Hi all, Hope You are All well.

Hi, I R Freshwater Michael.

I have just recentley rediscovered the Joys and Pains of keeping Fish.
I have also just discovered Aquascaping, which really blew my mind, i mean i know about plants in an aquarium,
but the diversity and Artistic creations are amazing.

I currently have a 3ft tank, that has been running for almost a year.

I have recently put a whole lot of plants in my tank, and am hoping to start one of my 2ft's as an Aquascape,
I am still researching and trying to find out all I can, this Forum is amazing, and has given me a lot of good info
and has re-newed my interest in Freshwater Aquariums :bigsmile:

I will be posting a record of my efforts as well as a few pics.
I want to try and Aquascape completley DIY, I realize that i will need to buy some stuff as well, but
I hope to keep this to minimum.

Thanks
Regards
Freshwater Michael.

 

Hi and Welcome. Looking forward to see what you have in mind. Lots of good advice and creative folk here. Enjoy.

 

welcome !!!!!!!!

 

Shot, good to be here

 

Welcome the tank is looking good.

Enjoy

 

Welcome. Why do you want to aquascape the small tank and not the 3ft?

 

The tank looks really nice!

 

Welcome.:hello:

 

Now that is the way to do it ... introduce yourself with a picture of your tank. Tank is looking good, not sure how long it has been running. Things to keep an eye on 1) Ligh are you lights over the whole tank or you running a bit short? Should be OK for now but when you start wondering why some stuff grows better than other, look here first. 2) substrate depth, no clue how deep your is but on large gravel substrate deep mounts can cause more detritus build-up and have a negative affect on water quality.

Later Ferdie

 

Welcome to Tasa!

 

Welcome to TASA

 

Hello. Going to be interesting.

 

Welcome to TASA, lovely pic of your tank!

 

Welcome, looking forward on what you have in mind and all of the best with your future setups. Stick to the basics and you won't have any regret.

 

Hey Guys and Gals,
Thanks for the Warm welcome

F-Fish, thanks for the light info, i am sorting another light today and will install tonight, i noticed that there are some shadowy spots in my tank.
my 3ft has dual undergravel filters and it has only marble chip and some black stone to decorate mixed in, i have not really had any experiance with plants in my tank, and bought this
spur of the moment, as You can see they still in the pots, i am thinking of getting myself some "tropica fertilizer" (the green stuff) to help the plants out, i do not want to much growth yet,
just healthy plants that last.

Honestly, i do not even know what type of plants they are, I am now 'edumicating' myself on this, all help will be greatly appreciated
Also should i get some Co2 into the tank?

I change 10%-15% water every week, i use a siphon hose and try get as much as the detritus as possible within the scope of 10%-15% water change.
Sometimes i go a little more and change out about 20%-25% of the water, allowing me to get more detritus out.

Hawk, i would love to do the 3ft, but i want to start small, learn my lessons, and then when i do the 3ft, i can do it right first time round.
With the least amount of stress on the plants and the fish.
Since i have 2x 2ft i can experiment with two different DIY's and get more knowledge out.
Maybe slightly OTT???
I would really welcome Your's and Anyones Idea's, Thoughts and Knowledge.

Also i have just done a major water change on my 3ft, put in new plants ('cos they looked pretty).
Yeah i need to figure out what plants are simbiotic with each other, ie low light, nutrient value, etc...
I am doing a lot of trawling for info and am compiling it all into an easy to read manual for myself.
Hopefully after 'edumicating' myself some more, i won't be so 'discombombulated', and can get down to the nitty gritty.

Thanks to all again for the warm welcome and the interest

Later. (got to get back to the grindstone)

 

First you need to get that wool/fibre glass stuff around your plants' roots removed as small particles do come loose floating freely in your water and can enter your fishes' gills and cause damage to their gills.

10-15% WC a week is fine but you can increase it, I do a 40-50% WC weekly and no harm.

reading up on plants is a very good idea as some are high tech plants (needs more light, CO2 and more fertilizer) and other plants low tech (lower light, no CO2 and less fertilizer). The tropica (green stuff) will do fine as fertilizer but stick to the dosing instructions otherwise you will suffer an algae break out - our worst night mare coming to plants.

Experimenting on 2 ft tanks is fine but keep in mind it is easier to maintain balanced water parameters in larger quantities of water than smaller bodies of water eg take 5 drops of food coloring on a glass of water in comparison with 100 liters of water - think you do get the picture here.

Undergravel filters is not highly recommended as all the debris collect underneath them which is a recipe for some trouble in a tank, rather chuck them out and invest in a HOB filter, they are not that expensive and works very well. HTH

 

When adding CO2 there are two ways going about, the diy which is less sufficient but way cheaper and then the pressurized CO2 which comes relative expensive. before adding CO2 I will recommend you to go and read up on it as it will influence your water parameters eg pH of your water and plants will start to grow very well when adding CO2. On low tech setups you can add Microbelift Carbon or Seachem excel as a source of carbon for plant growth. I'm using Seachem excel as carbon source together with seachem flourish and seachem potassium.

High tech planted tanks require special substrate as well eg Flourish or ADA substrate which is quite expensive. Low tech you can use either silica, pfs or peatmoss aka pfp (palm fibre peat) capped with pfs. Just need to take note some plants you must plant in te substrate while others eg java fern, windelove and anubias you need to tie to rocks or driftwood. If you plant these their roots will rot and they will die.

 

Hi SloMo.00.
Shot for the welcome, Love Your Tank, scaped way COOL, i aspire to have a tank like Yours

 

Hi, tlchidau, shot for the welcome