JohnCooke
Member
This is an account of setting up a lowish tech planted aquarium, starting in late October 2023. I’m writing this with inexperienced or new aquarists in mind, explaining my choices, so as to help others make up their minds about the various paths they could take. I’m no plant expert, but this may help – learn from my mistakes! In fairness, I have had one or two successfully planted tanks, but that was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In those days, the aquatic plants being offered were mostly bullet-proof ones like giant Vallis, and you would have had to have had a permanently dry tank to fail with that.
The aim of this tank: The tank is in a prime position in front of the chimney breast in our front room. My aim is thus to have an attractively planted tank that delights the eye, but doesn’t need the immense attention that can sometime flow from having CO2 injection. I also want it to suit small South American fish; mainly tetras and corydoras catfish. No non-South American fish will be allowed! [Yes, this is a very subjective approach, but I can never shake off feelings of unease when I see SE Asian and Amazonian fish in the same tank. Has someone been to a piscatorial jumble sale, I wonder? Illogically, I don’t have the same feelings about plants, perhaps because I struggle to remember their geographical origin.]
Filtration: Although it’s low tech, there’s a canister filter; an Oase BioMaster Thermo 600, but there’s to be no CO2 injected.
The thinking behind such a large filter is that I will be heavily stocking fish, albeit small ones. In addition, the flow will counter-balance the tangled wood assemblies that I’ll be using. In any case, the filter’s flow rate will inevitably decline as it starts to collect detritus. A large volume filter like this one does mean less major cleans, thus lowering the workload.
There is a prefilter to clean, probably every week, but it’s cleverly designed to be easily done. You don’t have to take the whole canister filter to the sink [preferably when the Other Half is out of the house], just the prefilter tube itself. You’ll see useful accounts of the Oase Biomaster filters on the internet, so I won’t go into details, but my model means there’s no heater in the tank.
If you’re reading this, and you’re very new to fishkeeping, then let me reassure you that you can spend less than I did on the [relatively expensive] Oase, and still get a good filter. There’s now an embarrassment of riches out there. When you do make your choice, however, think carefully about how easy it is to keep the filter clean. In my case, the easier it is, the more often I’ll do it.
Hardscape: There’s two spider roots [Redmoor wood], and some bits of very old bogwood I’ve had lurking about since at least the 1980s. One of the spider roots is up on an assembly of red lava rocks. I prefer the look of Dragon Stone, but when I picked it up at a shop I thought no – this weighs too much for my peace of mind. Whereas, the lightness of red lava rock reminded me of live coral rock, which I’ve been used to for many years, and which can be easily drilled.
The substrate is Aquael’s Advanced Soil Plants. It’s sold by Aquael, but is the H.E.L.P brand, made in Japan, as far as I can see. I’ve used about 5-6 litres of it, kept in about 18 fine mesh bags.
This substrate is covered by about 20 kilos of Unipac Aquarium Silica Sand. It has a nominal particle size of about 1mm. I like the natural look of this [sandy-coloured!] sand, and this is a friendly surface for the Corydoras catfish I’m counting on keeping. I appreciate that there’s an argument for a dark substrate to show off the colours of the fish, but, again, my subjective view when I see such tanks is to feel that someone wants to remind themselves of what it’s like to live down a coal mine. [Only joking!]
The Aquael tank itself: It’s difficult to see this white Aquael 240 litre Opti-set aquarium in the flesh, and I had to cross my fingers that the few pictures and videos I saw did it justice. It’s made in Poland, a country known for its strong fishkeeping tradition, and it seems to me that its creator took some cues from Scandinavian designs. It’s the sleekest tank I’ve ever had – and the first one I set up was in 1962! There’s a clean look to it; nothing fussy. As far as I can tell, it’s very well-made, and the lighting arrangement is cleverer than a clever professor from the University Dept of Cleverness. The thin lid is so minimal that it has to be lifted with care, but a small price to pay for such a streamlined effect.
It has one planting drawback; its depth, from front to back, is a bit less than 41cm. In fact, measured internally, its depth is only 38cm. This doesn’t allow much elbow room for dense planting. However, this also means that the tank’s footprint is room-friendly; it doesn’t poke out. [My last tank, a soft coral reef aquarium, was 151 cm long, and came out by 61 cm. Mutterings as to the “monstrous carbuncle” in the front room were to be occasionally heard, much to the consternation of my nervy Copperband Butterfly.]
The aim of this tank: The tank is in a prime position in front of the chimney breast in our front room. My aim is thus to have an attractively planted tank that delights the eye, but doesn’t need the immense attention that can sometime flow from having CO2 injection. I also want it to suit small South American fish; mainly tetras and corydoras catfish. No non-South American fish will be allowed! [Yes, this is a very subjective approach, but I can never shake off feelings of unease when I see SE Asian and Amazonian fish in the same tank. Has someone been to a piscatorial jumble sale, I wonder? Illogically, I don’t have the same feelings about plants, perhaps because I struggle to remember their geographical origin.]
Filtration: Although it’s low tech, there’s a canister filter; an Oase BioMaster Thermo 600, but there’s to be no CO2 injected.
The thinking behind such a large filter is that I will be heavily stocking fish, albeit small ones. In addition, the flow will counter-balance the tangled wood assemblies that I’ll be using. In any case, the filter’s flow rate will inevitably decline as it starts to collect detritus. A large volume filter like this one does mean less major cleans, thus lowering the workload.
There is a prefilter to clean, probably every week, but it’s cleverly designed to be easily done. You don’t have to take the whole canister filter to the sink [preferably when the Other Half is out of the house], just the prefilter tube itself. You’ll see useful accounts of the Oase Biomaster filters on the internet, so I won’t go into details, but my model means there’s no heater in the tank.
If you’re reading this, and you’re very new to fishkeeping, then let me reassure you that you can spend less than I did on the [relatively expensive] Oase, and still get a good filter. There’s now an embarrassment of riches out there. When you do make your choice, however, think carefully about how easy it is to keep the filter clean. In my case, the easier it is, the more often I’ll do it.
Hardscape: There’s two spider roots [Redmoor wood], and some bits of very old bogwood I’ve had lurking about since at least the 1980s. One of the spider roots is up on an assembly of red lava rocks. I prefer the look of Dragon Stone, but when I picked it up at a shop I thought no – this weighs too much for my peace of mind. Whereas, the lightness of red lava rock reminded me of live coral rock, which I’ve been used to for many years, and which can be easily drilled.
The substrate is Aquael’s Advanced Soil Plants. It’s sold by Aquael, but is the H.E.L.P brand, made in Japan, as far as I can see. I’ve used about 5-6 litres of it, kept in about 18 fine mesh bags.
This substrate is covered by about 20 kilos of Unipac Aquarium Silica Sand. It has a nominal particle size of about 1mm. I like the natural look of this [sandy-coloured!] sand, and this is a friendly surface for the Corydoras catfish I’m counting on keeping. I appreciate that there’s an argument for a dark substrate to show off the colours of the fish, but, again, my subjective view when I see such tanks is to feel that someone wants to remind themselves of what it’s like to live down a coal mine. [Only joking!]
The Aquael tank itself: It’s difficult to see this white Aquael 240 litre Opti-set aquarium in the flesh, and I had to cross my fingers that the few pictures and videos I saw did it justice. It’s made in Poland, a country known for its strong fishkeeping tradition, and it seems to me that its creator took some cues from Scandinavian designs. It’s the sleekest tank I’ve ever had – and the first one I set up was in 1962! There’s a clean look to it; nothing fussy. As far as I can tell, it’s very well-made, and the lighting arrangement is cleverer than a clever professor from the University Dept of Cleverness. The thin lid is so minimal that it has to be lifted with care, but a small price to pay for such a streamlined effect.
It has one planting drawback; its depth, from front to back, is a bit less than 41cm. In fact, measured internally, its depth is only 38cm. This doesn’t allow much elbow room for dense planting. However, this also means that the tank’s footprint is room-friendly; it doesn’t poke out. [My last tank, a soft coral reef aquarium, was 151 cm long, and came out by 61 cm. Mutterings as to the “monstrous carbuncle” in the front room were to be occasionally heard, much to the consternation of my nervy Copperband Butterfly.]
