Hi all,
thank you all for the warm welcome 🙂
I built this set up as an experiment. I am away for long stretches at a time, but I still love some aquascaping in my free time.
So I wanted to set up something robust that doesn't need me to run. I wish I have documented this better, but here it is from memory:
I started with a very thick layer of a good soil (ADA Amazonia). I am a firm believer that the aquarium needs a thick layer to stay stable.
I also got a decent light (maybe a twinstar? I honestly don't remember). I have both rock and wood as hard elements.
I bought a bunch of "easy" plants. I bought a few houseplants that can survive in water and used them as emergent plants. I did not do a dry start.
What I noticed is that some plants were doing well while other species were dying, I think this is some chemical warfare going on.
I do not have a filter or CO2. I use Cambridge tap water. The water must have too many nutrients because in the beginning, (before the plants took off) I honestly thought I am a professional algae farmer. (Now I do not have ANY algae at all, I probably clean the glass with a razor blade once every 2 months, if that).
Then I let it do its own thing. After a while, a myriad tiny creatures appeared swimming happily all around. I really wish I had a microscope.
I decided to go ahead and buy a male and a female scarlet badis and a few red cherry shrimps and let them survive there.
I then added scuds and different types of snails. If you like shrimps or snails, I do not recommend the badis. They are terrifying predators that would decimate the populations steadily but surely. The scuds are somehow surviving but in a very small population.
The badis colony expanded, at some point I had about 15, but then I had to start feeding as I thought the aquarium was too small to support a colony that large (at that point they also stopped breeding). I gave them away and only kept one female* (who somehow escaped arrest).
*I find that the most reliable way to identify a female is that when you scare them, dark grey vertical stripes appear. The immitator males never do that. Their head shape is also different, females have a more "pointy" nose, the male head when you look from above looks a bit like a betta.
Thanks again for your kind words.
