FishkeeperLinz
Fish Crazy
(Cross posted from another forum)
When I first started in fishkeeping, I joined a forum that was heavily into natural plant set-ups, and quickly indoctrinated into their way of thinking. All synthetic fakery was actively discouraged.
I grew to love an all-natural set-up, and still do, as evidenced in the way I set up my 200ltr during its own makeover, in which the only thing that really changed was the substrate - from black and white gravel, to sand (more "naturalness,").
But when my SIL (who loves my tanks) couldn't tell the difference between the 120ltr and the 200, I started questioning why I stuck so rigidly to the natural, planted tank set-ups that I have for so long.
The 120ltr needs a massive makeover of its own. It looks uncared for. So, now that it's bigger sister is more or less finished, I've turned my attention to my more neglected, problem "child".
This time, the sand substrate stays, but it's time to get creative.
I'm building Atlantis - the lost city of.
There'll still be plants and probably driftwood in the tank to give it sort of a more authentic, abandoned look, but hopefully it'll give the tank an identity of its own.
Here's what I'm starting with;
The first 2 ornaments arrived last week. The first was a Roman column that was a bit more "ruined" than I anticipated;
The second was a set of jars and a barrel:
Which was a bit bigger than I expected:
I'm keeping it for now, but I doubt I'll be using it. Luckily, I popped into my local pet shop yesterday and saw some smaller jars that would better fit the theme. I'm going back tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it was third time lucky when a replacement Roman column arrived in the post;
And now that I've done a partial water change and cleaned the tank up a bit, here's how it looks so far;
Obviously, there's not much difference yet, but then it wouldn't be much of a journal thread if it went from zero to Atlantis is one post.
Thanks for looking.
When I first started in fishkeeping, I joined a forum that was heavily into natural plant set-ups, and quickly indoctrinated into their way of thinking. All synthetic fakery was actively discouraged.
I grew to love an all-natural set-up, and still do, as evidenced in the way I set up my 200ltr during its own makeover, in which the only thing that really changed was the substrate - from black and white gravel, to sand (more "naturalness,").
But when my SIL (who loves my tanks) couldn't tell the difference between the 120ltr and the 200, I started questioning why I stuck so rigidly to the natural, planted tank set-ups that I have for so long.
The 120ltr needs a massive makeover of its own. It looks uncared for. So, now that it's bigger sister is more or less finished, I've turned my attention to my more neglected, problem "child".
This time, the sand substrate stays, but it's time to get creative.
I'm building Atlantis - the lost city of.
There'll still be plants and probably driftwood in the tank to give it sort of a more authentic, abandoned look, but hopefully it'll give the tank an identity of its own.
Here's what I'm starting with;
The first 2 ornaments arrived last week. The first was a Roman column that was a bit more "ruined" than I anticipated;
The second was a set of jars and a barrel:
Which was a bit bigger than I expected:
I'm keeping it for now, but I doubt I'll be using it. Luckily, I popped into my local pet shop yesterday and saw some smaller jars that would better fit the theme. I'm going back tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it was third time lucky when a replacement Roman column arrived in the post;
And now that I've done a partial water change and cleaned the tank up a bit, here's how it looks so far;
Obviously, there's not much difference yet, but then it wouldn't be much of a journal thread if it went from zero to Atlantis is one post.
Thanks for looking.
