# It's not much, but I'm happy to have it



## castle (30 Oct 2018)

*Title: new start, dragging a lil of the past.*

*Dimensions: 30x30x30*

*CO2: no*

*Filtration: eheim liberty *

*Lights: arcadia stretch *

*Photo Period:* *few hours in the eve*

*Fertilisation: none*

*Substrate: gravel*

*Hardscape: random rocks*

*Flora: two anubias (diff types) and some buce.*

*Fauna: One badis badis, very young.*


I had to relocate and get away from the past, this tank remained running while I shut down all the others and I finally went and got it from my old place this weekend. Anubias leaves are damaged from air exposure (hadn't seen this tank in a couple of months) and that's about it. 

No big plans, just nice to have it in my room.


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## Mike Moran (14 Aug 2019)

It looks really great. Glad you managed to transport it safely to your new place. It’s a lovely mix of pebbles and gravel. Looks warm and friendly....bet you spend ages looking at it.


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## castle (4 Oct 2019)

I started a tank a few weeks ago, as in put some sticks in some water and then went on holiday. I got back a week ago, and planted some Sagittaria subulata and Limnophila sessiliflora, coupled with some frog bit. All tropical pots, all really healthy plants.

In the first photo below this is day one planting, but you can see the water is quite dirty - the wood had degraded quite a lot. Though I really liked the wood, it also covered too much of the substrate.





A week later (below), I completely re-scaped. I have a few worries, the substrate (soil) is around a 15cm square of 1.5cm deep with sand covering that, and going quite thin at the front. I think the substrate is too thin for long term planting, but hopefully it’s fine to create that bush I’m hoping for, for the next year or so. Wood isn't quite as impactful as before, but some of the wood was not great, sadly and I had to remove.





Got a snail problem, no idea how. I'm pretty happy with it though. I'll cut and replant the tops of Limnophila sessiliflora over the next few months, and we'll see what happens 



No fish, might get a small puffer, but probably not.


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## castle (4 Oct 2019)

Another angle


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## DeepMetropolis (5 Oct 2019)

That book...


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## castle (12 Jan 2020)

Not meant to be a journal, but we're getting there. 



 

Hoping the Limnophila heterophylla branches out, it is slowly. Updated the light too, previous lamp wasn't doing it. Probably going to replace all stems with crypts and replace the substrate later in the year, but wanting the moss to grow out a bit.

Got some pets now too.


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## Keith GH (13 Jan 2020)

Castle



castle said:


> replace the substrate later in the year,



That would be an excellent idea.  Instead of a full replacement remove all the substrate about 5cm back around the glass and top up with a 1-3mm natural river stones giving a good slope from the back RH corner.

Keith


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## castle (13 Jan 2020)

You're right!  I'd like to introduce a larger grain sized gravel purely as I think it's a little more low effort, having to vacuum the sand regularly isn't my idea of fun - perhaps a 10/20/20/50 split between gravel mixed gravel sizes from small to larger and sand, with the standard soil beneath it all. I also like that dirt can hide in the gravel, I think with no evidence it encourage small things to grow, and I really like seeing bugs in the aquarium. Prior to adding the puffers, I had thousands of tiny white bugs all over the wood, and I've seen the puffers eat them, which is nice/sad.  

I think, I will bank up the substrate on one corner and i'd ideally like to double the heigh of substrate across tank, as much as I wanted this thinner front sand, I'd love to have some deeper substrate there to introduce Marsilea hirsuta, kind of want that jungle look, but I went about it wrongly. Something for after summer, I don't fancy the upheaval of the aquarium as the puffers have only been in there a few days. 

Will post again once I've done that, once again, _not a journal_.


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## castle (10 Apr 2020)

Added some Rotala, about 2 months ago and it looks OK. I moved recently so it had a full water change and I got diatoms after that. Cleaned up now, and I will be given it 5ltr water changes daily going forward. I may cut the Rotala down soo, and let it re-grow.


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