Thanks for all the kind words, everyone!
stuworrall said:
nice one george, looks really cool. Couple of questions. Whats the fish? looks really knarly
Did you get any nasties from the collected plants or did you clean them somehow before you put them in the tank?
and wheres the tesco trolley?
Cheers, Stu!
The fish are three-spined sticklebacks -
Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus. I bought five for a tenner from a local garden centre. Great little fish and they bring back memories from my childhood, collecting them in nets in local streams.
The plants were purchased from an LFS. Again, I paid a tenner for all of these you see.
NeilW said:
Really really nice
. Curious as to how much light/CO2/ferts you are running in comparison with 'normal', more exotic, tropical plants?
Thanks, Neil!
This is relatively low-tech. 1 x 24w T5, non-CO2, no ferts. I relied on ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia and my hard NP-rich tap water to supply all of the nutrients.
rawr said:
I absoloute love this! I was so surprised when I saw it the other day flicking through PFK. You neve cease to amaze me how you can get any aquascape to look good with ease.
Thanks, Thomas!
I hope my work shows how aquascaping doesn't have to be difficult. I really enjoy producing the step-by-step features for PFK for this reason.
ceg4048 said:
Job well done mate. Nice execution and cool photos! 8)
Cheers,
Thanks, Clive!
chump54 said:
thats great George, haven't bought pfk for ages. which issue is/was it in? how much detail have you gone into in the mag?
Cheers
Chris
Thanks, Chris!
It's in the November issue which has just come out. I go into detail about how I set the tank up and the photos are better than on here (the full-tank shot is a double page spread (DPS)).
hydrophyte said:
That's wonderful George. I always wonder why aquascapers don't put together local biotopes like this more often. Do you know the species for that stickleback? We have a couple of different ones here in the north central US.
Thanks, hydrophyte!
I think local biotopes are vastly underrated and are something that can be easily replicated at minimal cost. It's a no-brainer really and I can't believe I've waited until now to do this!
Dave Spencer said:
Superb stuff, George! My gob is smacked. You certainly aren`t one to let the hobby stand still.
Dave.
Cheers, Dave.
I try my best. PFK has 'neglected' plants in recent months but that's changing now... Look out for a very exciting announcement in the future regarding aquascaping.
YzemaN said:
Really inspirational as always, George!
What are the water parameters? Did you do anything special to the tank or has it just been run with EI? I know in the winter a lot of the lakes and ponds in Northern Europe go through a temperature drop, would it be necessary to emulate that in our tanks or would the fish be fine in room temperature all year round?
Thanks, Yzeman!
The lake parameters were pH 6.8, GH 16, KH 6, I think. Lake temp. was 19C on the day I researched it. I talk about it in more detail in the PFK feature.
My water is pH 7.8, GH 15, KH 7, which is very similar to the stickleback supplier.
I didn't run EI in this. I haven't run 'traditional' EI for years now, relying more on daily dosing of off-the-shelf, usually Tropica, ADA or Easy Life. In this set-up I didn't dose the water at all and relied on good old Aqua Soil.
Long-term sticklebacks should be ok at room temperature as long as it doesn't go much above 20C.
Thanks again, all!