Hello all. I'm Fred and totally new to the hobby of planted tanks. I had a few aquariums in the past with predators but I stumbled upon "aquascaping" a few months ago and decided to give it a try. Gardening has always been a thing with my family, I can still remember how my grandfather spent hours under the sun pruning his beloved plants. I grew up getting bored of seeing my father sitting on the floor with wires trying to tweak his bonsai plants. I tried to swim against the current by keeping fish as a hobby but resistance was futile. Anyway, I'm here to learn, to make mistakes (not too many hopefully) and with any luck, contribute to the forum. And thanks Keith for inviting me to the forum Cheers Fred
Here are some pictures to show you guys how my lone tank has evolved in the past six to seven months. Surely from the pictures you'll see what I mean when I say "I'm here to make mistakes". View attachment 3009 Please excuse the -phone camera- quality pic. I didn't upload these pics out of confidence, but to show you guys how I started and hopefully from here your inputs and guidance will help me to improve. Cheers Fred
Fred A big welcome to GBG. The only thing wrong about this tank is nothing a very big clean up would not fix. As I have explained to you previously its just that substrate and area. The brown rocky substrate you have on the other tank would be perfect for this tank. This is a very rough colour out look you can achieve very easily a few rocks scattered around and a few low grassy plants, then at the back a few tall grassy/nice looking plants to give that back corner extra height. Do you think this will work out for that tank? Have you had a look at the WK posts? Keith
Hi Keith, I actually loved the tank more when it had a moss carpet (1st pic), but I ran into some problems with health and couldn't maintain it very well. The Carpet got ruined by algae . Tore down the set up and built the 2nd set up (2nd pic). Definitely look better with darker gravel plus some grassy plants. About grassy plants, I really like the look of hairgrass (eleocharis acicularis), but I read that it needs an ample supply of CO2. Since this is a very low tech set up, will it work? Sagitaria subulata seems more manageable but not sure if it fits the whole set up dimension wise. Maybe echinodorus tenellus? Any ideas Keith? Yes I've read some of those dangerously poisonous WK posts. POISONOUS!!! Before reading them I was bent on setting up an Iwagumi tank with pressurized CO2. Now it seems like I want to try out WK first and learn a few things on growing plants and hardscaping. Fred
Fred Yes you are posting in Introductions I suggest you now start a new topic in here, Aquarium Plants https://glassboxgardeners.com/forums/aquarium-plants.15/ Keith
