Dave's 35L first attempt - now with added shrimp

So this will be my first attempt at a planted tank. I'm hesitant to call it a scape as knowing my lack of artistic ability its more likely to end up just being a load of plants in a tank 🙂 but we'll see.

I have a spare tank which in the past has been my breeding / quarantine tank as and when required but now I have a new slightly bigger one so ended up with a spare tank doing nothing. Since I've always loved the look of planted tanks but never really had chance to try my hand I thought this would be an ideal time.

Think I've read just about every thread on this forum and many others and pretty much every article George has ever written on PFK etc I'm fairly sure I still don't have a clue tbh but I think I have the basics. Up until the basics of plant selection anyway.

Right now I have filtration, heating, lighting sorted. I'll be using easy carbo instead of CO2 as where the tank will be going there is no room at all for CO2 and I'm not a fan of investing heavily for me to fail massively would rather get abit of experience with simple scapes on a small scale with easy plants before going the whole hog in one of the bigger tanks.

Picture time 🙂 you'll have to excuse the quality the only camera I have is attached to my phone and we all know how brilliant they are......

Before emptying



All emptied and ready for cleaning up


As you can see I've got a big job ahead of me actually getting the tank clean enough to consider using. Because of its old purpose its not really been looked after that well 😳

I have a Eheim Aquaball 45 on order for filtration and just a cheap and chearful 50 watt heater. Its all internal as it has to be hooded to avoid a cat accident. Easy carbo and some all in one ferts are coming from one of the sponsors on here so thats all taken care of I believe.

Now I'm in the tough decision of which substrate to use. I've decided to go with osmocote for substrate additive even though it seems to get mixed reports but I had some already available so its cost nothing and with such a small tank/setup tearing down and redoing if it goes wrong won't be "that" big of a job.

For substrate at the moment I'm tending towards some Oliver Knott Nature Soil if I can find an online shop that sells it in the smaller granules rather than the larger ones. Any other suggestions are more than welcome

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

i did think about the cat litter route but tbh I jus don't like the look of it all grey and nasty etc (I actually have 2 cats anyway so have the litter already in 🙂 ) price isn't really an issue its more a case of there's too many to choose from and everyone says something different about everything 🙁

I have been looking for the akadama bonsai stuff but its like rockinghorse to find know of a decent online supplier with some actually instock ?

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

yeah perhaps i should have clarified no heavy investment as in several hundred quid in co2 injection 🙂

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

spyder in your tank which version of tesco cat litter is it becuase the one I buy for the cats is the grey and dusty one (tesco home make cat litter) reason I ask is tesco is about 300m away from where I live so if there's a different type I can pop and get that now and that just leaves me to work out what I'm going to do with regards to hardscape and planting.

The whole picking plants quite scares me tbh since as I understand it not all plants do well in liquid carbo tanks and prefer injected co2.

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

hrmp I need to do some shopping anyway so will pop to tesco's tonight and see what they've got in. any spare the cats can always use anyway I guess 🙂

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

While I haven't quite finished cleaning up this little tank yet (hopefully finished later tonight) I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of my other 2 tanks. Neither of them are scaped or really planted as they're mostly for fishies over plants, specifically pleco's lots and lots of pleco's.

First up the big tank contains bits of everything

FTS Large Tank by hinchles, on Flickr

FTS Large Tank by hinchles, on Flickr

Then the little breeding tank which you wouldn't actually believe it but is full of baby pleco's, glass cats a couple of guppies and a red tailed shark!

FTS Medium Tank by hinchles, on Flickr

Don't blame me for the gravel colour in that last one it was the missus's choice 🙂

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

OK little tank cleaned up and ready.

Also today the new heater arrived (its longer than I was hoping for but meh it'll fit)
New filter arrived today complete with a mini spray bar its so cute!
Easy Carbo and EI mix arrived too.

So now I'm all ready and just need to decide on plants / planting.

Tank went from this



To this


Cleaning finished by hinchles, on Flickr


Cleaned and Inplace by hinchles, on Flickr


Heater and new filter in and ready by hinchles, on Flickr

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

glad you like the other 2 I've just finished loading up the little one with substrate and a bit of hard scape.

I had a nice bit of wood lying around so i'm using that for the entire extent of the hardscape. The way I've positioned it has given me 3 distinct area's in the tank which I've built up to 3 different levels.

Back left is highest, back right is middle height running down to the front at a lower level and the front left is well down but raises slightly upto the wood.


Empty some litter in by hinchles, on Flickr


Hardscape log added by hinchles, on Flickr


basic levels before topping up by hinchles, on Flickr

Steaming as its just been boiled for 6 hours to leech most of the colour out (hopefully it won't leak into the tank again later)


filled in tiered and leveled by hinchles, on Flickr


Front shot tiered by hinchles, on Flickr


Front shot tiered (no flash) by hinchles, on Flickr

Now I need planting suggestions as I'm off to Ferrybridge aquatics tomorrow to go plant shopping.

I've got a couple of java ferns already which I'll put in the back right under where the filter will settle I think.
Then I'm thinking some crypts in the back left behind the wood and perhaps running infront.

I've got some willow moss (thanks basil on here for supplying) which will be tied to the wood along its high ridge.

I'm a little stuck for stuff in the middle to front right I'd like more leafy plants perhaps more crypts mixing some vareties around to add some colour? What else works as a mid to low front leaf ?
I'd also like some more background plants to go around the crypts in the back left and the java ferns in the back right wisteria perhaps?

In the front left on the low ground I'm thinking something to carpet but rather than something like HC I was thinking of something like hairgrass and just keeping it trimmed short would this work? are there any other suggestions? I'm not using pressurised CO2 though so need something that'll survive on easy carbo.

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

ok all planted out and flooded now.

Dosed up, lit up and waiting for water change tomorrow now.


Moss Tied on by hinchles, on Flickr


fully planted no top by hinchles, on Flickr


fully planted from top by hinchles, on Flickr


FTS flash on to light up properly by hinchles, on Flickr


FTS no flash by hinchles, on Flickr


Side by hinchles, on Flickr


Bubble Close up by hinchles, on Flickr

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt

well things seem to be going well no melt as of yet and no algae.
I've trimmed back the hairgrass so its only just above the substrate though there's no noticable growth on anything yet I put this down to it all being entirely new and the plants have to start getting their roots settled in.
due to the brilliant little eccoball's flow rate out of its little spray bar I've had to replant a couple of things as the cat little had moved but nothing major.

I've been doing daily water changes so far but i've started noticing the water is going cloudy / milky white after the lights have been on for an hour or so. at the moment i'm putting this down to the liquid carbo + EI dosing.
Any suggestions? is this to be expected? will it settle down?

Since I won't be stocking livestock for a couple of weeks due to me being away for the next 2 weekends so not having chance to get any would it be worth while doing a couple of water changes from the established tanks to keep the bacteria in the filter stocked with food to break down ?

Re: Dave's 35L first attempt


Shrimp by hinchles, on Flickr

Fts harlequins by hinchles, on Flickr

Shrimp closeup by hinchles, on Flickr

Plants close up by hinchles, on Flickr

added some harlequins and some shrimp today. removed a few plants that melted/i didn't like

hairgrass still isn't growing in but its not dying either there are new shoots just not very big / not alot. crypts are starting to shoot new leafs after a little bit of melt

the large leafed stems and the red/green stems (no idea what these are) seem to be growing nicely and will need a cut back in a couple of weeks at current rate.

its only a little 50watt one just turned out it was miles bigger than i was expecting when it arrived 🙁

unfortunately its higher than the tank is so has to go horizontal + the substrate is built up behind the log to the level of the log so its lower at the front than the back. the back substrate to water is probably only 5 inches if that where as at the front is a good 12

I'm hoping the leafy stems will grow to cover it all