This was my modular layout 55G in its last incarnation. Those of you who've seen my journal about not mucking about anymore will know that there's nothing planted directly onto the substrate in my tank. Everything's either in plastic containers or attached to driftwood. Because of the upcoming move, I didn't bother concealing the most recent additions and played around with different dry salt ratios without any care about algae.
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The creation of The Three kingdoms
- Thread starter Progen
- Start date
This was my modular layout 55G in its last incarnation. Those of you who've seen my journal about not mucking about anymore will know that there's nothing planted directly onto the substrate in my tank. Everything's either in plastic containers or attached to driftwood. Because of the upcoming move, I didn't bother concealing the most recent additions and played around with different dry salt ratios without any care about algae.
Because of the recent heatwave, the moving of the plants were done at night. These two trays contained mainly the Java ferns and anubiases.
Inside this pail was the cup of blyxa which had recovered from my earlier mistakes and grown really bushy. The stem on top is a broken off bit of hellanthium.
And this was the hellanthium which had also become a monster sending out runners which had attached themselves to driftwood and substrate. All of these were planted in a rectangular plastic foodbox.
This was a bit difficult because the jungle vals had grown at least 25 inches so I needed a tall bucket. Can't see the cups but there's a Starbucks coffee cup and another plastic one containing them.
After two trips, they're all in the pool. Jungle vals were too tall and so had to stay in the bucket. No filter yet but the powerhead was working hard.
After 2 months of being stuck into the gravel, the red grass I plucked from the previous place is still doing alright submersed.
They sure looked a lot better before their torture.
The heat was really bad. I was perspiring and yet could feel that the water was warm so estimated would have been low 30s (Celsius). Amanos jumped out at the old and new place. The clip-on fan helped to bring water temperature down by about 2°C but because of all the plants blocking the water flow, only 2/3 of the pool water was cooled but that's good enough.
Cats came along. They're family.
ps. Running a CM ROM on the phone and the camera app couldn't capture the highlights in that driftwood arrangement.
This is why I can't buy the latest and greatest in equipment for my tanks because I take in sick and wounded stray animals regularly. Each month, their expenses costs more than a new Fluval FX6 and that's already pretty low.
ps. The 7 dogs were outside.
Mannic05
Member
Very interesting project, those plants looked really healty.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-T530 met Tapatalk
Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-T530 met Tapatalk
Mannic05
Member
Where do you live?
Verstuurd vanaf mijn Moto G (4) met Tapatalk
Verstuurd vanaf mijn Moto G (4) met Tapatalk
Liked the idea of the children's paddling pool for housing the plants temporarily!
Good thinking
Good thinking
It's been a while since I've updated this journal but I have been taking and keeping photos of the work. Nothing really established yet and the original idea of 3 tanks surrounding 3 sides of my bed didn't take off due to the location of the windows in the room and so all 3 are side by side, raised on plastic pallets. It's a rental so there'll be more ambitious projects ahead when I get my own place but in the meantime, I'll keep practicing and learning.
Here's how the tanks are currently. They're all 'standard' 48" x 18" x 18"s so that's a total of over 600 litres of water there. They're not the nicest things in the world but at around USD30 for a new tank, who's complaining. And the pallets were in almost new condition BUT free. The space behind the tanks will allow me to keep filters and equipment.
One in the middle is a crypt dominated tank and I'm happy to say that none of the crypts have melted except for the wendtii brown from a TC cup.
Left is one of those 'usual' rocks, hairgrass and HC kind of scapes although it has a slight twist to it. Will go into detail another time if it takes off.
On the right, I'm planning a creepy forest or tree roots kind of scape with a thin layer of river gravel substrate. Have 20kg of gravel standing by but need more wood to really get creepy.
And here's a distant peek at the left tank on its second day. It's a dry start but I read that folks in this part of the world have had great success without shrink wrapping the top so since I'm home most of the time and can mist every few hours, that's what I'm doing.