Dimensions: 61x41x58 CO2: pressurised - 75 bpm Filtration: Bioflow 3.0 M - 500 l/u Lights: 2 x 24W T5 438mm HiLite- 3550 lumen - 9000 Kelvin Photo Period: 12.00 - 17.30 Fertilisation: EI Substrate: gravel black 1-2mm Hardscape: lava rock and 2 pieces driftwoord Flora: - Rotala sp green - Pogostemon erectus - Rotala rotundifolia - Staurogyne repens - Alternanthera reineckii mini - Ammania sp. bonsai - hottonia inflata - Anubias Nana mini - Microsorum pteropus Mini - Hemianthus Callitrichoides Fauna: no My first tank, ever... Well, here it is; my first journal and my first tank ever. Wanted to start with a preview...
Menky I have seen many so called experts (in their own lunch box) over the years who are no where your very high standard. Its a KIS to perfection extremely simple and very basic all put together like nature did it for you. Keith
The story off... Recently I had to stop by the neighbor for some pruned aquaplants I normaly use for my emered setups. To my surprise he had cleaned out his aquarium. And he said...you want to have it..? A Juwel Lido, 120 liters all complete with cabinet and all. Only it's for me a "difficult" tank due the size. 60B x 40D x 50H. In proportion quite high and a large internal filter. So it's a puzzle how to go decorate the hardscape. Like the experts say: keep it simple; in this stage of aquascaping I've just don't have experience enough to build up some spiderwood with aquatic moss etc. And once the hardscape is complete I have to think about the plant choice. But hat's a different story. It's a challenge to sort everything out. The first thing I've done is to get rid of the back decoration. There was an ugly weathered, discolored and damaged styrofoam thing inside. So with a lot of struggle I've removed mit. Took me hours to scratch the glue out... and it's still not entirely gone. But when the plant are growing in you'll probely won't see the back of the tank afterall. I've placed an black static foil behind the back of the tank so it willl give a nice contrast with the green and red background plants. Meaby I'll change the color to dark blue or optical white someday. Also some led background lights in near future. Don't know yet. . The internal filter I'll leave in place. For the next scape I'll take it out and replace it with an external canister, lily pipes and so on. Planning is to run a year with this scape. My goal is to gain experience, because I have never in my life had an aquarium ... The last few weeks have been busy buying stuff. I'm just shocked by the prices they charge. I wanted to have beautiful Japanese Seriyu stones. But they cost me a fortune... So I'll probably stick to lava rock instead. Hardware I'll buy directly from China; diffusers, CO2 fittings, pressure regulators, solenoid valves, water testing, etc. It saves me lots of money. Of course there's a risk but willin to take. A high tech aquascape is too much for me so I'm going for a junglescape. Is the 'easiest' version of aquascaping I'll guess : just a tank filled with plants ... Not entirely true of course, there's quite a lot preparation to it: I don't want any basic/ regulair plant. So I've tried to make a selection of plants that fit together with the same Ph / light / temperature and CO2 requirements. But that was nearly impossible and a huge job to find out. So I looked up some pretty planted tanks through various forums and figure out the plant names. Plants are most important at this time. And fish? Well, maybe a school tetras or something. Not yet. Only when the tank is running fine and all is set properly. Next step: the hardscape. I had bought some lava rock (too much of course) and 2 small pieces of 'driftwood', two bags of Dennerle quartz gravel and then created an layout ... I spent a few days with trying to put the right stone at the right place. The driftwood I've placed on top of each other, to create some height. This was my first attempt, so please don't be hard on me... When the hardscape was ready, the wife walked in and said: so, you've spend 2 days to put some stones and wood in there wright place; you'll plant the tank full with plants and after 3 months you'll see nothing left of your hardscape... I made a planting schedule, determined the amount of plants and searched for a online shop who could all these plants actually could deliver. The tank is 60 cm wide and basically there's one kind of plant per 10 cm. But, when you choose the plants there are always more beautiful. Eventually 10 different species and also floating plants ... This is to get the light intensity down slightly in the startup phase. There were advised me to plant the container generously. The plants accelerate the ripening process of the tank and rapidly provide a "stable" aquarium. And if the tank rapidly stable itself it also reduces the chance of algae. The plants were delivered in two days. Everything well packed and insulated. Including some heat packs. A few hours later it was all planted and the tank filled. Now came the space of the internal filter in handy: there I could dump my water The tank is now running for a few days and it all looks nice and fresh. Can not wait until everything is fully grown. I still have difficulty with the CO2 adjustment and measurement of the amount of CO2 in ppm. At first I've used the flipper which came with the CO2 package. Adjust the bubble rate untill the drop checkers were beautiful green. I've started with 30 bpm and came to a value of 19 mg per liter. (Ph7-Kh6) Only the determination of the Ph and Kh is hard. I use a drop test. And the color-reference chart of the Ph allows increments of 0.5. So 6.5 - 7.0 - 7.5 - 8.0 But a pH of 7.0 or 7.2-makes much difference in the reading of a CO2 card. So I'll need to find a more accurate chart. Meaby go for an electonic Ph meter. And now ... I'll have to be patience .. in order to trim the right shapes
Menky Get you wife to read our replies and she should be extremely pleased of your work now. KIS the original is KISS (Stupid) I changed it to KIS many years ago for Forum Aquascaping, then there is the other very old important design point "Less is More" and More is Less" I learnt these when doing my design courses too many years ago. Keith
