Recently I've been thinking to myself that it would be nice to see some more journal updates on ukaps again.
Have I updated any of my journals in the past year and a half?
Er..... no... I guess I know where to start then!
I thought I'd begin the updates with my lowtech unheated bowl aquarium, which is still going strong, but in a different form.
I gave the tank a cheap rescape in spring 2023, taking out all the soil, old plants and algae, and replacing them with a sand base and 3 small dragon stones. We kept the dominant emergent wood as that's the star, and my dad added some more little orchids, as our kittens had nibbled half the orchids and all the emergent bullrush off. I dug up some
Ophiopogon Japonicus Nana which grows well in clumps in our back garden, and added it to the waterline with the roots submerged - it grows incredibly slowly, but it survives and looks good. Underwater I planted a few pots of
Schismatoglottis prietoil in the sand, alongside a few types of
Anubias and a
Homalomena sp. wedged amoungst the stone and wood, and some riccardia from
@Sid.scapes . I'm very very impresed with how healthily and densely the schismatoglottis grows in such a low-tech tank. Conversely, half the anubias types I added dropped dead almost immediately. I added some floating plants too, but only the salvia and duckweed (grrrr) survive. Quite soon after rescape) the tank was on display during an aquarium event
@Courtneybst and I organised in summer 2023. I'm sure I have a photo of it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it... I am very good at losing things though... they usually turn up eventually
At home it now has a new spot inside this crazy wooden cabinet my dad got on ebay a few years ago. It's in an alcove with the light mounted high-up for the emergent plants, with no external sunlight getting to it, its's quite a shady tank so there's hardly any algae, and the surviving plants all grow very well. Although the bun moss on the wood is quite reduced now, it was clearly full of interesting spores as two nice ferns started growing from it which are thriving.
Sid also gave me some lovely crystal shrimps. This year I moved my ricefish to another nano tank, and the crystals have started breeding. I mostly feed them dried green walnut leaves which they are obsessed with and skeletonise very quickly.
The tank gets very little maintenance. My dad sprays the emergent orchids and ferns every now and again, and it gets a rainwater topup every one-two weeks - I go around with a watering can of rainwater and top up all the tanks together. It gets a waterchange, "filter" clean (the filter is just a tiny pump with a bit of sponge) and plant maintenance every.... 3 - 6 months ish. Technically it's meant to be my dad's tank, but he never does it so it's basically when I realise it desperately needs some tlc. I gave it one such maintenance last weekend, and now I'm thinking I might pull out some of the scismatoglottis to make it a bit more scaped again... we'll see.
Before / After
Lowtech with Sunlight / Lowtech without Sunlight
