Aquascaping

[CorNokZ]

Decided to try out a small aquascaping project. Aquascaping is landscaping, but underwater basically.
I already have the tank, but need a new pump, heater and Co2 diffuser. It is a 54 litre tank, so I won't be doing anything huge, but a nice starter project.

For plants I will be using limnophila aquatica and eleocharis parvula and that is it. They will be seperated in each corner with a few stones seperating them. I made a rough sketch in Paint, so if you think it looks shit, I can only agree. The upper right corner, with the limnophilas, will be a raised level as I will look into the tank from bottom left to upper right. I will try to keep the limnophila as tall single stems of around 10 inches max.

The sand around the "grass" will hopefully create an island effect, even if it is just an inch. The grass itself will be trimmed when it reaches a height of more than two inches. I am hoping the grass will turn out as a bright green and release a lot of oxygen.
For gravel I will be using Akvastabil Merkur Black Gravel. Already have a bag laying about and I think it will compliment my shrimps.

As for shrimps.. They will probably be added once I have everything up and running and not straight from the beginning. As shrimps are new to me I have decided to use Red Cherry Shrimps. The word on the block is that they seem to be quite forgiving in terms of living conditions. To compliment them I will also throw in a couple of Yellow Shrimp, which have the same needs as the RCS.

Furthermore I might also put in ten neon tetras just so the aquarium doesn't seem totally deserted at first glance, and the notice of the first shrim will be an "uuuhhhh!" factor.

Sketch of the layout(1400x880 I think, so big picture)

Spoiler

So what do you think of the idea? Please feel free to give critique

Will keep FH up to date when I get around the starting the project(got no cash)

 

[Scouse]

So what do you think of the idea?

A lot of effort for such a small return.

Get a cat

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Some people take Minecraft way too seriously...

 

[CorNokZ]

It's the whole effort that will be the reward at the end.. I dont need a cat to prance around the house, be lazy and do nothing all day. That's what I got the girlfriend for

 

[CorNokZ]

Have you seen aquascaping or even bothered googling it? If you master it, you can get some truely magnificent aquariums. Here are a couple:

Enjoy your cats..

 

[Aoami]

sounds fun

 

[TdC]

that's some pretty fucking sweet stuff Aqua-Corn. looking forward to a pic or two of the result!

 

[Shagrat]

Woah some of those aquariums are awesome. Hope you pull yours off, make sure you take pics, looks an interesting project

 

[CorNokZ]

I can almost assure you that mine won't look anything like the master pieces above

I will take pictures of everything once I get started

 

[Cerb]

If I manscape my balls and take a picture of them in the bath....does that count?


Freddyshouse ladies and gentlemen!

 

[TdC]

except nobody wants to see your balls. except Toh prolly.

 

[Cyradix]

Co2 diffuser? I have a 110l tank I don't even have that
Plants should take care of the Co2... you know... like plants do
Shrimp also like moss. You can make a nice moss carpet with little effort (youtube it) What I did was cut open a moss ball and stretched it out over a piece of stone (tied it to the stone with regular fish line)

Is this your first tank? I hope you know you need to just let it sit for about 3 weeks after you add the bacteria for the nitrite peak to pass before you add fish or shrimp

Shrimp can breed like crazy though, so if the tetra's can't keep the population down you can add something the size of a platy or black molly

 

[Gwadien]

Knock out a bit of a wall in your house, and replace it with that, then i'll be impressed

 

[megadave]

Co2 diffuser? I have a 110l tank I don't even have that
Plants should take care of the Co2... you know... like plants do
Shrimp also like moss. You can make a nice moss carpet with little effort (youtube it) What I did was cut open a moss ball and stretched it out over a piece of stone (tied it to the stone with regular fish line)

Is this your first tank? I hope you know you need to just let it sit for about 3 weeks after you add the bacteria for the nitrite peak to pass before you add fish or shrimp

Shrimp can breed like crazy though, so if the tetra's can't keep the population down you can add something the size of a platy or black molly

Or start with something like 1 or 2 small tiger barbs to get the nitrogen cycle going.

Those tanks look rather nice, must take insane maintenance to look that good and keep the growth and algae under control?

 

[Scouse]

Enjoy your cats..

I do enjoy my cat. 25 years old and refuses to die - even when I go away for long weekends.

The good thing is, there's very little effort with a cat for lots of reward. She cleans herself and up until she hit about 20 she'd regularly go out and feed herself too. All I need to do is top up the cat food and clean the litter tray and job's a good un.

Your aquarium, on the other hand, would take a fuckload of very messy maintenance. It will provide no love and can't be dropped off at your mum's when you go on holiday to Thailand for three weeks.

And unless you're a dedicated artistic genius it will look much like this:

It may not be all bad for you tho m8. When searching for "dirty fish tank" on google it came up with this:

Spoiler

Good norks!

 

[Logi]

lol, let the man live his life the way he wants, if u want him to enjoy a cat so badly, buy him a kitten AND let him do his aqua gardening thingy

 

[CorNokZ]

And unless you're a retarded newbie idiot it will look much like this:

Fixed that for you. Don't know why you are so keen on me getting a cat? I had cats when I lived with my parents, so been there done that.

I've read shit tonnes about aquarium care taking and I'll tell you what mate; it is not all about receiving love, it is just as much about giving and creating

 

[CorNokZ]

I got that fix worded all wrong, but you catch my drift

 

[dysfunction]

I think scouse is just jealous....

 

[TdC]

Spoiler

Good norks!

I used to shag a girl just like that in high school. Sweet, sweet mammories

 

[Nate]

So you do aqua scaping and then hot ladies with massive melons turn up just to stand infront of it? Is that the reason people do this? I like it. Is it some magic wizardry that makes it work?

Does anyone do this with ponds? Fuck aquariums FishNorkZ get a pond on the go! does look really good though, I like the last pic you posted nokz.

 

[ileks]

Wow some of those pictures look stunning mate. Not sure about the aqua-scaping but those trees look really good. Perhaps try and go for a rimless tank? I think the clean, minimalist look is the best. The most difficult thing will be hiding the the pump/thermometer etc.

I have a small marine tank on my desk, some pics if you are interested (needs a good clean!) :

Spoiler

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Have you seen aquascaping or even bothered googling it?

Someone missed the joke...

 

[Lamp]

Some amazing pics there. Best of luck with it

You don't fancy going, umm, a tad bigger, do you? Put an aquarium around your house.

 

[Dudley52]

I've got a 125 litre tropical aquarium.

Had it for many years (around 6 or 7 years now)

If your tap water has high nitrates you're gonna need RO/distilled water. I have high nitrates and its impossible to stop algae, it grows on everything, takes over the plants. To combat it you can get some algae eating catfish (otocinclus most popular).

Have you heard of the fishless cycle? Using ammonia to cycle the tank (read up on it)

They are pretty low maintenance though tbh, the people trying to put you off have probably never owned one before.

Most important thing is water changes (10% weekly), which takes 10 mins if you have a small/medium aquarium.

Never overfeed the fish otherwise it will pollute the water (underfeeding is better) increasing nitrates, giving more food for the algae to grow and also poisoning the fish.

I wouldn't try some amazing aquascape first off though, make sure you can keep plants growing healthy (which I found is the hardest part) and also keep the algae at bay.

Leaving the fish for a few days without food is fine while away.

 

[Madmaxx]

hehe that looks like its half on half off the table

 

[Scouse]

rimless tank

Ahem...

 

[TdC]

Wow some of those pictures look stunning mate. Not sure about the aqua-scaping but those trees look really good. Perhaps try and go for a rimless tank? I think the clean, minimalist look is the best. The most difficult thing will be hiding the the pump/thermometer etc.

I have a small marine tank on my desk, some pics if you are interested (needs a good clean!) :

Spoiler

I see meeeeee! I are famous!!

also...is that salt water? I always thought those were hella difficult to set up?

 

[ileks]

I see meeeeee! I are famous!!

also...is that salt water? I always thought those were hella difficult to set up?

Salt water yes. They take a lot of effort to set up, lots of reading etc. but are worth it IMO. All i do now is change the water once a week and the replace filter thing.

 

[TdC]

fully change the water? I seem to recall you only had to top up with denaturalized fresh water to combat evaporation and watch your saline levels...though I freely admit I read a book on salt water tanks aaaaages ago when when I had a smallish 150ltr freshwater tropical tank.