2, good water flow, regular dosing and especially soft water with low general and carbonate hardnesses. Aquascaperz will be keeping Tonina Style planted tanks as a major component of our coverage of the planted aquarium community, continue reading to learn more about the aquarium above.
So if you hadn’t seen these yet on the USA ADA site or in AquaJournal we highly suggest you take a look, or if you had maybe take a closer one and consider a glass (yes we said glass) cabinet for you next aquarium stand. As always Amano’s team at NAG are producing new and innovative products that frankly, sometimes just blow our minds. With all the copy cat ADA companies on the market we think they are going to have a tough time mimicking this original. Also we hear that these may be available some time soon from www.ADGshop.com so give them an email if your itching for a stand that will probably look better then your current aquarium. Check out the detailed images of the available sizes (Mini S, Mini M and 60cm) after the page break. Read the rest of this entry »
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