The end of an era.
Most of you will know that I am soon leaving the country for 4 months (don’t ask!), so with this in mind I have stripped down my entire tank; fish, plants, hardscape, substrate, the lot.
A while back I promised that my mighty Java fern would go to jimbooo. So he came to visit and after a nice chat and some cups of tea (we’re very English you know), out came the big bucket. I soon realised that James was happy to take the lot (except substrate) from me so I watched with a tinge of sadness as he delicately removed my entire livestock from the tank, comforted by the fact that I knew they would all be well looked after and I could see their progress right here in his journals. We both did well out of the situation, a real “win win” if you will.
So I now have no tank to look after. It is a refreshing change to not need to worry about dosing, CO2, feeding, water changes etc. Although I do miss seeing a nice planted tank in the corner of my living room – very much.
Perhaps most exciting for me though is my wife’s new found interest in setting up a new layout. The tank has been somewhat a source of contention for us in the past so I took this opportunity to get her involved in the planning of a new set-up; planting, fish choice etc. To my delight she took an interest and we even looked through some of Amano’s books together for some ideas (you have no idea of the breakthrough!).
We clearly have different tastes; her favouring more traditional stem plant arrangements in a Dutch style, with me being more a Nature Aquarium style fan. However we did find some common ground and I can see us planning a layout with both elements. Those who own the ADA catalogue can see the style we both like in Gallery no. 5. I really like the open foreground and sand “shore” with the moss/Riccia covered pebbles, and stone/wood combo. It goes against some of my original intentions of HC etc. but this a small sacrifice to make to keep the other half happy. I realise that the end result may look entirely different, and no doubt will, but I intend to follow this open foreground principle, it will be easier to maintain too. I will still use ADA Aqua Soil but with some Rio-Negro sand or similar whitish sand at the front – the contrast will work well, particularly with my black backround. I’m sure oldwhitewood knows where I’m coming from here.
Fish choice is another matter entirely. My wife prefers a “fish” tank so doesn’t really relish the idea of a shoal of small single species. I’ve managed to convince her that understocking is the way forward though so at least that won’t be an issue. We left the discussion with a pair of Angelfish last night, no other fish, just shrimp. I’m also thinking now about a small shoal of Tiger barbs (not with Angels obviously), they grow to a decent size and their markings are great – a shoal of 6-8 or so would work well. Anyway it’s a long way off and no doubt many more ideas will come and go.
Exciting times though.
A huge thanks to everyone that has provided me feedback on my work so far. It is your comments and positivity that has helped me keep so well motivated. I hope to reward you with an even more beautiful tank to look at in the not-too-distant future.
Kindest regards
George
Me, Baby Florence and James
James grinning like a Cheshire cat as he pulls apart my pride and joy!
......the future?
yours always looks a picture of health.
