Hi all. Second attempt at writing this journal out. Got a long way into it and my computer decided to crash! Oh well, 2nd time lucky I hope!
This journal is going to be a little bit different to the average journal that you see here in that at the time of writing, there are very few plants in my tank and very little ability is the person planting them! I am though, very willing to learn and I'm sure that after scanning the forums for a couple of days, I'm not going to find more knowledge anywhere on the net. Thanks once again for directing me here LD. This is also my first proper fish tank so I'm on a little learning curve all the time.
Right, onto the tank! I decided to go for as big a tank as I could realistically has as I knew it would open up a lot more options when it came to my stocking list and being new, I read that it would give me a bit more room for error when it came to my water parameters.
As you can see, this was more of a chuck a few things and see stage. A George Farmer lookalike it isn't! I did like the way the slate was broken up and showing layers so this did give me a few ideas to have a bit of a play and change it around a little bit. They were far to 'clumpy' though so there was only one thing to do - go get a hammer and chisel. Not really the most dainty way to do it, or even the most practical looking back.
From the start, my stocking plan didn't really change too much apart from the odd species. You have to appreciate here that I am also trying to keep my girlfriend happy when it comes to fish choice and didn't really want a tank full of guppies so had to adjust slightly to keep her happy.
After having a bit of a play with the chisel, I smashed up the larger piece of slate a bit to try and make it look a bit less in your face. Looking back now, it really didn't make much difference to the tank. I did also try to move the plants about a bit to make it look a little more organised. At this point though, it was only really a 'put it in and it'll do for now' effort. Fishless cycling is more of a test than I thought it would ever be!
After this, I went to my not so local fish shop (Swallow Aquatics, East Harling) and saw that they had a nice collection of large sized bogwood. I'd always liked set ups based around a large, interesting piece of wood so I didn't need to spend to long convincing myself that I needed to get some. I did have a scare when I got home when I suddenly stopped to wonder whether it would fit in the tank!
The pics shown here really do not do the lump of wood justice. There are so many caves and crevices in it that you cant really see from the picture and my fish seem to love it. I do have some plans for it now, but I'll come to those later on in the journal. My only regret here was that I soaked it for over a week before putting it into my tank - never thought I would say this but I really did like having the tannin in my water to give it a bit of colour.
The next update on my tank was with the bogwood in. I had spent quite a bit of time moving the bogwood/smaller bits of slate trying to get something I was happy with and ended up with this. I think it was a massive step up from where I was before but I still wasn't pleased with the way it looked. I think it's going to get worse the further I deepen myself into plants, but I'm already learning that scaping is all about ripping everything up and starting again until you get something that your happy with.......and then deciding you like the first layout more!
This journal is going to be a little bit different to the average journal that you see here in that at the time of writing, there are very few plants in my tank and very little ability is the person planting them! I am though, very willing to learn and I'm sure that after scanning the forums for a couple of days, I'm not going to find more knowledge anywhere on the net. Thanks once again for directing me here LD. This is also my first proper fish tank so I'm on a little learning curve all the time.
Right, onto the tank! I decided to go for as big a tank as I could realistically has as I knew it would open up a lot more options when it came to my stocking list and being new, I read that it would give me a bit more room for error when it came to my water parameters.
As you can see, this was more of a chuck a few things and see stage. A George Farmer lookalike it isn't! I did like the way the slate was broken up and showing layers so this did give me a few ideas to have a bit of a play and change it around a little bit. They were far to 'clumpy' though so there was only one thing to do - go get a hammer and chisel. Not really the most dainty way to do it, or even the most practical looking back.
From the start, my stocking plan didn't really change too much apart from the odd species. You have to appreciate here that I am also trying to keep my girlfriend happy when it comes to fish choice and didn't really want a tank full of guppies so had to adjust slightly to keep her happy.
After having a bit of a play with the chisel, I smashed up the larger piece of slate a bit to try and make it look a bit less in your face. Looking back now, it really didn't make much difference to the tank. I did also try to move the plants about a bit to make it look a little more organised. At this point though, it was only really a 'put it in and it'll do for now' effort. Fishless cycling is more of a test than I thought it would ever be!
After this, I went to my not so local fish shop (Swallow Aquatics, East Harling) and saw that they had a nice collection of large sized bogwood. I'd always liked set ups based around a large, interesting piece of wood so I didn't need to spend to long convincing myself that I needed to get some. I did have a scare when I got home when I suddenly stopped to wonder whether it would fit in the tank!
The pics shown here really do not do the lump of wood justice. There are so many caves and crevices in it that you cant really see from the picture and my fish seem to love it. I do have some plans for it now, but I'll come to those later on in the journal. My only regret here was that I soaked it for over a week before putting it into my tank - never thought I would say this but I really did like having the tannin in my water to give it a bit of colour.
The next update on my tank was with the bogwood in. I had spent quite a bit of time moving the bogwood/smaller bits of slate trying to get something I was happy with and ended up with this. I think it was a massive step up from where I was before but I still wasn't pleased with the way it looked. I think it's going to get worse the further I deepen myself into plants, but I'm already learning that scaping is all about ripping everything up and starting again until you get something that your happy with.......and then deciding you like the first layout more!
