15g Asian Biotope-esque

[OohFeeshy]

Well, while this isn't exactly going to be a 'proper' planted tank, I have little betterto do with my time and hence may as well make a topic.

Tank is 2ftx12"x12", currently with a Fluval 2+ and a 15W T8 bulb. No CO2 or anything fancy, may however invest in some root tabs, as indicated by later plant choices.

Since the current stocking consists of
1 Betta sp.
3 Pseudosphromenus cupanus (2m, 1fm)
1 Pseudosphromenus dayi
4 gold barbs

Theme will obviously be a sort of Asian swampy thing, since labyrinthy fish are the main focus. The plan at the moment is to, at some point, get another Eheim 2213, to get rid of the Fluval and give a greater stocking capacity. Ideally I want a few more female cupanus, and possibly some kuhlis.

For the moment, the tank is pretty much empty except for a beautiful scape consisting of a bit of wood I had lying around, an old flowerpot and a coconut cave, which are only there to make the spiketails happy. Luckilly for me, I won this on Ebay-

For the fairly bargainy price of 17 of your English pounds. Apparently it's about 20" long, 13" high (maximum) and 9" wide. Which is pretty perfect.

So, the next thing to do is order some plants. I'm highly likely to be using Plants Alive as they're cheap and the last lot I bought from them were very nice. So, choices. The main focus is going to be crypts. Species, probably something like wendtii, lucens and becketii, mainly because I prefer the leaf shape and texture. I'll also probably get some java fern and moss to stick on the wood. What I'm not sure about are background plants, namely whether to bother and if so, what to get. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi,

I'm a beginner, kind of hopelessly slowly plodding along learning little bits about the planted side of things, so I'm no help on suggestions I guess, but I wanted to thank you for posting the wood picture. I've been thinking about a piece of wood that would be like that and not seen any even close.

My son's tank that would receive it is 2 ft by 17-18 inches tall bowfront (so pretty tall and not all that wide is part of the problem) and I've been feeling like getting some height from the wood would help with a scape, in fact, even having it break the surface would seem good to me. Seeing how your's has a horizontal branch that would stabilize and then a very vertical branch is very helpful.

Anyway, good luck with your new scape. You never know how a posting might help someone else!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OohFeeshy]

I was thinking exactly the same thing with the wood, hence why I went with this type. It's Redmoor root (well, apparently). I think there's still some bits on Ebay, or otherwise Aqua Essentials has loads that you can buy either by size, or by picking an individual piece. It's a bit more pricy but hopefully well worth it.

 

[SuperColey1]

If you are going for Crypts (great choice) then I would suggest getting Tropica from Pets at Home or AquaFleur from Maidehead Aquatics.

You will get much better quality and value with these.

In your size tank you could have Parva as a front lower crypt, Lucens, Willisii, Wendtii and Becketti for midground and something like Undulata for the background.

Try and get mixes of Greens etc. Wendtii is the most obvious having several versions available from Tropica (Green, Brown, Tropica, Mi Oya) Parva is green, Becketti has a few versions etc.

Tropica pots are 3 for £9 at P@H and believe me you get a good quantity for the price.

Should look nice with that piece of redmoor.

AC

 

[OohFeeshy]

I was going to get some Tropica a few weeks ago, but the local P@H seem to have given up on the plants. I don't think they had any Tropica, and the 'own brand' ones were awful, covered in algae, not terribly nice. May venture up there again, but I'm not massively hopeful.

 

[SexyFishKeeper]

Ask them when they get their deliveries in, if you get them on the day they come in they're usually in good condition. Other than that it's a bit hit and miss.

 

[aaronnorth]

That wood is excellent, surrounded with crypts will look very good

 

[OohFeeshy]

Another consideration with the crypts is crypt melt- I don't really want to be buying a nice big established Tropica pot when within a few days there's a chance of it turning to mush. The last lot I bought melted, and although they're starting to grow back now, it's still annoying.

 

[Truck]

yes its annoying but generally within 6 weeks, they should be back to normal health.

 

[aaronnorth]

Another consideration with the crypts is crypt melt- I don't really want to be buying a nice big established Tropica pot when within a few days there's a chance of it turning to mush. The last lot I bought melted, and although they're starting to grow back now, it's still annoying.

With tropica pots you can get about 7-10 plants out of it. Crypt melt doesnt always happen to everyone either, and with the plants already being established, they recover much quicker than the 'cheaper' plants. I have had mine a week and already i am seeing new growth coming through

 

[hellohefalump]

This tank sounds lovely and that's a nice bit of wood!

I got a couple of tropica 'wendtii' from The Green Machine and they were huge and hardly melted at all. The odd leaf and that was it.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Wood arrived yesterday, seems like it will look nice but the darn thing is floating. I've got it weighed down with a bit of mopani, we'll see what it's like next week but if it still floats I'll have to get out the heavy machinery (i.e, silicone and slate or something). Until that's sorted I can't really do much other aquascaping because the wood needs to be in position properly, on the other hand all I should need hardscape wise is possibly some rounded pebbles for a bit of variety.

 

[Truck]

red wood will float when new, give it a bit of time to soak

 

[SuperColey1]

Can take up to 2 months for redmoor to fully soak and lose its boyancy. Normally 3-5 weeks though.

AC

 

[OohFeeshy]

Bummer. May as well start getting plants in then.

RE background plants, I keep finding references to using Nomaphila stricta in Asian biotopes, which seems to be called many other things by many other people. Is this the same as Hygrophilia Thai Stricta (as sold by Plants alive)? Looks like it, although they say it isn't technically an aquatic plant but will adapt. Hrm. I quite like how it looks though. Any similar suggestions? Blyxa japonica has been mentioned a few times, but as mid/foreground rather than background.

I'm still debating whether or not to change the substrate. At the moment, it's normal playsand mixed with a bit of black to get rid of the 'yellowness' and make it a bit more natural. I was thinking of using the Tetra substrate because it's easy to get and not that expensive, but as with all the substrates it seems to be difficult to find a picture of it in situ. The most important aspect is how it looks- the crypts as foreground plants will leave a fair bit of empty substrate. Since it's meant to look like an Asian pond/ditch/swamp, dark and fine would be order of the day (as opposed to more 'gravelly' ones).