This is my first tank for a few years. I had a lot of the equipment already,bought for a planned tank a couple of years back that never got started, just waiting for the spark of enthusiasm to get back into it.
My first idea was to do a very jungle-y scape but after looking for sources of inspiration, I went back through all my Amano books, and I decided to go back to the kind of tank and plants that made me so excited about the hobby in the first place nearly 20 years ago(!) .
Tank : Dennerle Nanocube 25x25x35cms, 20 litres
Light: Dennerle Nano 5 Watt
Filter: Dennerle Eckfilter
Heater: 25w
CO2: Bio-CO2 to begin with, have a sodastream set-up to add later.
Substrate: Dennerle Black Deponit Mix and Dennerle Black Gravel
Wood: Red Moor wood
Rocks: ADA Vulcan Rock
Planned Plants: See plan below
Planned Livestock: Bororas Brigittae, Otocinclus, Shrimp (species to be decided), Nerite Snails.
The Red Moor Wood I already had, sourced from Ebay, I think.
There was one great piece that I always thought would be a good centrepiece. I made a cardboard mock-up of the tank.
Realising that it's a fairly small tank, I thought there's really only space for one central piece so I started cutting up the other pieces and adding to the main one.
And I kept adding.
It's final form!
This is it in the tank in situ. It looks striking when lit from above and should provide some interesting shadows.
Next, rocks.
I had some Seiryu Rocks but they didn't seem right for this. I messed about with some Black Lava Rocks which would have matched the black substrate really well but then I saw some ADA Vulcan Rocks and bought them out of curiosity. Turns out they're really great and have decided to use them instead. I wasn't intending to use many rocks, but I really like the colour and texture of these, and once I started adding them, I used almost all of them.
I keep thinking that's a lot of rocks for a small tank, but it leaves plenty of room for carpeting plants in front and stems behind. And there will be plants on and between the rocks too.
So that's where I am at the moment.
Any feedback or critique is very welcome.
Hopefully, plants next week. Here's my (rough) plan for that (please excuse any spelling mistakes for plant names).
The basic idea is lots of fine-leafed plants fora sense of scale, in bright greens with a few subtle hints of red.
I wanted Riccardia on the wood but can't decide what moss to go for, am open to suggestions.
I decided on Glossostigma for the carpet as it was always one of my favourite plants. I know there are other options with finer leaves, but Glosso is definitely one of those plants that made me fall in love aquascaping in the first place.
So that's it for now.
Any critiques or suggestions are welcome.
My first idea was to do a very jungle-y scape but after looking for sources of inspiration, I went back through all my Amano books, and I decided to go back to the kind of tank and plants that made me so excited about the hobby in the first place nearly 20 years ago(!) .
Tank : Dennerle Nanocube 25x25x35cms, 20 litres
Light: Dennerle Nano 5 Watt
Filter: Dennerle Eckfilter
Heater: 25w
CO2: Bio-CO2 to begin with, have a sodastream set-up to add later.
Substrate: Dennerle Black Deponit Mix and Dennerle Black Gravel
Wood: Red Moor wood
Rocks: ADA Vulcan Rock
Planned Plants: See plan below
Planned Livestock: Bororas Brigittae, Otocinclus, Shrimp (species to be decided), Nerite Snails.
The Red Moor Wood I already had, sourced from Ebay, I think.
There was one great piece that I always thought would be a good centrepiece. I made a cardboard mock-up of the tank.
Realising that it's a fairly small tank, I thought there's really only space for one central piece so I started cutting up the other pieces and adding to the main one.
And I kept adding.
It's final form!
This is it in the tank in situ. It looks striking when lit from above and should provide some interesting shadows.
Next, rocks.
I had some Seiryu Rocks but they didn't seem right for this. I messed about with some Black Lava Rocks which would have matched the black substrate really well but then I saw some ADA Vulcan Rocks and bought them out of curiosity. Turns out they're really great and have decided to use them instead. I wasn't intending to use many rocks, but I really like the colour and texture of these, and once I started adding them, I used almost all of them.
I keep thinking that's a lot of rocks for a small tank, but it leaves plenty of room for carpeting plants in front and stems behind. And there will be plants on and between the rocks too.
So that's where I am at the moment.
Any feedback or critique is very welcome.
Hopefully, plants next week. Here's my (rough) plan for that (please excuse any spelling mistakes for plant names).
The basic idea is lots of fine-leafed plants fora sense of scale, in bright greens with a few subtle hints of red.
I wanted Riccardia on the wood but can't decide what moss to go for, am open to suggestions.
I decided on Glossostigma for the carpet as it was always one of my favourite plants. I know there are other options with finer leaves, but Glosso is definitely one of those plants that made me fall in love aquascaping in the first place.
So that's it for now.
Any critiques or suggestions are welcome.
