Biotope aquarium

Have any of you tried a biotope aquarium? I am seeing more articles, as I try to aquaint myself with this new venue of marine aquariums, on this trend towards replicating a specifc environment.

Obviously more expensive and perhaps less glamorous, but certainly more unusual.

I haven't but seen plenty done, most common is Caribbean because livestock is easiest to come by.

What did you think of them? Did you think the challenges of trying recreate a specifc area/region were interesting enough visually?

I suppose most people would not realize most tanks are a mixture of animals that don't necessarily co-exist in the same regions.
I certainly didn't, and I still know nothing of the hobby but I am learning a little.

Good article about this in the last issue of Coral magazine.

Yes, I've been reading that magazine, in fact I just subscribed to it and ordered several back issues.

The article on foam insulation on the bottom of the tank rather than using sand was interesting.

Well honestly most of the ones I've seen weren't too impressive but there's been a couple really awesome ones too, someone on Reef Central has a beautiful lagoon style tank with seagrasses and puffers that I believe was a biotope, there's also been a couple amazing looking coldwater reefs but you pretty much have to collect your own everything and keeping the tank chilled is hard. The common Caribbean is not as impressive IMO because you can't collect stony corals from there so it's mostly zoas, gorgs and ricordia and the fish from that area are pretty common in the hobby. It is kinda neat when people add all the little inverts or strange fish/corals that you don't normally see. But for most people their idea of a reef tank is a mish mash of bright colored fish and corals that looks nice but really wouldn't ever be found like that in the ocean. I'll dig up a couple of my favorites and post them later when I have more time.

Forgot that RC's search function is down, took me a while to find any of the tank I like.

Here's the lagoon puffer tank, I like this one because so few people use macro algea in their tanks
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=c61dc90793f1e8f167143057b3fbf8a0&postid=11819308


A thread on coldwater reefs, about the middle of the 1st page has pics of Steve Weast's tanks which are stunning
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=890751

Couldn't find a decent Caribbean one though. I know there's someone on RC that keep only fish from a certain area but I don't remember who.

Thanks for the links. Beautiful tanks, especially the lagoon puffer tank.

Are marine plants difficult to maintain?

Some more..

Non photo reef, way better than my little nano one
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=170768

Good info on non-photo stuff, this poster has kept some uncommon species

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=162688

Weird one
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=153957

Very nice planted tank
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1660630

Well now I know what way I want to go when I start my own tank. Thanks for the great threads. Some wonderful information, I really like the idea of the biotope aquarium. Lots to think about. And more to read.

Here is an web page too not sure if you have seen this one. I have no Idea what these are but..
http://www.hawaiian-reef.com/