chickennublet
Member
Hello everyone.
I recently bought a used acrylic tank 45 by 30 by 30cm in dimension. It's made by a Japanese brand called GEX, not sure if anyone has heard of it before. I chose acrylic because I intended to use this as a tank to quarantine new fish and acrylic is a lot lighter than glass so it can be put away easily but when one has a new tank one cannot help but want to plant it. @dw1305 mentioned having a permanent planted tank and using that for quarantine so I did take some inspiration from that too.
It is currently housing one Corydoras CW51. It was originally in a bare bottom unlit tank. Recently put some sand in there. I also bought a light so that I can see him better. He seemed quite unwell a while ago but seems to be fine now as he able to keep food down and is showing normal colouration instead of just being really dark. His barbels have grown back too. I will leave him in there for now and give him small amounts of food daily until I buy some plants for this tank.
Will be using sand as a substrate but for this tank will try keeping plants in containers with aquasoil in them because I think they will grow better than in a pure sand substrate. I don't intend to use CO2 for this tank so my plant choice will be limited. Other than the ubiquitous Anubias sp, I will want to try growing easy plants that I've not grown before like Echinodorus and Aponogeton species. Filtration will be a BioMaster 350 which is currently unused. I think the flow might be rather strong for a tank this small, but I will try to dampen it by planting the big, broad leaved plants in the flow. Lighting is a Chihiros WRGB2 Slim 30cm. I definitely don't need such a strong light, but I like that it's programmable. Also I was worried that the brackets on a cheaper light might not fit on this tank because of the bracing. I tried putting my other WRGB2 Slim on it before I bought a second one and it fit like a charm. I bought the 30cm version because I have this tank next to my existing 30cm cube and I don't have a lot of space on this table so the view from the front will be from the 30cm part rather than the 45cm part. I do think it would be easier to scape a long tank rather than a cube, but aesthetics won't be that important for me for this tank. It's just something I want to enjoy.
Because I won't be using CO2, the lighting will be very dim. I expect plant growth to be very slow so I won't be aquasoil which are very rich in nutrients like ADA or Tropica. There is a Japanese brand of aquasoil called Jun Platinum that is widely available in Singapore and I will be using that instead.
I probably won't scape it in one session because I don't want to buy all the material for it at once and I don't think I will have the time to go shopping for it anyway. My 90cm and 30cm evolved over time and were not scaped in one sitting either and honestly are less of a scape and more of just a mass of plants. So I will probably do the same thing and plant and scape it over time. Still undecided on what fish to keep in there as I do want some fish to live in this tank permanently eventually.
I will leave this tank alone for now but will need to buy the following things soon:
1. Stainless steel pipes for the filter
2. Pots for the plants (currently undecided on whether to get glass containers or terracotta)
3. Aquasoil
4. Plants
5. Hardscape
I will be moving CW51 out of there before the pots and aquasoil go in because I don't want any potential ammonia leaching from the aquasoil affecting him. So I will probably get the pots, soil and plants closer to the end of June and start planting then. I'm looking forward to it.
Just a couple of pictures, although there's not much to see:
20240609_160604 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr
The sole inhabitant looking a lot better than before
20240609_162648 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr
I recently bought a used acrylic tank 45 by 30 by 30cm in dimension. It's made by a Japanese brand called GEX, not sure if anyone has heard of it before. I chose acrylic because I intended to use this as a tank to quarantine new fish and acrylic is a lot lighter than glass so it can be put away easily but when one has a new tank one cannot help but want to plant it. @dw1305 mentioned having a permanent planted tank and using that for quarantine so I did take some inspiration from that too.
It is currently housing one Corydoras CW51. It was originally in a bare bottom unlit tank. Recently put some sand in there. I also bought a light so that I can see him better. He seemed quite unwell a while ago but seems to be fine now as he able to keep food down and is showing normal colouration instead of just being really dark. His barbels have grown back too. I will leave him in there for now and give him small amounts of food daily until I buy some plants for this tank.
Will be using sand as a substrate but for this tank will try keeping plants in containers with aquasoil in them because I think they will grow better than in a pure sand substrate. I don't intend to use CO2 for this tank so my plant choice will be limited. Other than the ubiquitous Anubias sp, I will want to try growing easy plants that I've not grown before like Echinodorus and Aponogeton species. Filtration will be a BioMaster 350 which is currently unused. I think the flow might be rather strong for a tank this small, but I will try to dampen it by planting the big, broad leaved plants in the flow. Lighting is a Chihiros WRGB2 Slim 30cm. I definitely don't need such a strong light, but I like that it's programmable. Also I was worried that the brackets on a cheaper light might not fit on this tank because of the bracing. I tried putting my other WRGB2 Slim on it before I bought a second one and it fit like a charm. I bought the 30cm version because I have this tank next to my existing 30cm cube and I don't have a lot of space on this table so the view from the front will be from the 30cm part rather than the 45cm part. I do think it would be easier to scape a long tank rather than a cube, but aesthetics won't be that important for me for this tank. It's just something I want to enjoy.
Because I won't be using CO2, the lighting will be very dim. I expect plant growth to be very slow so I won't be aquasoil which are very rich in nutrients like ADA or Tropica. There is a Japanese brand of aquasoil called Jun Platinum that is widely available in Singapore and I will be using that instead.
I probably won't scape it in one session because I don't want to buy all the material for it at once and I don't think I will have the time to go shopping for it anyway. My 90cm and 30cm evolved over time and were not scaped in one sitting either and honestly are less of a scape and more of just a mass of plants. So I will probably do the same thing and plant and scape it over time. Still undecided on what fish to keep in there as I do want some fish to live in this tank permanently eventually.
I will leave this tank alone for now but will need to buy the following things soon:
1. Stainless steel pipes for the filter
2. Pots for the plants (currently undecided on whether to get glass containers or terracotta)
3. Aquasoil
4. Plants
5. Hardscape
I will be moving CW51 out of there before the pots and aquasoil go in because I don't want any potential ammonia leaching from the aquasoil affecting him. So I will probably get the pots, soil and plants closer to the end of June and start planting then. I'm looking forward to it.
Just a couple of pictures, although there's not much to see:
The sole inhabitant looking a lot better than before
