Jase's 28l Long/Shallow - "Attrition"

This will be my second 'scape and my first Journal 😵

The tank is 8” wide, 9” tall and 24” long, float glass tank I had lying in the garage, which used to house a friend's Desert Hairy Scorpions

I have an idea in my head of how I want it to look but without influencing opinions, I am very open to suggestions as this is an awkward size

Equipment is none existant as yet but I have the facility to use CO2 but would prefer not to, again opinions/experiences welcome.

Filtration will probably end up being an external, maybe a Tetratec ex400 (i love my ex1200) if I can get my hands on one cheap enough, or at all, or possibly go back to the wicked ways of Fluval with the 105. The alternative would be a HOB filter, which I like the idea of but have no experience with. Internal is not an option I approve of anymore.

Lighting might be difficult to decide upon, although a 2ft luminaire would make sense, but again this would be new territory for someone who's only used PC and T8 tube lighting.

Heating. If possible, no heating, room temp would be great, otherwise it'll be small internal heater hidden behind the hardscape 😳 Obviously my preference would be external heater but I haven't got one for my 125l so can't favouritise with my newer project 😳

Hardscape, possibly some good ol' British driftwood or Redmoor root, depending on what I can find. A few small rocks wouldn't go amiss in the image in my head.

Flora. Planting-wise i'm thinking the obligatory M.pteropus and possibly a few small anubias, would like to try some type of grass, but again 🙄 I will be advised on this, to suit the setup Crypts are also a firm fave of mine along with Staurogyne but probably wont use the latter

Substrate is a big'un, I'm thinking Oli Knott's NS in the planted areas with some sort of dull orange/brown sand at one end, contrasting with the rocks and grass

Anyway....what I have come up with so far...

Re: Jase's 28l Long

Depth being front to back? I completely agree, could do with being atleast 12 if not 15inches front to back.

My first thought was Iwagumi as I suggested in Steven Chong's thread about shallow tanks viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6784

Iwagumi would be very much out of my comfort zone

Re: Jase's 28l Long

Themuleous said:

Great tank, I started out in the planted hobby with a 24x8x8" which was perfect as it didnt cost a fortune to plant!

Here's a link to my old journals

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=635&p=5021&hilit=nano#p5021

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?sho ... 80&hl=nano

I did find that the lighitng is key to such a small tank, despite what you might think it doesn't want to be too high 🙂

Sam

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Thanks for that link Sam, looks great with the additional substrate later in the Journal 8) Don't know if I could be doing with all that HC maintenence though Tempted to try it though, as like you said in the journal, small tank is cheap to re-scape at any point...

Re: Jase's 28l Long

hydrophyte said:

That tank has an interesting, non-traditional shape. I am intrigued to see how this develops.

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Thanks, should be a nice challenge regardless of whether I try something unusual

Re: Jase's 28l Long

zig said:

Nice little tank,I like unusual shaped tanks, nice little chip on it as well 😉 I saw a great tank earlier this summer which I was tempted to buy, it was 36"x12"x12", not particularily unusual but it was very long for its height, I could imagine doing aquascapes in it though. Interesting to see how you get on

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Thanks Peter, yes I'm a little disappointed there is a chip but hopefully I can cover it up with the filter gubbins 😀

The only worry I have with the lack of front-to-back depth is making the scape seem 2 dimensional...

Re: Jase's 28l Long

Had a little scribble over the weekend and came up with this. Some of the plants I haven't used before, i.e. grasses, marsilea, HC.

Provisional planting list:

Eleocharis parvula
Eleocharis acicularis
Microsorum pteropus 'narrow'
Cryptocoryne sp. possibly moehlmannii or becketti 'petchii'
Marsilea hirsuta or Hemianthes callitrichoides 'cuba'
Also something small that looks like Bolbitis...

In the pic I've put Vallis nana, that isn't going in

Re: Jase's 28l Long

Thanks Dan, any thoughts on a Bolbitis-looking small plant?

Re: Jase's 28l Long

I like the idea of it breaking the surface, perhaps putting it along the top piece of wood instead of the java fern would work well.

Going to be ordering the substrate some time this week, going for Oli Knott's NS for the planted areas, shouldn't need much I wouldn't have thought.

The stones are going to be the biggy, might have to venture to TGM for some Dragon Stone

Re: Jase's 28l Long

I have wood... 😀

Went to a mate's house last night as he has some driftwood collected from various UK beaches. Some nice bits, though most are too big but I managed to get 5 nice bits, three of which I will probably use unless something else catches my eye when (if) I go to TGM at the weekend.